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Summary of Question:	Reading Of The Raag Mahala
Category:	Gurbani
Date Posted:	Tuesday, 5/21/2002 5:15 AM MDT

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa

Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh
I would sincerely appreciate if you could kindly explain to me the status of Raag Mahala. If we revere our Guru Granth Sahib as our living Guru and also we that Bani is Guru and Guru is Bani then why is our Panth not committing to Rag Mahala being read without any shred of a doubt. I was very very surprised to note that the Rehat Maryada article X1 states that we could choose by reading either the Mundavani OR the Raag Mahalla as one chooses according to his wishes BUT it further states that the RAAG MAHALA MUST BE PUBLISHED. Is the Panth in a position to take a firm stand on this issue. I am very sure that if we belief that the Guru Granth Sahib Ji is the emobdiement of our ten gurus, we should not have any doubt on the authencity of the Raag Mahala.
Thanks

REPLY:

The panth has many facets. One of which is the Akhand Kirtnai jetha. They believe that Raag maala is only an exerpt or an index. Therefore they do not consider it Guru's Bhani. Raag mala was written by Guru Gobind Singh. It is said that he was giving the raagas a place in Sikhism. Over the past five hundred years raagas have been mutilated by musicians and artists in that they portray them as flirty or sexual. Theye often use them to better their position or their wallet size. Legend has it that because of this the Raagas (they do have a form and an essence) came to guru gobind singh and requested a position. He has no bhanis of his own in the guru. That is why he didn't name this one. Raag mala tells the essence and nature of many raags. some of which are not used in the Guru Granth Sahib, but they are neighbors or 'relatives' of the ones used. As such the naad remains continuous, the first syllable in the Guru is 'soch'. The first letter is 's'. Raag malla ends with 's', completing the naad. the naad starts with s and ends with s. in a full akhand path it will be such.
There is nothing in Guru Granth Sahib that is not supposed to be there, it is perfect and complete.
GSKK