Welcome the Spring
When the fields are mustard yellow, the berries ripen yellow, the atmosphere is neither intense with heat nor are there are shivering waves of winter, my beloved, it is Basant here. When there is calm and the season is full of quite joy as well as passionate, my love, it is the time to celebrate the spring festival, Basant Panchami. “Aaj basant manalay suhagan, aaj basant manalay” — with these words, Amir Khusro not only praises the coming of spring but there is also a longing to meet his guru Hazrat Nizamuddin.
Basant Panchami or Vasantotsav, which falls on the fifth day of the bright half of Magh, marks the commencement of the spring season and brings festivity, singing, dancing and beautiful colours along with it. On this auspicious day, students, in particular, pay homage to the goddess of knowledge, Saraswati. This festival is observed on a large scale in North India, especially in Punjab when the farmers are rich with their yield, people put on yellow clothes, cook sweet yellow rice and there is jubilation in the air.
The colour “yellow”, which shines with optimism and enlightenment, also has a shade of spirituality. In Sikhism, the reference to Basant is in the context of the flowering of the soul and the love of the Lord is considered the true manifestation of Basant. “The season of spring, so delightful, has come. Those imbued with love for you, chant your Name with joy. Whom else should I worship? At whose feet should I bow?” Charged with spiritual feelings, every raagi in the gurdwara is enjoined to sing Gurbani in raag Basant from the Guru Granth Sahib. Raag Basant captures the mood of the spring season in a true way. Just like the nature of the Basant, this raga has a very gentle mood and is to be performed in a dignified slow tempo. The Sikh raagis start the singing of the raga on the first day of the month of Magh, after saying their prayers. They sing five shabads of the raag and then sing the Var of Basant and declare that they have opened raag Basant.
Basant Ki Var by Guru Arjan, the fifth Sikh Guru, addresses itself to the theme of the Nadar or the grace of the Guru, which helps the devotee meet the Supreme Being. Using spring as a metaphor, Guru Arjan explains the human condition. Basant is the period of newness and with the guru’s grace, man sheds the winter-born leaves of ego and attachment. The blessed one blossoms into nam (There is joy in the constant remembrance of God and man attains the stage of sahaj equipoise). “Meditate on the Lord’s name and blossom forth in green abundance. By your good fortune, you have been blessed with the wondrous spring of the soul.” The whole spirit is expressed in Gurbani as, “When the mind is in spring, all people are rejuvenated. Blossoming forth and flowering through the Lord’s name, peace is obtained. Contemplating the Word of the Guru’s Shabad, One is in Spring for ever.”
Kulbir Kaur teaches sociology at Shyama Prasad Mukherji College, Delhi University
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