Sewadaars Needed - Website On Bhai Nand Lal On His 300 Year Death Tricentenary

[sikha]

Waheguru ji ka Khalsa Waheguru ji ki Fateh.

Bhai Nand Lal Goya was one of the most outstanding Court poets of the Guru. He was a great Persian and Arabic scholar and his Diwân is a part of the Sikh litterary Canon. Yet only a hand full of Sikhs are knowledgeable about his beautiful works. We wish to change that!

In commemorating his 300 year death tricentenary in 2013 we wish to make a website, provide fresh translations, kirtan and recitations of his Perso/arabic/panjabi bani. For this we need help from a wide range of people with various skills, especially website skills, multimedia (video and image), artists etc.

If you are interested, or know anyone who is good at making websites, videos and translating from punjabi to english, please send me a PM or write in this thread and we will tell you more about the project.

One sample of Nand Lal's craving mystical poetry can be read here. He wrote this once while waiting in the darbaar for Guru Gobind Singh to return:

My heart burns in separation of my beloved;

My soul is aflame with a passion for him;

I am so much enveloped in these flaming emotions;

That whoever sees me in this plight burns like pinewood that catches fire.

I am not the only one burning in these flames; The whole world around me is ablaze.

I am burning on the embers of separation, just as a chemist burns chemicals on a furnace.

Blessed be thou O heart of Goya,

For being burnt in passionate flames of love.

Alexandar Von Humbolt who has translated some of Bhai Nandlal Goya's work in "The Pilgrims Way" has this to say about Nand Lal: "Goya was among the masters who could put in verse what he felt deep within, and like the entirety of his self laid at the sacred feet of the great Guru, the Beloved. And no doubt, those who surrender the self, master the world."

Help us in mainstreaming and making the figure of Bhai Nand Lal Goya popular among mainstream Sikhs. In 2013 we mark the 300 year death tricentenary of this majestic soul. Come be a part of this project of reviving the universal message of the Sikh faith.

[Tera]

I'm a full time website developer... Quite busy though, have you got a deadline?

[sikha]

Thank you for your reply Singh. We are thinking of launching the website around March 2012 so there should be plenty of time

Do you think this project is something you would be interested in contributing with? The level of material we are going to put on the website is gonna be historical,- material never released for the sangat in the past 50 years or more

[S1ngh]

If few ppl come together to do this project then i can help around little bit here and there

[Tera]

As S1ngh says above... if we get some other helpers too, then i'm on board. Too much to do alone but with helpers it should be fine

[_singhni_]

Count me in; can do things here&there..

[Azaad]

count me in..

[sikha]

Sounds great Singhs and Kaurs.

We already have a team of about 5 people doing different things. Can u either here or in a private PM tell me a little about about what you might be able to help in with? At the moment we especially need people who are good at making slide show videos and grapichs (art work with Gurmukhi texts etc, either hand made or computer made).

With slideshow video i mean something like this (audio,video and text all combined in a beautiful setting telling a story):

[sikha]

SIkhoooooooooo

[S1ngh]

I think first we need to have a plan to develop a template for the website. Once we have a platform then we should focus on gathering or creating materials such as slideshows/audio/vidoes/graphics.

I would stress on stepwise process:

1. Domain Name + Hosting

2. CMS (wordpress?)

3. Template (if wordpress then see templates @ http://themeforest.net/category/wordpress)

4. How many pages? what should be on front page? what we want visitors to get from the website? etc...

5. Create multimedia materials (more visuals).