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  1. ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂ ਜੀ ਕਾ ਖਾਲਸਾ, ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂ ਜੀ ਕੀ ਫਤਿਹ In BBC Magazine Monitor - Homeless people in the UK are getting free meals thanks to a centuries-old Sikh tradition. Why, asks Rajeev Gupta. "We come here because we get food... A hot meal. It's a luxury for me." John Davidson is 55 and homeless. He is one of 250 people who have just received a hand-out of hot soup, drinks, chocolate bars and other supplies from the Sikh Welfare and Awareness Team van parked up on the Strand in central London on a cold Sunday evening. The Swat team, as they're known, park at the same spot every week so a group of volunteers from the Sikh community can hand out vital supplies. Homeless people, who overwhelmingly are not Sikh, patiently wait in line to be served. For the volunteers handing out food here, this is more than just good charitable work. For them this is a religious duty enshrined by the founder of the Sikh religion, Guru Nanak, over 500 years ago. At a time of deep division by caste and religious infighting between Hindus and Muslims in India, Guru Nanak called for equality for all and set forward the concept of Langar - a kitchen where donated produce, prepared into wholesome vegetarian curry by volunteers, is freely served to the community on a daily basis. Today, thousands of free Langar meals are served every day in Sikh temples throughout the UK. The Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara in Southall, thought to be the biggest Sikh temple outside of India, says it alone serves 5,000 meals on weekdays and 10,000 meals on weekends. Every Sikh has the duty to carry out Seva, or selfless service, says Surinder Singh Purewal, a senior member of the temple management team. "It means we're never short of donations or volunteers to help prepare the Langar." In recent times the Langar meal has acted as a barometer for the state of the economy. After the 2008 recession many Sikh temples reported a surge in the numbers of non-Sikhs coming in for the free Langar meals. It's now common to see non-Sikhs inside the temple, Purewal says: "We don't mind it. As long as people show respect, are not intoxicated and cover their heads in line with our traditions, then everyone is welcome." The Swat team say they decided to take the concept of Langar outside its traditional setting in temples and out onto the streets when they saw a growing homelessness problem in London. Randeep Singh who founded SWAT says: "When you go to the temple, what's the message? The message is to help others, help your neighbours. That's what we are doing."
  2. In the memory of the supreme sacrifice of the Sahibzadas a special Children’s programme will be held here at The Sikh Missionary Society’s Premises on - Date: 28th December 2014 Time: 12.00 (noon) - 3.00 PM Location: Sikh Missionary Society U.K. 10, Featherstone Road, Southall UB2 5AA United Kingdom Featuring Kirtan, Gurbani competition, poems and lectures. Prizes will be given to all participants. Langer consisting of Chips, Beans, Pasta and Fruit dishes will be served at the end. http://www.sikhmissionarysociety.org @sikh_missionary
  3. Posted on Gurmatbibek. A good article I came across from sikh24.com. Sri Guru Sahib jee started this great tradition off many hundreds of years ago known as Guru-Kaa-Langar where all come to sit together. Why you should sit on the floor while eating Author: Pavitra Sampath In many Indian households you will find that people sit on the floor and eat their meals. While most of us have embraced the table and chair as a place to eat, there are those of us who prefer to sit in front of the TV and/or sit on the bed and eat. While this might be very comfortable, it might not necessarily be the best thing for your health. Our ancestors definitely had a plan when they made sure we sit on the floor, cross legged and ate our food. Here are 10 reasons going back to your roots is the best for your health. 1) Helps improve your digestion: When you sit on the floor, you usually sit cross legged – an aasan known as sukhaasan or a half padmasna which are poses that help in digestion (since it is believed that when one sits in this pose in front of food it automatically signals your brain to prepare for digestion). Apart from that when you eat from a plate placed on the floor, you will have to naturally bend forward slightly and go back to your starting position to swallow. This constant back and forth movement causes the muscles of your abdomen to be activated and also leads to increased secretion of stomach acids – making it much easier for you to digest food. 2) Helps you lose weight: Sitting on the floor and eating has significant weight loss benefits too. When you sit in this position, your brain automatically calms down and is better equipped to focusing on the food you eat. Moreover this position helps you cognate the amount of food you have eaten and helps you feel full faster. How does that work? Well, the main reason people overeat is because they do not know when they are full. This happens because the vagus nerve (the main nerve that transmits signals from the stomach to the brain) sends signals to the brain as you eat, telling it if you are satiated or not. When you sit on the floor this nerve is able to perform better and transmit signals more efficiently. Also, since this position makes you eat slower than you would while sitting on a table, it gives your stomach and brain time to cognate the signals of feeling full{2}, thereby preventing overeating and binging. 3) Makes you more flexible: When you squat or sit in padmasana, the muscles in your lower back, pelvis, around your stomach and those of the upper and lower abdomen stretch – reducing pain and discomfort. This, in turn helps your digestive system relax and stay in a normal position. Moreover, this position does not compress your stomach in anyway helping you eat and digest better. Moreover, the regular stretching of these essential muscles also helps make you more flexible and healthy. 4) Aids in mindful eating: When you sit on the floor and eat as a family it aids in mindful eating. Not only does it help you focus on your food, but it also helps you make better choices when you eat. Since your mind is calm and your body is ready to accept nutrition, sitting on the floor is the best way to eat the right amount and kinds of food. According to leading nutritionist, Rujuta Diwekar, eating food while concentrating on every aspect of the food – its smell, taste, texture and how much you are eating is the key to losing weight – which is what sitting on the floor and eating gives you. 5) Helps you bond with your family: Usually the practice of sitting on the floor and eating is a family activity. This time is great for you to bond. One of the reasons sitting on the floor is better at helping you bond is because it leads to a calm and happy mind – helping you listen more intently and peacefully. 6) Improves your posture: Posture is very important when it comes to staying healthy. Good posture not only helps prevent injuries but it also reduces the chances of excessive strain on certain muscles and joints, which can lead to fatigue and quicker than normal wear and tear. When you sit on the floor your posture is automatically corrected, making your back straight, lengthening your spine and pushes back your shoulders – beating all the common aches and pains that come with bad posture. 7) Can make you live longer: Sounds a bit unbelievable right? Well, it’s true, sitting on the floor and eating can actually help you live longer. A study published in the Journal European Journal of Preventive Cardiology{2} found that people who sat on the floor in padmasana and were able to get up without any support were more likely to live longer. This is because being able to get up from that position takes a considerable amount of flexibility and lower body strength. The study found that those who were not able to get up without support were at the risk of being 6.5 times more likely to die in the next six years. 8) Lubricates and keeps your knees and hip joint healthy: According to PS Venkateshwara, author of the book Yoga for Healing {3}, padmasana and sukhasana is one pose that has health benefits for your entire body. Not only does it help your digestive system function better, but it also helps keep your joints supple, flexible and less prone to injuries and degenerative diseases like arthritis and osteoporosis. That is because the constant bending of the knees, ankles and hip joint helps keep them flexible and free of diseases. And with flexibility comes better lubrication between the joints making it much easier to sit on the floor. 9) Relaxes the mind and calms the nerves: Sukhaasan and padmasana or the cross legged way one sits on the floor while eating has a number of benefits, and one of its most significant ones is that it calms the mind and relaxes frazzled nerves. A very handy tool, it is believed in Ayurveda that eating with a calm mind helps better digestion and in some cases has even helped people relish food better. 10) Strengthens the heart by improving circulation: Have you ever noticed that when you eat, you tend to feel warmer and in some cases even sweat? Well, that is because when we eat our stomach needs all the energy it can use to digest food. One of digestion’s most important element is a sound blood circulation. To keep up with this process, your heart tends to work overtime to help out your digestive system. Here is where sitting on the floor and eating can help you out. When you sit on the floor your heart gets the benefits of circulation as the blood is easily pumped through the heart to all the organs needed for digestion. This is in contrast to the pattern of circulation when you sit on a dining table and chair, wherein the blood flows to the legs as they are lower than the heart. Therefore sitting on the floor and eating, affords you a healthy heart with strong muscles to help it cope with the pressures of daily life.
  4. Guest

    Keep The Langar Ever Open

    The last words of Guru Gobind Singh before before he passed away at Nanded were, Keep the langar ever open , his final wish requwsted of Bhai Santokh Singh. One of the lines in Guru ji's Dasam Granth reads: Deg tegh jag me dou chalaimay langar (charity) and sword (instrument of securing justice) together prevail in the world. The first Sikh coin minted in the eighteenth century carried the Guru's maxim in Persian: Deg tegh fatehmay langar and sword be ever triumphant.
  5. So i was reading the discussion about langar in the other topic and remembered the sakhi of this sikh couple who would do seva in langar and then eat langar every day. I think they were told that langar became like a payment from the guru to them so they were advised not to consume langar all the time. I might be wrong as i was very young when i read that sakhi. Anyway, so in our gurdwaras usually there is langar leftover after everyone has eaten. There is mad rush to fill tomato tins, Tupperware etc with langar to take home. As we know many people are struggling with expenses, should we be promoting langar to non Sikhs? There could be a list of people who sevadars could send the leftover langar. It would be better than us lot overeating langar. We used to do this at our old location, there was an old peoples home nearby and we used to send them the food.
  6. I'm not comfortable with the idea of random security firms or even ones owned by apneh roaming Gurudwaras like stormtroopers and doing the stuff that some of these companies have a reputation for. The Jews have built well protected Synagogues for themselves in the UK, we should see how they do it. If we can defend our Gurudwaras during riots than we should also be able to do something about this. Unemployed youth, volunteers, local workers on lunch breaks, other Sikhs with days off should be roped in to help. It's just an idea, I dont want to start arguments. A lot of Sikhs have military, security, bouncer, guard etc experience in the UK and ultimately it is about sewa, rather than paying people to do what we should do. The Gurudwara could cover expenses for people who volunteer and are worried about travel costs etc. Any other ideas?
  7. Dear All Waheguru Ji ka Khalsa Waheguru ji ke fateh. I am a qualified chef by profession with over 13-14 years of experience, And I was previleged to contribute my expertise in project Langar 2012 http://www.unitedsikhs.org/langgar2012/ . This uprala was actualy done by United Sikhs .org and I was given the responsibility to bring in idea in which we are able to serve langar to all the wel lwishers, and visitors those who gathered to support "Bhai fauja singh ji " ( A 101 year old Marathon runner ) on is relay of Torch in stratford London During London Olympics 2012. This time we were not preparing langar for only sikh coimmunity or for gurdwara visitors. This time we were going out of our cordon and was serving langar every individual from different backgrounds gahthered there to watch the relay of torch on that day. It was a huge amount of crowd estimated to around 40,000+ people to arrive. details of the event are given in the web link posted. During this event I had to visit various Gurdwaras to demonstrate the Vege-Roti Rolls and I realised each gurdwara is preparing huge quantity of langar for its regular sangat and with 'guru-ki-meher' during weekends the numbers are doubled o reven multiplied several times. And I have seen the langrees ( person assigned by gurdwara committee to prepare langar ) along with voluntary sewadaars moving these humungous pots and pans here and there for preparation of dal-sabzi or even chawal. And after observing all this I just thought if we can use some professional equipments such as Tilting pans, Deep fryer, or a pressure boiler they can make cooking of langar a bit more convenient, time and energy saving also as these equipments take half the time of our regular cooking methods. Pics of these equipments are attached please have a look and post your opinion on this. These equipments can be handled all at once by one person and are very easy to operate and clean as most of the are plumbed with a swivel water tap for cleaning and for water supply for cooking. they do not ask a lot of maintenance. most of these equipments can servive a decade without a penny spent on them if handled properly . The tilting pan is suitable for cooking large quantity of dal or sabzi etc it can also be used for frying purees and all. the fryer is ideal for pakoras and samosa, and the boiler is ideal for cooking rice and boiling of vegetables Hope nobody mis-understands me as a salesman for theses equipment I am just bringing in an idea to make the life of langris a bit easy and focussed. If the Almighty akalpurakh permits then very soon we will do the sewa of one of these equipments in one of the busy gurdwara sahebs of east London, which will work as example for sangat to see and experience and once successfull we will take it to rest of the gudwaras where they do high volume of langar or even we can encourage wealthy gurdwaras to invest in these equipments to utilize the advancement of technology of cooking large volumes in these Gurdwaras. I am just trying to bring some new Ideas from the expertise of my profession but if it has hutr anybody's sentiments ot religious beliefs in any way, then its purely unintentional and highly regretted. Guru Rakha Gurpreet Singh
  8. I have seen many times few Gurskihs went to gurudwara sahib , listen to Gurbani , do sewa and never eat lanagar. i asked them why they do this. they told me that if we eat langar , then the person who is doing bthe langar , we have to give some % of simran to him. He even don't eat anything from anyones house. he always eat from his own home. I want to know that how much is the logic in it. I have also head some katha where Bhai Manj ji used to eat lagar from Gurudwara sahib Khooth but then Guru sahib told him that by eating Lagar you getting fruit of your sewa. Does it mean that we avoid if possible to eat lanagar at Gurudwara sahib. I have been eating langar for many years, I was a student and one of the reason to go To Gurudwara sahib was eating langar as its dificult to prepare at home. So i want to know how much we are suffered by eating langar. because if there is some drawback then will stop eating lanagar and will try to prepare at home.
  9. Akali Kirtan Darbar Dedicated to the Nihang Singhs of Dasmesh Pita Saturday 8th December 2012 Kirtan by Bhai Sukhwinder Singh (Sukhi Baba) (Birmingham) Katha by Bhai Jagraj Singh (London) Sukhmani Sahib: 5;00pm Rehiras Sahib: pmAarti Arta: pmKatha: pmKirtan: PMGurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha 5 Newark Road, Fengate Peterborough PE1 5XS Contact: Bhujhang@live.com
  10. I'm from Ontario and I went to Vancouver a few days ago while I was there at a Gurudwara in Surrey I saw chairs and Tables in the Langar Hall. I'm 14 and I asked my cousin who is 20 if it was allowed in Sikhi and he said there was no problem with it. I just want to ask your opinion on this, is it wrong or is there no problem.
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