I humbly bow

I've never heard that before......? ....sorry but i am biased; Giani ji can't be wrong he was my favourite giani at the gurdwara! He always used to research the katha so well and made it funny and interesting to listen to, rather than feeling as though he was preaching to you. I learnt so many new things, and he had such a friendly smile you always had to smile back at him....he's moved to another gurdwara now..........ok may possibly need closure lol Waheguru ji ka khalsa, Waheguru ji ki fateh

Wow its really hard to learn after such a long time, that's so good! I never learnt in the first place, my brother was too naughty in punjbai classes at the gurdwara and kept getting told off so my parents stopped sending us.....wish i had learnt back then.....your mind picks up things so much quicker when your a kid. Waheguru ji ka khalsa, Waheguru ji ki fateh

There was a katha at the gurdwara a few weeks ago and giani ji said that in the olden days at the time of the moghuls etc, people would try to kidnap the bride while she was having her lavva, so her brother and uncles etc would form a circle around to protect her and keep her safe throughout the anand karaj so that she could complete her marriage. He said it wasn't a religious thing that we must do. I guess we don't need this now as we are freely able to have our anand karaj without fear of such things happening, hope that helps! Waheguru ji ka khalsa, Waheguru ji ki fateh

Hi Carl! Welcome to sikh sangat! This website is fantastic for finding answers to questions and just learning in general. The best thing is that everyone is amazing, its really good to see things from a different point of view, and the stroies in the inspiration section are just awesome! The colour of your skin does not make any differance as to whether or not you can be a sikh. Honestly all that matters is what's inside so please don't worry about that i have seen loads of sikhs with white skin, and probabaly all of them would put me to shame with the amount of dedication they have, colour of your skin does not make you any more or any less of a sikh. I'll tell you one of the cutest things ever was this sikh family i saw at the gurdwara, the dad was dark skinned and the mum had white skin, and they came to the gurdwara with 2 little girls and they must have been about 3 and 5 years old...both wearing turbans looking gorgeus, and 1 had a doll and she had tied a little turban on the doll as well! How cute is that! There are much more knowlegable sikhs on here to help with your questions on sikhi; Bloom's message was so lovely! But if your looking for a friend :D Take care

Happy new year! May this year bring sikhs closer towards our goal of a united sikh community! Oh and fortunate don't worry i didn't know it was new year today untill last week lol! On the nanakshai calender 1 chet is the sikh new year. Waheguru ji ka khalsa, Waheguru ji ki fateh

Hi, well i learnt the alphabet in punjabi like a year ago, then didn't have the motivation to carry on. Then about a month ago i really wanted to learn punjabi again. So i've been using this book called learn punjabi in 30 days, it was ok good to learn simple words but the problem i had was that it was quite boring. But i think the best way to learn a language is to read loads! I was like a little matilda at school reading all the time that's how i got good grades in my exams. So what i did was to go to the library and take out childrens book in both english and punjabi (dual language books) and that really helped! Plus i love reading so it wasn't boring either and now i have worked my way up to the young teenager section...yay i'm a teenager now. I've also found that i can also start to write a bit in punjabi now as well, i've written a mother's day card from my neice to my bhabie.....My friend's mum checked it and it wasn't that bad, apart from a few grammer and spelling mistakes, and she just worded a few things a little differently....but for me to come from nothing to that it was really rewarding! Good luck, stick at it! Waheguru ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru ji ki fateh

The motives for killings like these go on everywhere on this planet, in every race and religion, this is no reason why we Sikhs should not have our own country. I didn't say that, the other member said sikhs fight but it's not like they are killing each other....so i just wanted to point out that wasn't true. Could we not try and achieve inner bliss as well as campaign for a Sikh homeland at the same time. We know what has been done to our people and religion is inhuman, the Indian goverment has basically ripped our hearts out and urinated on our very essence. For Gods sake they attacked Harminder Sahib, raped Sikh women et . Why would a Sikh want to wait any longer for freedom. I believe that when we achieve inner bliss, khalistan will be handed to us by itself. You want freedom from the indian government, but as long as you seek to go in like a raging bull with anger then it will never happen. As well as Congress these are Ultra Hindu extremist political parties which are against all other religions, worse than the Nazi's. Whom are very much in contol of Indian poltics, and are very much behind the genocide which goes on in India. Yes I really do think that the Indian govermnet spies are causing trouble within the Sikh community abroad and India and are creating negative propaganda against Sikhs. The air India flight bombing from Canada to Indian, had Indian goverment involvment, if they can do that why can't they distort Sikh communities. Yes I also accept that we cause some problems ourselves, but the Indian goverment is not going to leave any proof or tell us they are causing problems within our communties. Dude you can't make statements like the above two, without evidence to back it up. For all you know it is someone else who has been causing all this stuff, how would you feel if you had been saying such bad things and making such big accusations and then you found out that it was just 1 man or an entirely different sect to blame. I believe in innocent untill proven guilty. Everything you say against the indian governement seems to be hearsay, rumours, or your own personal view that you seem to be passing off as fact. When would you wait till, when there is no real Sikh left in Punjab. Being in India is far more dirty than what we would create for ourselves. This fresh start you talk about will never happen, we are not a plague of irresponible people that can't look after ourselves, we can tackle all these issues after we have our new land, that should be our priority. I don't know how long we will have to wait till, but i think if waheguru thought that we were ready to create this clean state, we would have it by now, we as indeviduals all need to put the effort in to change ourseves before we are deemed worthy to recieve such a gift Don't get me wrong i can understand why your so bitter towards the indian government, well actually i didn't know before (other than what happened in 84) but i've been having a conversation with an amazing sikh on here who is so good at explaining things and has so much knowlege, its helped me see things from the other point of view. I can understand how it stems way back from when the british were willing to give us khalistan but it was the indian goverment who didn't.....that shocked me, i didn't know that! My only reply to that can be we probably weren't ready for it back then, and we probably aren't ready for it right now. But i'm sure if khalistan is needed for the sikh faith waheguru will definately provide....always trust that whatever happens was meant to happen. Please don't spread hatred, without being totally sure that what you are saying is true. Stay in chardi kala, pray from your heart and remember...................... ...............'Waheguru ji ka khalsa, Waheguru ji ki fateh!'.......it's not our victory over anyone

These were really good too, but it was the acoustic guitar in Snatam kaur's Dhan Siri Guru Granth Sahib Ji that did it for me.........i remember hearing some of her kirtan a few years ago, but it was really mellow, hard to hear over the bus noises....i still think shes really mellow, but having heard her in a different style, one that i prefer as well...........I'm totally smitten :D

ok i just tried to send this from my yahoo account, and yahoo have said my email was not sent becuase of the content of my email, as it contained information that is not allowed to pass through their spam filters?! They have now blocked me from sending any mail for 24 hours! :o

I was missing your posts! Thankyou :D Waheguru ji ka khalsa, Waheguru ji ki fateh

To KH4L1$T4N1 and WakeupUK, You kind of have confirmed the reasons that i thought we wanted Khalistan, but thank you for replying, it has been an interesting read...there's just a few points i'd like to reply to please. 'Did the 100,000+ innocent Sikhs killed by the goverment for being accused of "terrorism" die in vain? Yeh Sikhs fight amongst themselves, but we don exactly kill one another over differences, just look at how the Muslims do that to eachother.' Actually how many stories do you hear of sikhs killing their NRI relatives for property, sikh stabbing at the vaisakhi mela few years ago, the high profile religious sikh who was killed in europe not too long ago....i could go on... 'One of the 52 hukams by Guroo Gobind Singh ji is to RULE INDEPENDENTLY' Wow i've never seen these before, i'm really impressed, that sounds beautiful! I think there are plenty of points on there that we could all quite easily work on indevidually; to improve ourselves. Why not let us all make these changes in ourselves before targeting something that will require a lot of hard work and effort to achieve......not that i'm afraid of hard work lol....maybe then when we are ready we will be better equipped to achieve it?......................or maybe the issue is that it's easier to fight for khalistan then improve ourselves wiht the other 51 hukams?............just my thoughts. 'RSS and BJP' Please forgive my blondness, but what do the above 2 mean, what sort of issues do they stand for? 'there is indications in fact the Indian government has infiltrated the Sikhs communities, and are causing much of these arguments so that Sikh community will not come into union.' Do you really believe the indian government is causing all the arguments amongst sikhs.....even all those similar arguments that sikhs fight over outside of india? Has it ever occured to you that people are reponsible for their own actions......or should we keep playing this blame game, where the indian government has infiltrated everything and everyone. I don't agree with everything that the indian governemnt does, but i think we should be learn to be responsible for our own actions and mistakes....it doesn't always have to be someone else's fault. 'I am sure once we have our own country we can combat such addiction like alcoholism and smoking' I'll give you and analogy; What's the point of buying a brand new house, that is really dirty and then moving in without cleaning it? Surely it would make more sense to tackle these issues amongst the sikh community first so we could make a clean fresh start... 'At present, in the future and the Past the Sikh religion and people have been and will be under continuous attack by the Indian government by means of attacking us physical - The genocide of Sikhs throughout the 80's in Indian specially Punjab' I agree with your point on the genocide of sikhs in the 80's, they were absolutley horrific! .....but from what i understand alot of those sikhs weren't fighting for khalistan they were just going about their daily lives when attacked, even alot of people in Sri Harminder Sahib, they were just there for darshan, they didn't go there with the intention of fighting for khalistan. So i don't think its right to say they died in vain, becuase they were just innocent people caught in the middle, Waheguru. 'Sikhs will live freely without persecutions and have self determination' That sounds like a beautiful dream paji, but i think it's a long way from reality at the moment. BTW i don't watch bollywood or zee cinema, i don't dismiss sikhs calls as overreacting, but i just personally feel that there are more major issues wrong with ourselves which we should fix before we try something like 'saving the world'. How can we seek to improve society and the sikh community if we cannot improve ourselves first. Again please forgive me if i have offended anyone with this. Waheguru ji ka khalsa, Waheguru ji ki fateh

I don't really know why we want khalistan, what do we hope to achive from it? Sorry if that has offended anyone, but i'm sure there are many youngsters who don't know either so please kindly educate me on the issue. At the risk of sounding a total cynic.............. I personally think having Khalistan will do more damage than good. Of all the religions in the world sikhs are the best at fighting amongst themselves! We want to escape the corrupt indian government and police officers....how often do we hear about corruption in the gurdwara's commitees etc, Most of the Punjab police officers are mostly sikh and that hasn't stopped them being corrupt. If it's about being able to pass laws to ban drinking, smoking..........that in princple is great but i can imagine it would still go on behing closed doors, as panjabi's are known for being the biggest drinkers (after the irish). I also don't agree with segregating our religion off, we are one of the only religions in the world that don't actively go out and convert people, so i think its good for sikhs to be integrated into other different societys so people can learn about out religion. I give lifts to people at work and they always listen to kirtan in my car without complaint. One of the people i have given a lift to is muslim and he said our kirtan was relaxing. I have different gurdwara's as my screensaver and the polish guy i work with recognises each of them now and what is special about them. So i really think it helps not having all the sikhs in one place. In theory what i think we want to achieve sounds good, but in reality i can't see there being many major differences. Again sorry if have offended anyone, i am here to learn! Waheguru ji ka khalsa, Waheguru ji ki fateh!

BUMP I loved this story, and it's soo true! Waheguru ji ka khalsa, Waheguru ji ki fateh

WOW WOW WOW Snatam Kaur's kirtan is awesome! I love Dhan Siri Guru Granth Sahib Ji! That made me smile. Thank you :D

aww that's lovely, i like the kirtan you've got with it as well it sounds like acapella jatha......any chance you could send an attachment to the full kirtan being played. Thanking in advance! Waheguru ji ka khalsa, Waheguru ji ki fateh

Does anyone know when the Birmingham one is going to be? Thanking in advance, :D Waheguru ji ka khalsa, Waheguru ji ki fateh

:o <_< That is the same sort of attitude that got someone stabbed a few years ago!

I don't really know, but i do 1 astpaathi everyday. I was talking to a friend at work a year ago and i said i would like to do Sukhmani Sahib but its hard to sit for that long and concentrate, she told me to do 1 astpaathi everyday to break it down and make it easier....so that's what i've been doing ever since. Ive done Sukhmani Sahib paath all the way through in one sitting on 2 occasions only, it was hard to do. Waheguru ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru ji ki Fateh

Ah wow! That was lovely! Keep up the inspirational posts Waheguru ji ka khalsa, waheguru ji ki fateh!

Awww Congratulations Paji! It depends where you go really, if you go to harminder shaib to matha teek you have to go to gurdwara Taaran Taaran Sahib it's only about a 40min drive away, and is absolutely beautiful!! You feel like giddy with happiness, the sarowar is awesome! It's supposed to be one of the biggest in india as well......and because its just outside of the city it's not too busy so you can easily enjoy the shanti of the place I've put up a pic from when i went! Waheguru ji ka khalsa, waheguru ji ki fateh

That's so lovely :D .................... .......And so true! Waheguru ji ka khalsa, Waheguru ji ki fateh

Well my parents were very strict on caste, and i was engaged to someone in my own caste. With waheguru's kirpa that bad engagement broke down, then they were suddenly ok with me finding my own guy outside of the caste. But after i've been on shaadi.com they are not too keen on the idea anymore....ive found that a lot of families are not willing to accept a daughter-in-law from a different caste. I tell my parents about every guy i have spoken to on there (becuase i don't want to do something that they disapprove of), and the amount of times i have said to them i'm not in contact with x person anymore, turns out caste would be an issue...is really bad! It has sort of confirmed what their fears were before; that i would be treated differently or looked down on if marrying someone from a different caste. I personally think it wouldn't work if marrying into a family that are big on caste, even if your partner wasn't. Because it already creates a divide and it would be a horrible position to put your husband in! So, it would be awesome for everyone to be able to go out there and marry someone they love regardless of caste, but in reality i think us as a sikh community are a very long way from getting there. Apologies if i have offended anyone. Waheguru ji ka khalsa, Waheguru ji ki fateh

OMG that's terrible! :o Can the indian government not do anything to help?...or am i being naive again? May waheguru bless the familes of those killed, and provide protection for those still detained. Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh!

Oh right. Yeah I know all rap isn't bad i like that song ghetto gospel, plus i like linkin park who have a lot of rap in their songs. Apologies paji, i'm not really into that music so i don't know. Yeah i'm sure that there are probably just as many 'bad' rock songs out there as there are rap songs.

Hmm well there are people like the cray twins who havent done a very good job? (sorry i'm not into that sort of music i may have spelt it wrong....they rap right?...also dance alongside half naked women tut tut) No i agree with paji it would be awesome if we could get an amritdari in rock music....they all have long hair anyway lol.....plus some of them actually wear like a bandana for fashion! :lol: moshing and holding your head.........ahh so that explains why i used to get all those bruises after gigs; people like you with their damn elbows everywhere