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Summary of Question:	Sukhmani And Bani
Category:	Gurbani
Date Posted:	Monday, 1/26/2004 2:56 PM MST

Hi,

I would like to say thank you for the service you provide here.

I can’t read or write Punjabi, but I try and pray as much as I can. At the moment I pray before I sleep, I can’t sleep until I do. The prayer I do is (excuse my spellings if they are incorrect) ‘Ek Ong Kaar, Sat Naam, kartha Purk’ I learnt it off by heart many years ago, but I feel I am missing certain paragraphs is it possible I can obtain this in English?

I also have a English translation on the ‘Sukhmani Sahib Path’ I have read on this site that this path should be read all at once, something that would be very hard for me to keep up as I have to read it slowly in Punjabi to get the pronunciation correct as well as reading the meaning in English to understand what I am reading. Is there a path that is short? That I could read on a daily basis at any time during the day?

I would also like to ask …this could be my subconscious but I often dream about Gudhwaras, a green field with lots of Gurbanis on stands, and bhabjis Bheer’s with people praying. I wake up and fail to understand what all these dreams could mean, if anyone could shed some light, that would be great.

Many thanks.

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REPLY
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Sat Siri Akaal. You can find nitnayms with Guru's bani that are have Gurmukhi transliteration as well as English. Sounds like you recite mul mantra before sleep, this is the opening lines of SGGS. If you click on the Siri Guru Granth Sahib link at www.sikhnet.com you will find mul mantra on the first page of SGGS online. This online version includes pronunciation and translation.

If you cannot read all of Sukhmani at once, then try reading a slok and 8 pauris at once, and the next day continue where you stopped. Because the Sukhmani is designed to hold a teaching in the slok that is developed in the 8 pauris that follow it.

If you go to www.sikhseek.com and look up books you will find Sikh books for sale, or just google Sikh books, Sikh nitnaym and try to find them with English. Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa (in Tucson) and Dr. Santokk Singh (in Canada) have good bi-lingual nitnayms out there.

Also, it is NOT hard to learn to read Gurmukhi, the language of SGGS united in a simple alphabet. If I can learn to read it you can. I don't understand it literally, but neither do a whole lot of native punjabi speakers, since a lot of the poetry in SGGS is in old Punjabi with a lot of hindi, persian, arabic, and sanskrit thrown in. I am guessing you speak punjabi, so learning to read Gurmukhi will be easy for you, really.

As for your dreams, I cannot explain them. But they sound like good dreams and it sounds like Guru is calling you to keep to his path. In time their meaning will probably come clear to you. Guru ang sang,
-DKK