Gurpurab - Full Moon in November

Gurudwara Nankana Saheb - Birthplace of Guru Nanak

Pooranmashi ( full moon) after Diwali ( festival of lights), is that magical time of the year, that has always been special for me.

The moon always has a special aura around it, after all it is the Gurpurab  - day when Guru Nanak was born in Talwandi - Punjab, India, (now in Pakistan) 500+ years ago.  It is that day, when I did not go to school in Bangalore, but went to the Gurudwara (place of worship) instead. There would be many guest Ragi -jathas ( Singing groups of three members – one main singer with the harmonium, one less proficient  and the other a percussionist), and a lot of  beautiful shabads ( hymns) would be sung in the praise of Guru Nanak and langar(food prepared in the community kitchen). Throngs of people were bound to jostle against each other and the Gurudwara would be bursting at its seams. Atleast 4000+ people show up, while the hall can accommodate only about 500+ people.

The organizers always tried to make extra room, by setting up tents but no amount of space was and has ever been enough for the growing number of people, that  always show up. People from all walks, backgrounds and religions throng the Gurudwara especially on this day, Truly personifying Guru Nanak’s message of Ek onkar – “One universal creator of all”. The message of equality and love for all still resonates today as we all sit and pray and eat langar together. The rich, poor and the needy all of them sitting together and eating langar. I have always enjoyed washing the dishes or chopping up veggies, but on this day there are so many sevadars - volunteers doing seva – service, seva is such an opportunity, such a privilege that it is not bestowed on everybody.

In the evening, I would wait for it to get dark, so I could light candles and place them on the window- sills and the railings of our balcony. Then my brother and me would burst the remaining firecrackers, the first batch had been burst on Diwali, two weeks ago. In a way it felt special that we were the only ones in the neighborhood lighting up candles and doing firework, sometimes friends from the neighborhood joined us, the grandmother, next door  always lit diyas – earthern lamps, she always celebrated the first pooranmashi  (full moon) after Diwali .

I enjoyed distributing prashad and besan burfee (wheat flour pudding & buttered gram flour square) prepared by mother, in the neighborhood. Although she felt that going to the Gurudwara and partaking in langar was an apt celebration and that I didn’t exactly need a new outfit, as I could wear any of the ones that she had recently stitched for me. …Then, again in our diverse neighborhood there was hardly a week that went by without a religious celebration of some sort, and it was always fun to participate in that celebration in some minor or major way depending on whether you were invited for a traditional pooja - prayer or given a plate full of home made goodies, laddoos and Murukus - sweets and savories, specially prepared at home for that particular occasion.

At times it felt lonesome being the only Sikh girl in my school. In 4^th grade I had a classmate, Neeta who wanted me to draw a portrait of Guru Nanak for her older sister, who was a big fan of Guru Nanak. I would attempt to copy the portrait from a picture that hung on a wall in our prayer room. It was a bad imitation but she appreciated it and always wanted more copies.  One day, I met her sister who was really happy to meet me and she told me that she had saved all my drawings of Guru Nanak and that she lit candles on Guru Nanak’s birthday as well. My favorite shabad – hymn in praise of Guru Nanak is  Mitte dhund Jag Channan hoya – “ The mist cleared out and the world shone in brilliant light” and it still does to this day even after 5 centuries.