INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

name of the deceased. Some said they carefully avoided celebrating auspicious
events, like engagements, weddings, and did not even buy new clothes for marriage
parties before this performance had been completed. In this context, they ascribed the
recitation illocutionary forces to transform the properties of time and space as well as
human social and mental conditions. The believed perlocutionary effect of recitation
in this context was that people could return to an ordinary state of affairs. This transformative
function, which people superimposed on Akhand path, was derived from its
relation to preceding conventional acts in the death ceremony – preparations of the
corpse, cremation, prayers, and gurbani recitations – all of which directly or indirectly
define the state of disorder accompanying a death. When Akhand path is staged in
ceremonies surrounding other social events with other interritual constellations, the
illocutionary forces will also change. In different situations of experienced need, Akhand
path may be presented either as an act of thanksgiving adressed to God or an
offering in hope to win divine favours in return, depending upon the relation to other
preceding and following acts. The performance is not symbolizing human thankfulness
or sacrifices but accomplishes the same by the enactment. Below I will further
illustrate how the dialogic relationship between different religious acts becomes noticeable
in ceremonies which people assign the capacity to establish human-divine
communication.
To summarize the above discussion one could say that there is not a single symbolic
meaning to religious acts but people may ascribe their action a variety of motives,
purposes, functions and effects. These meanings are evoked by outside discourses
when religious action contextualizes in a particular situational setting. An
analysis of the sequences of action in larger ceremonies can also suggest that meanings
are sometimes evoked by relationships between acts performed within one and
the same ritual structure, that is, from the interritual dynamics of performance.
MEANINGS WITHIN TEXTS
The above sections have exemplified how multiple meanings attributed religious
action can emerge from contextual and formal elements of performances. To study
only formal features of performance cannot, however, tell us what the Sikhs believe
their words and acts accomplish. 769 From a religious point of view, gurbani stores all
the necessary meanings one might seek for all religious and social activities in human
life, simply because it is the teaching and guidance of the eternal Guru. Moreover,
gurbani has causal power to exert influences on humans and their social world in a
number of ways. This efficacy rests on explicit beliefs in the nature of the sacred
769
Bloch (1989) has argued that speeches exposed to formalization will lose their propositional
forces. Great constrains on the linguistic form will suppress the referential content and creativity
but enhance illocutionary forces. The Sikh case appears to pose a challenge to this theory, since
propositional meanings of gurbani remains significant even in highly formalized speech acts.
Bloch’s theory could possibly be useful for an analysis of Akhand path performances.
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008