GurmanSingh Wrote:
> Personally, from my shallow understanding of Sikhi
> is that Gurbani is there to build our character
> and give us the inspiration to jaap naam. Thus you
> become what you repeat, by repeating bani over and
> over, it kills all our vikars, and other faults
> and builds the humble, peaceful, loving etc.
> spirit that we need for bhagti. Thus repeating a
> pankti on krodh will make one less angry, same for
> kaam, krodh, moh etc. Repeating a pankti on naam,
> will automatically give one more inspiration too
> jap naam and make it easier for them to do so. Now
> coming back to "becoming what you repeat" (this
> is the best phrase i can use to describe this) our
> ultimate goal is to merge with Vahiguroo. By
> repeating gurmantir, we eventually become one with
> Akal purakh.
>
> There is a positive from this western way of
> thinking of "staying in the moment," that we tend
> to forget. Many times we read bani without paying
> any attention to what we're reading. This too has
> incomprehensible positive effects, but the
> ultimate goal is to have 100% focus on the Shabad,
> which many of us at times forget(all the time for
> me).
Thank you for your post, you're right. I was thinking of some practices, such as when my cousins went for a yoga class they told me how the instructor played a tape with I believe "Ik onkar Satnam" and the class repeated it to help with their breathing during the excersize. While this seemed to me reminiscent of the practice of people who repeat their mantirs and naams for the aim of heightened spiritual experiences (or simply as ritual), you are right that gurbani can be nothing but good for us. Even if individuals repeat gurbani for an aim that is not the one True aim, they will still derive benefit for it.
As for the repetition of gurmantir, however, as we know simply repeating "Waheguru" is not the same as japping naam. Even the repetition of "Waheguru" is often used for yogic purposes. Without naam drirh, can this action be considered much different than the rituals of those who repeat their different naams?