“A small error in pronunciation of Gurbani couplets can completely change the meaning. So one needs to be very careful, as your words are followed by all those who come to the gurdwaras,” says the speaker.
He gives an example to drive the point home.
“The Guru Granth Sahib says Karate ki mit Karata Janai, kai janai gur sura (only the creator himself knows his own extent. He alone knows the brave guru.” Instead of kai janai gur sura, he says, “at times granthis recite ‘ki janai gur sura’ and it changes the meaning altogether. One needs to give the right values to the followers of Guru Granth Sahib.”
The speaker is Jagdev Singh, head pracharak of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee’s Dharam Pracharak Committee, and the men and women in the audience are granthis and gurdwara management members from across Punjab.
They are attending a five-day session at this gurdwara, 40 km from Ludhiana, called Gurmat Vichar Training Camp, mainly a pronunciation correction class to ensure that they don’t mangle the Guru’s message by missing a matra here or there.
The camp is also a refresher course for the granthis in Sikh maryada. In these lectures, the pracharaks reinforce the message that while all religions are equal, Sikhs must believe only in the Guru Granth Sahib.
“We should not bow before any self-styled gurus as the trend of deras is also catching up fast among Sikhs,” said Manjeet Singh, stressing that to follow Sikh maryada, one needs to be an Amritdhari Sikh first.
“In many deras or gurdwaras, people bow before self-styled saints and hence are forgetting the values of Sikh Maryada. So over all to bring back the masses to basics, we have introduced such camps and are hopeful of good changes in future.”
Daily, the granthis attend two 90-minute classes each.
“We are telling them in detail as to how a Matraa can change the meaning of gurbani couplet, “ Jagdev Singh said.
For now, the focus is mainly on the pronunciation of the Gurbani in gurdwaras, he said, and not about the errors in Gurbani couplets exchanged over social media.
“SGPC will discuss this matter as well, because social media is getting stronger day by day and hence the errors in this section also need to be checked,” he said. Curious devotees stop by the hall and some even stepped in for 2-3 minutes to listen to Jagdev Singh’s lecture.
The pracharak says that though the minimum qualification of class 12 and knowledge of gurbani is required to become a granthi, “it is not mandatory that granthis should also do a course as well. Perhaps this is the reason that they are facing problem in reciting gurbani and we are here to correct them.”
The pronunciation camps began in 2012. So far over 300 camps have been organised in different gurdwaras of Punjab and other parts of India and even abroad. This year, however, 40 such camps have been organised, Jagdev Singh said.
The SGPC also has a three-year course for granthis at Amritsar, but it is optional.
The camp organisers, Harpreet Singh and Manjeet Singh Burj, said participants get certificates and books on Sikh history at the end of the camp, which is free.
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