Asian Traditions of Meditation

by Halvor Eifring

  Another example of more organized nām simran programs in Punjab are the samāgams arranged by the Brahm Bunga Trust in the village Dodra of the Mansa district. The organization was established by the retired army man Jaswant Singh, often called Bauji, who in the 1970s began to hold nām simran meetings in private houses in Dodra and other villages every month. Because of a growing interest, the congregation around Bauji constructed a gurdwārā (Gurdwara Brahm Bunga Sahib) in the 1970s and a decade later handed over the administration to a trust.32 Today the organization is responsible for large gatherings that attract devotees from all over the world. Except for two-day gatherings every fortnight in different villages and cities, the trust arranges continuous eight-day nām simran programs in the gurdwārā every March and September, and an eleven-day program at the end of December. During these intensive spiritual retreats, the devotees will adopt a simple lifestyle and be fully dedicated to meditation, which is believed to gradually generate spiritual powers (siddī) in the doers. People who have participated in these events sometimes testify that the gurmantra vibrating between the walls of the gurdwārā at Dodra helps people forget about worldly worries and fully engage in devotion. As popular stories add, the early practitioners of the congregation were imbued with the divine name to such an extent that their bodies emitted sweet electrical shocks; through their intensive practices they pursued internal powers that created perceptible bodily effects.33 Inspired by these and other devotional endeavors, Sikhs in India and in the diaspora regularly engage in different types of collective nām simran practices exercised with or without religious instructors.

  A demanding method is the so-called akhaṇḍ jāp, or “unbroken repetition,” of vāhigurū uninterruptedly from a few hours up to twenty-four hours or more. These events are typically staged for special occasions, such as festivals in the Sikh calendar, anniversary days, or whenever human conditions require urgent divine intervention, such as at times of natural disasters or war.34 The unbroken nām simran can begin after the obligatory reading of the Sikh evening prayers at dusk and may continue throughout the night until the ambrosial hours (amritvela) and the break of dawn, or may be scheduled as a day program, occurring between the rising and setting of the sun. Devotees may then take turns in keeping the repetition unbroken, and may sometimes divide the chanting assembly so that women and children are doing akhaṇḍ jāp during the day, and men throughout the night.

  Results and Meanings of Nām Simran

  From a textual and normative perspective, it is obvious that nām simran, as a broader spiritual discipline, is believed to bestow multifold merits and is considered the Sikh path toward liberation. In Gurū Granth Sāhib, the beloved composition Sukhmani Sāhib (The Jewel of Peace) by the fifth Gurū Arjan develops a long exposition of all of the virtues gained from the contemplation and remembrance of nām. Given the centrality of simran in this text, contemporary Sikhs sometimes approach it as a guide as to what can be achieved from the practice.35 A few lines of this lengthy poem may help to illustrate:

  I am ever a sacrifice unto those, who contemplate [simran] over the Master.

  Beauteous are the faces of those, who contemplate [simran] over the Master.

  They, who contemplate [simran] over the Master, pass their life in peace.

  They, who contemplate [simran] over the Master, conquer their mind.

  They, who contemplate [simran] over the Master, have the pious way of life.

  They, who contemplate [simran] over the Master, have manifold joys.

  They, who contemplate [simran] over the Master, abide near God.

  By the favour of Saints they remain watchful night and day.

  Nānak, Lord’s meditation [simran] is obtained by perfect luck.36

  People graced with the ability to be dedicated and concentrated in the various practices covered within the concept of nām are able to gradually transform their inner self-centeredness (haumai), cultivate devotion, and eventually realize the divine power within themselves and in the whole of creation. The Sikh gurus describe this transition by contrasting two different types of existence: The self-oriented human (manmukh), who is entangled with the self and the material world, and the god-oriented person (gurmukh), who follows the guru’s teaching and shuns the five principal vices (i.e., lust, anger, greed, attachment to the world, and pride) to live a life in humility, fearless of death. The gurmukhs are believed to purge the ego and master worldly desires to become immersed in a ceaseless and effortless remembrance and meditation on the divine—a chant without chanting (ajpā jāp)—for which their body and mind become merely instruments.37 The ultimate goal of this spiritual journey is mukti—liberation, release, and emancipation—when the infinite dimensions of the spiritual self realizes its belonging to a divine power. This realization is presented in terms of enlightenment or a mystical experience in which the formless divine speaks “the unspoken word” (anahad śabad)—the internalized word that cannot be reduced to discursive forms—and the person becomes a jivan mukt, one who has attained liberation while remaining alive in a corporeal state, and will end the cycle of rebirths after death, when the soul merges with the divine light (jotī joti samāuṇā).

  Looking at how local Sikhs explain and view the meaning of conducting religious practices that can be included in a broader definition of nām simran, however, surmounting life and death for a final liberation is not necessarily visualized as an attainable goal, nor is it considered the ultimate aim of their practices. On the contrary, many Sikhs will find mukti remote in the present dark and degenerating age (kaliyug), when only those who are exceptionally spiritually gifted have the chance to merge with God. Rather than ending the transmigratory process, many of my interlocutors have explained that their various devotional practices are a means of accumulating good karma for rewards in this and coming lives, which makes it possible to develop devotion. In Sikh discourses, devotion is often presented as both the means and the end in itself; to fully engage in various religious practices, with no other purpose but to praise the divine, is considered a sign of humbleness in compliance with the gurus’ teaching.

  This emphasis on devotion is also significant for understanding how local Sikhs recognize recitative practices as a form of meditation and meritorious worship acts. As the above description illustrates, individual and collective nām simran include different methods of repeatedly reciting the sacred formula vāhigurū, and as such appear as exterior and highly formalized activities. It would be possible to assert that contemporary Sikhs are engaging in the kind of ritualism and worship of sacred sound that the gurus so harshly criticized in their time. However, these external practices should ideally be anchored in two important conditions with transformative capacity: concentration of the mind (dhyān) and devotion to the divine from a true heart. The spiritual gains of any religious activity in the life of a Sikh are believed to depend upon the actor’s emotional and cognitive state in the moment of acting. A term often used in this context is bhāvnā, which designates both the devotional quality of a person’s intention and a feeling of “meaning to mean” something in the enactment of an action. It signifies a kind of sincerity that can be felt internally and acknowledged only by the individual devotee but has the power to saturate religious acts with certain qualities and thereby regulate the results. Recitation can be understood as a mechanical repetition of sound without meaning or merits if the performing person is devoid of this kind of sincerity. But if the same acts are carried out with full bhāvnā, they can leave a strong imprint on the human mind and affect the person’s karmic conditions.

  Related to this discussion is also the idea that enactments of nām simran should not be goal-oriented or driven by ulterior motives to procure spiritual or material ends, but “selfless” (nishkām) acts carried out without thought of reward. The disciple should take up a condition or an attitude according to which s/he virtually drains the human mind/heart from selfish purposes, even if there may very well be prior intentions that
motivated the practice in the first place. The underlying idea presupposes that desires are inherent in humans’ minds and hearts and hold them ensnared to the world. This is also explained as a reason why Gurū Nānak and his successors criticized yogis, ascetics, and others of their time, claiming that their desire for spiritual rewards would only amplify their egoism and worldly attachment. The person who cultivates devotion to the divine name, however, is believed to gradually transform and cleanse the mind/heart from all desires and to engage in devotion only for its own sake.

  This does not mean that Sikhs are not ascribing various effects to their practices. Quite the contrary, many lay Sikhs are pragmatically more inclined to speak about the inward and outward gains they expect from mental and recitative meditation on the divine name in particular contexts than to occupy themselves with exegetical and soteriological elaborations. For example, a Sikh man in his thirties recalled how he was continuously reciting vāhigurū when his pregnant wife was taken to the hospital in labor. For him a spontaneous nām simran was evoked and uttered for the protection of his wife and to relieve her from bodily pain. In a similar fashion, an elderly woman explained that people who are not performing nām simran with regularity are more liable to spirit possession and other types of afflictions, as they have not filled their interior with the divine name. Both of these interlocutors presumed that the recitative meditation of vāhigurū had causal power to affect the human body and mind in positive and tangible ways.

  The practice is also believed to have moral effects. Over and over again my informants coupled nām simran with the term sēvā, the selfless service to the guru, codevotees, and society at large, and described these two concepts as interdependent aspects of the Sikh life. Nām simran is believed to induce people to do righteous deeds, and should ideally underlie all acts in the Sikh life. Contemplating only for one’s own spiritual progress could lead to self-centeredness, which sēvā is capable of eliminating. Selfless acts to others performed in continuous remembrance of God, however, will be more beneficial to a doer. Spontaneous as well as more disciplined nām simran is believed to charge ordinary acts with spiritual properties and transform them into virtuous deeds. In fact, all ordinary acts, such as preparing food or cleaning, can become meritorious acts if coupled with remembrance and repetition of the divine name.

  From an analytical perspective it would be possible to argue that local interpretations of nām simran, like those described above, reveal the existence of a “performativist language” ideology, which values sacred words not only for their semantic properties but also for what they are capable of doing. A performativist language ideology views language as an effective means to present, constitute, and act upon the world, compared to a referentialist language ideology, which privileges semantic meanings.38 As the anthropologist Verne Dusenbery has suggested, the language ideology prevalent among the Sikhs is nondualistic, as it “recognizes the material as well as cognitive properties of language (especially articulated speech) and refuses to privilege semantico-referential meaning at the expense of other properties that language is thought to possess.”39 For Sikhs who are brought up with this ideology, sacred words are valued not only for their propositional meanings but also for their transformative power to affect the human mind and body in a positive way. When a sacred formula such as vāhigurū moves into performance and is uttered during a religious session it becomes a performative act that is believed to evoke powerful forces and a presence of the divine that have spiritual and material effects in the world. To verbally repeat and internally contemplate the name of God becomes a device to invoke and activate an agentive divine power believed to have the capacity to alter the inner mind and heart of humans, transform outer actions into virtuous deeds, and provide divine protection and support in real-life situations.40

  To summarize these ethnographic glimpses, one could say that, on a general level, nām simran has been given importance and status as a Sikh spiritual discipline that is comprised of various devotional practices, including mental and recitative meditation. The gurus’ teaching, enshrined in Gurū Granth Sāhib, as well as the normative code of conduct sanctioned by the Sikh community, remain the primary sources on which the Sikhs base and legitimize their devotional practices. But these normative texts are always open to interpretation, and the gaps that sometimes emerge between what is recorded and what is left out can become dynamic sites of negotiation and interpretation in a local community. The examples mentioned above illustrate that there is neither a single method by which local Sikhs perform nām simran nor a single meaning that they attached to the practice, even if authoritative voices within the community may claim something else. People ascribe to their practices a variety of motives, purposes, and functions that are evoked in situational and shifting contexts or are drawn from more conventional and socially shared ideas within the tradition. In the interplay between religious tradition and social context, the practice of nām simran is always being reconstructed and new meanings created.

  Notes

  1. The noun dhiān is commonly used for a mental process of reflection, remembrance, and concentration within the mind, and is translated as “meditation” or “contemplation,” while simrat similarly signifies recollection, remembrance, and meditation. Other words commonly used are tap or tapasiā, which connotes meditation, severe austerity practice, and devotion; jap, which is translated as meditation, devotion, or prayer; and bhagatī, which stands for meditation, devotion, worship, and religious observation. For literal translations, see Gill and Joshi, Punjabi English Dictionary, 115, 342, 417, 478, 634.

  2. The fieldwork in Varanasi was conducted between 1999 and 2001, with revisits in 2003 and 2005. The fieldwork experience on which this chapter is based also includes interviews and interactions with Sikhs at different locations in Punjab during fieldtrips in 2000, 2004, and from 2008 to 2011.

  3. The academic study of Sikhs in the English-speaking diaspora has been continously expanding, while research on Sikhs in Europe is an emerging field. For references, see, for example, Jacobsen and Myrvold, Sikhs in Europe; Jacobsen and Myrvold, Sikhs across Borders.

  4. See W. H. McLeod, Gurū Nānak; Schomer and McLeod, Sants.

  5. Apart from three initial compositions (Japjī Sāhib, Rehrās Sāhib, and Kirtan Sohilā) and a collection of poems at the end, the major portion of the scripture is arranged in thirty-one rāgas, different musical modes of both classical and regional kinds, by which the text is indexed. Individual poems are further subdivided into poetic meters and singing styles, such as Asthapadi, Vār, and Ghoṛīān, which assimilate both classical and folk styles of music. The scripture will even provide detailed musical digits and signs to instruct on the way in which each hymn should be performed.

  6. According to Sikh scholars, the word nām is mentioned 5,999 times in Gurū Granth Sāhib. See Joshi, Sikhism, 73–74.

  7. M. Singh, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, 2.

  8. Daljeet Singh, “Doctrine of Naam in Sikhism,” 27.

  9. See, for example, G. J. Singh, Understanding Naamsimran. The monthly magazine Sikh Review (www.sikhreview.org) frequently publishes articles by scholars and believers under a special section called “Naamology.”

  10. See, for example, Daljeet Singh, “Doctrine of Naam in Sikhism”; Dewan Singh, “Guru Nanak”; G. Singh, NaamSimran Bhakti in Sikhism; W. H. McLeod, Gurū Nānak; W. H. McLeod, Sikhs and Sikhism; Sethi, “Mystical Consciousness in Sikhism”; Sethi, “Ethical and Spiritual Aspects”; N. Singh, Philosophy of Sikhism.

  11. H. McLeod, Sikhism, 98.

  12. See, for example, the list of Hindu and Muslim names of God in Rahi, Sri Guru Granth Sahib Discovered, 5–7.

  13. For example, the tenth chapter of Purātan Janam-sākhī tells about Nānak’s mystical experience. See B. V. Singh, Purātan Janam Sākhī, 40–43; and the analysis in N. G. K. Singh, “Myth of the Founder.”

  14. For practices in the Sant tradition, see Vaudeville, “Sant Mat,” 32.

  15.
W. H. McLeod, Gurū Nānak, 216. In modern English translations of Gurū Granth Sāhib, such as those available on the Internet (e.g., www.srigranth.org), jap is frequently translated as “meditation.”

  16. Shackle and Mandair, Teachings of the Sikh Gurus, xxxiii.

  17. These “realms” are Dharam khaṇḍ, Giān khaṇḍ, Saram khaṇḍ, Karam khaṇḍ, and Sach khaṇḍ. For one interpretation of the realms, see, for example, W. H. McLeod, Gurū Nānak, 221–226.

  18. See, for example, N. Singh, Philosophy of Sikhism, 175–193. It has been alleged that nām simran finds parallels in a combination of Sufi meditation (muraqaba) and its practice of remembering and invoking God (dhikr), and that Gurū Nānak’s model of spiritual development through five “realms” corresponds to the Sufi thought of different stages (maqāms) on the journey of ascension. Because of these and other conceptual overlaps, scholars have suggested that Nānak was to a lesser or greater extent influenced by Sufi traditions. This influence, however, has been characterized as a “thematic correspondence” that was indirect and was communicated to Nānak through the broader North Indian Sant tradition, partly because Sufi references and terms are absent from the guru’s writings, in contrast to the rich imaginary and language derived from various Hindu sources and traditions. For conflicting views, see Lawrence, “Sant Movement and North Indian Sufis”; and W. H. McLeod, Gurū Nānak.

  19. H. McLeod, Sikhism, 13.

  20. The landscape of Punjab is today dotted with sacred places that are believed to mark the sites where the Sikh gurus undertook secluded meditation for periods. See, for example, Myrvold, Inside the Guru’s Gate; Myrvold, “I guruns fotspår.” The janam-sākhīs include several references to more ritualized recitals of divine names and mantras and meditative practices in other religious traditions. See, for example, W. H. McLeod, Early Sikh Tradition. The B40 janam-sākhī, for instance, includes an apocryphal hymn in which Gurū Nānak recommends that a Muslim disciple meditate on God while keeping Lady Fatimah Zahra, Hussain, and Hassan in the heart. According to Francisco Jose Luis, this is “a reference to meditation techniques in the Shi’a mystical tradition,” involving “the visualisation of either the Infallibles or their names, often in a mandala-like structure” (Luis, “Khanda and the Dhulfiqar,” 156).