The Jurulatihs of Gelanggang Naga Rantau with Master Cikgu Sani Morni, Cikgu Rahman, me and Cikgu Hafiz.
Gelanggang Naga Rantau Universiti Malaysia Pahang was honored again after a very well-known Master in the Gayong world, Cikgu Sani Morni came and conducted the first series of Keris intensive course. 4 days and 3 nights were spent by Cikgu Sani Morni, Cikgu Rahman and Cikgu Hafiz BMI to teach and to share with Anak Naga Rantau the art of Keris.
It was planned since couple of months, and syukur alhamdulillah, thanks to Allah The One who permits us to
have had successfully organized this precious knowledge sharing course. Since the time was restricted due to most of anak Naga Rantau are having their pre-final exam preparation, less than half of the Jurulatih
(Red belt and above for Panglima; Green belt and above for Srikandi) were able to attend. Some were really sad for not able to come and didn't shy to express their frustration. This is what a Panglima and Srikandi should be. Thirsty and hungry for the knowledge is the one main requirement of a good student. As Imam Syafie rah. said once, "you are always intelligent as long as you treat yourself as a Student. But you will be a stupid person once you treat yourself as a Master".
(meaning that once he considerate himself as a "Master" and refuse to learn from someone else due to the ego, than that's the moment he is in the failure)
Cikgu Sani Morni is one of the Senior Master left who is still teaching until now. He is the Master of many Gayong senior Masters all around the country. What make him different is his philosophy of being a "Pahat and Penukul" (Chisel and Hammer). He said, don't blame a Master who has the responsibility towards his students. As a Master, he must be a hammer who hits the chisel to make it works. Dato Meor's teaching method was very effective where students learned not only the physical aspect, but also the manners, the attitude, the mental and the spiritual. The hard training under Dato' Meor and other Gurulatih, made Cikgu Sani Morni taught us in the very same way. I was indeed delightful that Cikgu Sani agreed to come and spend his valuable time with us here in Pekan.
Seni Keris is one of very special lesson in Silat Seni Gayong. This is where the legendary Laksamana Hang Tuah's art were transferred and practiced and was kept secretly before this. There are more than dozen of weapons taught in Silat Seni Gayong, but only 2 weapons have a very special ceremony of "graduation". They are the Keris and the Lembing, which have the Khatam Keris and Khatam Lembing. The Lembing (Javelin, Spears) is inherited from the very well known of Laksamana Megat Terawis. Both of this art will have their graduation one in the beach and other in a waterfall.
After a complete 3 days training, most of the Jurulatih started to show the fluidity and confidence in playing with the art of Keris. And me, personally, I just cannot hold my knees articulations when descending the stairs! The training was so intense and killing my leg muscles! ;) The traditional way of training Seni Keris is by having a low position and to be able to move quickly within that position; which means a total suffering and punishment for a lazy fat self-proclaimed-teacher like me!!! lol
Alhamdulillah, the course was done successfully and insyaAllah we will organize the second course after Raya insyaAllah. I do hope and pray, (we all do!) that Allah will give a good health, a right time and well condition to Cikgu Sani, Cikgu Rahman and their team from PSSGMKL to come again and teach us more the art of Seni Keris. InsyaAllah, next time, some of "beach, sand, sun and wind"-elements will be added in our Seni keris short course! ;) I would like to thank to Ayahanda Cikgu Sani Morni, the chairman of Technical Committee of PSSGMKL, Cikgu Rahman, the President of PSSGMKL as his assistant during the Seni keris short course, and also to Cikgu Hafiz Kajang who came and supported this program. Saya minta dihalalkan segala ilmu Cikgu kepada kami, dan kami minta maaf banyak2 di atas sebarang kekurangan dan kelemahan dalam perancangan dan pengurusan pihak kami. Terutama ambo yang dhaif ini shaiful hakim, maaf banyak2 buat Cikgu Sani dan Cikgu Rahman untuk "hotel 4 bintang". ;)
Buat Anak-anak Gayong Gelanggang Naga Rantau, segala ilmu dan pelajaran janganlah dilupai. Dan perkemaskanlah dan mahirkanlah. InsyaAllah hanya yang terpilih sahaja akan diberi kebenaran untuk mengikuti kursus seterusnya. Semoga usaha keras kita untuk mahir dalam seni ini dikira sebagai amalan kebaikan untuk kita sehingga ke syurga. InsyaaAllah. Ingat kata-kata Cikgu Sani ; "YOU ARE THE LEADER!!!". ;)
