Ghulam Mohammed Chand Keeps Alive Nanak's Tradition

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Babaji Keeps Alive Nanak's Tradition

Listening to Ghulam Mohammed Chand, it is difficult to disentangle the
musician from the sage. This 77-year-old man has been singing the verses of
the Guru Granth Sahib ever since he was a boy of eight. He spouts the names
of the 10 Sikh gurus with more ease than he can count the names of the 12
Imams. His ancestors trace their lineage to Baba Mardana, through whom Guru
Nanak spoke, and to the strains of whose rabab he sang his hymns. The Baba's
descendants remained rababis to all the 10 gurus, keeping alive the rabab
tradition, saving the musical instrument from extinction. His uncle Bhai
Chand sang to it in Darbar Sahib in Amritsar.


Passions roused by the Partition dislocated people from their homes and
goaded them to accept borders even in the realm of inner faith. The Chand
family members left their village Raja Sansi, but took along the fragrance
of a faith that was as much a part of their inner life as was the faith into
which they were born. "We did not leave Nanak behind but went closer to
him", says Babaji whose home now is Lahore, less than 90 minutes drive from
Nankana Sahib, Guru Nanak's birthplace.

Ghulam Chand goes to Lahore whenever occasion demands. He gives people a
peek into his ilm , his lore of sacred music when he sings at a sangat every
Friday there, in the home of a Punjabi poet passionate about Punjabi sufi
poetry.

"In my youth I did not know what I was singing. Now when I sing, even to
myself, I weep. The mind yields to the strength of the holy word and if the
fervour is truly felt then a state of bliss is reached and remains. When the
mind and heart are in constant consultation, when there is shikwa and
jawab-e-shikwa , then your own heart becomes the guru . Gu means darkness
and Ru is light. The one who brings light in darkness is a guru. Neither
clothes nor appearances make a guru. He goes on to quote Baba Farid: " Kaale
merey kapde, kaale mainda bhes/ Gunahi bhara mein phirya, log kahen dervish
".

" Awal Allah noor upaya; Kudrat ke sab bandey; Ek noor sab sat jag upgaya;
Kaun bhale kaun mandey " - It was Allah first and then his light;/ All human
beings are part of his creation;/ With that one light the entire world came
into being/ Is there any among them who is good and any who is evil?" During
his recital in Delhi, Ghulam Chand began with Kabir, moving on to Nanak,
Baba Farid and Guru Gobind. Their thoughts mingle freely in the Granth
Sahib, and his singing was suffused with the ambience of a time when kirtans
carried the solemnity and joy of sufiana kalam . A captive audience sat
enraptured and then rose to walk slowly up to the stage - lines of men and
women, their heads covered, to make their offerings so that he does not
return home with an empty jholi (bag). "Who can fill his jholi ? It is he
who has filled our jholis ", rose a voice in the dark as the basket left on
the stage began overflowing with offerings, a gift from apna Punjab for
bringing back Nankana's Nanak and Pak Pattan's Farid.

" Yeh duniya jo ekhati hai, mujhey accha lagta hai ", says a visibly moved
Baba ji , his small eyes smiling. He had returned to India after 60 years.
To see people of so many faiths living together in one world touches him. It
is in this India perhaps that Baba ji finds his metier. Though home is where
his family lives, his work, his calling finds a flowering in a place which,
not so long ago, was also home

(From the Times of India dated 2 Nov 04 )
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