English Bani

[gchana]

Wahiguru Ji Ka Khalsa Wahiguru Ji Ki Fateh

Well I am just here generally to find out the views and opinions of my fellow brothers and sisters on whether we should consider reading english (or what ever language one best understands) gurbani.

A lot of the time I tend to pick out phrases of gurbani and have a faint or near accurate understanding of the meaning of that verse. Also a lot of the time I tend to read gurbani and not understand a single word of it. This effectively causes me to loose focus on what I am reading. Then I always ask my self that "PAATH" is a prayer to GOD. Then if I am praying to GOD whilst thinking of other things, then this must mean my prayers are gone to waste.

I am not saying this, Guru Nanak said this same thing to a Muslim who was conducting the Namaz. Whilst conducting the Namaz Guruji said that your prayer "was of no good" as you was thinking of your Animals (I ask for great forgiveness as I can't completely recall what exactly happened). Guruji had advised him that when praying to Allah (GOD), you must focus on HIM and nothing more. I totally understand what this means, this means when we pray we must focus on GOD.

Maybe its just me or this same issue of finding it hard to focus on GOD when praying may be the same with a lot of my fellow brothers and sisters. Therefore I believe that reading Bani in an understandable language is an effective way of gaining the true essence of knowledge given to us by our Gurus. I have my own copy of an English Translated Guru Granth, and I can honestly say that I have learnt more from the english Granth than the Gurmukhi one. I understand to a lot of people understanding Gurmukhi is great importance, but I feel a lot of the youth dont understand the total meaning of the Guru Granth or other paath.

Also when ever I read the Guru Granth in english I tend to focus on the gurbani much better than the original text. I feel that the need to restrict the Guru's word only to Gurmukhi is not a wise decision. Sure there are pros and cons as to translating the Guru Granth, but at the end of the day we are Sikhs. Sikh means "student" or "learn"; to learn something as a student of the Guru. Therefore why not learn how to live, learn about God, learn about Life by reading the Guru Granth in english, because I have learnt a lot more by reading the Translated version of the Guru Granth.

There is one other thing that also seems to be of matter to me, and that is when we read the 5 Banis, most of these Banis contain knowledge to us, to our mind. When we read Bani its really a message to us. There are certain verses in the Granth that are "aimed" at God, in terms of there are only certain verses that praise God and others that provide knowledge to us. Therefore why do we read paath and go that is prayer to God, when it really isnt. Only parts of it are. For example majority of Chapui Sahib is prayer to God, and other parts of it isn't. I ask for forgiveness if I am wrong about this, but I see that most of the Paaths we do are just knowledge to us, and that prayer to God should be done through Nam Simran, and not simply reading Gurbani.

Please I ask for forgiveness to you and to God if I have mentioned anything wrong, but I would really like it if you could take out a few minutes and give feed back to this matter. :e:

Gurdip Singh Chana :T:

[Bhajneet]

first off, welcome to the Forums!

Second off, I believe the SGPC said that no SGGS may be printed in English only. However it is okay if you have a SGGS in punjabi that has English Translation/Meaning. So i think its okay. . . (but i may be wrong)

[Khalsa4ever]

Waheguroo jee ka Khalsa!

Waheguroo jee kee Fateh!

Firstly, SGPC has no authority to authorize or make up any rules regarding SGGSjee... they are mearely a committee for running Harmandar Sahib Gurdwara <_<

And I totally agree w/ gchana's post... you can not benifit from Gurbani unless you understand its meaning. And for many of us who are not fluent in punjabi, using a translated version is the next best thing. :TH:

Waheguroo jee ka Khalsa!

Waheguroo jee kee Fateh!

[naam_jap]

Its more important to read something that you can understand, Although sometimes some lines have different meanings in english, so the meaning can be misinterpreted.

But i totally agree that bani can be read in english.

[Sher Khalsa]

WJKK WJKF,

Reading bani in english is better than nothing. but keep the following in mind...

Gurbani isn't just like regular words...

Like if I say 'Kidaaaaa' I can translate that to 'Wassuppp', and nothing is really lost...

Gurbani is different, its like a Mantar, it has its own power to it... Just saying those 'words', or shabads have a power to it, even if you do not understand what you are saying it will still have an effect on you...

Look at those sakhis where ppl tried to do 'black magic' on Sikhs, but Sikhs that recited bani such as Mool Mantar never got effected cuz Mool Mantar is the most powerful Mantar in the universe... The actual shabads

that leave our mouth have lots of power to it...

We can never imagine the state of mind our guru's were in when they wrote this bani, or how much emotion they poured into it... When we read bani with sharda (faith), these emotions slowly start to come out and it is very powerful... when we do keertan in raag that further helps us feel the mood of the shabad...

If yourstarting out, there is nothing wrong with reading baani in english (like the translations), this is great to try and get the 'worldly meaning' of the bani. but you have to understand once we translate baani, it no longer is a mantar, cuz those arent the 'words' that came out from guru ji's mouth... reciting actual bani has much more power...

Guru Granth Sahib Ji has also been translated to so many different languages, i actually saw an akhand paath happening, which was being done on translations (i saw it on the internet)... I guess thats better than nothing, but once again, the bani loses its power once you change the langauge, it doesnt remain a mantar.

So translations in other languages is a great start, but you cant settle on that, you gotta strive to recite bani the way our gurus meant for it to be recited....

WJKK WJKF

[The Khalsa Fauj]

Reading Gurbani in English is not the same as reading in Gurmukhi. With eglish, the flow is lost and the poetry is lost. The translation are also not perfect but it is still 100 times better than not readign any bani at all. Please try to improve Gurmuki skills. Be proud of Gurmukhi. Gurmukhi will be here for ever and will expand into every hourse when time comes.

[ms514]

Sat Sri Akal:

Good learning tool...but the aim should always be reading Guru Granth Sahib in the Guru's direct words.

[s_kaur_d]

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fatheh!

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fatheh!

[Guest Jas Singh]

sikh soldier's reply is awesome <_<

[Gupt daasan daas]

sikh soldeir je has a excellent point

bani is lietterally a mantar

the words itself have amazing poowers

baba nand singh je was asked if i cant read bani or understand it shud i still read it

sant je said, does a kid know his hands gonna get burned when putting his hand in a fire? no

just llike this even if we dont fully understand the meanings it burnes ure paaps

y dont u get english translation, with gurmukhi, and transliteration the phentic soundings

thas best for beginners

bhula chuka maf