![]() ![]() The Mul Mantra is the revelatory statement given by Guru Nanak, the first Sikh Guru, that begins Japji. Los Angeles, CA: Sikh Dharma, 64).Ĭlassical Gurbani Kirtan is also being taught to the next-generation 3HO Sikhs growing up in Amritsar at MPA boarding school who have bifurcated influences of Westernized and Punjabi cultural prescriptions. In The caliber of woman: Women in training XVII 1992 lectures, July 5, 1992, 64. That's kirtan’ (Bhajan 1994 Bhajan, Yogi. All actions which your total identity performs should have a harmony. Yogi Bhajan defines kirtan from a different embodied perspective, possibly explaining his use of Celestial Communication within kirtan. This definition of ‘kirtan’ was taught to me by Bhai Baldeep Singh, 13th-generation exponent of the Gurbani Kirtan tradition, who explains that the activity of kirtan encolors the self with the Divine for a non-dual presence of being. This combination of languages is referred to as Gurbani, written in the Gurmukhi script. The Gurbani hymns enshrined in the Sikh scripture as Guru (Guru Granth Sahib) are composed in a variety of languages and dialects mostly from North India, used by the authors of Gurbani to speak to the common man in local vernaculars. 3HO Kirtan incorporates the chanting of mantras from various traditions, the singing of traditional Gurbani Kirtan both in its original languages and in translations, and various musical styles, along with personal compositions that may or may not incorporate Gurbani mantras. ![]() I refer to the music sung by the 3HO and 3HO Sikh communities as ‘3HO Kirtan’ due to the music's devotional and uplifting intent rather than its entertainment focus. The majority are considered Keshdhari Sikhs who have kept their hair, while many are orthodox Khalsa Amritdhari Sikhs who maintain their hair, have taken amrit, and uphold the Rehat Maryada (Codes of Conduct). This nomenclature includes people who are Sikhs through self-initiation, birth, or amrit (baptism), though may prescribe to Sikh orthopraxy to varying degrees. Sikh members of the heterogeneous 3HO/Sikh Dharma community are referred to as ‘3HO Sikhs’ due to their practicing Kundalini Yoga and the Healthy, Happy, Holy lifestyle as taught by Yogi Bhajan. Does traditional Gurbani Kirtan pedagogy limit the scope of 3HO Kirtan or create an openness toward innovative practices? By ethnographically exploring the multiple musical voices of 3HO Kirtan, we can clarify the intentionality of musical innovation, embodied movement, and the use of traditional pedagogy to point us toward future possibilities and the ‘kirtaan generation’. How does 3HO Kirtan negotiate its increasing commercial popularity while maintaining its devotional intentionality with links to Gurbani Kirtan and the Sikh self? While there is a trend toward innovation, there are now a growing number of 3HO Sikh musicians who study classically traditional forms of Gurbani Kirtan. Today, New-Age spirituality markets ‘kirtaan’ music through yoga studios, concerts, and kirtan festivals. Through deconstructing the nature of Gurbani itself, this article questions whether embodied practices of the 3HO Sikh community are indeed proscribed acts or if they can be understood as entraining the spiritual intentionality necessary to sing and thus embody the Bani as Guru. Thus, normative Sikh ideology views 3HO Kirtan as transgressive when Gurbani is sung in various musical styles, in translation, and when incorporated with Celestial Communication movement within Gurdwaras (Sikh temples) as well as Kundalini Yoga and dancing at 3HO Kirtan concerts. 3HO Kirtan also includes the singing of Sikh devotional hymns ( Gurbani Kirtan) which maintain specific performative parameters. This article examines 3HO Kirtan (devotional music of the international Kundalini Yoga Sikh community aka Healthy Happy Holy Organization) whose innovative musical styles and practices reconstruct and deconstruct particular notions of 3HO Sikh identity and orthopraxy. ![]()
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