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Summary of Question:	Recite So-And-So Paath 11 Times Daily?
Category:	Sikh Practices
Date Posted:	Thursday, 5/03/2001 12:31 PM MDT

WaheguruJi Ka Khalsa, WaheguruJi Ki Fateh

I am curious.. I like reading the questions posted on the forum as well as the answers you give to them. But I'm wondering why you would perscribe banis as though they were medication for a particular illness. I know you might say that the Gurujis thought of many problems that we as humans, and Sikhs would have faced then and still face now, and provided appropriate topics to calm any situation. But I dont see how, for example, reciting a bani 40 times a day for the next 30 days would help cure someone's cold (for example. i know nobody does this).
We're supposed to read the baanis every day anyway (although I admit i do slack off quite often). They make you feel better and give you perspective on any sort of situation you may be in.
You perscribe it, and are implicitly telling people to expect something in return for reading the baanis - which generally is missing the point. Baanis tell you to accept your situation.. look at it from a different point of view ... and if something's wrong . be proactive about it and fix it .. but do it in the most loving and humble way possible.
So im just confused ..
is there any real point to reciting one particular bani 31 times and concentrating not on the meanings but on how many rounds you've completed ? Or can you really expect miracles to happen beyond what is given to you if you recite this particular bani 3 times before bed every night for the next 10 days ?
I feel much better when I sing any bani to myself . For example Raag Asa Mehala 5 ( bottom of page 407 - 407 in Siri Guru Granth Sahib ) - I heard a kirtan performance of that shabad and loved it . I sing it to myself very often , and have looked up the meanings . I dont , however, bother to count how many times i'm supposed to sing it and whether or not I did not sing it on a particular day. I feel it just distracts from the essense, which is to read , understand and love .

Anyways , sorry for any offense I may have caused. Pardon for my mistakes .I am far far from where I want to be spiritually - and most likely know much less than you guys do - but I'm just curious about this matter.

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REPLY
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Good question! But remember every action has a reaction equal and opposite. That is Newton's third law.

Reading of the banis or any of the Guru's shabads is something we do in order to raise our consciousness to the Guru's, so we can connect our soul and consciousness to how we act and interact in our daily lives. For that reason there is nothing wrong to want something to happen from this action. We want to act from our Divine nature. This is the technology we have in order to do that.

It has been experienced by many people that when specific banis or shabads are recited for a specific time or in a specific way their consciousness does change and how they relate to their lives and relationships does change for the better.
When we read our banis or any of Guru's shabads, many things occur. One, we can get a conscious understanding. Two, on a more subtle level by reciting the bani or shabad out loud what we say is the Guru's words, which we speak as our own.
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