INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

inner things” can read her heart, the formal act of reciting gurbani becomes her way to
offer worship to a divine recipient. In this case bhavna makes the qualitative difference
between religious action and mere mechanical repetition of words and acts. But
it still remains that bhavna is a type of “meaning” which people superimpose on religious
action, and its presence does not necessarily influence the formal features of
performances in shifting contexts.
A more sympathetic approach to Sikh reformists and other critics of “empty”
ritualism could possibly discover that far from all discourses target people’s actual
engagement in what appears to be ritual action, but more particularly the performance
of action devoid of bhavna. It is considered imperative to the Sikh teaching that
spiritual gains of any devotional activity are dependent upon the actor’s emotional
and cognitive state in the doing of action. Unlike the Jain soteriological paradigm,
local Sikhs do not visualize the ultimate goal of religious endeavours as a resignation
of actions or a complete release from karmic bonds. As the concluding section will
discuss further, my Sikh friends would rather explain their ideas about spiritual liberation
in terms of a condition in which the human mind/heart is detached from
worldly matters, but fully engaged in worship. The performance of religious acts
continues even in a liberated state, but with the qualitative difference that it is completly
governed by devotion and commitment to God. From a Sikh understanding,
bhavna is thus not the means by which people are transforming ritual action to nonaction,
as in the Jain case, but a way of making religious acts saturated by devotion.
Considering that the word bhavna is often used as analogous to devotion, “true” worship
is ultimately when actions are emptied of profane desires and cravings and the
execution of selfless acts becomes the aim and goal in itself. This state of devotion and
sincerity, however, can only be internally felt and acknowledged by the individual
worshipper.
5.3. THE AIMS OF BHAKTI
Introductory books on the Sikh religion will often contain brief soteriological statements
about mukti – liberation, release, and emancipation – as the ultimate goal of
engaging oneself in the Guru’s teaching and religious practices. 788 Scholarly interpretations
of the word mukti will further illustrate that the Sikh teaching shares with
other Indian religions the basic underlying concept of the human bondage to the
cycle of birth and rebirth on account of the effects of karma. 789 To attain liberation is
to exhaust all effects of karma in order to be released from the bonded state, which
implies extinction of ignorance, desires, attachments to the world, and ultimately the
rolling wheel of births and deaths. The concept of mukti signifies the realization of the
infinite dimensions of the spiritual self and one’s belonging to a divine power. This
788
Mukti is synonymous to the Sanskrit word moksh.
789
See e.g. Nripinder Singh 1990, Dharam Singh 1991, Joshi 1999.
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008