INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

etween the two references. The gurbani text will be treated as if it indicates the divine
favours which the woman can expect to gain from her recitation; its semantic properties
create indexical ties to possible human conditions and states of affairs in the social
reality. Simultaneously, the woman’s reading of the verses becomes a performative
act that is believed to accomplish the very same thing. Her prior intention and
the expected function of the linguistic act is a real pregnancy. She is not attributing
her recitation a symbolic function, just as she does not want to become symbolically
pregnant, but believes the performance may cause an affect on her body.
As religious people would explicate this intricate relationship between text and
effects of religious action, engagement in gurbani texts are devotional acts and worship
of God through the mediating agency of gurbani, at the same time as gurbani tells
us about the divine favours which might be imparted from this worship. Gurbani
verses give instructions on situations and conditions for which they are appropiate,
that is, the metaphors and images indicate, in subtler or palpable wordings, different
application fields for using the words. The selection and uses of many other gurbani
verses used for particular causes seem to return to similar indexical connections between
the text and the expected result. A hymn, in which Guru Nanak clothes the
longing for union with God in the dress of a woman’s yearning for her lover, can be
recited if one wishes to join a boy and a girl in marriage or create more affection between
a husband and wife. Even imprisoned criminals can increase their chances of
being released by reciting a verse which describes how mythological robbers and
prostitutes were granted spiritual liberation. 772 Rather than being treated as merely
accounts from the past or symbolic speech, the gurbani words are directives for the
action they themselves can bring about in the moment of reciting them. The renditions
of sacred texts become instrumental performative acts which are believed to
carry out perlocutionary effects on the human life.
Performances of some specific gurbani hymns have also become associated with
certain powers depending upon the form, content, and author of the compositions.
As Chapter 3 illustrated, Guru Arjan’s Sukhmani Sahib is regarded as an endless
source of peace and happiness, while Chaupai Sahib, ascribed to Guru Gobind Singh,
provides protection and makes people fearless. As the first hymn of the Sikh scripture,
Guru Nanak’s JapJi Sahib is thought of as opening to the Guru’s teaching on the
path towards salvation, the recitation of which will grant spiritual merits and mark
the beginning of a day, the human life and every new enterprise conducted therein. A
reading of the hymn Kirtan Sohila, on the other hand, is associated with a closure of
the day and will mark the end of a human life. The general meanings ascribed to
these gurbani hymns have become more or less conventional in the local Sikh world.
In other instances the connection with purpose, text, and effect is less direct, as in the
case of recitations of the formulaic mulmantra, or “root mantra” which opens the Guru
Granth Sahib and acknowledges the various attributes of God. Following the structure
of the Sikh scripture, the mulmantra is usually the first verse (of 108 verses) to
772
GGS: 830.
479
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008