INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

of young and old devotees from all over Varanasi’s districts. In the morning they
listen to different invited performers of kirtan and katha, and at noon share a meal
together with other Sikh and Hindu devotees. In the Sikh calendar the day commemorating
the individual Sikh Guru’s entrance into the world is given the name
Prakash Utsav, or “The Festival of Light”. 663 To honor the moment when the spiritual
glare manifested in the life of the Guru the congregation at Varanasi will frame the
day with a more elaborate Prakash ceremony in the early morning and a nightly program
at 1 am which celebrates the Guru’s time of birth.
The Light Circumambulation
At about half past four in the morning people of different ages gather in the gurdwara
to decorate a palanquin with robes and saffron-colored marigolds. The Guru
Granth Sahib is solemnly mounted on the vehicle and carried by hand in a circular
procession, followed by a large group of devotees singing gurbani hymns. This ceremony
is called Prakash Parikrama – “the light circumabulation”. On Guru Nanak’s
birthday in Gurubagh Gurdwara the procession makes a clockwise motion around
the gurdwara hall, and on Guru Gobind Singh’s birthday at Nichibagh Gurdwara the
scripture is carried in a circle inside the courtyard. The procession slowly proceeds
forward for about thirty to forty minutes and then enters the gurdwara to the sound
of enthusiastic shouts of the Sikh jaikara. All participants gather around the palanquin
to participate in the Ardas and then again exclaim the salutations when the granthi
lifts up Guru Granth Sahib and carries the scripture to the throne. On these festival
days the granthi will perform the installation ceremony with exceptional solemnity
and grace. At the moment the scripture is opened all participants bow and when the
daily Hukam has been pronounced people throw petals over the throne and bring
forward flower garlands to be offered to the book. The human Guru is thus celebrated
through the solemnized installation of Guru Granth Sahib since the scripture is
the present Guru who/which brings alive their compositions and the same light.
The Rain of Flowers
Forty days before the anniversary of Guru Nanak the gurdwaras in Varanasi organize
a double chain of unbroken recitations of the complete Guru Granth Sahib (Akhand
path ki larhi), whereby a total of forty recitations are sequentially performed without
interruption. Similarly, thirty days preceding the celebration of Guru Gobind Singh’s
birthday in the month of January one or two chains of Akhand path will be conducted.
The cathartic end of these series of recitations ‒ the bhog ceremony ‒ marks a festive
nightly event in the gurdwara. As it is popularly believed that the Sikh Gurus were
born at 1.15 at night the auspicious ending of Akhand path is neatly adjusted to the
minutes before the stroke of one.
663
The anniversary day celebrating the very first installation of the compiled scripture at Amritsar
in 1604 is similarly termed Pahila Prakash, or “the first light”.
412
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008