Nagar Keertans

Tommorow, I'm headed to the Abbotsford Nagar Keertan which is set to celebrate the 400th Anniversary of the installation of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee.

Here are a couple of conflicting opinions on the current status and purpose of Nagar Keertans:

Opinion #1: Against Nagar Keertans

Usually, no one does keertan at nagar keertans. The saroop everyone follows is pad-chhed, a lot of girls/guys get dressed up and go for absolutely wrong reasons and give it a bad atmosphere. I dont' see what could be gained by going. I guess it's ok for entertainment purposes, but in terms of Gurmat I'd say it's either neutral at best, or quite possibly even negative.

Some people argue you can do parchaar: but who is listening? Then others say you can inspire others with the way you dress and act: but everyone is dressed up in BaNa that day.

I could be wrong here, but I dont' like modern day "nagar keertan". More like "nagar gup shup" or "nagar social". Does anyone have different views? For those that do go to these, is there somethign to gain? I genuinely am seeking to be corrected if my views are not right.

Opinion #2: For Nagar Keertans

Different things work for different people, guys who are into looking at girls and the other way around will do so not only at Nagar Keertans but also at every other social place. And maybe they'll get something good out of the Nagar Keertan as well? Maybe they'll be inspired by something or someone? It's entirely possible, but pretty unlikely.

This last Nagar Keertan in Surrey, I didn't want to go, but was forced to by my grandmother, we went for an hour just to "look at all the sangat", I wasn't entirely impressed, but my grandmother seemed really happy about the trip. Which brings me back to the point that different people take different things from Nagar Keertans.

Opinion #3: For Nagar Keertans

Hopefully, one day we will be able to have real nagar keertans. But for now, this is what we have. And I don't think that anyone's going to become a manmukh by attending one of these. There may be manmat stuff going on, but that's not the intention of these events. It's not like a club or something. Many people go with shardaa, to celebrate the khalsa and participate in keertan. As far as guys and girls hooking up goes, that happens everywhere. I'm sure it doesn't happen any more at a nagar keertan, as these people can probably find a better place to meet up than in front of tens of thousands of people.

Opinion #4: Against Nagar Keertans (Same person from Opinion #1)

So what do I advocate? I say lets have proper Nagar keertans. It's great to see punj pyaaray. Too bad guru Saahib isn't usually present. Let's have nagar keertans with keertan and punj pyaaray and Satguru jee in the lead (laReedaar saroop). Otherwise I see it not any different than a regular Punjabi gathering. And that's not a good thing. Politicians ranting, egotistical 'leaders' fighting to get on stage, etc. Let's reform the system. But until we start the reform, we shouldn't support the corrupt one by showing our faces and participating in it.