Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji

[Lkaur14]

My mum has been reading Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji for a quite a few years now and recently she has been told by people that she is making mistakes unintentionally. So my mum wanted to know is it bad to make mistakes? Is she commiting a sin?

Should she carry on reading Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji??

Waheguru Ji ka Khalsa
Waheguru Ji ki Fateh

[swarn bains]

please read the way you are reading. it is not a sin. do not worry about people. their intent is to stop you from reading, because they cannot do so.

[singhbj]

Waheguru ji ka khalsa
Waheguru ji ki fateh

Reading is ok, for recital one should learn proper pronunciation.

Here is a site that provides Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji (Page-by-page Audio)

http://www.gursevak.com/readsggs

Waheguru ji ka khalsa
Waheguru ji ki fateh

[just_sikh]

Different people pronounce differently. It depends upon your dialect, which geographical location you came from and also which samprada (sect) you are involved with. I love reading Shri Guru Granth Sahib. I read in public like Sehaj path or Akhand path. So many times people will tell that I pronounced the word wrong and I will get deifferent way to pronounce it from different people.
Specially the sound of bindi (.), n. There are words where people tell me to pronounce n even though there is no bindi(.) and then some tell me not to pronounce it. Even if I pronounce bindi even then they tell me it is wrong and different version n like softly or loudly.Same way is 's' or 'sh'. Usually they quote their samprada or sect to authenticate it. There will be no end to it. Lot of people tell that reading wrong is worse than not reading it. I believe that attempt to read it even if it wrong is much better than not reading it.

I listen with great respect and try to improve my self if I am totally wrong, I enjoy the very intent or meaning behind the words.

Rab Rakha

[Biriabc]

WJKK
WJKF

We all as “Sikhs” are students, striving to understand the teachings of our Gurus in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. As human beings we all make mistakes and our aim is to learn and improve.

Your mother may find the link below which is for the audio recording of Siri Guru Granth Sahib. It was created by Giani Jagtar Singh of ektuhi.com for the purpose of learning and improving Gurbani Pronunciation. The created videos and software make it easy for one to follow along visually with Gurbani while hearing the audio pronunciation.

http://www.sikhnet.com/gurbani/artist/ektuhi

Gur Fateh

[just_sikh]

Biriabc

WHK WJF. This is a great resource. I end up listening for hours in last couple of days.

Thanks.

[Biriabc]

WJKK
WJKF

Hi just-Sikh
Thanks. If you check out http://www.ektuhi.com itself the format of display of the Gurbani recital and display of text is different from that on the Sikhnet link. Personally I think the ektuhi format is better. In addition ektuhi.com also has an iphone app and a Google play store app available for the relevant phones which you may find useful.

Gur Fateh

[just_sikh]

Biriabc

I ended up going tohttp://www.ektuhi.com. This is what I used. It is good source for people like me who can read but can get better.

Once again thanks.

Moderator comment: Here is another source (but ektuhi.com reading appears to be most accurate)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXVuYdC ... dl3_LmdJUD

[swarn bains]

L kaur. please do not change your system. by doing so you will lose your ownness. keep it up the way she recites path. that is acceptable to baba Nanak.

[Yuktanand Singh]

In my opinion, we must not worry about making mistakes, but we should always strive to achieve perfect pronunciation.

Gurbani should be read free of variations resulting from someone's accent. So, to those who want to achieve perfection, there is only one correct pronunciation of each word of gurbani.

It is extremely difficult to find someone who is perfect. Even when we know the correct pronunciation, we often make mistakes while reading the gurbani aloud.

All these recording are commendable. They require monumental effort. I want to nitpick and point at a few glaring errors, just to help the serious students get further. It is easier to find errors in others' work.

1. The gursevak.com site accentuates each vowel. This is good for learning how a word was written without seeing it, and it also indicates each sound, but this is not how we do the paath (recital) of bani.

2. I noticed that the Baru Sahib videos mispronounce the word 'mehla' as 'mahalla' - and some readers add an accent 'e' at the end of a line. For example: In 'ਗਾਵੈ ਕੋ ਗੁਣ ਵਡਿਆਈ ਆਚਾਰ' the sentence does not end with 'e'. The last word is 'aachaar' not 'aachaar-e'.

(Most sites write it as 'ਵਡਿਆਈਆ ਚਾਰ'- but that is a separate issue).

3. The ektuhi.com has best pronunciation but this reader has trouble pronouncing the 'h' properly at termination of a word, with or without a vowel.

Examples:
ਨਹ = should be pronounced as néh - not nah - because ਨਾਹ = is pronounced as nah or naah
Similarly ਜਹ ਜਹ ਪੇਖਉ = should be pronounced as jéh jéh - not jah jah
ਰਾਹੁ = should be pronounced as raa-h(o) - not raah

Additionally, 'ਅਮੁਲ ਗੁਣ ਅਮੁਲ ਵਾਪਾਰ' is read differently than 'ਅਮੁਲੁ ਕਰਮੁ ਅਮੁਲੁ ਫੁਰਮਾਣੁ'. The vowel 'u' indicates that there is an accent at the end of each word, but you are not supposed to produce a sound of 'u' (as the gursevak.com does).

Yuktanand Singh