The Essence of Amrit Vela

[Tarrandeep Kaur]

good points.

but waking up in the early hours of the morning, and japping naam, is an absolute must, with mahrajs kirpaa, we have to put the effort in.

vahiguroooooo

[Mutheeaa]

Malaar Guru Amar Das

slok mÚ 3 ]

salok ma 3 ||

Shalok, Third Mehl:

bwbIhw AMimRq vylY boilAw qW dir suxI pukwr ]

baabeehaa anmrith vaelai boliaa thaan dhar sunee pukaar ||

The rainbird chirps in the ambrosial hours of the morning before the dawn; its prayers are heard in the Court of the Lord.

myGY no Purmwnu hoAw vrshu ikrpw Dwir ]

maeghai no furamaan hoaa varasahu kirapaa dhhaar ||

The order is issued to the clouds, to let the rains of mercy shower down.

hau iqn kY bilhwrxY ijnI scu riKAw auir Dwir ]

ho thin kai balihaaranai jinee sach rakhiaa our dhhaar ||

I am a sacrifice to those who enshrine the True Lord within their hearts.

nwnk nwmy sB hrIAwvlI gur kY sbid vIcwir ]1]

naanak naamae sabh hareeaavalee gur kai sabadh veechaar ||1||

O Nanak, through the Name, all are rejuvenated, contemplating the Word of the Guru's Shabad. ||1||

Sahib says that when Rainbird requested in ambrosial hours of the morning then only it's prayers were heard

[Heera Singh]

timing DOES play an important part... waking up early in the morning n doing ishnaan, followed by naam japna and nitnem... wakin up before sunrise is great ...starts ur day amazin... buh also, once u get it down packed as a 'set routine' that'll be good for ur spirituality... becah it teaches a person discipline.. n tha's a must on the path..

so although like some said above that 'amrit vela' should be every second of the day, the process of wakin up for nitnem n simran should be done before sunrise (as is told by our panj pyaray)

[Shaheed_Fauja]

if the sun exploded we would be dead.

[pyaree_singhanee]

fateh ji!!

Amritvela is an amazing time to get up at..no famiily to bother you...you can take as mcuh time as you want instead of rushing!!! buh wah can u do if u cant even get up because you dont get to sleep in the middle of night beacuse all you ever do is think about your problems??? :wub: or wen u do ur rerhas u think about ur proble,s again an al u evea wna do is cry?? how can you get away from this and except gurus hukuam??? please help me

fateh ji

bhool chuk mauf kurni ji

[Simple Singhani]

watchya mean by different time zones?? u just wake up before the sunrises where ever u are.. ! dont u think u shud accept that it is gurus hukam to wake before sunrise and not question it??

pyaree singhni... you have to reach a certain avastha to beable to accept gurus hukam. that is a VERY high avastha.. accepting gurus hukam is one of the hardest things to do! The only answer is naam japna.. lyk everything. If u are already keeping rehat and waking up for amritvela and doing the things that u are meant to do.. then mayb u shud look deeper u myt have a dhil somewhere. Sukhmani sahib always helpppsss 222!! :wub: Its all about doing everything with IK MAN IK CHIT.

Vaheguroo jee ka khalsa vaheguroo jee kee fateh..

[smartsingh24]

Oh wow. I haven't read this in a long time. My views have changed however.

I think for the vast majority that there is a good time for amrit vela. I know I know... this contradicts what I said earlier. But I've found that there is a time when nothing is going on between midnight and around 5am where honestly... no birds, no family members, nothing is active.

If you can (as in you have a diturnal sleep cycle) I suggest you wake up around these times. They are most meditative and it's very easy to find one's rasa during these times.

For others who work night-shifts (i doubt the vast majority on here do), of course you can find your own amrit vela.

As Japman Singh has noted, amrit is sans time.

So in essence... yes I still agree with myself, but with a higher priority to wake up between midnight and 5am.

Just felt I should clear that up, for myself at least, haha =P

I think that really you should be waking up early in the morning but that's out of convienience [sic]. The whole point of sikhi is to get closer to God, and what's mentioned over and over again is that you want your mind to be focused on God eternally, only thinking of God and not other thoughts. It's interesting that this topic arose again, because I recently read an article on the Buddhist's view of meditation. For them, the ultimate accomplishment would be the ability to have a silent mind (sounds easy, it's incredibly difficult). In order to achieve silence, they focus on something and concentrate on only that thing, bouncing other ideas out of their mind. This isn't that much off from concentrating on God and bouncing out other things. How does this tie into Amritvela in the morning? Well quite simply, it's (normally) quieter than the rest of the day just because the rest of the world works on the notion that the majority of people sleep around 12-4. Waking up at this time allows for the opportuntiy to meditate without distractions from the outside, i.e., loud cars/people, bright lights, and other things of that nature. So yeah, environment is very important to meditation but not explicitly needed. Of course, if you wanted you could recreate amritvela by putting yourself in a dark, soundproof room, but that's just annoying .

but what about people who are working during these hours? or what about people in different time-zones?

what if the sun exploded?

(just playing devil's advocate)

1.They can do amritvela later if they need to, like you said, they'll find away.

2.???

3.Dude, you're going to get owned in 3,2,...

if the sun exploded we would be dead.

Pwnage.

[Guest Akirtghan]

i don't know where this thing about waking up before sunrise came from? I'm guessing the whole "riding the sunrise" thingie has to do with some yoga thing. other than that, practicality suggests that we need to wake up EARLY, before others.

i think i wrote this before. we need ekaant (quiet, undisturbed) time to concentrate, amritvela is THE best time to do that.

now, that doesn't necessarily has to be "on the sunrise". what would you say to gurmukhs who wake up at 2 and do nitnem for a couple of hours? it is all done before sun rises.

PS, live in the north or south pole for a yr. sun don't go down for 6 months, does it mean it is never amritvela? and sun don't come up for 6 months, does it mean there's always amritvela?

[JustME]

i dont think Amritvela realy implies early in the morning meaning sunrise................it a time where people can peacefully recite and connect with bani................im sure i read a tuk that describes the night being broken down into different phases :wub:

[smartsingh24]

i don't know where this thing about waking up before sunrise came from? I'm guessing the whole "riding the sunrise" thingie has to do with some yoga thing. other than that, practicality suggests that we need to wake up EARLY, before others.

i think i wrote this before. we need ekaant (quiet, undisturbed) time to concentrate, amritvela is THE best time to do that.

now, that doesn't necessarily has to be "on the sunrise". what would you say to gurmukhs who wake up at 2 and do nitnem for a couple of hours? it is all done before sun rises.

PS, live in the north or south pole for a yr. sun don't go down for 6 months, does it mean it is never amritvela? and sun don't come up for 6 months, does it mean there's always amritvela?

well, we're not really trying to say that you can wake up whenever (at least i'm not). It is highly favorable to wake up in morning, but it is also equally understandable that people have to work night shifts or somehow are put in a position where they can't go to sleep until after the sun rises. In these cases it's about making up Amritvela by recreating the same mood present. Also, I'm pretty sure in most instances Amritvela is considered to be before sunrise. Don't have that many examples in bani or anything, but I did manage to pull something out of here.

http://searchgurbani.com/main.php?book=bha...r=6&pauri=3

PS, I'm pretty sure that if you take it literally, you're in a bind, although it's pretty obvious that you just go by the clock, not by the sun.