3 Months ago, I went to the Gurdwara. It is a great experience every time I visit because I get to learn something new from the Guru Granth Sahib (holy book). But lately my visits are bothering me, Why ? well lets see after the ardas, I ate the langar (food),
Here is what shocked me:
- The Lady who was serving the Langar was not wearing a Chunni (scarf) on her head while serving.
- The person receiving was also not covering his head, although he considers himself a jatt*, but that does not give him any special reason to not cover his head. At least wear a scarf, what a shame. (*after I spoke to him).
Hopefully, this stops as our Sikh Gurus have told us to cover our heads during langar. If the parents don't do anything to respect their religion then Why will their children ?
Things I've been noticing thereafter,
- Many people were not wearing Kara (mainly youth).
- They were speaking in English even in the Gurdwara. I sort of came up with a solution to this problem.
Solution:
Have the youth wear The Punjabi Alphabets t-shirts which are available on our site, the punjabi youth seem to be very interested in wearing punjabi clothing so why not use this method to teach them the Punjabi Language. I'm not saying that they will learn punjabi this way, but it will at least get them a step closer to speaking our very own language.
Just my little effort to make these problems go away, as it seems Sikhism is fading away from its existence in this world.
If you want to do something about the issues / problems mentioned in this blog, observe and complain this to your local Gurdwara head, or the Babaji who takes care of the Gurdwara in your neighborhood. I did, and you should too.
2 comments:
How is the no punjabi spoken issue at the gurudwara now?
I am also an American Sikh as you are. I do agree with you that many people forget to cover their heads while receiving/ serving langar. This is a problem in American Gurudwaras and must be solved. I feel creating more awareness of whats right and wrong will make this problem an easy fix. One thing i do disagree with you is the fact the children shouldn't speak in English to one an other in the Guruduwara. For most of these children english is the first language by default (as they live in an english speaking country) and i see no harm in speaking it as long as they can communicate in punjabi as well. In my local gurudwara we have Khalsa School set up, in which every sunday kids attend classes for 3 hours and they learn 4 ( one optional) subjects: Paat, Punjabi, Sikh History, and Kirtan (optional). So if the children can speak punjabi then i don't see the harm of them speaking to their friends in English.
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