Many Sikhs would even get annoyed and even angry if you called these songs or bhajans  If we call them a song and Geet it sounds too trivial. It seems it’s primarily for entertainment or exhibition which these shabads are clearly not. Even a term like bhajan is not completely correct, because this is not merely mantras it’s simplistic lines that are just to be repeated.

Shabad and Gurbani are more appropriate names. Gurbani because these are the words of the Guru. But bear in mind, it’s not just the words of Guru Nanak or the other Guru’s, the words of all the Bhagats (Kabir, Namdev etc.) are also called Gurbani. This is because here we talk about the Guru of all Gurus. The preferred name for this is shabad. Most Sikhs are sensitive about what the poems are called. 

Shabad makes sense because it implies the unstruck sound and a meditation upon the meaning of what is being said while repeating the words.  These poems are a reservoir of The qualities of the Guru of all Gurus.  These poems reconnect the singer and listener to the oneness within and around. They need to be sung with love, explored with zest.  

However, the names are not as important to me. I generally don’t object people calling them by any name especially if they understand the context. There are three verses that I am guided by:

1. Log Jaane eh Geet Hai Eh to bhram vichaar. - Kabir 

People know these are songs, but these are the discussions of infinity. - Kabir 

2.  Balhaari jaoon jete terai nao hai

I love you in all your names. - Guru Nanak

3. Jo Prabh Ko Milbo Chahai, Khoj Shabad Meh Leh

Whoever wants to have union with oneness, discover it within the Shabda

The name is not important. Even within Gurbani many of these names are used including Geet (song) and bhajan.  Like Shakespeare says a rose would still be a rose if you called it with another name. The fragrance of the rose is important.  The love, exploration and meditation of these poems is more important to connect anyone to oneness. Not as much what you call then. 

Shabda is the audible kind of brahman, also known as naad bhram, which Guru Nanak calls Ek Onkaar. The quintessential Mandukya Upanishad's first verse, "Om-ity-etad-aksharam-idam sarvam" claims the same, "Om is the word that is everything." The first time the word shabda is used in the Upanishads is in the Matri Upanishad which describes two kinds of brahman: shabda and ashabda brahman. This Shabda is also the path to the unstruck sound ... anhat shabda. The path to the unstruck sound is through shabad kirtan or the kirtan of this shabad. 

Shabad is the penultimate noun. The question is what can one do with Shabad? Do you sing it, read it, understand it or something else? Traditionally we do not "gao" or "sing" shabads, we "padho" or "read" shabads, but even more correctly we do "kirtan" of shabad. It is incorrect to say "sing shabad kirtan" because kirtan includes singing.  Doing shabad kirtan includes all of those: reading, understanding, singing, pouring the shabad inside yourself and eventually becoming the shabad. 

Shabad kirtan can be done through the kirtan of any of the attributes of the shabda.  These attributes can be found in many poems. The Guru Granth Sahib is one of those rare collections where all the poems are about the shabad, this ekomkaar.  Guru Arjan says, the granth is the resting place for the supreme (Pothi Parmesar Ka Thaan). Therefore this kind of singing is correctly called Shabad Kirtan. 

From shabad to Anhad

From shabad to anhad

Shabad is a word of oneness. It can be spoken and heard. And anhad is the word of oneness that can be spoken by no one, and can be heard by a few. 

Shabads are words that take you beyond words. The songs, sung with a love deliciously drenched in maple syrup and heard with an affection of the mothers ear, get you close to what could not be said in words.  It remains a mystery as to how seemingly ordinary words, ones used by the commoner on the street, take you towards a airy destination that is far beyond words. 

But there is more. They are more than conveyance devices. They make you float in this space far from the gravity of earthly aspirations to experience what is beyond words. And strangely, the experience is replicable like a scientific experiment. Everytime you sing you are subject to this transportation and experience. So shabads are words that take you beyond worlds too. 

A love deliciously drenched in maple syrup. 

Camerado, this is no book,

Who touches this touches a man,

(Is it night? are we here together alone?)

It is I you hold and who holds you,

I spring from the pages into your arms— decease calls me forth.