SAT-SRI-AKAL

[Guest guest]

Salutations to Thakur, Guru, and Ma!

 

On the 1st and 2nd days of January, 1925, M. and the devotees visit

congregations of the Sikhs to partake in the birth anniversary celebrations of

Sri Guru Gobind Singh.

 

M. sits on the first floor facing the Darbar Sahib (the holy book of the Sikhs)

in the veerasana (a kind of heroic posture practised in meditation), folding his

hands. The place is decorated supurbly with flowers--inside the room there is

another room decked with flowers, and there is a flood of light--the whole house

is dazzling with electric lights. Inside the room there is a ghee (clarified

butter) lamp, on the walls are pictures of Ram and Sita, Chaitanya in his

singing party and so on. In the northern room he sees images of Radha-Krishna,

Shiva, Salagram and other deities. M. prostrates before them. There is s

sadhu--a priest. He rises from his seat and gives prasad of tulasi and dry

currants to M. and bhaktas.

 

They then go on foot to the gurudwara on Cotton street. With a white turban on

his head, a Sikh sadhu waves holy lights before the Granth Sahib--it is arati

with camphor. The arati over, another sadhu offers ardas (prayer). He has a

black turban on his head and a kirpan (a sword) hanging from a shoulder band.

 

Having first remembered Bhagavati (Mother-goddess)

 

Let us meditate on Guru Nanak;

 

Then Guru Angad, Amar Das and

 

Ram Das may assist us!

 

Let us remember Arjun, Hargobind and Shri Hari Rai,

 

Let us meditate on Shri Hari Krishnan,

 

A sight of whom dispels all sorrows.

 

Let us remember Guru Teg Bahadur,

 

the nine treasures (wealth and the eight occult powers)

 

Shall come hastening to our homes.

 

May the holy Shri Guru Gobind Singh Maharaj,

 

the hero of Dharma, everywhere assist us.

 

 

 

M. then goes to a big congregation at 79 Cross Street. The devotees squat on

the floor and listen to the recitation of the Guru Granth Sahib in Gurumukhi.

The reader priest recites the fifth mahalla, the words of the Sukhmani of the

fifth guru Arjun Dev. It's about the knower of Brahman and the association with

holy men: "

 

'That man is indeed great who has his pride destroyed by the company of the

holy... Who has the power to describe the great spiritual glory of the holy man?

O man, the splendour of a sadhu equals that of God. O brother, there is no

difference between God and the sadhu.'

 

Sat-Sri-Akal

 

(The True, the Great One beyond Time)

 

Kathy

 

(M.,-THE APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST. Vol. VIII., pp. 310-313; 319)

 

M.-"Whether it is a Gurudwara or any other place, the Guru is God. If one has

devotion for the Guru it is understood that one has devotion for God. The Guru

and the ideal Deity are one and the same. The Sikhs have supreme faith in the

Gurus."

 

 

 

 

 

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