THITI

THITI with the variation THITTIN, is a title shared by three different compositions, one each by Guru Nanak, Guru Arjan and Kabir, in the Guru Granth Sahib. According to traditional Indian calendar, thitt (Skt. tithi) denotes a day or a date of the lunar cycle of the month. In Brahmanical ritualism, certain lunar days acquired sanctity for being associated with some deity or incarnation of god or goddess and began to be observed as especially auspicious. The Thiti hymns discountenanced the notion of one day being more propitious than the others. All days, they reiterate, are auspicious if devoted to God`s remembrance and to good deeds.

Guru Nanak`s Thiti, in Raga Bilaval, comprises twenty six line stanzas, each with an additional verse of rahau (pause). Through the days of the waning half of the lunar month, the poem brings spiritual and moral truths home to man. The Supreme Being, unborn and unfathomable, is the creator of all gods and goddesses, vedas and sastras. He is realized through the guidance of the Guru.

Fasts and ritual bathing, asceticism and yogic practices are of litde avail. One is adjured instead to repeat God`s Name and take truthful living.Thus will knowledge be attained and through self realization duality ended. Says Guru Nanak: mamatajal te rahai udasa pranavati nanak ham take dasa he who is not entangled by attachment, Nanak bows to him as a slave (GG, 840). GuruArjan`s Thiti, in Raga Gauri, consists of seventeen pauns or stanzas, with a sloka added to each.

Proceeding from ekam, i.e. the first day of the waning half of the lunar month, the poem goes on to amavas, the last day of the dark half of the month, thereafter referring i to purnima, the fullmoon day, it stresses in ^j stanza after stanza the supremacy of the path of devotion.Meditation on the Divine Name eliminates attachment and ego. It banishes ignorance and evil and brings humility, discernment and bliss. Through God`s grace, one`s heart and body are purified. The Name revealed by the Guru liberates one from the cycle of births and deaths and one attains union with the Divine.

Everyone irrespective of the .varna or caste he belongs to can win liberation by repeating the Namejk Aatn brahmanu siidii baisu udharai simari chandal (GG, 300) Kabir in his Thitm, employing thits of the waxing half of the month urges the need to know Reality from illusion and sets forth love of the Lord as the way to breaking the circuit of transmigration. The yogic practices are considered futile, for they only beget ego.One must instead devote oneself to remembering the Lord God (verses on the first day of the moon) ; one must transcend the three states to attain the fourth ultimate state of bliss (third day) ; and one must control the capricious mind and shun lust and wrath.

Blessed is he who drinks the nectar of the Lord`s love (fifth day). Discipline the nine doors of the body and keep a check upon your many desires (ninth day) naumi navai duar kau sadhi bahati manasa rakhahii bandhi”(C,G, 34344). On ekadasi, the eleventh day, take to one single direction and thereby avert the pangs of rebirth. On the full moon day, you will attain equipoise and see the full moon rise in the sky.

References :

1. 6aba.da.rth Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Amritsar, 1964