What Can Be Done To Inspire Youth To Get Closer With Sikhi

[jkvlondon]

29 minutes ago, Jacfsing2 said:

Daas was the one who gave the +1, but in all reality we shouldn't be giving our kids unhealthy foods to the best of our ability, (maybe a once in a month thing at best, they get something unhealthy in only short amounts). Rather keep them active physical, (keep them fit), mentally, (keep them intelligent), and creatively, (learning music and all that outside the box thinking), with a lot of Gurmat and Prem from the parents. Avoiding scheduling them too much, but keep them busy enough so they don't waste too much empty time doing nothing, (some empty time is good, but not all of it).

I know from my own life I used to love love love langar sewa and bartan sewa as a kid , making rotian etc ..in fact, I cannot understand the canteen style langar scheme how are we supposed to visualise serving Guru ji in the form of sangat : Can you honestly see Guru Nanak Dev ji standing in line shuffling along tray in hand ?? The point of langar was to serve the unfortunate and outcasts as Kings /Rabb di roop  by seating them on clean place and serving by hand ,asking them with love . My own kids begged to go do sewa the first time they tried it .. maybe that is the key have qualified sewadars in cpr first responder status mentoring sewa jathey of little ones 

[jkvlondon]

7 minutes ago, sikhni777 said:

santhiya means path. Shudh path can only be done if you can tell the different between the sounds of the different letters. 

The children are completely changed when they listen to the stories of the Gurus. My son was always fumbling about in the Guradwara. However when we started reading Guru Nanak Dev Jis sakhiya, he started to understand why we need to sit still in the Guradwara. It is a bit tricky to explain to them why we need to concentrate during simran. However - I try telling him its for power. He does think about these things. 

When I put him in for punjabi, I told him that it is Guru Ji who has given to us the Gurmukhi script, therefore we need to respect it. The amount of effort we devote as parents will also have an effect to how well they learn their Gurmukhi. I had to correct his letter formation of ura and era myself. However - lets see how far we get. 

My mum gave me lots of punjabi reading practice from the comprehension books which they read during their school days. The stories were engaging, and had morals to teach too. We learnt so much from those books. Every free time my mum had was devoted to listening to us read while she was at her housework duties. 

As a teacher, when I taught the punjabi language especially the alphabet - the children viewed it as something totally different from their studies. Their parents too had the same attitude. If their parents had been more supportive - the children would have learnt better. They had ten shabads in their syllabus too which we read and they had lots of questions too.... laughing at certain words. However I had the meanings at my finger tips so that they would understand better. 

Punjabi alphabet needs lots of practice and reading over everyday to make good progress. Sikh History plays a major part in the kids understanding about themselves and about sikhi in general. My son loves Maharaja Ranjit singhs serial - we watch it and discuss it bit by bit. I sit with him and explain to him katha done by the giani ji so that he can start to understand the deeper concepts too. 

Sometimes we should not think about it that they are kids - just give them the information on the history of our Gurus. Reading to them a good book on the life history of the Gurus at bedtime or otherwise is a good way of doing this. If we dont invest in punjabi books then all they will have is the English ones to engage them. 

Santheya can be listened to - no harm in that. Try to get them to read the simple shabads if they can in punjabi too.... so that they can practice and look at their words. Our teacher read to us Japji sahib from the gutka just once and I used to practice every night. However these days we have loads of videos which can help them practice too... audio greatly helps in getting the pronunciations correct.

Singh sabha at havelock Road Southall are doing a fantastic job at offering two hours on friday and saturday too. They have kids going on to santheya too. They have Sikh History and general talks and manners too taught to them. They have sessions where they are taught how to matha tek. They got gatkaa too on sundays. The teachers are strict. The method used is traditional paper and pencil learning. The number of pupils has now grown from 5 to more than 500. Fantastic effort by all the sevadhaars. 

bhainji I am so happy your gurdwara has full parband on this important sewa, but most gurdwarey are lax ...Santheiya starts with baal updesh to learn alphabet and moharne and sakhiyan and shaheedan di sakhian. But outside of southall/slough birmingham/derby it is patchy at best .

[sikhni777]

36 minutes ago, jkvlondon said:

bhainji I am so happy your gurdwara has full parband on this important sewa, but most gurdwarey are lax ...Santheiya starts with baal updesh to learn alphabet and moharne and sakhiyan and shaheedan di sakhian. But outside of southall/slough birmingham/derby it is patchy at best

You can always import teachers and get them to travel to teach your kids too.... They teach seva too to the kids - which is just fantastic too. Perhaps if you talk to someone in your Guradwara then you can get such teachers spread out to other areas too. 

[Guest Jacfsing2]

2 hours ago, jkvlondon said:

I know from my own life I used to love love love langar sewa and bartan sewa as a kid , making rotian etc ..in fact, I cannot understand the canteen style langar scheme how are we supposed to visualise serving Guru ji in the form of sangat : Can you honestly see Guru Nanak Dev ji standing in line shuffling along tray in hand ?? The point of langar was to serve the unfortunate and outcasts as Kings /Rabb di roop  by seating them on clean place and serving by hand ,asking them with love . My own kids begged to go do sewa the first time they tried it .. maybe that is the key have qualified sewadars in cpr first responder status mentoring sewa jathey of little ones 

The solution is giving the youth an opportunity to do Seva, but tell them not to limit it to a Gurdwara, but rather implement on a practical level. We still need Langar at the Gurdwaras, but for your solution there are easier secular solutions, such as giving money to a local food charity for homeless people.

[MisterrSingh]

I can't believe how some of you took that "pizza, chips, and beans" line seriously. Are you people robots or something? 

[jkvlondon]

1 minute ago, Jacfsing2 said:

The solution is giving the youth an opportunity to do Seva, but tell them not to limit it to a Gurdwara, but rather implement on a practical level. We still need Langar at the Gurdwaras, but for your solution there are easier secular solutions, such as giving money to a local food charity for homeless people.

giving money is not the same as actually doing the sewa , as my Grandfather used to tease us  'karlo Guru ki sewa , milju mewa' , there is a real problem in Gurdwarey that the youth have not been given the chance to take the sewa and learn so now the oldies are passing on and there is no one to man the Pangat or make up Sangat, soon the smaller gurdwarey will have to close like the churches in this country and that is shameful . It shouldn't be felt it is only  Guru's ghar but our Pita ji's ghar in other words our spiritual home where we meet all OUR family.

[Guest Jacfsing2]

4 minutes ago, jkvlondon said:

giving money is not the same as actually doing the sewa , as my Grandfather used to tease us  'karlo Guru ki sewa , milju mewa' , there is a real problem in Gurdwarey that the youth have not been given the chance to take the sewa and learn so now the oldies are passing on and there is no one to man the Pangat or make up Sangat, soon the smaller gurdwarey will have to close like the churches in this country and that is shameful . It shouldn't be felt it is only  Guru's ghar but our Pita ji's ghar in other words our spiritual home where we meet all OUR family.

Daas was talking about giving the money to local food shelters as a temporary alternative, not replacing Seva. We should still do Seva, especially for Guru Sahib. Didn't the youth cause that one Gurdwara to shut down, (Mata Sahib Kaur Academy), we can't have too many instances like that, once the Nishan Sahib is up, it should stay as a home for Guru Sahib as long as the world exists.

[jkvlondon]

20 minutes ago, Jacfsing2 said:

Daas was talking about giving the money to local food shelters as a temporary alternative, not replacing Seva. We should still do Seva, especially for Guru Sahib. Didn't the youth cause that one Gurdwara to shut down, (Mata Sahib Kaur Academy), we can't have too many instances like that, once the Nishan Sahib is up, it should stay as a home for Guru Sahib as long as the world exists.

Mata Sahib Kaur Academy was housed in a building which was mortgaged against a sewadar's home so what happened there wasn't enough sangat and chardava to cover bills ... they should have gone to sangat much more at Gurdwara but the fact is the Gurdwara committee wasn't investing in youth so parents tried to do it for the kids at the Academy . Everytime I go past the building and see the nursery sign it pains me to think the efforts put it to improve the building all to sell it onwards ...

[pinpott]

On 19 August 2015 at 7:34 AM, sikhstudent99 said:

What can be done as well with growing number of sceptics and agnostics an atheists how can they apply sikhi in there lives without believing in god

Alot of atheists enjoy meditating could this be a way to connect with them

AN BIGGER QUESTION WHAT IS DRIVING PEOPLE AWAY FROM SIKHI

Cause i have encountered people who dont really go to the gurdwara cause they think its boring or think sikhi is just a religion of rituals

Though they should know sikhi is about empowerment an not rituals but the way alot of gurdwaras are run it is easy to see where they get that idea from

Take them to the gurdwarra regularly.

[jkvlondon]

On 25/09/2016 at 9:02 PM, MisterrSingh said:

I can't believe how some of you took that "pizza, chips, and beans" line seriously. Are you people robots or something? 

not being funny but that's what they would cook because of the punjabi class kids ...and the kids would be more worried about their stomachs then their lessons before the break and then would be lazy and sluggish for learning afterwards ..not a win win