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Raag Tilang Greets Us At Harmandar Sahib

SARBPREET SINGH

Once again, I find myself descending the marble steps that lead to the most peaceful promenade in the world.

It’s no different from the many other times that I have undertaken this journey and yet it is profoundly different. For this time, I have six unexpected companions: six young men and women who didn’t know me or one another a scant four months ago, and who hadn’t so much as even met a Sikh in their lives, before our improbable journey began.

The parikarma of the Harmandar Sahib is as beautiful as ever as it perfectly frames the shimmering vision in the middle of the pool that it encloses.

Our little band makes its way towards the entrance to the Harmandar.

It is the top of the hour and a new raagi jathha is about to begin singing, as is evident from the tapping sounds of a tabla being tuned that reverberate around us.

A masterful alaap (free unmetered exploration of a raag) begins and I listen, rapt. I am not sure if my young companions are listening as well, their attention undoubtedly drawn to the panoply of unfamiliar sights around them.

My face breaks out in a joyous smile as I recognize the melody. It is Raag Tilang.

Why do I smile, you ask? Well, I do have favorites when it comes to raags and I must confess that Tilang is clearly one of them. The unexpected joy of listening to a shabad in Tilang on a chance visit to Harmandar Sahib would be enough to make me smile.

But today, there is more!

The improbable journey that brings me and my little band to Harmandar Sahib today started in late June in Boston this year with an audition notice.

For a story waiting to be told, searching for storytellers.

And then they were found. Young men and women whose talent was matched only by their compassion. Brilliant actors who had in them to embrace the pain of the other, make it their own and present it with passion, grace and integrity.

Our visit to Harmandar Sahib, happily, is not the end of the journey of ‘Kultar’s Mime.’ It is a halting place and an important one. For me personally, our visit today is a promise kept. A promise made, early in our process of crafting the production that has elicited an emotional response from audiences in three countries and two continents.

Recognizing early on that I had been blessed with a team that was super smart, curious and willing to engage with the arduous task of trying to understand the ethos of a people, driven by a desire to tell their story in a credible manner, I threw everything that I possibly could at my band. Starting from the beginning of Sikh history. The principles that the Guru’s lived and died by. The forging of a new identity. The tumultuous history of the eighteenth century as a fledgling faith committed to fighting for the underdog was forced to fight for its own survival as well. The improbable ascension to power and glory and the inevitable fall and resurrection. The scars and wounds of history from the fifteenth century to modern times.

Of course, the Harmandar Sahib loomed large in this narrative, given its larger than life role in defining Sikh identity and its position as the stage where some of the most dramatic moments in the history of the Sikhs have played out.

If we ever get to India, I had said, cautioning everyone that it was highly unlikely that we ever would, I will definitely take you to the Golden Temple.

And here we are today!

And what of Tilang, you ask.

As I was auditioning the ‘Kultar’s Mime’ team, the germ of an idea was forming in my mind. My co-writer and co-director, J Mehr Kaur, had already incorporated paintings into the production and poetry of course was an integral part of the play. A lovely melody had been used in the original production, but somewhere along the way, we started exploring the possibility of incorporating some elements of gurmat sangeet into the new version of the play.

Maybe it was coincidence, maybe it was not, but most of the actors who had been cast were singers with lovely voices and fairly early on in the rehearsal process, they were introduced to Tilang which for me beautifully evoked the mood of the play.

A few rehearsals later, it was clear to me that this was going to work. There were rough spots for sure. The use of the two flavors of the nishad (the sixth) and the meend (glide) from the gandhar (the third) to the shadja (the first or tonic) were challenging at first, but the crew ploughed on gamely.

And then something wonderful happened. A natural leader emerged in the form of Christine Scherer who has a beautiful voice and a ton of singing experience in the western context.

In addition to a brief exploration of Raag Tilang, which we used in a couple of scenes, we also incorporated one of my favorite shabads from the writings of Guru Nanak: “yakk arz guftam pes to dar gos kun kartar.”

Having had some experience teaching westerners how to sing traditional gurmat sangeet compositions, I had no illusions about the difficulty of the process when we started.

The cast of ‘Kultar’s Mime’ definitely rose to the challenge and with Christine in the lead, they were able to render the melody quite well by the time our show opened at Harvard in late September, not singing the text but humming the tune.

Christine and I continued to work on the shabad, spending some one-on-one time in addition to our regular rehearsals and I was delighted when she expressed a desire to get familiar with the text as well. She felt that being able to sing the words would give her a better handle on the melody and I wholeheartedly agreed.

We arrived in India and on the day of the first performance set aside some time for a rehearsal.

During the rehearsal Christine came up to me and announced that she was ready to sing a line or two from the shabad in the India shows. I readily agreed but gulped inside! After all we were now performing in India, which would include knowledgeable Sikh audiences, which in turn would invariably bring many aficionados and practitioners of gurmat sangeet.

How would they react? Would it be incongruous to hear an obviously western voice with an American accent singing lines from gurbani on stage?

I need not have worried.

Christine nailed it!

Numerous people came up to me after each of our India shows commenting on how wonderfully this young woman sang the lines from the shabad and what a beautiful voice she had! I remember one audience member saying that he had goose-bumps listening to her!

All these thoughts run through my mind as I stand with my little band on the parikarma and listen to the beautiful melody in Raag Tilang. The impossibility of our journey strikes me again.

And then I smile. Impossible journeys too, can be completed if one just believes. And at the end, there are fabulous rewards.

The shabad in Raag Tilang, as we visit Harmandar Sahib, is such a reward. For Christine. And for Michelle, Cat, Addison, Allison & Ross!

Finally, as I congratulate our readers on the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, here's a translation of the shabad, “yak arz guftam …”

I speak in your ear, beseeching you, Lord
You are True, Great, Merciful and perfect ||1||

The world is evanescent; know this for sure
Azraa-eel, the Messenger of Death, has me by the hair on my head, and yet, I am oblivious
Spouse, children, father, brothers; none of them will be there to hold one’s hand.
As I fall, and the final prayers are said for me, none shall rescue me. ||2||

Day and Night, I have wandered around in greed, hatching evil schemes.
Never doing good; this is my unfortunate state. ||3||

I am ill-fated, slanderous and negligent, shameless and bereft of the fear of God.
Says Nanak, I am your humble servant, the very dust of the feet of your servants. ||4||1||


November 8, 2014
 

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