Isnt Doing 5 Banis A Day A Ritual?

[anokhi9]

It can be if you make don't care about what you are doing. Anything can become a ritual.

Point of nitnem is...

1) your reading vidya everyday and trying to adopt in your life

2) learning about waheguru from waheguru

3)learning about the world

4)connecting to waheguru

5) replicating your amrit sanchar and making amrit in your body.

You get laha from reading bani. Want laha all the time, read it every day. Also the more you engage with it meaning start jumping out.

5 bani = nitnem = nitnem in english is routine

Now brushing you teeth is routine right? You need to go it or you'll have bad teeth. Bani is the same. You need to do it everyday for reason 1-5.

You could make reading bani into a ritual though, if you read it while listening to music or speed through it so fast that you make mistakes or skip parts.

In the end its up to you.

[jkvlondon]

Saturate yourself with naam and your subconcious will be filled too , naam will be be in every pore , all the time ...it gives me shivers thinking how powerful that would be...Waheguru mehr karo ussi asey asey naam di abhihaas kareya

[rrss]

The guru warns against rituals. rituals are those things that serve no practical purpose and could rather have some downsides. with ritual one does it for the sake of doing it. A ritual can also be a tradition that one is doing out of habit. It may be something blindly followed without question. it may certainly also be done out of fear- either of not conformism to the majority, or out of fear of some mythical story- e.g. you will burn in hell if you dont always do so and so ritual. Or you will suffer greatly if you don't always touch the floor of a car door before entering it. the word ritual is also used in English as being something done blindly e.g. "She rituallistically put on the television at 6 o clock". There are clearly many rituals that exist in the broader pubjabi community, itself derived from rituals, myths and fears from various religions and social customs- all which have nothing to do with being a sikh.

But you question bani as a ritual. If the bani is being done for the sake of maintaining a rehat and only that, then it is a ritual. Indeed maintainng a rehat without ever understanding the fact that it is something to eventually guide you to the truth, is a ritual. Most people you ask have no valid reason for keeping unshorn hair. answers are invariably 'crown on head', 'gift from guru', 'because it is rehat' etc, which is notihng but ritual.

if you hope to actually gain something from it and see it is a part of your sadhana or spritual practice and actually engage with the bani then it is not a ritual. if you wake up in the morning with great love in your heart for God, medidate on naam and allow yourself to reach great spiritual highs and actually communicate with the shabad guru through the banis, then that spiritual practice is definitely serving a real and important purpose in your life.

If however you spit it out or mumble it quickly to get it over with then it is surely a ritual.

How to avoid ritual i hear you ask? Bibek. Which means thinking critically using Gurmat principles (but with an ego-free and God loving mind to prevent plotting and scheming).

now honestly answer this question: do you reading this spit out your bani to get it over with/listen to it on tape/do it because you feel it is rehat or because it is a 'punn' or that if you didn't then it is bad? Then sorry you are treating shabad Guru with great disrespect. So fortunate to be blessed with access to shabad worth more than anything in the world and you throw it away as ritual, shame on you. I have travelled wide and far and have found virtually no people who actually love the banis, let the shabad caress the tongue with every sound, allow youself to connect with the Shabad. Almost all people I meet think I am mad when I look forward to my bani as one of the highlights of my day. Shame on you.

[jkvlondon]

The guru warns against rituals. rituals are those things that serve no practical purpose and could rather have some downsides. with ritual one does it for the sake of doing it. A ritual can also be a tradition that one is doing out of habit. It may be something blindly followed without question. it may certainly also be done out of fear- either of not conformism to the majority, or out of fear of some mythical story- e.g. you will burn in hell if you dont always do so and so ritual. Or you will suffer greatly if you don't always touch the floor of a car door before entering it. the word ritual is also used in English as being something done blindly e.g. "She rituallistically put on the television at 6 o clock". There are clearly many rituals that exist in the broader pubjabi community, itself derived from rituals, myths and fears from various religions and social customs- all which have nothing to do with being a sikh.

But you question bani as a ritual. If the bani is being done for the sake of maintaining a rehat and only that, then it is a ritual. Indeed maintainng a rehat without ever understanding the fact that it is something to eventually guide you to the truth, is a ritual. Most people you ask have no valid reason for keeping unshorn hair. answers are invariably 'crown on head', 'gift from guru', 'because it is rehat' etc, which is notihng but ritual.

if you hope to actually gain something from it and see it is a part of your sadhana or spritual practice and actually engage with the bani then it is not a ritual. if you wake up in the morning with great love in your heart for God, medidate on naam and allow yourself to reach great spiritual highs and actually communicate with the shabad guru through the banis, then that spiritual practice is definitely serving a real and important purpose in your life.

If however you spit it out or mumble it quickly to get it over with then it is surely a ritual.

How to avoid ritual i hear you ask? Bibek. Which means thinking critically using Gurmat principles (but with an ego-free and God loving mind to prevent plotting and scheming).

now honestly answer this question: do you reading this spit out your bani to get it over with/listen to it on tape/do it because you feel it is rehat or because it is a 'punn' or that if you didn't then it is bad? Then sorry you are treating shabad Guru with great disrespect. So fortunate to be blessed with access to shabad worth more than anything in the world and you throw it away as ritual, shame on you. I have travelled wide and far and have found virtually no people who actually love the banis, let the shabad caress the tongue with every sound, allow youself to connect with the Shabad. Almost all people I meet think I am mad when I look forward to my bani as one of the highlights of my day. Shame on you.

for someone so with the bani you sure do come across krodhit

[Guest SinghAbb]

Just because it is rehat is a very good reason. Especially for things like nitnem and hair, which cannot be disputed. Our spiritual advancement comes out of Guru jee blessing us when he is pleased with us. Doing what he told us to do will please him and then we will get spirituall advancement. That means following any bit of rehat it is possible to follow.

All seven Banis must be read. Reading them all rushed is better than not reading all of them. Bani greatly affects anyone exposed to it, even if that person does not pay attention to it. So those who read bani without paying attention should be told to read with attention. Making statements like, "There's no point in reading bani if there is no dhiaan" should never be made because it can make someone stop doing nitnem. It is true that the most benefit comes from paying attention, but there is no benefit from not reading. There is more benefit from reading bani too fast than from not reading it at all because someone said that there's no point. We can't take people away from bani.

[simran345]

All seven Banis must be read. Reading them all rushed is better than not reading all of them. Bani greatly affects anyone exposed to it, even if that person does not pay attention to it. So those who read bani without paying attention should be told to read with attention. Making statements like, "There's no point in reading bani if there is no dhiaan" should never be made because it can make someone stop doing nitnem. It is true that the most benefit comes from paying attention, but there is no benefit from not reading. There is more benefit from reading bani too fast than from not reading it at all because someone said that there's no point. We can't take people away from bani.

Hanji I was thinkin maybe my parrot like quote was not right, as even if there is not full dhian on every shabad, some is likely to be absorbed. So somethin better than nothing is being done with love rather than nothing at all. One must realise it is not easy for some to create or feel the love so doing Gurbani is better than wasting time talking about other things which one may love,eg: opposite genders, fashion popular music etc etc.

and who knows Waheguru may grace that one day, which is also in their hands, as long as one try's from their side.