Sikh Bhakti: Music, Memory, and Embodied Practices Music is central to Sikh devotional practice. Sikh scripture contains the music and poetry of medieval bhaktī sants and is organized by rāga melody. The text is revered as the “Living Guru” and the center of Sikh worship. Sikhs around the world recite, perform, and sing the sacred poems as a practice of communal remembering, spiritual gnosis, and divine union. Yet memory of what Sikh musical traditions were like before British colonization has gone nearly extinct. Before colonization, Sikhs embraced diverse streams of spirituality and music. But the rupture of colonization and what followed – Punjab’s partition, nationalist identity politics, and the neo-liberal marketplace, caused Sikh leaders to draw rigid boundaries around their identity and their music. The loss of performative and musical memory spurred a critical renaissance beginning in the late 1980s to recover and revive the remnants of Sikh knowledge contained in the musical heritage. Today Sikhs are reclaiming wisdom and memory to chart a new future for the community and offering their spiritual wisdom to a world in crisis. This talk argues that Sikh wisdom cannot be constrained by (post)colonial logics of conformity and closure. As a living stream of knowledge of embodied pedagogy and praxis (jog or yoga), it resists hegemonic and homogenous notions of authority and authenticity altogether, allowing for diverse future creations. Bio: Nirinjan Kaur Khalsa-Baker is Professor of Teaching in Theological Studies and Yoga Studies at LMU where she teaches classes on Sikh, Jain, and Yoga Studies. She is a Sikh musician and scholar who uses a decolonial and feminist lens to explore diversity, belonging, and power in religious communities, pedagogies, and practices. In 2024 she traveled the country on the Revolutionary Love Tour sharing Sikh songs and stories of love and courage to nourish and strengthen communities during these divisive times. @DrNinjaKaur