INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

appear in the different editions of the anthology Sankat Mochan, along with instructions
to repeat the mantra 108 times to ensure the realization of a wide range of aspirations,
such as “grant salvation” or “all wishes will be fulfilled”. 773 The efficacious
power of the mulmantra and the conventional effects of reciting it seem to derive from
the fact that the verse opens the Guru Granth Sahib and is Guru Nanak’s original
invocation of the ultimate divine power.
Reading about the Gurus’ descriptions of ritual acts is, by some Sikhs, believed
to substitute more complex ritual operations. For instance, a regular reading of Guru
Arjan’s account of the benefits of taking a dip in the sacred pool (sarovar) surrounding
Harimandir Sahib at Amritsar is, by some, believed to generate the same merits as a
real bath. 774 According to this thinking, the Sikh Gurus undercut the entire rationale
of ritualism, and particularly the one found in the Hindu tradition, by preaching
devotion from a true heart. For contemporary disciples, gurbani can replace all ritual
activities. Recitations of verses in which the Gurus explicitly state that true devotion
and remembrance of the God will grant the same merits as pilgrimage, sacrifices, and
the like, are considered equivalent to the complex ritual endeavors referred to in the
text and will produce the same effects. The reading of texts substitutes the doing of
rituals, and makes the words become acts.
These examples seem to suggest that form, content, and authorship of the entextualized
gurbani texts are considered significant sources of meanings to verbal and
non-verbal practices. Every condition and challenge in the human world is mirrored
in the sacred texts, nothing excluded. The Gurus’ words and deeds provide a rich
treasure, from which local Sikhs can derive both legitimization and signification to
their practices.
DEVICES OF CONTEXTUALIZATION
Studies on religious language recurrently pay attention to the existing tension between
spontaneously created speech which reflects the worshippers’ personal motives
and the invocation of a fixed prior canon. 775 In Sikh worship, both textual and
performance features of gurbani renditions and many stipulated acts suppress information
about devotee’s intentions and motives in specific situations to support the
perception of words and acts as already scripted beyond present contexts. At the
same time, the Sikh tradition strongly encourages devotees to engage in personal and
heartily felt devotion to the divine power and follow the superior teaching of the
773
See e.g. Sankat Mochan compiled by Giani Narain Singh and Giani Gurcharan Singh.
774
GGS: 623.
775
The tension between the sincerity of prayers and the formal renditions of fixed texts has been
observed in studies on Protestant communities which emphasize the personal and heartily felt
religious experiences. See e.g., Bauman’s (1990) studies of English Quakers, Keane’s (1997b)
study of Sumbanese Protestants and Shoaps’ (2002) analysis of Pentecostal prayers and songs.
Free-formed speech and fixed speech can be viewed as different typologies of texts, similar to
Atkinson’s distinction between performance-oriented and liturgy-oriented rituals (Atkinson
1989).
480
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008