Singhrow Study - How To Get Youth Into The Gurdwara Or Sikhi Scene

[singhrow]

Singhrow Study – How to get local Youth Involved in the Local Gurdwara/Sikhi scene.

Introduction

Having travelled to most cities this year it is very sad to see that a lot of towns and Gurdwaras are totally neglecting our youth. So why do we still wonder why our youth are corrupted by the vices of life. So many girls are running away from their homes with non –Sikhs because they don’t have any knowledge on our history and religion. Our boys act like clowns and have become piss-heads because they too have not got a clue about the honour of our ancestors. We can’t blame them to extent because no-one is teaching them. Muslim children go Mosque in the mornings before school and after school every day. You have to rate them for their determination and commitment towards their faith in a non-Islamic country. In comparison to Muslims we are ten years behind their religious infrastructure and interaction with the youth.

Ideas to get the youth involved with the Gurdwara:

Youth Simran session:

Don’t just make a poster saying Simran session; you have to sell it as a Sikh Meditation class (a lot of Youth don’t know what Simran means). On the poster write “come and feed you soul and relax your mind from the pressures of life” (this will interest people)

Make sure the sessions stay politics free, do not discriminate against anybody, even if they have a hair cut , let them jump on the Waja (who are we to stop anyone from Japping Naam) slowly and slowly with pyaar (Love) they will keep their hair as the naam purifies their mind. I have seen many places turn down monas from doing simran, this makes them feel unwelcome and they stop coming (if it was on stage in a proper divan that’s different but a youth simran session is designed to get the Non-practising Sikhs involved). Seems like a lot of people have forgotten about their past, the same people that stop moans used to do Simran themselves as a mona in the youth sessions (The Panth seems to be full of hypocrites with egos)

Anyway have the session for about 2 hours in the evening on a week-day (ideally Wednesday) from 7pm to 9pm

Sunday Sports:

On Sunday mornings take a trip to a Local Park, organise a football match for the boys and a rounder’s game for the girls. But before the sports have a ten minute simran session and five minute on a sakhi. (You will be surprised at how many numbers do turn up) Ideal time: 10am to 12pm

Self-defence class:

The streets are getting more hostile everyday so a lot of parents want their kids to learn self –defence and our kids are paying big money to go to non- Sikh classes. But martial arts mixed with simran and sakhis (do a 15 minute session at the end of the class) of Sikh warriors will create the ideal little warrior with the spirit of fearlessness. A lot of kids have the technique but don’t have the spirit because they are overcome by fear.

Sikhi Workshop/Forum:

Have a Sikh forum or workshop once every two weeks/month in the evening for teenagers – 7pm-9pm this time allows them to come back from school or work and get to Gurdwara after relaxing for awhile.

Once a month or once every three months have a mini camp for one day for the younger kids– have bouncy castles etc.

Once a year have a Gurdwara sports day – where the kids compete in all types of races etc, this way they will get to recognise local faces and make friendships and grow up together in a united manner.

Start a Punjabi /Gurmukhi class if one does not already exist.

A lot of young Sikhs are professional teachers, it’s sad to see that they will teach in government schools for money but not do anything for Guru Gobind Singhs children. If the Gurdwara does not allow any of this a few local professionals can chip in and rent a hall/house and start doing these activities, we have projectors these days to give the kids darshan of Gurbani etc. Something has to be done; if we don’t then these kids we fall into a lot of pitfalls as kuljug is getting stronger everyday. We all know without religion there is nothing but doom and gloom out there, do you really want the kids to go through what most of us guys have been through.

Do nothing then nothing changes - Prevention is better then cures!

[Singhstah]

I like these studies, very well written and actually give solutions rather than just ranting lol. Really agree with the bit about simran sessions 100% Naam is the greatest power.

[london001]

Singhrow - I'd also suggest that people need to learn more about sikh history; not just what happened during our Guru's time but the contribution that sikhs made during the first and second world wars. There are pictures of sikh soliders relaxing in southern France after they'd help liberate it from Nazi control. They're playing with french children, riding cycles through small french villiages etc. I think this is something that children can relate to as they would have studied the 1st and 2nd WW @ school. This will help create pride in their history and will encourage them to learn more.

Also, I think you there should be more about the philosphy of sikhism - for example - the concept of sharing one's wealth; seva; how during the time of our Gurus princes, Kings and Emperors sat with their servants to eat langar.

[jgill]

i agree here

we need to bring in youth with sports and mma classes, with so much money pumped into the gurdwaras rather then allowing these clowns to fight and waste it on legal expensis and building the 30th gurdwara in a city invest it on our youth by investing in sports and mma

use sports and other activity's to build self esteem in children, inspire them and build up belief in themselves, and inspire them to set high goals and have that fire in them to go reach them, with out a person giving themselves purpose and having that fire in them to reach that purpose life is pretty boring and depressing and we use other substances to make up for that which arn't good

set up classes every sunday as well were kids can come and learn about sikh history and sikhism, but not force it down their throats just educate them on it

i mean at uni we have a sikhism class and every kid is hungry to learn sikhi, their's waiting lists for kids to get into the class cause alot of these youth want to know their history and religion and cause of the teachers and alot of these kids including me attended khalsa camps but these camps were complete waste of time were sikhi was forced down our throats were we had no idea why we woke up so early in the mourning to do keertan accept for if we didn't like it we shoudl feel bad, but if you have good teachers your going to have more kids wanting to come to the gurdwara to learn, a good teacher can make any subject interesting and sikhi and our history alone is extremely exciting and inspirational

and let parants know these programs our available and the benifits their children will receive thanks to these programs

and make them free of charge

make programs available and rather then using weddings and nagar kirtan events a time to judge ppl for not being gursikh and pissing ppl off and angering them to point they turn their backs on gurdwaras even more rather then do that just take time to let parants know their's great programs available for their kids and the benifits their children will receive from these programs such as learning sikhi and sikh history as well as building self esteem setting goals learnign leadership skills team work and so on and how this will be benefit