Doing Santhiya with Bhai Jagtar Singh was beyond words. It was more of Gurbani Vichaar. In order to place correct Bishraams or required Bindis for nasal sounds, one has to understand Gurbani Pankiti. Many times we used to do Gurbani Vichaar for hours at stretch. We used to apply all principles of Viyakaran and Gurmat Sidhaant to arrive at a conclusion and even then we used to know that Gurbani is much more than what we understood.


(Memorable times after (or before) doing Santhiya)

Starting of Gurbani Santhiya

I had been doing Gurbani Vichaar on my own ever since Guru Sahib blessed me with Gursikhi. From time to time I have had Vichaars with many Gursikhs but the kind of depth that occurred while discussing with Bhai Sahib, did not occur anywhere else.

Even though I had been doing Sangat with Bhai Sahib from early 1990s but I started doing Gurbani Vichaar with him only in the late 1990s. Previously, I tried doing Vichaar with him but he did not encourage it. At one time around 1992-93, I asked his opinion on a very simple Pankiti from Siri Jap jee Sahib but he said that he had no idea what the Pankiti meant. I knew this was not the case. He for sure knew that the Pankiti meant but he kept mute. There could be three reasons for his mute response: either he did not believe in doing Arth of Gurbani or he did not want to discuss it with me or he was in a different state of mind and did not want to discuss at that given time. I believe the reasons were most probably the last 2. After this incident, we never discussed Gurbani Pankitis until the end of 1990s.

Bhai Sahib and some other Singhs planned to do Santhiya at Weston Gurdwara Sahib. I too was invited to the Santhiya by Bhai Sahib but since I had done Siri Jap jee Sahib Santhiya quite a few times, I did not go to the Santhiya the first day. I got a call from Bhai Sahib but I was away from the phone. Bhai Sahib left a message in my voicemail (I think I have this voicemail of Bhai Sahib). The message was from Bhai Sahib and gave me a Hukam on behalf of all Singhs that I was to come to Gurdwara Sahib before noon and leave after Matha-tek, if no Singh is present at that time. I heard the message and obeyed the Hukam.

Bhai Sahib and Singhs come to our home at Amritvela

After the aforementioned incident, I think I went for one weekend and then next week, again I did not go but this time, to my utter surprise, Bhai Sahib and all Singhs came to our house. It was about 5-6am. In those days, our Amritvela used to slip sometimes but thanks Heavens that we had gotten up at Amritvela and were getting ready to go back to sleep. I felt really guilty that Singhs themselves had to travel 40 minutes because I had not shown up at Santhiya. After that day I vowed that Singhs would never have to do this again i.e. I would go to the Santhiya program.

After this incident, our regular Santhiya started which first involved studying Gurbani Viyakaran in detail. Bhai Sahib and I got really close to each other because of hours long Gurbani Vichaar that used to happen every day at work and home, via phone. With discovery and understanding of different Viyakaran rules, we used to go Vismaad. Gurbani is just so beautiful and is like sugar. No matter how and where you place sugar in your mouth, it tastes sweet and good. Same way, no matter how, where, and when you do Gurbani Vichaar, it gives immense Anand and divine wisdom. I am eternally indebted for having done such profound Gurbani Vichaar with Bhai Sahib and together we learned so much Gurbani Gyaan.

One of our most memorable Gurbani Vichaar involved doing Vichaar on Baavan Akhri of Bhagat Kabir jee. Even though this Baani is not very long but it is one of the most complicated and difficult-to-understand Baani. We used to spend anywhere from 1 to 2 hours a day to do in-depth Vichaar on each Pauri of this Baani. I never quite imagined that this Baani was filled with so many spiritual jewels but these jewels are not found when reading shallow translations. One has to himself delve into the ocean of Gurbani to find these spiritual pearls, jewels and diamonds.

Earlier in 2000 or 1999, at the personal request of this Daas, we did separate-from-regular Santhiya of Baavan Akhri, Sidh Goshth and Oankaar Baanis alone. A great deal of in-depth Vichaar was done while studying these Baanis. Those are such memorable days that cannot be erased from the memory at any cost.

Today I don't have anyone with whom I can have in-depth Gurbani Vichaar. Bhai Sahib had the required Gurbani Viyakaran and Gurmat Sidhaant wisdom for interpreting Gurbani. The world seems dark to me as far as scholars with Gurbani Gyaan are concerned. The scholars who have knowledge of Gurbani Viyakaran don't possess the Gurmukhi jeevan and Sidhaant and the ones who have Gurmukhi jeevan and Sidhaant don't have the Gurbani Viyakaran knowledge. Bhai Jagtar Singh jee was a rare jewel who was not only proficient in Gurbani Viyakaran, vocabulary and Gyaan but also had a very lofty Gurmukhi jeevan. Where are we going to find such jewel now...?

The disovery of the following Gurbani Uchaaran law was discovered after in-depth discussions between Bhai Sahib and this Daas:

[gurmatbibek.com]

There is a whole story behind how this rule was discovered. Will post at a later date.

More on Santhiya Vichaars we discussed at a later date.

Daas,
Kulbir Singh