It was really painful and disturbing to find certain things. The poster at the venue said
"ਗੁਰਮਤ ਕੀਰਤਨ ਨੂੰ ਪੁਨਰ ਜੀਵ ਕਰਨ ਦਾ ਇਕ ਉਪਰਾਲਾ"
“An effort to revive Gurmat Kirtan”
But the renowned Pandits of Hindustani classical music invited were singing anything but Gurmat Kirtan. Most raags were off-title. The shabad of Raag Malhaar was sung in Raag Basant.
Gurbani was called as rachna (composition) of someone else -which was of course corrected when pointed out. Some raags that were sung are not even part of Guru Granth Sahib. What hurt the most was that some of them just rushed to the stage without doing matha tek to the Guru whose Gurta Gaddi Diwas was supposedly being commemorated. Here is a small video clip of Rajan and Sajan Mishra singing. I could not make out what they were singing. No doubt they are very good singers but singing Gurbani is pure love and devotion and not the showing off one’s talent. Nirdharit Raags and clarity of word should have been on top priority. I have nothing against them I fully appreciate their singing talent but I feel they shouldn’t have been invited for Gurmat Kirtan as its different from their field. The other kirtanias were really wonderful.
