The year has started with a bang, literally. We performed six concerts at the Woodford Folk Festival to average crowds of 2000 per concert. This festival is in Queensland and is the major folk festival in the southern hemisphere drawing about 100,000 over five days. Our group for this festival included Quentin Eyers on guitar, western sitar and didgeridoo; Andrew Clermont on violin and also didgeridoo; Keith Preston on bouzouki and santoor; besides Dheeraj on tabla, myself and my two daughters Harsel and Parvyn. Harsel and Parvyn also conducted workshops on bhangra dancing. I was involved in ‘Sikh spiritual singing and meditation’ workshops There was a huge Fire Event as usual at the festival on the first of January. We did not participate in the Fire Event this year as Neil Cameron, the Event chief had picked a European theme. We were however involved at the same event last year and the theme then was “The Seven Pillars of Peace” and our group sang pieces of “Sukhmani Simren” (our album of 2000) throughout the two hour event to an outdoor audience estimated at 35,000.

SIKH YOUTH CAMP, AUSTRALIA (9-14 January 2003)

From Brisbane we flew to Sydney for the Sydney Sikh Youth Camp. Camp organisers had sponsored a gurbani ‘singalong’ album which had been duly completed by us, called “Dya Singh-along”. The album besides a very impressive Camp Guide booklet and Nitnem booklet were given out to each participant (140 this year!). Sardar Sukhinderpal Singh of Malaysia and Bibi SatKartar Kaur Khalsa, a white American Sikh exponent of yoga and western-style kirten from Phoenix, Arizona, joined us as senior presenters. Young Zorawar (John) Singh from Woolgoolga, New South Wales looked after the under-ten year age group. The camp was a resounding success. It was carried out at a Christian Retreat, Crossland Convention Center near Sydney. Participants were able to soak up Nitnem, Naam Simren, Kirten, yoga, thoughts and views on Sikhi, gurmatt and Sikh history. They were also responsible for presenting a concert of Sikhi orientated skits and songs. There was also a Parent’s Symposium where parenting especially Sikh parental responsibilities into the 21st Century were discussed culminating in the concert provided by the participants.

An interesting feature of the Camp was the role of youth in the civic duties, in terms of representing Sikh interests within the mainstream into the future. Sikh leadership, running gurdwaras and lobbying of politicians and Parliament for Sikh interests – state and federal. Also, creation of greater awareness, and propagation of Sikhi within the mainstream.

I applaud the organisers for quite a unique camp. One of the best in the world and I have been to a few!! (Visit the camp website set up by participants: www.sycoz.tk )

BASANT OR POH? or Spring or Autumn?

We were called back to Sydney for a surprise birthday party on Jan.25, 2003 followed by kirten at the city of Newcastle, about 100km north of Sydney, the next day. Newcastle had its first ever Akhand Path that weekend and we had been invited to do kirten. Also on hand to help with the Akhand Path was a Ragi (official Sikh minstrel) who had studied and done kirten at Darbar Sahib. I believe they are called ‘hejoori ragis’. I did not catch his name.

They performed kirten before us and I think the main ragi was not very happy about that. Him being a ‘hejoori ragi’ and we being given ‘prime time’!! He explained, that the ‘reet’ (ritual) of Basant (first month of Spring) was in session at Harmandhir Sahib and that any ‘ragi’ should begin his rendition of kirten with Raag Basant and finish with Basant too. So he duly began with Basant and ended with Basant. It was Noon by the time they finished. So, we began with Raag Todi Gujri as I saw fit and went on to indulge in appropriate shabads of a happy occasion and the coming of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji into this particular abode – ‘Jithe jaye bahay mera Satguru…’etc.

The Ragi Sahib then summoned me and duly pointed out some mistakes in my gurbani pronunciation (see chapter on ‘Mispronunciation of Gurbani’ which follows) and then asked me why I had not started with Basant as he had requested. Did I not know Basant raag? Firstly I explained that I was not exactly a qualified ragi like himself and secondly, I could not see the relevance of Basant (spring) when it was 104 degrees F (40 degrees C) outside and it was late summer in Australia anyway!! I do not think he likes me very much!

Though these very learned ragis from Punjab can be an asset for the spreading and preaching of Sikhi, I think they need to be thought to think outside their own little box for a universal congregation.

The question of Sangrand, monsoonal and other seasonal ‘traditions’ need to take on a universal mantle. Or at the least our Sikh preachers/philosophers should know, or be made aware of, that seasons in different parts of the globe are different. I was born and brought up in tropical Malaysia like at least another 100,000 Sikhs. Change of season means nothing to me!! Sangrand is a tradition which is doomed to oblivion. More so because the NanakShahi calender will soon be adopted by Sikhs worldwide. But perhaps we can ensure that Bara Mah as a great seasonal reminder of our pathway to Waheguru Ji, can be continued as part of Sikh protocol based on the first of every western calender month… something for the Sikh leaders to think about.

MIS-PRONUNCIATION OF GURBANI

The nit picking of ‘the’ ragi at Newcastle about my mispronunciation brings me to this story. His main gripe was that I swopped ‘sh’ for ‘s’ and vice-versa for example saying ‘sabadh’ instead of ‘shabad’, ‘patsah for ‘patshah’. Quite correct where he is concerned and I do admit that my gurbani pronunciation is not the best in the world more so because I am born in Malaysia with many other language influences besides Punjabi.

I am also aware that Sri Ram Rai, was banished by his father Sri Guru Har Rai Ji, for ‘deliberately’ changing a word of gurbani. ‘Deliberate’ is, I think, the operative word here. I do not deliberately mispronounce gurbani, which I too, consider a sacrilege.

Our Indian Sikh philosophers /preachers /ragis/ pracharaks/ vidhvaans etc. are always very picky about pronunciations and sometimes insist that anyone who is not sure about his/her pronunciations should not do ‘path’ in public or do kirten! Rather drastic, me thinks. I wonder what is the lot of a Chinese or a Japanese person who wants to do ‘path’. They are not able to say their ‘r’s’ and the ‘l’s’ or at best have a tendency to transpose them. For example the ‘official’ Japanese pronunciation for ‘Australia’ is “A-SU-TO-RA-RI-A’. Besides ‘l’ there are other Punjabi syllables they can never say. What hope is there for a Japanese to sing ‘Lakh khushian Patshahian’ He/she will be singing ‘Raka kushia patasha-i-a’. Should they be banned from doing kirten? Should American Sikhs, with their very lovingly rendered western music kirten and unusual pronunciations be banned?

Anyway, I have a story to relate. I heard it at the Woodford Folk Festival from a fellow spiritual musician from Tibet – a former monk now turned singer called Tensing Tsewang. In a concert, he handed out two Tibetan Mantras for everyone to sing along with him. He sang it once for everyone to get the pronunciation right before he started. He also went on to explain that it did not matter if we got it perfectly right. It was the sincerity of ‘feeling’ that was ‘more important’ not the correct pronunciation. He said he too was not sure if he was pronouncing them correctly!

He told us a story concerning mispronunciations.

Some Indian Sanskrit scholars visited the Dalai Lama at Dharamsala and told him that they had discovered that all Tibetan mantras were written in Sanskrit and that the Tibetans had been saying them wrongly and mispronouncing them for the last five centuries or so!

The Dalai Lama smiled and remarked that it was strange that they had been saying all these mantras wrongly yet they had attained enlightenment!!

I believe the moral is that Waheguru Ji is more interested in the sincerity of our prayers and ‘path’ not the correctness of our pronunciations. Though every effort must be made to ensure that gurbani is recited correctly, I do not think that insistence on correct pronunciation should become an obstacle especially for the younger generation who have difficulty in saying certain words of Gurmukhi. I shall, of course keep getting corrected by our ‘vidhvaans’ from India and other peers, on my pronunciations and keep learning for the rest of my life. I promise.

sewak,
Dya Singh (Australia)