330.The Man in Blue – Ardas (2)

In my first article on the Ardás I made a critical remark about the five Takhats. I do not ‘believe’ in five Takhats, I only ‘believe’ in Akál Takhat. I have the right, we all have the right to be critical, to ask questions and to propose changes, but we cannot change anything that is part of the Rehat Maryada, only the Sarbat Khalsa can do that ! 

The first two sections of the Ardás discussed in the previous article address the sangat and are followed by the six lines underneath addressed to God.

1. The Sarbat Khalsa prays may the mind of the Sarbat Khalsa be informed by Vahiguru, Vahiguru, Vahiguru and may we obtain well-being and inner-peace in this way.

2. Wherever the Khalsa is, there give Your protection, honour the cooking pots and the swords, may the panth win, may the respected sword be our helper, Khalsa Ji say Vahiguru !

3. Give us the gifts of Sikhí, of uncut hair, of the rahit, divine knowledge, faith (visáh), faith (bharosá), the biggest gift of Nám and of ishnán in Amritsar.

4. May the choirs, flags and manors be permanent through the ages, the slogan of righteousness : Say Vahiguru !

5. May the minds of the Sikhs remain humble, may our beliefs be higher, protector of the beliefs our Vahiguru !

6. O Timeless Being, always the helper of and the giver to your panth. Sri Nankana Sahib and more Gurdwaré, Guru’s Houses that are separated from the panth, give the Khalsa the chance to have the sight of them and to take care of and do seva in them. 

In the second line above we ask God to give ‘fateh’ to our deg and teg (cooking pot and sword) and at the end of the line we ask ‘may the Sri Sahib to be our helper’. The cooking pots stand for Guru’s langar, the sword is the Sikh ‘sword of justice’. I am familiar with Sri Sahib as a description of the sword, but does Sri Sahib have a specific meaning ?   

I have always been concerned about line three. Of course I am grateful for the gift of Sikhí, of the Rahit, of faith (what is the difference between ‘visáh’ and ‘bharosa’ ?), and the biggest gift of Nám is indeed a splendid gift.

I thank Guru for his gift of the 5 Ks as signs of our commitment to living Sikhí, but I am not happy with ‘uncut hair’ being singled out. As far as ishnán is concerned I recommend to sadh sangat to read 5^th Guru’s sabad ‘Guru Ram Das Sarovar Nathe’ in full, to understand what the ishnán in Guru Ram Das’ sarovar really is about.

I am not impressed by line 4. I know what the choires, the flags and the bungé are, but do not think they are worthy of a mention in the Ardás. Line 5 is beautiful and under 6 I would want to pray for Panthic Rule in all Gurdwaré, not just in those in Pakistan. Next week the final article on the Ardas.

 

 

 

 

328.The Man in Blue – Lunar & Solar Days

From : Bilawal M 1, lunar days, 10^th house, drumbeat jat, page 838
1.ékam 2. dújai 3. tritíá 4.chauth 5.panchmí 6.khastí 7.saptmí 8.astmí 9.naumí 10.dasmí 11.ékádmí 12.a.duádas 12.b.duádmí 13.téras 14.chaudas 15.amávasiá – the night of the new moon.

The above are the days of the lunar fortnight as found in Rág Bilawal. Most of the names of the days are easy to understand. Only ‘khastí’does not sound like anything to do with six, the names of the other days are clearly linked to their number. I do not know why there are two different days 12.

The first fortnight of the lunar month runs from full moon to no moon, the second from no moon to full moon. The Vikramí year is a lunar year, but the Vikramí Calendar has extra days to come near the solar year of 365.25 days.

The Muslim calendar (Hijra) is a pure lunar calendar, and the seasons move across the calendar every year. In the Middle East and South Asia, where the difference in the length of the days in summer and winter is only small, this has only limited effect on the length of the fasting during Ramzam. In Scandinavia the fast will be very long when Ramzam falls in July. Anybody with more knowledge of lunar calendars, please share !

From : Bilawal M 3, seven days, 10^th house, page 841
1.ádit vár 2.somvár 3.mangal 4.budvár 5.vírvár 6.sukrvár 7.chhanichharvár.In this sabad Guru calls Sunday ádit vár and Tuesday mangal, without ‘vár’. The sat vár (seven days) sabads suggest that in the days of our Gurus there was also a solar calendar in use. Equally I am under the impression that there were more lunar calendars than just Al Hijrá and Vikramí.

I read on a Hindu website that Vikramí did not start with Chet as in the two Twelve Months sabads in the Guru Granth. Or are the Twelve Months sabads based on another lunar calendar ?

To add to calendar confusion we will end with the ‘Christian’ (Anno Domino = the Year of our Lord) or Common Era Calendar. The last four months are September, October, November and December. That means 7^th, 8^th, 9^th and 10^th Month, which suggests strongly that at some time in the past this year must have started with March. 

For Vahiguru it all makes no difference, every day is God’s day, or maybe I should say that we have to make every day into God’s day by our godly behaviour. From the spiritual point of view there is no Sikh year, Christian year or Muslim year. I am grateful to Pal Singh Purewal because through his efforts most of our Gurpurabs now fall on the same CE date every year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

329.The Man in Blue – Ardas (1)

You might remember my articles about my recent visit to Ieper where I recited a special ardás written for the occasion. This made me think about the standard ardás, and this article is the result of that.

 

In my personal routines I very rarely recite the standard ardás. I do regularly speak to God, usually asking Her/Him to help me to stick to Guru’s path, and to give me peace of mind if I am upset or overexcited about something.

 

As God is ‘antarjamí’ (All Knowing), my prayers are usually short. The wording might change slightly, but the message is simply ‘God please help me’. When I ask for something more specific, which is mostly when I pray for somebody else, I add ‘whatever is your will’ or words to that effect.

 

There are two more general thoughts I want to add. Why is it that everything ‘freezes’ in the Gurdwara, even outside the divan hall, while we do ardás. When the Granthí recites the hukamnámá people start moving around again and pay respect to the Guru Granth Sahib, while in the langar the sevadars start serving again.

 

Similarly, when you sit outside the divan, you are still supposed to get up when the ardás is recited. This is not an issue of vital importance to the panth, but things that seem illogical bother me.

 

Looking up the meaning of ‘ardás’ in the dictionary I find the following meanings : request, prayer, supplication, representation, offering to a deity. Our ardás is a request, but the first two sections of the ardás are a request to the sangat, and not to God.

 

The first section is where sangat is asked to remember God and the ten Gurus, each one of them getting a special mention. The line about remembering the Guru Granth Sahib does not belong to the first part, which comes from what is now known as the Dasam Granth. The line referring to the Guru Granth ends with ‘bolo jí Vahiguru’, just like the three lines.

 

The next section starts with the Guru Granth, the light of the ten Gurus, and then deals with those who gave their lives in the struggle against injustice. The final line in this section refers to the five Takhats and all Gurdwaré. As far as my understanding goes there is only one Takhat, Akál Takhat.

 

Having four ‘Takhats’, each in places where Guru Gobind Singh lived, makes no sense to me. The Akál Takhat (which originally was not a building) was there to represent together with Harmandr Sahib the idea of Miri and Piri, and I cannot see why there is a need for further Takhats.  

 

In the next article I will have a detailed look at the rest of the ardás.

My Village, My Family

My Village

My father’s family is from the village of Ouwerkerk (oldchurch) on the Duiveland part of the twin islands of Schouwen Duiveland, province of Zeeland (Sealand), the Netherlands.

On the pictures you can see the old church, which did not survive World War II, and a picture of ‘het slop’ during the 1953 floods, in which about 200 of the then 600 inhabitants of Ouwerkerk were killed. 

‘Het slop’ was the street that ran from the artificial mound on which the village is build, and our ancestral home (and farm) was along ‘het slop’ with the front door just about on the Ring, the circular road on top of the mound along which most of the houses were build.

The School, the smithy, the church and the bandstand were on the green in the middle of the ring.

My Family

The pictures show Kees (Cornelis) Heule, after whom I am named, his wife Marie Heule-Hack and his brother Willem Jacob Heule after whom my dad was named.

I hope you like my village and family.

Gurfateh,

Harjinder Singh

My Village, My Family

Been for a walk …..

Dear Sisters & Brothers,

Vahiguru Ji Ka Khalsa  Vahiguru Ji Ki Fateh

Today, the 15th of July, Satnam Kaur’s birthday, I have taken a half holiday.

I was meant to go to Tamil Nadu for three week from July 8, but due to my sudden relocation to Southall (with about a week stopover in Hayes) I decided to cancel the trip and save some money that way.

That meant of course that July very soon started filling up with my usual activities like visits to Colleges, to schools, to faith communities other than Sikhs, and now that I live in Southall far more time spent in the Gurdwara.

But today I decided that as it was not raining and not cold it was a great day for a walk. I already did a small trial walk on Sunday, but today I took up my walk from Southall to Paddington (in stages) via the Grand Union Canal towpath.

When I became the London Regional Development Officer for Faith & Belief in FE I had given up on this walk, that got me as far as Harlesden.

I took the 607 from Southall to Ealing Broadway station, and bus 226 to Harlesden from there. There was a nice signpost at the beginning of my walk showing that I had about 6.5 miles ahead of me. As long as there was no downpour I should be in Paddington in maximum 2 hours.

I set off at a steady pace (I am six foot six and have long legs) which I kept up until I was on the Hammersmith & City Line platform at Paddington. The first part of the walk was through industrial estates and railway sidings, but as I got nearer to Paddington the urban scenery became more genteel, culminating in Little Venice (with only two canals not much of a Venice) where I turned towards Paddington Basin and the station. I covered the 6.5 miles in 1.5 hour, not so bad at all for someone who is not all that young anymore.

Hopefully I will have time before the usual madness starts again in September to walk from Paddington via the Regent’s canal to East London.

Public Transport was very cooperative on the way back. The Hammersmith & City train arrived at the platform as I was coming down the stairs, and at Shepherd’s Bush there was only 1 minute wait for the 607, which took only 45 minutes to Southall.

And I enjoyed my walk, and feel now nice and relaxed.

Harjinder Singh
The Man in Blue

  

  

Sikhi summed up in one picture – from Sikhnet

The Chardi Kala Keertan Jatha in the UK

I hope you can read the poster posted underneath.

I only know this jatha from YouTube, they sound nice and look nice.

Hopefully they will sing real sabads from the Guru Granth Sahib and no pick & mix and hopefully they will not talk too much about mr Puri and yoga, tantric or otherwise !

Gurfateh,

Harjinder Singh
the Man in Blue

The Chardi Kala Keertan Jatha

Another good Sunday

Today, Sunday 13 July 2008, I am having another good day.

As is becoming traditional since I moved to Southall, I went to the Havelock Road Singh Sabha for Asa di Var. One of the sevadars asked me in Panjabi something about ‘Maharaj’ and I assumed that I was to take over the chaur seva.

I got it wrong, I was to carry the Guru Granth Sahib on my head from the Sach Khand (the room where the Guru stays at night) to the small diwan hall on the western side of the Gurdwara. It involved going down some fairly steep stairs, and I was scared that I would either stumble and take a fall, or look down too much and drop the Guru. Luckily neither happened.

Later I did take over the chaur seva, and I very much enjoyed the young jatha that was doing the kirtan.

At about 8.30 I went home, made some nice tea (the full Panjabi version) and then went for a walk along the Grand Union Canal and the river Brent. The weather was great, and I enjoyed my excursion.

Now I am home again, I had half an hour of rest, finished my article ‘what my faith means to me’ and worked on this blog and the man in blue column for this week, about lunar days, seven days and lunar and solar calendars.

Prayed for peace of mind, and did nám simran, which always works.

Gurfateh,

Harjinder Singh

harjindersingh.amritsar@yahoo.co.uk