Sri Raga

 

Chapter-III

Sri Rag

The plan of this work is to enumerate the ragas mentioned in Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji as the measure in which some of the great compositions of Gurus and sages are to be sung. An attempt will be made in this work is to analyse each rag and give an example of the composition of every author who had contributed to Sri Guru Granth Sahib in each Rag.

Rag Sri is a very old North Indian Rag of the Purvi Thaat, and has traditionally been associated with Goddess Lakshmi. It is also a part of the sacred text of the Sikhs- Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji that contains 31 ragas Sri Rag being the first of them. Time of its rendering is early evening after sunset though the time theory of Ragas has went into disuse after coming of All India Radio and Television services as sometimes rag meant for morning is recorded in the evening one day before so that it can be relayed in the morning. It appears pleasant in the winters. The Arohan of this rag is S R M P N S S R M P N S R S and Avaroh is S N D P M G R and Pakad is S R R P P M G R R R S.

The basis of this rag is stepped in the tradition of mainstream Indian Classical music. It is serious and thought provoking in its nature and creates an environment where the listener is led to heed the advice given therein. The listener (the mind) is made aware of the truth of the message and with this education is given the strength to face future with both humility and gained knowledge. In this Rag there are about 142 hymns composed by authors like Guru Nanak Dev ji, Guru Angad Dev ji, Guru Ram Das ji, Guru Arjan Dev ji, Bhagat Kabir ji, Bhagat Beni ji and Bhagat Tirlochan ji. As per famous Indian Classical Vocalist Pandit Jasraj “Sri Rag is an evening rag, sung during the sunset. It is full of grace and majesty and the main mood that it creates is of devotion and dedication.

Beginning with the example of composition of Guru Nanak Dev ji who has composed it to be rendered in Sri Rag to the audience.

Sloka ( The First Guru)

The gifts are of the Master,

no one can contend with God.

Some while awake receive them not,

and others He awakens from sleep and bestows.

Faith and contentment are the characteristics of the faithful and tolerance is the traits of the angels. The perfect person behold Him and the defaulters find no place.

Second Guru

Die before the Beloved whom you have loved

To live after him is to lead an accursed life in this world

Pauri (Stanza -3)

1. You Yourself created the Earth and the two lamps of the moon and the Sunday

2. You have fashioned ten and fourteen steps ( Fourteen Worlds) wherein the business is transacted.

3. God grants profit to some who become Guruwards.

4. Then the death touches them not who take the Nectar of the True Name.

5. They themselves along with their family are saved and everyone who follows them is also saved.

Sloka – The Third Guru

The society of the Guru is not attained like this neither by being bodily near nor far off.

Nanak then alone does the true Guru meet if the mind ever remains in his presence.

Pauri

1. Seven Islands, seven oceans, nine continents, four Vedas, and ten and eight (18) Puranas.

2. You, O’ Lord are contained among all and all bear Your love.

3. All the men and other beings reflect upon You. O’God ! the holder of the Earth is Your hand.

4. I am a sacrifice unto those, who meditate on Him under Guru’s instruction.

5. You, Yourself pervade everywhere. You perform wonderful plays.

The Fourth Guru

Within my mind and body is an excessively great pang of separation. How shall my Beloved come to meet me in my home.

When I see my Lord by seeing him my anguish is ended.

I go and ask those friends the way by which the God is met and introduced.

O’ my True Guru sans Thee I have none else.

I am foolish and ignorant and have sought your Sanctuary. Take pity on me and unite me with that God. Pause

The True Guru is the giver of God’s Name, Himself he causes to meet the Lord.

The True Guru has understood the Lord God. None else is as great as the Guru.

I go and fall under Guru’s protection. By his grace he unites me with that Lord.

Through mind’s obstinacy none has obtained the Lord. All have grown tried of making efforts.

By adopting thousands of clevernesses the mortal have failed. The unimpressionable mind does not embrace God’s Love.

Through falsehood and deceit no one had gained Lord. As you sow, so shall you reap.

My aster! You are the hope of all. All the beings are Yours and You are their wealth.

From You, O’God none returns empty handed . At Your door Guru beloveds get praise.

Slave Nanak makes a supplication, men are being drowned in the dreadful ocean of vices, You rescue them out.

The Fifth Guru

Having forgotten the Primal Being, O’Nanak ( the creative woman) is born and dies repeatedly.

Mistaking it to be musk, she has fallen into filthy pot

Pauri- Stanza

1. My soul you remember such Name of God that rules over all.

2. My soul you repeat the Name of Lord that shall rescue you in the last moments.

3. My soul you repeat that Name of God that shall drive out all the desires and hungers of your mind.

4. Through the Guru the very fortunate fellow ponders on that Name that makes all the sinners and slanderers fall at His feet.

5. Nanak, you deliberate over the Most Exalted Name of Lord before whose Name all kneel down.

Bhagat Kabir ji

There is but one God. By the True God’s favour He is obtained, Sri Rag , Reverend Kabir. To be sung in tune of Eksuar.

The mother thinks that her son is growing but this much she does not know that day by day age is diminishing. Calling him my son, mine own son, she fondles him excessively. The King of Death looks and grins. So much have You misled the world in illusion O’ Lord. How can the world comprehend You O’Master since Mammon has bewitched it.

Says Kabir, abandon the pleasures of sins, for you will certainly die by associating with them.

O’mortal you remember the Omnipresent Lord through Gurbani, the Grantor of Eternal Life. Inthis way you will cross the terrible ocean.

When it pleases Him , it is then that man comes to embrace Love for the God and error of superstition departs from within him .

By Guru’s grace, the heart is touched by Divine Love. In this association of God there is no death.

Recognise His order and then you will meet the Spouse.

Bhagat Tirlochan ji

In the mortal mind there there is a great love for wealth through which he has forgotten the fear of old age and death. On beholding your family you bloom like a lotus.

O’ Vicious man you espy into other’s houses when the powerful couriers of death come I cannot face them.

Rare is the friend, who after coming into this world say ‘ meet my Beloved and throw Your arms around me (embrace). Meet me my pervading Lord and rescue me.

Pause

O’ mortal in various and diverse pleasures and royal revels you have forgotten God and falling into this world ocean You think that you have become imperishable and immortal.

Cheated by Mammon you don’t think about God and you the idle man have wasted away the life.

O’ mortal you have to tread and difficult and terrible path where the Sun and the Moon have no entrance. When man leaves the world he forgets the love of mammon then.

Today it has become manifest to my mind that Righteous Judge watches mortals continuously.

There his supremely powerful couriers crush men between their hands and I cannot stand against them. If someone gives me the instruction,then it ought to to be this that Pervading God is ever present in woods and even in grass blades.

Says Tirlochan O’ my Venerable Pervading Lord. Thou, Thyself know everything.

Bhagat Beni ji

To be sung in tune of Pahre

There is but one God. By the favour of true God, He is obtained.

O’ man ! When you were in belly’s coil You meditated and fixed attention on the Lord. Even when you were topsy turvy in mother’s womb you did not harbour the pride and dignity of mortal body and being completely full of ignorance you contemplated over God- day and night .

Recall the travail of supreme suffering of those days, now you have greatly extended the net of your mind. Leaving the womb you entered the mortal world then you forgot God from your mind.

You shall repent afterwards O’ fool through which evil intellect you have got attached to scepticism.

Remember the pervading Lord otherwise you will go the city of death my myrmidons- Pause

A child feels anxiety for plays and sweets and by degrees it gets entangled in material world’s love.

Mistaking to be sacred and tasty ambrosia, man eats poison and then five passions emerge and torture him. Man abandons meditation,toilsome services, self restraint and propensity towards Good actions and does not repeat the name of omnipotent Lord.

His lust overflows, darkness attaches to his understanding and then he hugs to another woman’s womb. In the ardour of youth, he stares at the faces of other’s wives and cannot discriminate between good and evil.

In the intoxication of lust and other great sins he gets distracted and cannot make difference in virtue and vice By beholding his sons and wealth this mind gets proud and forgets Lord from his heart. On another’s death he weighs his wealth in his heart, you, O’man has wasted away your life in carnal pleasures and delicacies.

His grey hair are whiter than Jasmine flowers and his voice grows frail as if it is coming from the seventh world. When his eyes water and his strength and intellect deserts him then the desires begin to churn him. Therefore with vices his soul has dried up and the lotus flower of his body has withered away. By giving up the word of Immortal God in this mortal world you O’man will regret afterwards.

Beholding the small bodies (children) love springs in man’s mind and he takes pride on them and does not comprehend the Lord.

Through his eyes do not see anything still he cherishes longing for the desire of long life. The fire is extinguished, the soul bird has flown away and his corpse is not tolerated even in his house.

Says Beni hear thou O’Saint who has obtained salvation after such an ignoble death.

Ravi Das ji

You are me, and I am Thou, what is the difference, the same as between gold and its bracelet and between water and its ripples.

If I did not commit sins, O’ My Infinite Lord ! how You have got the name Redeemer of Sinners-Pause

You, my Master is the searcher of hearts. From the Lord is known His servants and from his servants his Master Lord.

Grant me this wisdom to meditate on You with my body.

Some rare person can explain to me that Lord is uniformly contained among multitudes O’Ravidas.