BhagatSingh

It's all about devotion to one deity. The mind is more collected and peaceful.  Unfortunately hindus cannot decide which one to pick. Divided attention means less shardha.
Har ek simar ek simar ek simar peyare har ek simar.
Whether through Jesus or through the Gurus. . God is one...
Sikhi does tell us to consider the the gurus as one..  its up to us to delve deeper into our own religion and find out the correct way to pray and also correct our mental thoughts. 
Religion is also more about community which I think appeals more to people.  Hindus and sikhs lead more isolated lives whilst the Christians seen to be more supportive of each other.  This would easily influence a lonely person to join.  
Sikhi is all about meditation. . Which is more easily achieved by working solo as most of us do.  The Internet provides the mental support from colleagues with similar aims to ours.
It's all about where your personal motivation and support can be obtained from.  No religion is right or wrong its all about what our individual requirements are. 
 
 

It's not that sharing makes you spiritually "dumber", it's that when you share the other person might start to develop an expectation of that same experience.
The key is not to expect what the other person experienced in your own journey, rather trust God and remember he has a unique experience that is only for you, unique to your journey.

It took a few years but I have finally figured out how to read Guru Granth Sahib correctly. While I am still in the process of learning and refining my pronunciations and developing a better flow, I have got the basics down.
 
One of the things we are taught is that you don't pronounce Sihari ( ਿ  ) and Aunkar (   ੁ ) at the end of a word. 
This is wrong.
I used to think that sometimes you pronounce the sihari, sometimes you don't that is wrong as well.
You always pronounce the Sihari.
Aunkar are sometimes pronounced and sometimes not. But in this thread, we'll only be covering words that end in Sihari.
 
Sihari ( ਿ  ) as Short I
Siharis are always pronounced but how they are pronounced depends on the word.
Sihari is sometimes pronounced as Short I sound.
 
For example, in the following words, Sihari makes a short I sound -
ਹਰਿ
Pronouced as Hari
Means God, one who steals suffering.
Example tuk -
ਹਰਿ ਜਨ ਬੋਲਤ ਸ੍ਰੀ ਰਾਮ ਨਾਮਾ ਮਿਲਿ ਸਾਧ ਸੰਗਤਿ ਹਰਿ ਤੋਰ ॥
Hari jan bolat Shri Ram nama mile sadh sangati Hari tor .
Notice that we pronounce the Siharis on Hari, Mile and Sangati. However the Sihari on Mile is different from Hari and Sangati. More on this later.
ਨਿਧਿ ਸਿਧਿ ਰਿਧਿ ਹਰਿ ਹਰਿ ਹਰਿ ਮੇਰੈ ॥
Nidhi Siddhi Riddhi Hari Hari Hari merai .
 
 
Let's do a few more examples.
 
ਪੁਰਿ
pronounced as Puri (meaning City)
Example Tuk -
ਬਿਨੁ ਨਾਵੈ ਠਉਰੁ ਨ ਪਾਇਨੀ ਜਮਪੁਰਿ ਦੂਖ ਸਹਾਹਿ ॥
Bin navai tthaur n payenee Yampuri (/jampuri) dookh sahae .
Notice how we don't pronouce the Aunkars on bin and tthaur.
 
ਮੂਰਤਿ
Pronounced as Moorti (meaning form).
Example Tuk -
ਸਹਸ ਤਵ ਨੈਨ ਨਨ ਨੈਨ ਹਹਿ ਤੋਹਿ ਕਉ ਸਹਸ ਮੂਰਤਿ ਨਨਾ ਏਕ ਤੋੁਹੀ ॥
Sehas tav nain nan nain hai tohe kou sehas Moorti nana ek tohee
 
ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ
Pronounced as Prashadi
Prashad means Grace.
Prashadi means through the given grace.
Prashadi also means - One who gives grace.
Example, Mool mantra -
ਗੁਰ ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ
Gur prashadi
He is the Teacher, the One who gives grace.
 
Let's do an example from the Prayer known as "Ardas".
This is a good example of a hymn where all of the words that end in Sihari are pronounced as Short I sound.
ਤੂ ਠਾਕੁਰੁ ਤੁਮ ਪਹਿ ਅਰਦਾਸਿ ॥
Toon Thakur tum peh Ardashi.
ਜੀਉ ਪਿੰਡੁ ਸਭੁ ਤੇਰੀ ਰਾਸਿ ॥
Jeeu pind sabh teree Rashi.
Ardashi means small Arzdasht, a small request. Rashi means property.
 
ਤੁਮ ਮਾਤ ਪਿਤਾ ਹਮ ਬਾਰਿਕ ਤੇਰੇ ॥
Tum Maat Pita hum barik tere.
ਤੁਮਰੀ ਕ੍ਰਿਪਾ ਮਹਿ ਸੂਖ ਘਨੇਰੇ ॥
Tumri kripa meh sookh ghanere.
ਕੋਇ ਨ ਜਾਨੈ ਤੁਮਰਾ ਅੰਤੁ ॥
Koe na jaanai tumra ant
ਊਚੇ ਤੇ ਊਚਾ ਭਗਵੰਤ ॥
Uche te oocha Bhagwant
 
So far so good, next up -
ਸਗਲ ਸਮਗ੍ਰੀ ਤੁਮਰੈ ਸੂਤ੍ਰਿ ਧਾਰੀ ॥
Sagal samagree tumrai Sutri dharee.
Sutr means "thread". Sutri is a combination of Sutr vich, meaning "in the thread". More on this later.
 
ਤੁਮ ਤੇ ਹੋਇ ਸੁ ਆਗਿਆਕਾਰੀ ॥
Tum te hoye su agyakaree.
ਤੁਮਰੀ ਗਤਿ ਮਿਤਿ ਤੁਮ ਹੀ ਜਾਨੀ ॥
Tumree Gati Miti tum hee jaanee.
ਨਾਨਕ ਦਾਸ ਸਦਾ ਕੁਰਬਾਨੀ ॥੮॥੪॥
Nanak das sada kurbani.
Gati means state of being and Miti means value.

Sihari ( ਿ  ) as Short Ya
Siharis are always pronounced even if they are at the end of a word.
Sometimes they are pronounced as Short Ya.
In Guru Granth Sahib, Guru ji has indicated words that end in -ye (which is a short -ya sound) with a Sihari.
Words like -
ਸਤਿ
Pronounced as Satye, meaning Truth
ਸਤਿ ਨਾਮੁ ਤੇਰਾ ਪਰਾ ਪੂਰਬਲਾ ॥
Satye naam tera para poorbla.
 
ਸਲਿ
Pronounced as Shalye, meaning wound.
ਦਾਧੀਲੇ ਲੰਕਾ ਗੜੁ ਉਪਾੜੀਲੇ ਰਾਵਣ ਬਣੁ ਸਲਿ ਬਿਸਲਿ ਆਣਿ ਤੋਖੀਲੇ ਹਰੀ ॥
Dadheele Lanka gardh upardeele Ravan van Shalye Veshalye (/Beshalye) aani tokheele Haree.
 
Sihari ( ਿ  ) as Short E
Some words have a Sihari at the end of the word to begin with such as Hari, Puri, Murti, Ardashi, Rashi, Gati, Miti.
The Sihari is part of the Word. It is pronounced as Short I.
 
Other words have a Sihari to indicate the -ye sound. These are words like Satye and Shalye.
The Sihari is part of the Word. It is pronounced as Short Ya.
 
But then there are those words where Sihari is added to a preexisting noun.
You may pronounce these words with Short I or Short E depending on preference.
 
ਭਗਤਿ
Pronounced as Bhagti, or as Bhagte.
Bhagti -  a sihari is added to Bhagt to mean "related to Bhagt".
Bhagt means Devotee and Bhagti means - related to devotee.
Bhagti means Devotional process - Meditation.
 
Example Tuk -
ਤੇਰੀ ਭਗਤਿ ਤੇਰੀ ਭਗਤਿ ਭੰਡਾਰ ਜੀ ਭਰੇ ਬਿਅੰਤ ਬੇਅੰਤਾ ॥
Teri bhagti teri bhagti bhandar ji bhare beant beanta.
 
Bhagte means Devotee's, belonging to Devotee.
ਭਗਤਿ ਵਛਲੁ ਹਰਿ ਮਨਿ ਵਸਿਆ ਸਹਜਿ ਮਿਲਿਆ ਪ੍ਰਭੁ ਸੋਇ ॥  
Bhagte vatsal Hari mane vaseya seheje milya prabhu soe
Here ਭਗਤਿ is short of ਭਗਤ ਦੇ .
 
Seheje  -> Sehej means patience. Seheje means through patience.
Mane -> Man means mind. Mane means in the mind.
Pronounced as Bhagte, Mane, and Seheje respectively.
 
You will see this a lot. Noun with sihari ending, means "related to the noun".
Such as -
ਘਰਿ
Pronounced as Ghari. Also pronounced as Ghare.
Ghar - house. Ghari / Ghare - in the house.
We commonly say - Sadde ghare ao.
So a lot of these words ending in sihari are commonly pronounced as Short I or Short E. We should pronounce them like that when reading Guru Granth Sahib.
 
Part 2
 
 

Today as I walked on the footpath it felt as if I was everyone and everyone was me it felt as if we were one. It was a really cool experience.  

Koi it's not hard to read Hindi script once you get the hang of it and the words are very similar to Punjabi and Gurmukhi. So meaning can be understood without much effort.
On that note, Sanskrit can be easy to learn for someone who is familiar with Punjabi and Gurmukhi since a lot of words in Punjabi and Gurmukhi come from Sanskrit.
By Gurmukhi I mean the language of Gurus in Guru Granth Sahib.

Veer take a look a look at this link i found. Hopefully this is the right one.
 
http://cincinnatitemple.com/articles/Sri-Ram-Charit-Manas-Hindi-Text-Eng-Translation.pdf

Paapiman mentioned that as well.
In terms of our evolution, the colour red is linked with ripe fruit.
Our colour vision evolved to distinguish between red and other colours so that we could pick out the ripe fruit among all the available fruits.
 

I find this painting of Ranjit Singh's court very interesting! The turbans, ear-rings, jewelry, the colours, the clothes, carpets and walls!
It's so good!

Dudes carrying shastars in a meeting. Can you imagine doing that in an office meeting lol. Walk in with a big bandook! Place it on the table.
The puratan dumalla that our Guru Sahibs wore is pretty much extinct by this time. There is only one guy wearing this style from the 1600s.
There is are three guys wearing a turban style from the 1700s, which is similar to the puratan dumalla.
Most people are wearing a different turban style that we call patiala shahi turban today. There are also other 1800s turban styles like the one the Maharaja Ranjit Singh is wearing. and the kalgi is being placed in the front of the turban.
The nihang dastaar has become a boonga by this time, tall with chakkars stacked. This turban is never seen painted before the 1800s.
Everyone is wearing a mix of colours. Only the Nihang is fully dressed in blue.

Gurfateh and welcome to the forum. Please see www.srigranth.org an excellant website

from "the ringing sound" thread....
 
Posted just now  
Gurfateh gsm ji,   
I'm glad that you have found some answers and help on here. As always, I try to make it clear that any deeper techniques and advice I give, is mostly down to my own experience and how I personally relate it to gurbani. Some of the things that i mention have been confirmed with high avastha gurmukhs, and i usually refer to this where relevant.
Based on what you stated, and from what I understand, ...it sounds like good progress.  Seems that you have a good amount of bhagti energy which has developed within you.  (hence, the bursts of pulsations)   I think it would be a good idea for you to focus on rom rom technique along with doing long breath saas saas.   I'm not sure if you've already tried this but it appears that rom rom is trying to manifest..  The technique i stated in the meditation thread is the one that I tried and worked. There are other versions as well and with some abyassees. the strength of the prem and pyaar for waheguru alone can make the rom rom pakhah.
Once you do this and it gets pargat, the flow will become easier.  This will help to put dhyian on the sound of the shabad as it develops and rom rom will be very helpful in stages ahead.
At this phase, you should have noticed some major transformations in your attitude, daily life and even relationships.  Your outlook and awareness of the world around you will be more clear and less foggy. As you start putting more of your soul and heart into the house of Guru Nanak ji, you will notice more and more "mitti dhund jagh channan hoya"  
 
Unless you are practicing already, I would suggest to do Saas saas by going quieter and quieter....with long breaths and pauses...Then once deep enough, to stop following breath and switch to heart beat in centre of chest.  Whilst having the gurmantar vibrate mentally in kanth and mind...just stop and pause(holding breath) to see if it continues automatically with heart beat.   If not sure what I mean, then check the rom rom technique on mediation thread and I will also put this same post on that thread for continuing(as this thread is more about anhad shabad)
 
Waheguru
 

I had a pretty cool experience yesterday that I thought I'd share. I was sitting on a bench in my school's library. It was around 9:50 am and I needed to kill time until 11. Saas Saas was automatically going so I just started following it and focusing on the internal jaap. I started to hear my heartbeat as the mind was getting quieter and then the jaap started to transition to the heartbeat. Eventually, the focus got so strong that I would get absorbed into the jaap, thoughts would stop and I lost awareness of everything around me. Then moments would come where my curiosity would notice what's happening and everything would stop and I'd go back to saas saas. At one point I was absorbed in the heartbeat and it felt like someone lightly punched me around the navel area (this was the only time something other than thoughts caused my focus to break). The focus on the heartbeat was on and off until eventually, it got so strong that I completely knocked out. I woke up around 11:15 feeling so much peace and mental stability.  
I remember someone posted an analogy where they said the power from baikhri bani is like 1 unit, madhma 100 units, pasanti 1000 units etc. I never understood this but after what happened yesterday I think I know what they meant. 
 
 

^ Good point.

^ That's the one.

Yea directly, Gita is only mentioned once, Upnishad are not mentioned at all, whereas Ved, Puran, Smriti and Shastr are mentioned many times.
But I wouldn't take that to mean Gita is not as important.
It must be pointed out that the theological structure, the teachings, etc of Guru Granth Sahib and Bhagawad Gita are very similar if not the same.
Also 'mentioned' is a weak word.
Since many of the personalities that the Saints (of Guru Granth Sahib) venerated are from these books, I would say that these books were also venerated by the Saints.
So when they said for examples that the Ved cannot fully comprehend Hari, they are referring to how incomprehensible and infinite Hari is that even the best spiritual texts can not fully comprehend him.
Which is precisely the opposite of how some sikhs perceive these spiritual texts today.
 
 

Guru Gobind Singh ji quoted Guru Nanak Dev ji's arti hymn just before Krishan ji showed his viraat swaroop?
Wow
Singh is related to Narsingh.
One could say Khalsa is Narsingh swaroop, created to protect the saints, just like how Narsingh ji came to protect his saint, Prahlaad ji.
Guru Hari Gobind ji planted this seed after the martyrdom of Guru Arjun Dev ji.
And Guru Gobind Singh ji nourished it into a tree.

Guru Gobind Singh ji quoted Guru Nanak Dev ji's arti hymn just before Krishan ji showed his viraat swaroop?
Wow
Singh is related to Narsingh.
One could say Khalsa is Narsingh swaroop, created to protect the saints, just like how Narsingh ji came to protect his saint, Prahlaad ji.
Guru Hari Gobind ji planted this seed after the martyrdom of Guru Arjun Dev ji.
And Guru Gobind Singh ji nourished it into a tree.

I wish they would just put the original Names rather then putting Lord or God. Same is thing done in the Bible. The word God actually has Germanic routes.

It's not pronounced (or spelled) as as "Par-bhir-ham", it's pronounced as Par-Bra-hm.
Pronunciation is very important.
We had another member on here who thought Brahm (God) was the same thing as Bharam (illusion).
They had been pronouncing the two words in the same way, which lead to their confusion.

Gurfateh
Check this video:
It reminds me of a sakhi from the Bansavalinama wherein Guru Gobind Singh divides Sikhs into four categories, The first at one spectrum on the left you have the the pious Sikhs, and at fourth on the other end you have the corrupt Sikhs who are willing to change and violate the Rahit for their own goals.. The sakhi then concludes, that is is the Sikhs of the fourth category that will bring political triumph to the panth.
Later Sikh history showed that a majority of the Misl leaders and Maharajas were 'corrupt' but still it was them indeed who brought about political triumph to the panth as they were carving out kingdoms...Simply because the game of politics does'nt allow for you to be a nice and decent guy, - everyone else will run you over and eat you.
Interesting video
 
 
 
 
 

Hows this?
PAR-Br-HM
Lowercase can now refer to the letter at the feet.
 
Bhul chuk maaf

Parbrahm*

It's not pronounced (or spelled) as as "Par-bhir-ham", it's pronounced as Par-Bra-hm.
Pronunciation is very important.
We had another member on here who thought Brahm (God) was the same thing as Bharam (illusion).
They had been pronouncing the two words in the same way, which lead to their confusion.

Correctly pronounced as Hari.
 

I have been reading Ramayan (again) recently and also Bhai Gurdas varan. So much info in Bhai Gurdas Varan, and its not hard to read and understand at all.

This is correct bhaji.