Khasam Ki Bani - Singing Guru Nanak #GuruNanak550

As long as I sing, I live. As soon as I forget, I die

- Guru Nanak, Raag Asa

On the occasion of Guru Nanak's 550th birth anniversary celebrations, I decide to spend a year meditating upon the words and music of Guru Nanak.  I commence excitedly, focusing on the light that is brighter than one hundred moons and one thousand suns combined.  This is the light of Guru Nanak’s prayer, the universal Aarti with the stars studded in the sky’s platter. 

I decide to sing Guru Nanak completely this year. The initial plan is to record 55 new compositions.  I think this to be momentous because normally I can only do 10-12 compositions in a year. This is also momentous because I will sing shabads that are rarely heard and expound raagas rarely explored. But mostly it is momentous because I will live with the sweet words of the Guru and have them recorded for myself to hear for the rest of my life.

 

I start out with a live recording of an album. I invite 5 musicians to my home to record an improvisation album of the Mool Mantra.  And then I move on to Guru Nanak's shabads, from Rang Rataa to Haun Dhadi and so on. Indeed, like universal power he sings for, his songs are multicolored.  They are filled with humility and love, courage and fortitude, truth and bliss. Satnam!

Days go by, weeks and then months. I am enjoying this a lot compared to previous years. Instead of meandering through the various colors of the oneness randomly. Through singing Guru Nanak, I am focused on singing One, singing Ek Onkaar, singing Naam. 

Within a few months, I realize things are going really well, and music is descending upon me faster than it ever has. I am loving it, and I don’t want to count where I am to see if I am done with 55. That would be very sad. I don’t want it to end. So, I remove the numbered list on my laptop. I stop counting my compositions. Singing Guru Nanak cannot be caged in limits. Akaal!

Now with about a month left for Guru Nanak’s 550th anniversary, I have far exceeded my original number of compositions. But I feel like I have not even the scratched the surface of the Guru's ocean. I have not even begun the sing Guru Nanak. 

His message is precipitating upon me. Singing is his life and singing is his lesson. Different shabads and raags are amalgamating into one. The simplicity of his message is amazingly elegant. Remember Naam sings Baba Nanak. That is his only message. Just that one. One! No other ritual is needed, no higher prayer, no sweeter song, no farther travel, no purer cleansing, no quieter silence, and no fuller symphony.

Remember Naam is the incessant song weaved through all Remember Your True Essence he chants in all his words. In all kinds of darkness, the best answer is to sing the true essence. And no one is bereft of this true essence. At the Guru’s gate everyone is singing. Everything is singing.  The wind singing in its blowing. The water sings in its flowing. The fire sings in its burning. The planets sing in their revolving. I sing too, or do I? 

Now this singing continues and promises never to end. I used to think I sing, but with the Guru’s grace the singing just happens to me.  While I think I am singing Guru Nanak, it is actually Guru Nanak singing. Aakhan Jor Chupai Na Jor. Living that is momentous.