Saturday, January 21, 2012

Gurmat Sangeet Outreach Retreat and Camp: The Next Two Days


As much as I fell in love with the Raj Musicals dilruba that was loaned to me, I was grateful to get back my own instrument. It had been repaired masterfully and no one looking at it would ever know that it was in such bad shape just 24 hours earlier. At this point some minor feelings of guilt returned for feeling so frustrated and hopeless at the beginning of my stay in Detroit. But I also felt encouraged as now, I was completely back on track.

The routine was (for the most part) the same over the next few days. Every morning was begun with listening to Japji*, then light yoga. From there we moved on to “super-sense” which entailed playing our instruments and singing blindfolded (a task I found monumentally difficult), and more study after that.

I didn’t understand the words to Japji* at all. But on the second day, a friend that I had made was kind enough to loan me her iPad which had a translation, so that I could follow along. I was very taken with the melody that Professor Surinder Singh was singing, the fact that he had a deep love and devotion to the text would have been apparent to even the most mundane.  

It is true that at the time of attending this retreat, I had not been the most healthy. My stress levels were beyond nominal as I had been unable to find work in Eugene, Oregon where I was living. At this point also, I had begun to  go through a rigorous series of dental cleanings which were quite painful and all around unpleasant. So, needless to say, the yoga sections were anything but easy – somehow though, I powered through.

On the fourth day we would be welcoming new arrivals, beginners who were attending the camp to get a taste of playing Gurmat Sangeet. It had been a few months since I had last taught, so I was a little apprehensive (especially being one of the very few non-Sikhs there) but my tutors were ever-reassuring.  

*Japji Sahib is the first sacred composition found in the main Sikh holy scripture called the Guru Granth Sahib. It is a famous and concise summary of Sikh philosophy which was compiled by the founder of Sikhism and the first spiritual guide of the Sikhs known worldwide as Guru Nanak. (from Sikh Wiki http://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Japji)

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