Inspiring gurdwaras

Many of us, through the various different Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns imposed by governments for our own good, have missed our congregation at our local gurdwaras, let alone the more popular ones across the country. I’ve missed mostly the delicious food of our Langgar. Yes, I’m the type who goes to the gurdwara mostly for the good company, meeting like-minded friends and enjoying my cup of chaa in the middle of gossip and laughter. The type that goes to the gurdwara for the food, unfortunately.

Each of us, while reading this, would’ve already begun to craft out a mental note of what a particular gurdwara means to you and me. For me, personally, coming from a small town up north in Kedah, the gurdwara was the focal point for the Sikhs in town to converge on a regular basis because that was the only platform to do so. The Sikh diaspora, far away from Mother Punjab, rarely has the chance to congregate and celebrate as one community on a weekly basis. Sure, the spiritual parts of prayers and the meditational singing play a big part of our attraction. But if only that minus the communal aspects such as food, friendships, emotional support, educational activities, cultural activities and much more, the gurdwara would be mostly deserted bar the Granthi.

Why? Because we hold very dear to the Sanggat tradition of the equation, which when you really think about it, doesn’t just mean being together in worship within the walls of the Darbar Sahib. Sanggat is very much about being in the company of worshippers worshipping the Spiritual Guru and their teachings, but not just in congregation but in service and in our daily lives. Basically being in the company of like-minded friends.

So, it’s pretty natural that we incorporated aspects of our daily lives into our gurdwara dwelling habits over the generations. Hence, the communal and societal platform the gurdwara provides. Now obviously, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Which means we would reject things that don’t fall in line with our primal beliefs, including alcohol consumption, etc. In the middle of all this, the granthi ji is the prime facilitator for all things happening in the gurdwara.

Last week, the Gurdwara Sahib Seremban demonstrated how vital this communal platform is for her Sikhs.

Rapid floods had ravaged many homes in the village of Kampung Singh within minutes during the dead of the night. Overnight, many had to abandon their homes and their belongings, damaged extensively as the pregnant floods drove through the village. It was chaotic but by the very early hours of that morning, groups of youth sprung into action to help these families. Food was prepared for mass consumption. I’d imagine the distraught families being disoriented, however the basic necessities were being addressed immediately by the gurdwara and her servants.

Even more impressive, groups of these servants, mostly youth, went about cleaning up these homes. They just dived in to help, no matter who was impacted, not perturbed by the scale of the damage. Reports started to come out that non-Sikh families were also assisted at the same speed and same enthusiasm. And then, the gurdwara created a fund, and started to transparent collection of donations and contributions for these families, allowing others like me to help the little we can.

The Seremban gurdwara isn’t unique in getting her servants, including the youth, to really do some good sincere work for her community. Other gurdwara have also done similar outstanding services to the communities that thrive around the gurdwara, in good times and in bad times. But I can safely say, as an ardent admirer, the Seremban gurdwara has very visible generations of great volunteers who are united in friendship and in family, where the gurdwara itself and her extremely strong communal base seem to sustain these generations over the decades. These guys walk the talk. They’re not in any bit cliquish, but welcoming.

Also, I’m an ardent fan because of the really good food that the Langgar has consistently prepared whenever I happened to be there to meet my good buddies. Not to mention, their legendary chaa.

 Jagdesh Singh, a Kuala Lumpur-based executive with a US multinational company, is a father of three girls who are as opinionated as their mother

* This is the opinion of the writer, organisation or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Asia Samachar.

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