In the most holy Sikh place on earth, the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, they hold services every day and they serve meals to whoever wants to come and eat, and they do mean 'whoever' since they feed anyone, be you Christian, Jew, Hindu, Muslim, atheist, rich, poor, or in between, in short like I said, they serve anyone who wants to eat a meal. The meal the Sikhs serve is vegetarian, not because the Sikhs are vegetarians, they aren't, they can and do eat meat in their homes or where ever. No, they serve vegetarian meals because they know that not all people eat meat and they do not wish to offend anyone elses religious beliefs by serving them meat.
If all religions in the world had that much respect for people of other faiths, then I might think twice about joining back up.
9 comments:
Not just there, but at every gurwara in the world. This is called the langar. It is one of the oldest Sikh practices. And no preaching, just good, delicious nourishing food. The only rule is that everyone sits equally on the floor. BTW, we don't try to convert anyone. You're welcome to join if you want, but there's not even a conversion ceremony.
Not everyone wants to and not many are able to follow the Sikh lifestyle - these days, even mosi 'Sikhs' don't really follow it!
I don't disagree with you...
I could be very down with this indeed.
Nice.
They say that the food is vegetarian, but really it's meat! When they say that they serve Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, or atheists, that's exactly what they serve! Eek!
Mai-Thanks for dropping by and you stay Sikhy now!
JD-I'm not disagreeing with you either, yet.
Fran-It's a nice thing they do I think.
Doc-Be careful now, all Sikh men carry a dagger and some of them may be sharp!
i've always been impressed by the sikh ideals - but like mai said, it's way beyond the capacity of most westerners to fully observe the tenets. nonetheless, a religion that actually adheres to the whole "hey, why don't you guys be nice to each other" concept (which is, really, the underpinning of most religions - it just gets lost in a bunch of hullaballoo crap) is really refreshing. and inspirational.
thanks for the reminder.
Is that a challenge?
http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/artMailDisp.aspx?article=08_07_2007_587_002&typ=1&pub=722
Here is the rest of my comment...I have no idea why it didn't print out above:
For what it's worth, all Amritdhari (initiated, Khalsa, baptised, choose your word) Sikhs carry the kirpan, not just the men, we are an egalitarian religion.
We do not call it a dagger, although it looks like one. Many carry a blunt one. Mine is razor sharp. I had occaision to use it in the antiSikh pogroms in Delhi in 1984. That story is in my blog.
Sikhi is hard for anyone, myself included, not just Westerners. But doing anything well is difficult, eh?
The link is to an article about langar at the Harimandir Sahib that appeared in my inbox. (The article appeared in my inbox, not the langar, lol.)
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