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Summary of Question:	Wonderful Site
Category:	Sikh Practices
Date Posted:	Sunday, 4/29/2001 1:05 AM MDT

WAHEGURU JI KA KHALSA WAHEGURU JI KI FATEH

Greetings to everyone...first of all,this is simply an awesome site and has always helped me a lot...now here i'm back to flood this forum with my questions :)

i went to http://www.sikhnet.com/gurbani and went to the section titled "Banis"...there i chose to hear the Banis where the singer's name was given as "Bani Pro"...i don't know who this Bibi Ji is,but her voice is simply magic...i mean "FULL OF MAGIC"...the love and devotion with which she recites the Banis has raised certain questions in my head...u see Khalsa Ji,i have been doing the Banis for more than a month now...i try to be regular...sometimes i do miss out...i noticed two errors i was committing...firstly,i was reciting some parts incorrectly,for instance in Jaap Sahib there is a part in the beginning which goes this way : "NAMASTANG AKAALE NAMASTANG APAALE"...i used to read it as : "NAMASTAM AKAALE NAMASTAM APAALE"...which makes it sound more like Sanskrit instead of Gurmukhi...the other error being,that i used to rush through the Banis even though i recite them out aloud...Japuji Sahib,Jaap Sahib,Shabad Hazaare,Tva Prasad Swaiyye,Anand Sahib,Rehras Sahib,Kirtan Sohila and Ardas,all this in an hour and twenty minutes...now isn't that like running in the olympics!!!!!...when i heard the Banis sung by this Bibi Ji,she sings them with so much love and devotion...and her voice is just out of this world...i began to wonder...what a fool i am...first of all i read them wrong and then i rush through them...so stupid of me...i was talking with a Sikh friend of mine...he says he does meditation in the morning...he recites WAHEGURU Gurmantar...he finds peace that way...we began discussing...and concluded that it can't be decided which one is better...Banis or meditation...since it all depends on how much time one has and also upon which way one feels more peace...now we both are engineering students...he is doing his masters and i am in undergraduate level,which expalins how much time we get...i told him that out of the eighty minutes that i took to do the Banis,the actual time of concentration might just be ten minutes...since i rush through them while doing them aloud...he meditates for any amount of time...he doesn't have a fixed time...the main thing i find that he at least does it and does it with utmost concentration,love and devotion...whereas me(the great idiot)does the Banis as if riding a horse and then thinks has done a favour on someone!!!!!...i was wondering if i too should start doing meditation like my Sikh friend...OR...sing the Japuji aloud during AmritVela which is the best time to do Nitnem...i don't know if this should be taken as a demotion...i mean to say that people usually increase their number of Banis to be done...i started out with seven and now i talk about doing just one...but i want to do it with more than one hundred percent of myself completely involved in it...i would just love if u(as always)could tell me what to do...and yes...if u can,please tell the respected Bibi Ji that i love her voice :-) and that i have realized two of my errors regarding the Banis,thanx to WAHEGURU! :)

Gur Fateh!

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WAHEGURU JI KA KHALSA WAHEGURU JI KI FATEH!

When I received the sacred Amrit from the Panj Piare, it was from a travelling Jatha whose daily sadhana was to perform Japji Sahib 100 times each before sunrise. It took them each about 2 hours. You can imagine how it sounded! I did not make any judgement of them. The Amrit was divine beyond words. Your sadhana is your sadhana. You have 'hit the nail on the head' when you say:

"i mean to say that people usually increase their number of Banis to be done...i started out with seven and now i talk about doing just one...but i want to do it with more than one hundred percent of myself completely involved in it"

You must create a sound current and you must LISTEN to it. Whether you do one Nitnem Bani or seven Banis; whether you speak in Gurmukhi or in English; whether you meditate on Waheguru or meditate on Gurbani Kirtan; the secret is LISTENING.



It is your concentration, devotion and absorption that allows the effect of your sadhana to become powerful.

All blessings to you in the Name of the Guru, the Light of every Sikh.

.....G