Gurmat Sangeet Outreach Retreat and Camp: The Final Performances

The last two days of the retreat there were concerts held at the Gurdwara featuring the musicians from Raj Academy. They looked magnificent on stage, dressed in white with their turbans sort of floating above them. The sound was orchestral too, a beautiful chorus of voices mixed with all the instruments from Guru’s court.  They performed with a passion that I just wanted to absorb there in that large hall.

I had been at the Gurdwara all day, so when it came time to get ready to watch the performance I entered the hall and sat where I normally did during class. As people shuffled in I noticed a lot of women sitting by me and a great deal of men on the other side of the room. As you probably have guessed, in this Gurdwara (and many others) the men and women are on separate sides. I moved over to sit with a friend I had made and more people filled the hall until it was far beyond capacity.

Both of the concerts occurred before it was time to “put the Guru to bed.” At the Gurdwara, there is a ritual for retiring the Sri Guru Granth Sahib for the day; it begins with some call and response and a whole lot of bowing and standing. This was the first time I had ever seen any type of Sikh service, so I basically resorted to doing what my neighbors did. To my eyes, the closing ceremony was involved with a man chanting and what looked like a very exact way of folding the book inside its cloth. Then, the men (one with the SGGS on his head) walked out of the room and people bowed as they passed.

I was reminded of something Acharya S had said in an interview. That was (to paraphrase); when you are raised in a certain faith/culture, it is easy to assume that others, of different faiths or cultures can’t be as devout as you are. Being in a climate of so much reverence shouldn’t have been such a shock to me, but somehow I found myself consistently marveling at the devotion that was surrounding me. The service was beautiful and the impression it made on me served me very well the next time I was in the Gurdwara.