Gurmat Sangīt

The relationship of music and religion has always remained ambiguous. Sikhī stands as the only major world religion that embraces music and assigns it a spiritual significance by fusing it with the Sabad, the Infinite Wisdom. Gurmat Sangīt means music (instrumental and vocal) derived from the Gurū’s wisdom. Gurmat Sangīt has always been an integral part of divinity in Sikhī. As Gurū Nānak Sāhib prepared for his arduous journeys, Udāsīs, in Eastern Europe, Middle East, and South Asia in 1507, he made the decision to travel with a companion, Bābā Mardānā, a musician. Thus precedence was set regarding the relationship of music and the message of Sikhī, the faith based on the divine experience of the Ten Nānaks (1469-1708). Music was the element that captured the people’s thoughts and feelings and enabled them to experience spirituality while living their lives as householders.

Kīrtan as it became known was different from ‘classical music’ as it was neither a solo performance nor a form of art exclusive for the elitists. Kīrtan was for the people. Music breathed a fresh air. It was no longer disreputable or exclusive. The Sabad gave the music life, and in turn, the music provided a rhythm – the people embraced the message of the Gurūs as kīrtan became a part of their daily spiritual nurturing.

Gurū Arjan Sāhib, the Fifth Nānak, is credited with compiling the Gurū Granth Sāhib, the scriptural canon of the Sikhs. He chose to assemble all the sabads, the hymns of the realized beings regardless of their religious persuasion, not by theme or contributor but by the rāga that is assigned to each sabad. It was Gurū Arjan Sāhib’s insight of music that set the frame work of Gurmat Sangīt and the thoughtfulness of the compilation of the Gurū Granth Sāhib bears witness to this fact. Gurū Arjan Sāhib formally announced to his congregation that kīrtan was not a privilege of a few but it was the birth right of every Sikh to sing kīrtan. Rather than a system for performance, he affirmed it as a reflective form for Remembrance of the All-Pervading that was essential for human freedom – spiritual, mental, and physical.

For the Sikhs, music is not just a form of art; it is enveloped with the Sabad. Music combined with the Sabad simply known as Kīrtan, has taken center stage in Sikh religious practice and is an important vehicle for their spiritual development. Kīrtan connects us to the Divine. The Sabad component of kīrtan is the imperishable, divine experience of the Gurūs and the saints. The development of kīrtan and Gurmat Sangīt is apparent from the First to the Tenth Nānak but what remains unchanged is its essence, an essence that lies in the understanding and feeling of the message.