Is eating langar at Gurudwara sahib do any disadvanatage to us

[bluespace]

also.. gurji was also be being funny in my opinion when saying eat langar before sangat... the stress being is many people will come before shabad guru and with the smell of langar, their dyaan would be put towards langar.. hence eat langar before dyan or guru shabad....many premi will tell not to eat before dyan on shabad guru.....just my relationship with guru ji.. take it as you will...

[innergear]

I wentw to 1 gurdwara and got gas bad times. I couldn walk without letting one off . This Isnt the langr fault more the ppl making the langr with too much oil or spicyness. This is a disvantage of corse. I thought that if you do a langr U R spreadin yor Simran to others. So i was told to eat mor langr? This also Cud be the wind problem too

[rrss]

The gursikhs you have spoken to probably observe bibek and simply haven't given you a good explanation. Bibek is not just about how food is prepared. There are some good articles on the internet and this forum explaining it, please have a look.

On a less serious note, as far as transferring some simran to someone else, I don't believe thats possible otherwise we would all be outsourcing our simran requirements to Indian call centres and assuredly reach sachkhand thanks to 'Joe' from Mumbai. And if it were possible, a gursikh would not hesitate to help someone else in such a manner.

Getting serious again, perhaps the gursikh in question was referring to an old (punjabi) wives' tale which essentially says that if you eat langar without having paid for it, then you are being greedy and will suffer take on the karam of the person who has prepared it or generally get karam from 'free food' offered at houses (+karam=losing simran using this twisted logic?), so do not eat at anyone's house and don't eat langar unless necessary and if so, put money in golak if you can afford to. Rubbish, of course.

[rrss]

Also on Gurdwara langar in general, it should at least follow very basic bibek i.e. healthy and simple food based on what the body needs. Anyone commenting on the great taste of sabzi at langar needs to work on trying to taste har ras, all other tastes are left wanting, indeed hunger is forgotten whilst absorbed in His glorious presence. Waheguru!

[wahegurudapyara]

Please dont forget that guru Amardas ji had ordered sikhs to eat langar before coming to sangat( pehala pangat fir sangat) this langar is an important part of sikhi. Akbar had also taken langar in goindwal sahib by sitting in pangat. and he got impressed and came to sikhi. we should not ignore langar. it is also helpful in killing our ego. but it is also necessary to do sewa after eating. also when no time then at least put some money in golak.

[Bundha]

To original poster, this is true.

We treat Langar like a restaurant. How many times I have seen people come in take huge dollops of saag, filling the thali then have lots of butter in it then have maybe 2-3 roties. This is not what langar is all about. Many people go to gurdwara just for the purpose of eating langar. They do not now the sacredness of langar.

Langar was set up for the community to help the poor and needy and yes Guru Ji did say to go eat langar and only then come into my hazuri, but langar should be eaten sparsely , it is not there to fill our tummy’s up.

When langar was prepared in Guru Jis time it was prepared by those who had total love of their Guru, nowadays every person who takes anything to the gurdwara attaches some sort of SUKHNA to it. They take some fruit, or milk or sugar etc and with it goes the longing or Sukhna – may my knees stop hurting, may my stomach aches stop, may this skin disease go away. Where do you think all those sukhna end up????

In the langar and those who eat lots and lots of langar get those sukhna.

There is a sakhi where a person took parshaad to gurdwara with the sukhna that his pimples all over his body go away. The sewardhar saw the parshad and instead of distributing it to the sangat he ate all of it himself and got covered in pimples the next day. When he asked Guru Ji why this has happened while he did so much sewa Guru Ji pointed out that all the sukhna went onto him rather than be distributed among the sangat. Each person would have got one pimple each.

If you do sewa and then you eat 3-4 roti with lots of daal sabzi then you have received your blessing there and then, the account is balanced you go home with nothing. This is the reason why some people do not eat langar after sewa, they will eat langar when they do not do sewa.

[MokhamSingh]

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.

Khalsa Ji

The explanation that I was given for the criteria of Langar was:

Scenario 1:

A person consumes Guru Ka Langar without doing any sewa , without doing any Nitnem , and without making any contribution towards the Langar.

Scenario 2:

A person eats Guru Ka Langar and does seva , does Nitnem , and makes a contribution towards the Langar.

Scenario 2 is okay but scenario 1 is harmful since Langar is made with Pooja da dhan. 10th Patshahi desribes Pooja da dhan as zher {poison}. Consumption of Pooja da dhan without due care can have detremental effects.

Langar should be available 24/7 and without discrimination as per the teachings of 10th Patshahi {see the praise given to Nand Lal ji's Langar seva}.

Apologies for any inaccuracies.

Waheguru.

[rrss]

Ritualistic thinking all. Nothing is transferred whilst eating langar or indeed ingesting anything other than Amrit (and even then successful 'transfer' is dependent on a number of other factors). You may adopt such an approach as a general life rule to encourage yourself to do the 'right' things in life but at the risk of it becoming a ritual over time. Also if anything does contain any form of "blessings", quantity makes no difference. A teaspoon of karah prasad has the same "blessing" value as two large fistfulls, if one could indeed value a blessing (rhetorical question). "Blessings" are in quotation marks because what you receive is entirely dependent on your state of mind and the act of consuming it (plus the usuals- jeevan, hukam, karam etc), i.e. humbly accepting prasad at the feet of the Guru and believing it to be his blessing may have some effect but greedily consuming fistfuls and covering your hands and face with ghee may do nothing (it's all dependent on the Guru and God's grace and your jeevan, nothing is actually physically transferred from the prasad). Equally nothing "bad" is ever "transferred" in such a way. The Sakhi quoted has a moral story which needs to be understood, it's not to be taken literally that you can literally transfer a hundred pimples to someone else, it was the act of greed that was the moral story.

God is the sole provider and we receive whatever he provides. It's not a specific act of consumption which needs to be 'paid for', it's in general throughout life whether one continually consumes more than they need and/or do no sewa, or on the other hand consumes only what they need, believing in Waheguru providing everything they will need and not hesitating in doing any form of selfless sewa. This fits in with eating langar sparingly, when required and not worrying about making sure you put extra money in golak every time you eat, or for that matter, not eating because you don't want to lose your so called simran "bank account balance".

The moment you start billing and accounting individual acts of service and consumption, all your sewa/simran "balance" become worthless as the bigger message has completely gone past you. You are constantly reminded by Guru ji to think purely in terms of the bigger picture, the vices and virtues, the power of God, hukam, etc rather than ritualistic practices, but few listen and fewer apply it to their lives.

PS. I generally don't eat Langar for other reasons and I am very grateful to the Guru and God for this great service that even I, a worthless greedy worm, have benefited from; when I really needed it, langar was there for me. There is nothing I can ever do to 'repay' Guru/God, his grace is priceless.

ਦੇਦਾ ਦੇ ਲੈਦੇ ਥਕਿ ਪਾਹਿ ॥

The Great Giver keeps on giving, while those who receive grow weary of receiving.

ਜੁਗਾ ਜੁਗੰਤਰਿ ਖਾਹੀ ਖਾਹਿ ॥

Throughout the ages, consumers consume.

ਵਾਰਿਆ ਨ ਜਾਵਾ ਏਕ ਵਾਰ ॥

I cannot even once be a sacrifice to You.

ਜੋ ਤੁਧੁ ਭਾਵੈ ਸਾਈ ਭਲੀ ਕਾਰ ॥

Whatever pleases You is the only good done,

ਤੂ ਸਦਾ ਸਲਾਮਤਿ ਨਿਰੰਕਾਰ ॥੧੬॥

You, Eternal and Formless One!

This thread should really be closed.

[Hawksmere]

. Have you completely lost the notion of guru ka langar? Sharing ones food with others is consistent with Wand Chhakna, Hence it's open to all devotees and pilgrims and even those who know nothing about sikhi (nor intend too). To say that it's wrong as you're taking seva from another is utter utter rubbish. What surprises me where people get these notions from?? Guru manyo Granth, forget ones interpretation of fallacy.

Sri guru Nanak set up the first langar at Kartarpur when people bought corn and fuel to prepare meals for common folk. Sri Angad Dev Ji then extended it further to serve meals personally and Sri Guru Amardas Ji turned it into an institution and ordained that ALL visitors to him must first participate in the langar. "phelay pangat, peechhay sangat". Then Sri Guru Ram das Ji extended its to serve water to travellers and squatters too, in fact his wife served water herself to all.

It is our duty to do seva and to consume guru ka langar.

WJKK WJKF

[simran345]

i try not to have langar as cannot digest it properly, so i will probably have somethin when i get home. when i do have it, i have minimal as possible, and only so as my thinking is this that it has been blessed by Maharaj ji. when they do the bhog of it, Maharaj ji showers their blessings on it, thus langar is fruitful then. and also dont feel the need for it at times as i cannot do seva, and feel that if i go to gurdwara for langar only and am not benefiting from the gurbani that will be filling me up also. the taste of that is fruitful to me too.