Indian Classical Music And Sikh Kirtan by Gobind Singh Mansukhani (M.A., LL.B, Ph.D.) © 1982 Guru Ramdas(1534-81) |
| Guru Ramdas(1534-81) Guru Ramdas was a great singer and musicologist. He wrote 835 hymns in thirty ragas. The previous Gurus had composed in nineteen ragas. He added eleven ragas: Devgandhari, Bihagara, Jaisri, Todi, Bairavi, Gond, Nut-Narayan, Maligaura, Kedara, kanra and Kalyan. He also tried new forms of poetry and rendered them in appropriate melodies and rhythms. Guru Ramdas was a great lover of kirtan . Once when the musicians did not turn up at the appointed hour, he sent a special messenger to call them. In the meantime, he felt restless for sacred music and composed the following hymn at that moment: “Within my mind such a devotion has been produced, Within God I cannot live even for moment as fish dies without water. When will some one muster five or seven singers ? When will some one begin the tune of song ? In collecting and matching musicians, some moments will elapse. In the meantime, my mind must sing the Lord’s praise” [26]. Guru Ramdas was critical of a casual or indifferent attitude to kirtan. He regarded true devotion and practice of the Guru’s instructions as the criteria of the sacred music acceptable to God: “All the Sikhs and servants come to worship the Lord and all of them sing the sublime Gurbani. But God approves the singing and hearing of these who follow the Guru’s commandments and regard them as perfect” [27]. Undoubtedly, the blessed ones perform kirtan, but salvation comes through God’s grace rather than man’s efforts. “The Nectar-word of the true Guru-the quintessence-comes to abide in man’s mind by the Guru’s Grace. Through it the heart lotus blossoms and his light blends with the supreme Light” [28]. Guru Ramdas’s popular compositions are the Chhants in Asa raga and Lavan in Suhi raga. The six Chhants [29] consisting of twenty-four stanzas of four lines each were subsequently made a part of the Asa-di-var by the fifth Guru. In these hymns, the Guru describes his plight and longing for Divinity, as his eyes sparkle with the elixir of the Lord and his body is bathed in musk. The Guru symbolically presents a picture of the disciples’s progress in this composition [30]. There are five stages in the soul’s march to Divinity. Firstly, the devotee feels the pang of separation from the Lord. He therefore seeks to remove the cause thereof, namely his ego. Secondly, the Sikh prays for the Guru’s blessing through the recital of Gurbani and the performance of the kirtan. Thereby he gets both divine knowledge and feeling of peace. Thirdly, he realises the value of the Holy Name through meditation. Fourthly, he feels a sense of nearness to God and experiences a thrill of joy. Finally, he is accepted in God’s Court and as such escaped the cycle of birth and death. The Lavan [31]-the wedding song-which is a part of the Anand-karaj(Sikh marriage) consists of four verses representing the four perambulations or stages on the spiritual journey of the bride and bridegroom: the performance of secular duties; elimination of the ego; detachment from materialism and cultivation of divine love; and the achievement of equipoise and bliss. Guru Ramdas emphasises Nam-simaran-the remembrance of God and His glory. He says: “Read of God, write of God, repeat God’s name and sing God’s praise. And the Lord shall ferry you across the terrible ocean of the world” [32]. He regards kirtan as the means of salvation. He writes: “When you sing the Gurbani, divine music is heard again and again. The generous Lord has given us the gift: through it the human soul merges in the Supreme Light” [33]. Guru Ramdas seeks the Lord’s elixir. In words full of alliterative magic, he writes: “With their tongues the saints sing God’s praise-the nectar of nectars, and on their tongue, they place God’s elixir. Nanak asks for nothing but God. The love of the Lord’s nectar alone is dear on him” [34]. Guru Ramdas showed great talent in lin king his hymns to the appropriate raga and the theme composition. For example pahray is form poetry suited to a mood of despondency. The Guru selected Sri raga for its musical rendering. Similarly Suhi raga is suited to the season of joy and as such was chosen for the singing of Lavan (wedding song). The Guru conveys his feeling of joy and peace in beautiful imagery thus: “My body-bed has become cosy with Guru’s instruction and I enjoy the quintessence of divine knowledge.... Night and day, I never enjoy peace and pleasure. Such is the writ of the Lord for me” [35]. Apart from classical ragas, Guru Ramdas composed his eight vars in folk music and indicated the traditional tunes-dhunis-for three of them.* In his vars, he made experimentation with the matras (metrical units) in order to avoid the monotony of the same number of units in each line. He changed the number of matras to give freshness and rhythmic richness to his poems. |