Gurudwara Protocol

[Tony]

Fateh…

A few points on Gurudwara protocol:
Appreciate your thoughts/comments and constructive feedback on if I am right in the first place, and how some of these can be improved.

1. Basant: We have any traditional gurudwara in India, where a basant raag shabad is recited at the beginning of kirtan. However I notice that in the UK and USA the ragis don’t follow this. Even ragis who are from India (including Hazoori Ragis) tend to forget this when they are in the West.
Should a basant raag shabad not be recited in the west during the months of Jan – Mar.

2. Prashad: In many traditional gurudwaras when serving prashad, the bata is covered with a cotton white cloth to preserve cleanliness, barkat etc… However in the west this is somewhat forgotten where you notice the beard of the Prashad Service Sewadar is flowing into the Bata.
Again should this not be followed.

3. The ragis doing kirtan in 3’s generally tend to be a sole key ragi; where the ragi on the side most of the times hardly is a mere presence to fill the numbers.It is our highest purest form which you are reciting; should you not pay more attention and really learn how to do kirtan rather than just sitting pretending.

4. Mobile Phones: Most Ragis now use the mobile phone to read a shabad. Phone sits on the baja. The requirement for Harminder Sahib ragi used to be that he should know at least 400 shabads from heart.
If we are reciting Gurbani from reading from phone, vs from our mind, it clearly shows. Esp as there is a hukamnama from Akal Takhat prohibiting use of mobile phones. Yes this is clearly violated by the Ragis. How do we enforce this for the others.

Again the above are just observations which I think are taking us away from our basic protocol which is being breached.

I will highly appreciate your thoughts /comments on this with a view of
Am I correct in the above, if yes then how do we go on about improving this.

Fateh . . . .

[simran345]

Fateh…

A few points on Gurudwara protocol:

Appreciate your thoughts/comments and constructive feedback on if I am right in the first place, and how some of these can be improved.

1. Basant: We have any traditional gurudwara in India, where a basant raag shabad is recited at the beginning of kirtan. However I notice that in the UK and USA the ragis don’t follow this. Even ragis who are from India (including Hazoori Ragis) tend to forget this when they are in the West.

Should a basant raag shabad not be recited in the west during the months of Jan – Mar.

2. Prashad: In many traditional gurudwaras when serving prashad, the bata is covered with a cotton white cloth to preserve cleanliness, barkat etc… However in the west this is somewhat forgotten where you notice the beard of the Prashad Service Sewadar is flowing into the Bata.

Again should this not be followed.

3. The ragis doing kirtan in 3’s generally tend to be a sole key ragi; where the ragi on the side most of the times hardly is a mere presence to fill the numbers.It is our highest purest form which you are reciting; should you not pay more attention and really learn how to do kirtan rather than just sitting pretending.

4. Mobile Phones: Most Ragis now use the mobile phone to read a shabad. Phone sits on the baja. The requirement for Harminder Sahib ragi used to be that he should know at least 400 shabads from heart.

If we are reciting Gurbani from reading from phone, vs from our mind, it clearly shows. Esp as there is a hukamnama from Akal Takhat prohibiting use of mobile phones. Yes this is clearly violated by the Ragis. How do we enforce this for the others.

Again the above are just observations which I think are taking us away from our basic protocol which is being breached.

I will highly appreciate your thoughts /comments on this with a view of

Am I correct in the above, if yes then how do we go on about improving this.

Fateh . . . .

I am but a sinner myself and cannot judge others, but on the points you have mentioned, I will just briefly give my opinions:

2. I agree with you, the bata should be covered with cotton cloth, and given satkaar.

3. I have not seen any ragi not singing. Although I agree, all ragis on stage should participate during the course of Kirtan,

4. I personally don't like this method, as the ragi may press the wrong button, or the phone battery may finish, or the phone could slip, are some reasons.

How to go about it is, to have a meeting with the Gurdwara committees and put your concerns and suggestions forward, and they can brief the sewadaars and ragis on Gurdwara satkaar and etiquette.

[singhbj singh]

Waheguru ji ka khalsa

Waheguru ji ki fateh

Improvement can be made by sponsoring hazoori Raagis from Sri Darbar Sahib, Amritsar.

But they are costly so Sangat needs to pay from pocket & not depend on committee.

Now whosoever does this Seva will be rewarded

Ang 266 Line 4 Raag Gauri Sukhmanee: Guru Arjan Dev

ਚਾਰਿ ਪਦਾਰਥ ਜੇ ਕੋ ਮਾਗੈ ॥

Chaar Padhaarathh Jae Ko Maagai ||

चारि पदारथ जे को मागै ॥

One who prays for the four cardinal blessings.

ਸਾਧ ਜਨਾ ਕੀ ਸੇਵਾ ਲਾਗੈ ॥

Saadhh Janaa Kee Saevaa Laagai ||

साध जना की सेवा लागै ॥

Should commit himself to the service of the Saints.

[Balkaar]

3. The ragis doing kirtan in 3’s generally tend to be a sole key ragi; where the ragi on the side most of the times hardly is a mere presence to fill the numbers.It is our highest purest form which you are reciting; should you not pay more attention and really learn how to do kirtan rather than just sitting pretending.

Yeah, what's up with that? Whenever I look at the fellow on the left his lips are moving, but you can barely hear his voice. Do they sing softly intentionally so that the kirtan superstar in the middle shines through, or are their microphones deliberately turned off?

[Jonny101]

Yeah, what's up with that? Whenever I look at the fellow on the left his lips are moving, but you can barely hear his voice. Do they sing softly intentionally so that the kirtan superstar in the middle shines through, or are their microphones deliberately turned off?

I always wonder about the 3rd ragi. Whats his purpose? You can barely hear him like someone hit the mute button on the remote and whats the point of having a 2nd vaja? It would make more sense if he was playing a different instrument, maybe a rabab or rilruba or even simple shainne, anything that would give him some purpose or justification for being there.

[InderjitS]

1. Not heard of this before, personally don't think it matters.

2. Seriously, beard touching Degh, plain wrong. I have personal views on Degh Maryada but they will be viewed as 'katar' so I wont be sharing.

3. Unheard of where Professional Kirtani 'Jathas' are concerned, where they struggle to make numbers, it's like an unwritten rule or call it tradition to have a 3rd person for show. It is odd they barely make a noise and when they do it's out of tune. Not only the ragis should sing but all of the Sangat as well. In India the majority of Sangat and men in particular do not sing at all and sit there looking at the camera like its the first time they've seen one.

4. Also heard this and agree should be memorised to prevent beadbi.

[Tony]

Fateh....

Thanks

Mer Khalon.... Veer ji...it is not a matter of who is the more humble

It is more of a concern on what and how the protocol should be adhered to

These may be minor things but we should be keeping the utmost respect esp whilst being in gurudwara (and other places as well) and I noticed that these are not being followed.
Suggestions on how to get these improved will be highly appreicated. Talking to the Gurudwara committee doesnt go anywhere. They are present in the gurudwara most of the time and surely ignore this.

Fateh .. .

[GurburAkal]

Not just Basant, but even when the season changes a shabad in a time appropriate raag should be sung. At least do a shabad in raag at the beginning rather then forget completely about this great musical organization of shabads. At least start off with even any easy and simple taal/beat and shabad.

The Raag problem is just one problem the panth isn't really noticing right now

[sikhni777]

The main problem here is ignorance. The sangat trust the raagis and the Giani jis to know what they are doing and do it the right way.

I think the lowering of the standards of kirtan performance is because most Giani jis we have performing this seva have actually turned to kirtan as a way of getting out of India.

We personally knew a Giani ji who was actually a person who rows people across the river... kisti chalaun vala and he learned a few tunes on the vaja. As long as you can sing some gurbani on the vaja - outside country committees will be fooled as to you can perform kirtan. He had a forged giani certificate. The sakhis he told us - got mixed up in between and he had a business running on the side for him. In his free time he was selling stuff to people and even this stuff was sort of fake. Once someone bought a fixo from him and it was watery and useless.

He forged reciepts too. A lady gave him 50 shillings and he cleverly wrote her a receipt of 50 and on the carbon copy it said 5. The lady came to my dad who was sevadaar at that time. This was all insider information which we were able to get at because my dad had access to the paper copies of the Guradwara.

As long as this continues and we keep getting fooled, kirtan maryada cannot be adhered to. Another giani ji - this one was a genuine one came and he was all the time getting framed up by these others. No one has the time to follow up activities which go on in guradwaras.

Our committees are the ones who employ people from India and they can only respond to applications they receive. No one makes an active effort to go seek the actual real and well trained giani's who will perform kirtan in maryada and not look at it as a way of simply making money.

These gianis then move on from countries like Kenya to go on to canada and Uk.

If possible then we should have our own trained youth to perform kirtan in the Guradwaras. There is no place where at present (or maybe there is) where a reputable person from India can impart such precious knowledge to our own youngsters who can learn and perform kirtan and also educate the sangat on the correct way of performing kirtan.

[Tony]

Fateh . . .

Very true... there is a lowering of standards in all aspects and we (including me) seem to be ignoring all of this.

In turn if we look at the rehat maryada it seems to be cut and getting shortened over the time. For example Take the Damdami taksal detailed rehat maryada it states every single detail on how the protocol should be adhered to. Similarly there should be one from Akal Takhat but the available one is a much shorter version just highlighting matters rather than discussing in detail.

My concerns were on how to improve this. The committee members seem to be turning a blind eye to all of this. I have gone and spoken to the stage secretary on various occasions on what my observations were, but the response is a recorded version of "kaka dont worry, mein dekh lenda"

There needs to be some education on this. How.... welcome your thoughts.

Fateh . . .