BBC Radio 4 20170825

Good morning.

Dogger. Fisher. German Bight. Beautiful names for coastal and sea-based regions that I still don’t know much about, and a daily incantation which has mesmerised the British public over the airwaves for many decades. The Shipping Forecast is an essential source of information for the fishing and coastal communities, imparting vital knowledge about the weather conditions in the surrounding seas. For millions of others, including me, it is a poetic repetition of words and phrases, calming in itself, the nation’s lullaby, which helps countless people with no connection to maritime life in drifting off to sleep.

In some respects, the format of the Shipping Forecast reminds me of how I learned the key Sikh prayer of the Mool Mantar, literally the ‘root mantra’ of the faith. It’s part of a larger daily prayer recited by Sikhs just before dawn, about the same time as the Shipping Forecast goes out. It consists of thirteen words that sum up the core Sikh beliefs, that there is just one supreme reality, truth by name, a single creator for all that exists, one without fear, without hatred, an eternal being, beyond the limitations of birth or death, self-existent and known by the Guru’s grace. It’s the first verse within the Sikh scriptures, and the first words uttered by Guru Nanak when he gained enlightenment over 500 years ago.

As a young child, I repeated the words of the Mool Mantar over and over again until I knew them off by heart. I’ve always found it comforting and meditative, even if at first I didn’t understand what the words meant. It took some time for me to start to appreciate the deeper meaning to the recitation. Reading different English translations helped, but they all failed to capture the beauty of the language, the cadence of the poetry, and the uplifting nature of the prayer.

The repetition over the years has helped me to improve my understanding about my own faith, as well as develop an appreciation of a complex concept that’s been condensed into a deceptively simple set of words. I’m still no expert on the intricacies of the Mool Mantar, but I know that each time I hear it or recite it, I gain a deeper insight into what it means to be Sikh.

The world is filled with so many complicated ideas and notions which can challenge us, even when they’ve been reduced to their bare essentials. I’m unlikely to ever get to a definitive meaning for the Mool Mantar or even understand the science that goes into developing weather reports. But there’s no reason why we can’t rejoice in the beauty of words and phrases that can improve our knowledge and enhance our being in the hope that, one day, we will understand what it all truly means. After all, as Guru Nanak himself said when expanding upon the Mool Mantar, “by listening, the unreachable comes within your grasp”.