Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh!
Every gursikh reads Gurbani everyday. Many of us have learned to recite paath from Gutkai which have romanized gurmukhi. Most of us have been pronouncing gurbani the same way from the very first time we started to read from a gutka. A lot of us have the panj banis memorized. Others may have heard bani for a while and memorized it by listening to a recording or from a gursikh.
The thing is we read bani over and over every day, years on end. But we fail to get what the idea of reading bani is. Most of us cant decipher/interpret what gurbani is telling us. The majority has a problem with shielding out other thoughts which disturd concentration. Sometimes we go through nitname and only know when the last pangati of anand sahib is read. Many gursikhs think that a person isnt hooked to bani until they have a complete understanding of what is being said by it. In order to hear and understand what the bani is saying Gurbani Ucharran must first be mastered. Everyone wants to take the easy road. We want mukti by just learning basic punjabi and start to do paath, thats it. But the gurmukhi path is not that easy, we need to put in way more work. A sikh is not a sikh if he/she stops learning. Unfortunately thats what we see(gurmat wise) today in all sikhs young or old.
Just as a person learning to read correctly needs to lean the rules of grammar, puncuation, tenses etc., a perosn that wants to understand gurbani properly needs to also learn the rules of gurbani. Personally I feel that learning gurbani ucharran is both more interesting and varied than english grammar. Gurbani viakaran(grammar)is also much more advanced than english grammar. You dont get bored the same way you do in english class. And its not that hard. Books by Bhai Joginder Singh talwara are out in the market and is a good read about Viakaran(grammar). Although Sahib Singh's & Talwara jees books have a lot of grammar in there books, the only book ever wretten on the subject of Gurbani Ucharran was by Commisioner Dhana Singh jee. It it now distributed by the Pingalwara(Amritsar) free of charge. Even singhs who have vast knowledge about viakaran learn many new things from this book.
Gurbani Ucharran is a lifelong learning process. Before getting to read gurbani from Shri Guru Granth Sahib Jee, we first need to make our recitation/ucharran of the nitname bannia shudh(correct). Bhai Harbans Singh(pataila) jees teeka on nitname is a great start for someone who wants to start correcting nitname.
Here are a few pointers on how to correcty recite bani:
-Never miss any part of a shabad{a lag(dalavva/dolankar etc.) or a letter}
-Judge according to viakaran and gurmat if a bindi(nasel sound) adhak(stressed sound) other lag or if the word or part of a word shou be spoken softly(without stress)
-Judge according to viakaran or meaning if you should or should not say a lag(mostly unkar & sihari)
-When reciting bani from a larivaar gutka, reading bani becomes easier when you think of unkar and sihari as a seprator, where the first word ends and the next begins. Guru sahib has made it very easy for us to read from larivaar this way. Remember that this is not found in any other langage and is exclusive to shri guru granth sahib jee.
-Reading Gurbani with proper Bisram(pause) makes unclear meaning clearcut and supashat. Putting the wrong bisram could make the meaning totally opposite so we need to be careful about this. A considerbly longer pause should be given after rahaoo. A pangty usually has one or two places where bisram should be given.
I dont want to make this too long. I will write part two of this soon.
Waheguru ji ka khalsa waheguru ji ki fateh!
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