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Summary of Question:	Pronunciation Of Gurbani/Gurshabad
Category:	Gurbani
Date Posted:	Saturday, 7/27/2002 4:10 PM MDT

A learned Giani visited my house recently.He said a lot of things.Most of which I already knew, but one thing stuck in my mind.He said that the majority of Sikh (even amritdhari) do not have a clue as to how to pronounce Gurbani.I had long since suspected that I was pronouncing Gurbani wrongly.For example: many people omit vowels at the end of Gurshabad and some ignorant fools even mispronounce letters, saying "Kharak" instead of "Kharagu".People are making up there own versions of Gurbani.Most people pronounce Mul Mantra like this:

Ek Oankar
Satnam
Karta Purukh
Nirbhau
Nirvair
Akal Murat
Ajuni
Saibhng
Gurprasad.

It is in fact pronounced:

Ek Oankar
Satinamu (satya - namu) "u" = that
Karta Purukhu (u = that)
Nirbhau
Nirvairu
Akal Murati (i = is)
Ajuni (not aa-juni)
Saibngu
Gurprasadi. (not gurparsaad)

So what do you think.Am I being pedantic, or is it important to pronounce Gurshabad or not.Remember Gurbani is nothing like modern day Panjabi, it is composed of different medieval Indian languages from all over India.Remember this: Pavan Guru.If you pronounce Gurushabad properly then you will pronounce in exactly the same way as our Guru did.I feel like this is a massive shake up within Sikhdom or something that will never be taken notice of.Just like Time, something subtle but very powerful.Sat Sri Akal.

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Sat Siri Akal.

Yes, it's true, many people do not pronounce Gurbani perfectly correctly. And ideally you want to be able to pronounce it perfectly. So it's really a question of what you tune into. There's something inside of you saying, "Hey - pay attention to this. This is really important." And you want to listen to that voice and refine your own pronunciation of Gurbani, see what effect that has on your meditation. But not everyone is going to be tuning into the same things that you tune into. For some people, just being able to read an English translation of the Guru is going to touch their lives in deep and profound ways. So focus on the step you would like to take, and know that you can help other people who are ready to take that step, as well. But also know it doesn't mean there's some "trouble" with people who pronounce Gurbani poorly or don't know how to pronounce it at all. Guru is with everyone, and everyone is exactly where they need to be on their spiritual path. It's cool, though, to get into the nuance of Gurbani pronunciation. Once you learn it, you will be a valuable resource for a lot of other people.

All love.

GPK