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What Is Your Sewa?


chatanga
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There is a topic trending of the beadbi of Saroops in London.

This is a serious topic that needs to be addressed in the wider sangat.

Who can take on this sewa ?

1. To inform general sangat about what Guru Granth Sahib is.

2. How Guru Granth Sahib is to be kept.

3.If Saroop gets birdh or ang gets damaged, what and where can we get it repaired.

4.Agan Bhet of Guru Granth Sahib should only be a last resort.

5. Gurdwaras and Individuals with Guru Granth Sahib, should be requested to make checks on their saroops, to check any deterioration before it escalates more. Better still, check them yourselves.

6. Gurdwaras need to get a balance between the saroops they hold and the frequency of functions held.

7. Find out what the Gurdwara does with birdh saroops. Another thing that occurred to me, is that money men are making cash dollars selling the saroops, they must be making cash dollars in doing the agan bhet of them as well.

Who can take on this sewa in their local area?

If you do, please share any finding you have.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Do you do Kirtan?

Why not develop your knowledge of a single raag and become a master of that raag?

There are many simple raags, bhairo, bilawal, ect and more complex ones, ramkali, gujri.

You will have the comfort of knowing that at least you can perform kirtan in a raag, and help to infuse life into a dying tradition in the panth.

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A Sikh professor has been attacked and injured by a gang in New York, USA.

His repsonse? An invitation to the youths to come to the Gurdwara and see what Sikhs really are.

What an excellent idea! Why not be proactive? invite the local schools in your area, to visit your local gurdwara and tell them what Sikhs are.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Do you have a link or know where to find a list?

i watched an auction on sikh channel recently cant remember name of auctioneers but do recall some where in shropshire ludlow i think google it auction ludlow or give sikh channel a ring, apparently its quite a regular auction and they are definately selling sikh artifacts there when they have some. hope this helps

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Just an idea I had, and I hope these words can express it, but when I look around at younger Sikhs today, those who follow Sikhi, to any extent seem to be into everything and anything Sikhi.

I was thinking about this, cos I have been like this in my younger days, but now have realised that there are so many areas to work in, for the betterment of the panth, that it is impossible to do every one. Rather than be a jack of all trades and expert in none, i made a decision to look at what things in the panth can be improved and do sewa specifically for that.

So i made a decision to work on 2 main projects only for the future, whilst supporting any others i can.

Since I have been doing it, i have felt that there has actually been progress, and would like to impress on the Sikhs here that maybe there could be an issue(s) that they feel strongly about and devote themselves to that practically and prioritise that.

Here are some areas in which attention is required, please feel free to add others:

Sewa in your local gurdwara, ie specifically,langar, education, community awareness

Gurmat Sangeet

Shastarvidiya

SIkh heritage around the world, esp Pakistan, and certain states in india

SIkh manuscripts, which are rotting/hidden away, which could be brought before world-wide sangat, and translationed into english

Human Rights

Fundraising

Charity work

Sikh political issues in the western world on community or national scale

Important annual events in the Sikh calendar

Sikhi camps

Forgotten traditions within the panth

International world days (examples of this are world literacy day, sept, and world book day in march)

With some of these people who are reluctant to do sewa for the panth, because of their personal commitment to their Sikhi, (meaning they may not be keeping kes etc) there are still areas in which they can still provide sterling assistance to the Panth.

UK = Excellent to read this Paji, keep it up! Regardless of minor differences on subjects where I have the opposite opinion to you just know that everyone in the Panth is supportive of such actions and we (myself included) need to focus our energy on appreciating where we all agree (rather than focussing on subjects where our Qaum has divergent opinions.

Some good intiatives on the seva. However, we all need to make sure we keep bhagti in our back of head-do bhagti while we do seva. Sri guru nanak dev ji bless us with sehaj marg in kalyuga where one can do nishkam seva among other social/family chores while being (bairagi/udasi) de-attached (personal feeling) to seva and attached to the center theme naam/gyan- Vahiguroo.
I must have wasted 7 years since 2003 on and off when i got into forum business by personally getting too attached to the issues which have over shadowed my central theme focus -shabad. Overall i have no regrets, just learning from things by getting guidance from senior gurmukhs -moving on the path. So people its good to learn from your mistakes but its even wiser to learn from other people mistakes here it is..whatever seva you do - do it without any personal attachment -niskham without any expectations of any results be it good or bad and make vahiguroo naam simran as your central theme.

UK = Paji without seva and concrete actions to accompany it "oh bhagti kidha di hoyee". Both in tandem are necassary. And I for one don't think you wasted time on here ... I might not agree with you 100% of the time ... but I have learnt a lot from your posts and viewpoints (and also i must add from only5 Paji :-)

If someone does any kind of historical preservation despite not doing bhagti, the external and superficial fal will still be the same. Of course the internal fal may not be the same, but that's a different subject.

With that said, of course you're supposed to do Bhagti and simran 24/7, but you can't pick and choose or kirat karna and vand chakna. A good example of this is Baba Ranjit Singh Dhadrianwale - he does great bani and Sikhi parchaar but he doesn't have kirat kamaiyee nor does he have vand chakna. In the end you can't pick and choose when you're a Sikh - it's the whole package. To take up the tasks that chatanga paji mentioned, all you need is that internal sharda to want to help the panth - everything else after that depends on the avastha of the person.

The mentality you mentioned is quite dangerous. This may not sit well with most Punjabis, but I feel like as a collective whole we make more excuses to not do something and use bhagti and naam simran as an excuse to be lazy. "Oh ki layna ah karke - mann khraab hunda. Bas baani pardi challo saara kuj set hojana". That's what a lot of pakhandi babay (who I will argue are indian govnt sympathizers) in Punjab say so the Khalsa Panth remains asleep and doesn't go out and act. Bani and Simran is a minimum every Sikh should have, but it's not the limit.

A lot of times doing sewa turns into bhagti, especially when done with Kirpa of Guru Sahib/Ardas done from bottom of the heart. Like Sant Singh Ji Maskeen has said we've lost a lot, never gained much mainly because of this kind of thinking.

The reason I'm saying this is because we're in a very critical stage in history right now and will be facing a lot of attacks on our ithihaas from many sides - including internal. Our goal right now should be to become GurSikhs AND it's very, very important to support any kind of sewa someone can do for the panth.

An example of this can be an environmental task, maybe someone isn't really a practicing Sikh, but they love the environment. Trees they plant in Punjab or any sort of environmental work they do will still be the same as if someone with a high avasta did the same thing. Hope you get what I'm saying with this.

UK = Paji you're absolutely bang on target. I totally agree with you.

On SIkh Channel breakfast show, there was a young girl, who has made a documentary on the Gurdwara in Jaggannath, in Orissa, and the condition of it. Highlighting of our precious heritage all over India, Pakistan, and the UK is a brilliant sewa.

Are you able to do something similiar?

Or wish to volunteer with existing groups in the field?

edit: And Afghanistan.

There is a great Sikh historical connection with Afghanistan, that is disappearing not only from the land, but our hearts and minds.

UK = Paji, this is where I respectfully disagree with you. I 100% agree that Gurdware in Orissa where Bhai Himmat Singh Ji of the Panj Pyaaray came from need to preserved and we need to increase parchaar to highlight the bravest person GurSikh to arise from Orissa and provide Dhan Dhan Guru Granth Sahib Ji Maharaj in Odisha bhasha ... but preserving heritage in Afghanistan and Pakistan is a waste of limited resouces. Historic Gurdware and Gurdware near to Punjabi Christian and Sindhi non-Muslims should be prioritised (but without any unnecassary expenditure on glitzing the exterior). Sikhi comes from within and vishwaas in Dhan Dhan Guru Granth Sahib Ji Maharaj and Sikhi is important than heritage per se.

The program in question is to be aired on SC tonight at 9pm. it is about the dying SIkh heritage in Orissa. To think that the spot where Guru Nanak Dev Ji revealed Aarti shabad is vanishing.

UK = Part of the reason our enemies our succeeding in eradicating Sikhi outside of Punjab is that we are not ready to accept sehajdhari non-Punjabi's as Sikhs. When we declare our own brothers and sisters as Hindu's (despite Bhai Himmat Singh and countless other GurSikhs coming from Orissa) then we can't expect Sikhi to flourish outside of Punjab. We simply cannot expect 100% of new non-Punjabi Sikhs to be Amritdhari given that we have never achieved the same in East Punjab.

A Sikh professor has been attacked and injured by a gang in New York, USA.

His repsonse? An invitation to the youths to come to the Gurdwara and see what Sikhs really are.

What an excellent idea! Why not be proactive? invite the local schools in your area, to visit your local gurdwara and tell them what Sikhs are.

UK = Exactly. Whenever our Qaum is attacked negatively we have to turn it around and spin the occurrence to our future advantage.

Did you know there are many Sikh artefacts being sold in the UK on auctions and such, why not see if your Gurdwara might be interested in buying some items to make a historical exhibition?

UK = Paji let all the goray and rich Arabs buy those artefacts. Let's focus the money we'd waste buying those artefacts up into eradicating drugs, eradicating female foeticide, eradicating artificial divisions within the Panth, increasing health+education levels in East Punjab as well as increasing seva and parchaar in areas of India and Africa where the need is greatest and where future Sikhs are most likely to realistically arise.

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