INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

and religious ceremonies, discourses on the referential content of gurbani texts, as
well as the internal dynamics of ritual structures. On a general level one can notice
that many worship acts in the Sikh life are performative acts that have been ascribed
conventional effects to evoke and manifest the agency and presence of the Guru. The
meanings of other formalized acts and ceremonies, on the other hand, are continually
changing as the contextual and situational variables are shifting.
MAKING AGENCY PRESENT
Religious practices among the Sikhs create and confirm assumptions about the powerful
agency of the historical human Gurus, the worldly Guru manifested in Guru
Granth Sahib, and the eternal Word-Guru dwelling within the scriptural pages. A
significant prime illocution of many of these acts seems to be the presencing of the
Guru’s agency in a here and now context. The Sikhs are continually making this
agency present through their words and acts, since it enables devotees to establish
relationships to the Guru who/which has the power and authority to bring about
interactions with the invisible divine.
THE HUMAN GURUS
In the first chapter I discussed the ways by which contemporary Sikhs at Varanasi
have created a meaningful history which stands as a counter-narrative to the predominant
Hindu master narrative. The organization of sacred spaces, relics, visual
representations of the historical human Gurus, and the ongoing re-telling of history,
are means by which local Sikhs manifest the Gurus’ presence and power at a particular
location. Places and objects which can demonstrate a physical contact with the
Gurus are believed to metonymically store their power, even hundreds of years after
their death. Through acts of devotion to the Gurus’ spaces and personal belongings,
local Sikhs believe they can take part of and be affected by this enduring power in
their social life.
The historical Gurus are also made present in commentaries on religious worship.
The Sikhs can trace the origin and formal characteristics of major ceremonies to
the time of the Gurus and claim that the form, content, and meaning of complete
ritual sequences, or at least certain elements of ceremonies, were stipulated by the
Gurus. The “evidence” hereof can be traced to exegetical discourses which interpret
gurbani passages and historical writings about the life and deeds of the Gurus. 747
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For instance, when Baba Sundar, the great-grandson of Guru Amardas, in a composition
called “The Call of Death” (GGS: 923 ‒ 934) writes that the Guru summoned his followers and
family to inform them on conducts after his death, the Guru’s words (paraphrased by Baba
Sundar) became normative instructions for behaviors that contemporary Sikhs should adapt at
the time of a death. In other words, the Sikhs should not weep or perform Hindu rites, such as
lighting lamps and offerings rice balls, but instead call in the learned scholars (gopal pandit) to
deliver discourses on God (harikatha), read the story of God and hear the name of God. Since
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008