Monthly Paats

[samosasingh]

Please answer asap. Nanaksar is quite famous for stressing the compltetion of one full paat of Guru Granth Sahib per month, they also say you can do 6 malas (108 beads) of mool mantar daily and that equals a full paat after a month. Now my question is about the days of the month because some have more and some less days. So the month with the least number of days is 28, so does that mean it is 108*648(108*6) = 18, 144 mool mantars equal one paat?

Simply put how many mool mantars on a monthly basis equal a full paat of Guru Granth Sahib? Please answer asap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Morpheous]

It is this writers contention that

its not quantity - its quality

you could do 6,000,000 paats - doing paats will make your ego bigger - page 476 SGGS - why not get one shabad and swallow it ?

Why lick the cup on the outside(mechnical reading and repetition) - why not drink the water inside it ?(meditate on the shabad, contemplate it !)

1 swallowed shabad = infinite mechanical paats

Food for thought perhaps

Gurfateh

[Niranjana]

Gur Fateh!

Notwithstanding Harpreet Ji's comments, please let us be careful in how we approach such technical recommendations or guidance as he one illustrated in Somosa Sahib's post.

This like all techiniques, guidance, recommendations are to not to be sought as the end in itself.

It is an increasing trend within Sikh circles over the past 100 years to take everything literally, in this case, since Guru Ji spoken of the dangers and ills of mechanical reading of scriptures, focusing solely on breathing techiniques rather than using them to aid one's meditation, being obsessed with Yogic exercises rather using them to sustain a healthy body and mind to support simran...

...what we have over time is Sikhs using select phrases from Gurbani and preaching for the past 150 years that Yoga is totally wrong (hence the lack of exercise amongst Sikh, improper diet etc), Meditation is wrong, yes you read correctly, speak to any Granthi today that 'he' invariably will tell you that "Simran is simply to remember the God, do not go into Samadhi, that is a hindoo thing!"...utter nonsense!...again, with the example in this thread, the Nanaksar practice is nothing but guidance, not an end in itself, therefore merely mechanically reading paath or doing malas of Mool Mantr is futile...

...however, give a thought as to why such a technique is prescribed, it has nothing to do with exact timings taken for completing the malas equating precisely with that taken to complete a Sehaj Paath in a month per se...there is much history attached to such recommendations, these are tools, or step by step formulae (in this instance, tried and tested by the Nanaksar Sants and Gursikhs) to help achieve higher grounds...

...compare with other things in your life, learning a new academic subjec or music say, or working out with weights or playing a sport, one often sees leading teachers or weight-lifters recommend essentially what are 'strategies' such as aiming to complete a certain amount of practice within a week, a month and so on to perfect your skills, understanding and build your strength...

...at first, this will invariably focused on mechanical repetition of certain tasks, phrases, drills, paltas, tihais, reps, sets etc etc, gradually as one becomes acquinted with the basics, one can dive further and begin to work beyond mere techinicalities, experience the learning process, apply it in life and so on...

...hence, it is not too different from using 'strategies' such as that employed by Nanaksar in Samosa Singh's post, or using Breathing Techiniques to help centre yourself for Dhyan (Meditation) or using Yoga, Pilates or Tai Chi say for keeping oneself physically able...of course the danger in these pursuits is that people see these as an end in themselves, which is what Guru Ji warns against!!!

Ironically, the same can be said of the emphasis placed on Bana over Bani by most of our parcharaks nowadays, it is indeed a shame to see the very people who shout the most against Brahmanical influences creeping into the Panth are the same as those who enforce a the same ideals....

[Kam1825]

one thing to remember is that they go by a month in lunar terms which makes every month 28 days and equal. month starts at new moon and ends with it.

what the numbers are is 6 malas of 108 beads of mool mantra or

10 paaths of japji sahib or;

2 paaths of sukhmani sahib daily on top of your daily nitnem, rehraas, aartee, aarta and kirtan sohila is the equivalent to doing one akhand paath per month.

[Morpheous]

Here here Niranjana !

[SAadmin]

One thing that everyone forgot to look is even though its not about quantity but quality still helps remembering god/vaheguroo. Even though your mann (mind) cant concentrate on the patts .. you trying to make your mind concentrate by doing quanitity number of patts.. is it effective? Yes its defo effective for people...that eventually person who cant concentrate on patt who do quantity number of patts will start gettin used to it. Thus, contemplate with patt.

Remember gangka papan, first she start recited "mantra" given by an sadhu through an parrot in her house..so whenever parrot recite "ram" and she recites ram too.. even though in that state she couldnt concentrate but later at the time of death when she was bitten by snake... she said ram... when straight to sachkhand....that is mention in siri guroo granth sahib ji.

So even though quantity is less valuable than quality. I think quantity still helps in long run. Nanaksar concentrate on both.... but start with quantity first because for newbie sikh like me.. its really important to get into recitation of daily patt rather than gettin arguments or controversies of rehat, maryada etc to stablize the "variaag"..

[Morpheous]

fair point - what page is this on ?

[Niranjana]

Neo, this is spot on, there are many similar accounts related in the Sir Guru referrring to incidents of wolrdly kings saved by reciting the name of his son, Narayan...

...the move from mechanical practice and study of Scriptures, Meditation and Meritous deeds to higher levels is often prescribed as the shift from Dharam Khand to Gian Khand and so on...whilst, personally I feel the Khands to be a far more deeper topic, this does allow for why certain Maryadas and Rehits exist...

...Rehit Maryada is not the end in itself, components like the 5 Banis and maintenance of 5Ks etc and so on are there to inspire one to higher grounds (take for example the Dohras in the Sampuran Rehras Gutkas, these are all little snipnets if you will from the key compositions in the Dasam Granth...)...

In conclusion, whilst we should be obsessed with aspects of our Maryada such as how many Banis, when and what time and so on (i.e. obsessed that we start developing guilt -which is the seed of Brahmanism), these Maryadas (reminders of Kaal) are there to there to point to higher grounds, or us our 3HO brethen will tell us, this is "an acient TECHNOLOGY to keep us within the Guru's path!"

GURBARAKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLL!

[samosasingh]

Interesting that none of you actually answered the simple question. Typicall of today's politician sikhs.Go around the issue but never address it. Harpreet if you don't know the answer maybe you should stay quiet??

Once somebody asked a sant that my mind does not concentrate but I still do nitnem but it seems to have no effect on me. He said look when a person goes to work regardless of whether or not his mind is in it or not the boss has to pay him for the time he put it. The same is with Guru Nanak, he never lets even one second of bhagtee go to waste.

---Note:Keeping a certain number or paats is just to tye the mind up and then slowly clean it, this is a natural process for those just starting. We have 5 banees for this reason among others to tye the mind into routine after which it starts to concentrate and move to higher stages.

Once a sant was doing katha and someone asked I don't understand gurbani but I still read, is there any good in this? He answered look a child who knowingly puts his hand into a fire will burn it. A child who unknowingly puts his hand in fire will burn it also. Gurbani is the same way, all powerfull, regardless of understanding it will burn your sins.

Don't limit gurbani or sikhi it is as vast a God.

Please just answer the question if you know the answer.

Can someone also explain this lunar month system? Puniaa, puranmashi??? Please explain in detail.

[Morpheous]

Sorry singh didnt mean to offend you

Please forgive, sorry for not answering your question

[sikh_fauge]

Hopefully reading all those banis will help control ur anger paji.