Keeping Amrit Vela

[Brother Onam]

Among the very best books I've ever read is: "Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" by Thom Hartmann. I would strongly encourage everybody here to read it, but specifically I recall there was a passage where the author made clear that, outside of oppressive patriarchies, there are numerous old cultures in which a woman's "moontime" and even menstrual blood were rather honoured and not shunned.

 

[love and peace]

On the menstrual tangent, I read this a while ago, in a research paper by Kristina Myrvold called Inside the Guru's gate : ritual uses of texts among the Sikhs in Varanasi.

Long paper, available here: http://www.anpere.net/2008/3.pdf

Refer page 242

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These deeply ingrained cultural attitudes are what pollute Sikhi, not a woman's natural cycle.[/LEFT]

First of all I apologize if i am talking bad or anything but i can't resist typing this message.

If I was in that woman's shoes i would have told the Granthi first about a ladies bodily functions that we have a menstrual cycle of around 28 days!!
1.periods for 4-5 days
2.Then our uterus builds up the next 10 days
3.then again for 14 days we have secretions secreting out of us
4. if not conceived the uterus wall again sheds off known as periods.

then I would ask him how many days should i come to the Gurudwara??
it is just illiteracy, just as sweat and other bodily fluids are waste similarly the uterus wall sheds off and along the vessels the waste in that form (blood and all) we get periods, no big deal....

and yeah as Inderjit ji said it is the punjabi culture not Sikhism.

just a little rant here
as a child i grew up by my parents and people teaching me things like if you cut your hair, God will punish you, you won't get this or that, if you wash your hair on tuesday and thursday it is harmful for your brother, right eye twitching superstitions and many many more and bla bla ..... i was trapped with these superstitions, then i read a book "The Sikh faith" by Dr. Gurbaksh Singh and I am so thankful to this author that he opened my eyes and today i am a Girl who doesn't listen to people and prefer to listen only to what is written in Guru Granth Sahib ji not what people have written in their heads themselves...i believe in no superstition but only to pray to God and not to waste my time and energy in such superstitions or blame games that God punished and did this and that. I used to fear God because as i am not a perfect person i make mistakes so i thought God always hates me because i am not doing what He wants me to but now I don't fear Him but Love Him and i will always try to restrain from the bad not because I fear God but because I love God. People who know nothing about God teach you fear and those who know about God teach you Love.

anyone may correct me wherever they think I am wrong.

 

[Gyani Jarnail Singh]

First of all I apologize if i am talking bad or anything but i can't resist typing this message.

If I was in that woman's shoes i would have told the Granthi first about a ladies bodily functions that we have a menstrual cycle of around 28 days!!
1.periods for 4-5 days
2.Then our uterus builds up the next 10 days
3.then again for 14 days we have secretions secreting out of us
4. if not conceived the uterus wall again sheds off known as periods.

then I would ask him how many days should i come to the Gurudwara??
it is just illiteracy, just as sweat and other bodily fluids are waste similarly the uterus wall sheds off and along the vessels the waste in that form (blood and all) we get periods, no big deal....

and yeah as Inderjit ji said it is the punjabi culture not Sikhism.

just a little rant here
as a child i grew up by my parents and people teaching me things like if you cut your hair, God will punish you, you won't get this or that, if you wash your hair on tuesday and thursday it is harmful for your brother, right eye twitching superstitions and many many more and bla bla ..... i was trapped with these superstitions, then i read a book "The Sikh faith" by Dr. Gurbaksh Singh and I am so thankful to this author that he opened my eyes and today i am a Girl who doesn't listen to people and prefer to listen only to what is written in Guru Granth Sahib ji not what people have written in their heads themselves...i believe in no superstition but only to pray to God and not to waste my time and energy in such superstitions or blame games that God punished and did this and that. I used to fear God because as i am not a perfect person i make mistakes so i thought God always hates me because i am not doing what He wants me to but now I don't fear Him but Love Him and i will always try to restrain from the bad not because I fear God but because I love God. People who know nothing about God teach you fear and those who know about God teach you Love.

anyone may correct me wherever they think I am wrong.

People who know nothing about God teach you fear and those who know about God teach you Love.

The SGGS...teaches NOTHING BUT LOVE..just LOVE...and LOVE and LOVE.PERIOD. Mitth Bollrra ji HARSAJAN MERA...main hambhal thakee jee..kadeh na bolleh KAURRA..declares Guru Arjun Ji...MY Beloved always speaks softly and with LOVE...HE has NEVER said a KAURRA bitter word...EVER.

Its the so called THEKEDAARS of Religion..the self declared AGENTS of God..the middlemen..those who actually LIVE OFF GOD...are the ones that try and FRIGHTEN the public to keep them in LINE...the priests, the granthis, the ragis, the derawallah babas, the sri 108 maharajas, swamis, sadhus, BHARAM-AGYANIS (aka brahmgyanis)...almost everyone whose LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS on "religion"..so called Dharam falls in this.

AS an aside do you people knwo just how many such "holy men" were CAUGHT with LOOTED jewellery/cash etc from the drowned victims in Utrakhand....How many "Sikh" Shopkeepers in HEMKUNT charged as much as 4000 for a bottle of mineral water..2500 for a single samosa ??..is that behaviour that of a Sikh..esp one eho is suppsoedly spending so many years in a supposedly Holy place ?? You people watched TITANIC..do you know just how many "Brave Men" actually forced their way to the front to board helicopters etc leaving the women children behind..

GURBANI already told us all about these.." NAAVANN CHALLEH TEERATHEEN..MANN KHOTTEH>>TAN CHOR..says GURBANI....How apt and true description of these "pilgrims"...They travelt o teeraths to bathe..their Bodies are THIEVES (greed..kaam krodh lobh moh hankaar)...and their mann is KHOTTEH>>FALSE !!!

 

[japjisahib04]

Love and peace ji,

Guru Fateh.

Great name btw. A rather thought provoking one. It forces one to think which is the mean that brings the end. The interesting part is that your name dictates both are intrachangeable starting from the personal relations and then moving on to the other horizons of life..

I agree with you. My Nitnem starts with the droplets of sweat in the very early hours in the hot dry desert of Las Vegas. I had to stop this journey for some months due to unforeseen reasons but I am slowly getting my stride back, so to speak. So, I feel my cleansing process starts from the within.

Allow me to paraphrase Bulleh Shah,(a great Sufi poet sung by many great artists). He was born in 1680 long after Guru Nanak's birth. One of his many Kalams (Odes) where he talks about cleanliness (pilgrimages to take dips in Holy waters, a must in Hinduism), Running towards the forests to meditate in order to find Rabb, (one more must in the same religion); both of which Guru Nanak talked against about long before Bulleh Shah but the thought process is the same.

Rabb= Ik Ong Kaar

Jei Rabb mildha nateian dhotien
If one finds Rabb by washing self in water

Tei Rabb milda dadduan machian num
Then the frogs and the fish are the lucky ones

Jei Rabb milda jungle phirian
If one finds Rabb wandering around into the jungles

Tei rabb milda gahian vachian num
Then the animals and their off springs are the lucky ones.

Vei Mian Bullehah rabb unah nu milda
Oh Mian Bullehah only those find Rabb

Ateh dilhian schian acchian num
Who are truly good hearted

The second ode is also wonderful. It is about the futility of gaining knowledge by shedding wisdom, the same thing Guru Nanak talks in Jap's 2nd Pauri.

If someone wants me also to interpret the second ode, please let me know.

Following is the YouTube version of the many odes of Bulleh Shah enchantingly sung by Abida Parveen, a very well known Pakistani Sufi singer. There are English subtitles on all of them.

Enjoy Bulleh Shah with Abida's great voice:

Abida Parveen Sings Bulleh Shah - YouTube

Regards
Tejwant Singh

Jaswant Jee

I suggest you listen this also
Baba Bulleh Shah - Sher Miandad Khan - Raaz Dhiya Gallan - YouTube

best regards
sahni

 

[love and peace]

Love and peace ji,


If someone wants me also to interpret the second ode, please let me know.


Tejwant Singh

I would want to understand the second ode.

 

[Inderjeet Kaur]

Dear love and peace ji, you have it right. Everybody who teaches that the Almighty condemns you or even judges you has their religions confused. Those are Abrahamic teachings, not Sikhi.

Just read Siri Guru Granth Sahib ji and enjoy. Forget those old fuddy-duddies who would take the joy out of life. Sikhi rejects superstition even if many Sikhs do not. Remember we Sikhs are all "works in process" and we all are a bit screwed up, except the Gurus Sahiban and maybe a couple of Bhagats.

:kaurkhalsaflagred:

 

[muddymick]

I have read this thread with great interest and on my initial reading I also thought that the 'pool of nectar' one bathes in may be much less a bath (or shower) and much more the awareness of Waheguru.
However I was a bit cowardly and not being a Sikh or of great knowledge concerning Gurbani I kept silent.

My very basic understanding is that the name of God (awareness of God ) is Amrit

The Name of God is 'nectar', that is the base for all.
(Guru Granth Sahib Ji, p. 1429).

Name is the treasure of nectar, join and drink O! Brother
Remembering whom we get all happiness, and quench our thirst.
(Guru Granth Sahib Ji, p. 318)

O! God your word is all nectar.
By listening to it, I am emancipated.
(Guru Granth Sahib Ji, p. 103)

To achieve this Amrit, one has to churn it by repeating His name with
one's tongue (mouth)repeatedly:
One's tongue should meditate upon His Name
And this churning will giant one Amrit.
(Guru Granth Sahib Ji, p. 728)

The hour when we repeat His Name and ponder upon His
Excellences is the moment of achieving Amrit:
(Guru Granth Sahib Ji, p. 2)

Singing the praise of God with one's tongue is(drinking) Amrit.
(Guru Granth Sahib Ji, p.1219)

I see only One, none else.
By the grace of Guru I drink nectar.
(Guru Granth Sahib Ji, p. 113)

For the treasure of water (nectar), you have come to this world,
That nectar is with Guru, O! Lovable.
(Guru Granth Sahib Ji, p. 598)

These would indicate to me that Amrit is realisation or awareness of God. Not a bath or Shower.

(any mistakes I have made in relation to the Sikhi way or the Guru Granth Sahib Ji are my own and not a reflection on these)

With regards.

 

[spnadmin]

Yes muddymick ji


That's it.