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Summary of Question:	RE: Music.........Kirtan
Category:	Other
Date Posted:	Friday, 4/21/2000 1:03 PM MDT

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh !

Dear LSK,
This is regarding your response to a fellow who asked whether it was okay to sing gurbani using western musical instruments. Your answer was 'Yes'. I guess it would be okay to use western instruments if it helps you concentrate more on gurbani. I think that it would be ideal to use vaja and tabla for singing gurabani. These are relatively simpler instruments and would help you concentrate more on gurbani rather than the instruments. On the other hand, if you use 20 different kinds of instruments (guitars, tamborines, drums etc..) the listener would be inclined to concentrate more on the music rather than gurbani. I think it is best to sing gurbani in a simple manner, with 'nimarta', so that you can get the most out of it.

LSK, you also said that it is perfectly alright to dance with gurbanee. I think it would be our MANMAT to do so! First of all, physical dance, of any sort, is not encouraged by our guru (only the 'dance of the mind' is encouraged) and you are talking about dancing with gurbani? Please think about it! It would also be very disrespectful towards our Guru to do such a thing. Guruji has only permitted the dance of the mind and not the body. Consider the following excerpts from Gurbani:

"Har-jan naachoh Har Har Dhiaaey"
(O humble servant of the Lord, let your dancing be meditation on the Lord, Har, Har.)---Page 368

"Har gun gaaey, kudeh ar naacheh"
(Dance by singing God's praises)

"Dance, O my mind, before your Guru. If you dance according to the Guru?s Will, you shall obtain peace, and in the end, the fear of death shall leave you." ---(Page 506)

This kind of dance is free of any physical jerking and THIS is the kind of dance that Guruji wants us to do. All other kinds of dances are nothing but our own 'Manmat'; it is certainly not Gurmat! Then how can we even think about dancing with Gurbani ?! In forums like these, ONLY gurmat advice should be given. Why not listen to what Guruji has to say instead of following our Manmat ?

Bhul-chuk Maaf!
Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh !

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Reply
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On this we must agree to disagree.
I must have missed this part in my Amrit Ceremony when the punj went over the Rehit. I don't remember the ban on dancing, but I do remember it from fundamentalist christian dogma. And if we were to ban dance, how is that defined? If I walk in an unusual way, might that be considered a type of dancing? If I do certain physical training exercises it looks a lot like dancing. Certain yoga exercises look a lot like dance. It's a judgement call.
If we do dance, what should we be thinking of when we do, something other than God's Name? And if we think it, how can saying it out loud be bad? Is it OK to chant Sat Nam, Wahe Guru while I'm walking, or is that too close to dancing?
When Kabir wrote the poems that were later to become part of SGGS, was it OK then to sing them outside Gurdwara where people had uncovered heads. Or only after we had claimed them and declared that they must be sung according to a set of rules. The shabd is infinite, it is not affected by what we do or don't do. Our rules of behaviour are to keep us on our path, not to "protect" the Guru's word.
Your opinion on the best way to sing Gurbani is fine, but you are not other people. People come to the Guru in their own way through their own path. When I became a Sikh we didn't know any Gurbani except for a few mantra's (Sat Nam, Wahe Guru) that were exerpted from it. It didn't stop us. We danced and sang it and became more and more Gursikh as time passed. If someone had told me what you said in this message back then, I would have walked away. I had already left one religion that was too uptight for humans, I wouldn't have traded it for another.

Life is balance. There is a time to sit meditatively, and there's a time to move. Everything in it's time and place. Everything in balance.