Are Sikhs addicted to appeasing "others" at their own cost

[GurjantGnostic]

3 hours ago, 5aaban said:

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7643535/sikh-volunteers-hand-out-free-meals-to-the-city-that-survived-a-tsunami/

Lismore floods: Sikh volunteer handing out free meals in Lismore says the town survived a "tsunami"

Sikh volunteers have said there is a lot more work to be done in Lismore after handing out 1500 meals in the flood-devastated town.

Members of Sikh Volunteers Australia (SVA) were given a police escort around flooded roads to enter Lismore at 5pm on Wednesday after a 35-hour journey that began in Melbourne at 6am on Tuesday.

 

The not-for-profit organisation was thanked by locals as they handed out meals of soy bean curry and rice, water and supplies on the street, at student accommodation and at evacuation centres.

SVA spokesman Jaswinder Singh said he "has not seen anything of this scale" when describing the devastation in Lismore.

"The water mark on the trees was sitting at somewhere between 20 to 25 feet [6 to 7.6 metres]. It was not just a flood, it was a tsunami," he said.

Mr Singh said that Lismore locals are still in shock as they begin to clean up the flood damage.

"I sensed that the people were in shock but they are very resilient and very strong people. They have witnessed the flood before but not this scale. So, it's a mixed feeling down in the town. People know that they have to recover from this but they really don't know how to do that," Mr Singh said.

"They are doing the cleaning of the shops, of their houses. At the moment there is not much resources available for them to conduct this massive job but they are bouncing back."

The SVA normally cooks in commercial-size kitchens but are currently living at a local person's house in Lismore, who is allowing them to use their home kitchen to cook their next batch of meals for Thursday.

"We have three big burners, we have big pots, we have a lot of grocery supplies with us. We are like a mobile kitchen, you just give us a dry space and a gas connection and we are good to go," Mr Singh said.

The volunteers prepared white chickpea curry and rice for the free meals they distributed at evacuation centres and on the street on Thursday.

Mr Singh said the next challenge is getting more food and supplies delivered up to Lismore as their ingredient supply is likely to be depleted within the next two days.

"We have arranged our own supply truck from Newcastle. But since this morning the situation in northern Sydney and Newcastle is not very good, so I don't know how long it will take, they say it could take a good eight to 10 hours to reach Lismore," he said.

The long road to Lismore

SVA members began driving from southeast Melbourne at 6am on Tuesday to arrive at the First Gurdwara of Australia in Woolgoolga on the NSW Mid North Coast at 4am on Thursday.

After having a four-hour sleep, they got up to cook 1500 meals on Wednesday morning before getting back on the road at 12pm to travel to Lismore.

But the volunteers faced road blocks in Grafton and were seemingly halted in their tracks until a highway patrol officer gave them a police escort to avoid flooded waters and arrive in Lismore at 5:30pm.

Including driving, cooking and rests, it took the volunteers a total of 35 hours to travel from Melbourne to Lismore with 1500 hot meals, bottled water and supplies in tow.

Mr Singh said two more volunteers are flying from Melbourne to Lismore on Friday to boost their numbers.

"We will stay as long as it's required," he said.

If you can help, call Jaswinder Singh on 0452 601 734 or those who want to donate to Sikh Volunteers Australia can do so on their website.

It's good we do this. We should also have Parchar available and recruit gently. It's also good we take care of our own better. You stop doing either you fall. I'm all about prioritizing funds in the Paanth. And seeing a lot of them used internally, but we should keep up our legitimate charitable acts of compassion. We just shouldn't dump the whole farm into it or expect it to be reciprocated necessarily. A good reputation is a form of protection but it's no substitute for Shastar and the balls the use them effectively and intelligently. 

 

 

[5aaban]

On 3/4/2022 at 1:50 PM, GurjantGnostic said:

It's good we do this. We should also have Parchar available and recruit gently. It's also good we take care of our own better. You stop doing either you fall. I'm all about prioritizing funds in the Paanth. And seeing a lot of them used internally, but we should keep up our legitimate charitable acts of compassion. We just shouldn't dump the whole farm into it or expect it to be reciprocated necessarily. A good reputation is a form of protection but it's no substitute for Shastar and the balls the use them effectively and intelligently. 

 

 

Many Sikhs believe in the misconception/propaganda that Sikhs don't do Parchar/convert. Even some religious Sikhs believe in this! It's highly unlikely any Parchar is done during these aid events. 

[MisterrSingh]

1 hour ago, 5aaban said:

Sadly many Sikhs believe in the misconception that we don't do Parchar/convert. Even some Amritdhari Sikhs believe in this! It's very unlikely they will do Parchar during these Langar aid events. 

Parchaar was a concerted and significant Sikh policy from 2nd Guru to at least 6th or 7th Guru. It was only when Sikhs became targets for partaking in insurrections against the Mughal state -- and warfare plus survival was prioritised -- did parchaar kind of reduce to it being a low-key affair. I guess there's also styles of parchaar to consider. I think Sikhs baulk at shameless evangelising rather than the actual act of parchaar itself. I think discourse and sharing of ideas is cool rather than the type of stuff Christians and Muslims do which is plain recruitment with bull5hit and fear mongering.

[Kau89r8]

 

[proudkaur21]

1 minute ago, Kau89r8 said:

 

Lmaooo I saw the tweets. It's so funny. 

[Kau89r8]

@proudkaur21 @dallysingh101 @MisterrSingh @Premi5 etc

 

I dont know what to make of this guys tweets. He's making some points we talk about here but he seems to be going too far ...i mean langar has given us good PR which is needed for in the West. But ofc we need to make ourselves known for also being fighters 

[MisterrSingh]

Some of those tweets are fire. I'm dying here.

It's funny now because it's a phenomenon that Sikhs recognise within our community, but it's going to start hurting when Muslims, Hindus, and Goreh start gradually taking the pi55 about us being a religious soup kitchen. THEN it'll hit home.

[proudkaur21]

4 minutes ago, Kau89r8 said:

@proudkaur21 @dallysingh101 @MisterrSingh @Premi5 etc

 

I dont know what to make of this guys tweets. He's making some points we talk about here but he seems to be going too far ...i mean langar has given us good PR which is needed for in the West. But ofc we need to make ourselves known for also being fighters 

Langar has not given us anything...... just made us into free food religion. People in the west are not really starving and also they already have food banks that give free food.

[Kau89r8]

2 minutes ago, proudkaur21 said:

Lmaooo I saw the tweets. It's so funny. 

ya i know ..i saw Ravi interview on KA and he made points that  reason why he created Khalsa Aid was after 84, Sikhs were known to be 'terrorists'. and wanted to show what Sikhi was about and Khalsa about humanity. If we relied on India news, we'd just known to be terrorists. He also said that we can only talk about Khalistan and our rights if ppl know what Khalsa stands for. I understand where he is coming from a good place to bring good pr to Sikhs. 

He deserves credit for what he has done,. Ya i dont agree with all but then again im just talking hes doing the walk. If we have those doing langar seva, then and home where we are living we should invest in bringing the warrior back. Boxing etc 

[Kau89r8]

Just now, proudkaur21 said:

Langar has not given us anything...... just made us into free food religion. People in the west are not really starving and also they already have food banks that give free food.

Yes and No. UK when Sikhs hit front pages, its for bad stuff. Also bare in mind i've been searching at Hindu orgs they have way more budgets than Khlasa Aid and it seems to be bugging them that Khalsa Aid gets more recognized then their seva...

You got to look at the bigger pic and its Hindus/Indian media and they're portrayal of Sikhs, whereas langar has given the window to make us known not being 'terrorists'...

I know where you are coming from, but then if KA is doing langar seva, rest should invest in warrior aspect Khalsa