Khalsa’s Color the Red Fort with blue and orange. Nishan Sahib hoisted on Red Fort!

Mon Mar 10, 2014 – Thousands of Sikhs celebrated Delhi Fateh Diwas, the anniversary of a historic event when the Nishaan Sahib — the holy symbol of the Khalsa Panth — was unfurled at the Red Fort.

Eighteenth-century Sikh warrior Sardar Baghel Singh had unfurled the saffron Nishaan Sahib on ramparts of the Red Fort March 11, 1783, for the first time. This historic event was 231 years later being marked by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee in a two-day event March 8-9.

“This unforgettable day is a matter of great pride for all Sikhs. We are proud of the fact that our community spreads the message of
brotherhood around the world,” said Ravinder Pal Singh, a resident of Rajouri Garden area in west Delhi. The celebrations at the sprawling Red Fort grounds were highlighted by various programmes depicting the rich cultural traditions of Sikh community and displays of tradition martial art forms.

Amritsar-born Baghel Singh (1725-1802) was one of the greatest Sikh warriors of the 18th century who prepared the foundations of Sikh rule in Punjab and beyond. He established seven gurdwaras in the capital city.

– Deeksha Singh

“Mata Gujri Kehnde Meinu” – A small 31-page book based on real life of Mata Gujri Ji!

We are pleased to present & share with our audience, the book “Mata Gujri Kehnde Meinu”. It’s a small 31-page book based on real life of Mata Gujri Ji a.k.a Mata Gujar Kaur Ji i.e. wife of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji, mother of Dasam Pitah Guru Gobind Singh Sahib & grandmother of
Sahebzadas.

This interestingly informative & enjoyable book has been especially compiled for the children, youth & the parents.We sincerely thank writer Dr.Darshanjot Kaur Ji alongside Gurmat Prasar Sewa Society for sharing this beautiful work of literature on our heritage with us.

Dhan Sikhi. Dhan Khalsa! Read the book here – “Mata Gujri Kehnde Meinu” – A small 31-page book based on real life of Mata Gujri Ji!

*Foundation Stone of First Akal Academy was laid in year 1986 at Baru Sahib

*2-Day ‘Samagam’ at Jalandhar, in the memory of Sant Attar Singh Ji Mastuane Wale, begins today

Jalandhar, 7^th March –“Akal Academy’s main objective is to eradicate illiteracy and to impart contemporary education to students alongside inspiring them to lead a virtuous life through based on the teachings of the Gurus”, said Baba Iqbal Singh,President Kalgidhar Trust, Baru Sahib; today at Jawahar Nagar. He told that the service of providing education to children was started in Himachal in the year 1986 at Baru Sahib by laying the foundation stone; at that time 5 students were admitted to initiate the school and now the outreach of that academy has grown manifolds. He told that inside the academies, the students are being imparted spiritual education alongside worldly education; based on these grounds, the students are inspired to handle ‘Amritpaan’ alongside observance of daily routine ‘Nitnem’ recitation.

He further told that now there are 129 branches of Akal Academies, which have been established across different villages & districts in North India, wherein the first branch Academy branch was established at Muktsar, Punjab in 1991. In reply to one of the questions, Baba Iqbal Singh Ji told that upon being motivated by former Chief Minister of Punjab – S.Sukhbir Singh Badal, Akal University ‘Guru Ki Kashi’is being established, which is based on prophecy of 10^th Master Guru Gobind Singh Sahib Ji; the work of on this project is in progress since last 3 years. This University is being built on 36 Acres of land. Whilst speaking in relation with creating religious awareness, Babaji told that since last few years, a series of spiritual/religious awareness campaigns have been taking place with help of fellow devoted volunteers; till now, besides U.K. , Canada, America & Australia, Sangats in several districts of India are being imparted with Gurbani&Amritthrough the medium ‘KirtanSamagams’. He told that the Akal Academies running under the Kalgidhar Trust are receiving great support from all Sangat volunteers.

Whilst sharing details about 2-Day Samagam at Jalandhar, Babaji told that it is being held in the memory of Sant Baba Attar Singh JiMastuane Wale at Gurdwara of 9^th Guru at TegBahadur Nagar, Jalandhar on 8^th& 9^th march – Saturday & Sunday. The event will showcase special performances by students of Akal Academy Baru Sahib on ‘Tanti Saaz’, ‘Gur-ShabadVichaar’ by GianiJaswant Singh Parwana, BhaiDavinder Singh KhalsaSohana, BhaiSatinderpal Singh AkhandKirtaniJatha Ludhiana, BhaiTajinder Singh Shimla Wale, BhaiSukhjinder Singh (HazooriRagi Amritsar); besides, SantKashmiraSingh(Bhoori Wale), SantSewa Singh (Khandoor Sahib) , Khem Singh Sabka will be sharing their invaluable words with the ‘Sangat’.

On 9^th March, besides the above schedule, Amrit-Sanchaar will also take place; also, there will be exhibition on Life of the Saints and Baru Sahib’s ongoing academic initiatives.

While most of Sikhs get Sikhi as a gift of heritage through their parents, for me, it came through an extraordinary odyssey –  a journey through the most beautiful & golden years of my life, my days of schooling at Akal Academy Baru Sahib.

Originally from village Moga, I was born to Nirmal Singh(my father), a farmer with a typical agrarian look of our family based in Punjab (Cut-Surds), wherein he usually looked worried working hard to earn a livelihood for the family. My mother is a home maker and we kids – me & my sister, had nothing or very little knowledge about religion & spirituality – the case is the same with most rural families of Punjab, the rural children are hardly aware of any values whatsoever, be it spiritual or religious.

Like most families at my village, my family too was indulged into alcohol consumption; alcohol & non-vegetarian intake was much a part of my father’s diet (rather an addiction) even though my father’s earning could barely meet our expenses.

But things changed; with the blessings of Almighty, from nowhere, the twist of my school change came in – post my 5^th standard my father decided to send me to Baru Sahib – Akal Academy. At Baru Sahib, it wasn’t only the things that changed, but a lot more – I changed, from a non-follower cut-surd into a ‘Pooran Gursikh’, the spirituality was instilled into me alongside academics and this was done through action – our teachers, like Guru’s of Gurukul, led us by example… Dr. Ravinder Singh Ji’s life motivated me…I learnt to be earthy seeing him; on the whole, Baru Sahib inspired me & everyone else I can remember, to be good, be selfless.

The effect of Baru Sahib was not just confined to me – like a chain reaction, it travelled from Baru Sahib to me to my entire family – my family transformed, especially my father, he gave up alcohol consumption and even stopped the intake of non-veg diet, which improved the state of our family including provision of education & schooling for my younger sister, who is at present studying at Baru Sahib.

The spiritual element that is infused by Baru Sahib’s Academies into students, does not only help imbibe values but also gives a subtle edge to academics in a huge way; the 5 years I spent at Baru Sahib gave me a strong foundation for life itself, I managed to score 96% in my 10^th examinations at Akal Academy.

I am currently pursuing Mechanical Engineering from Petroleum University & with grace of God I have already received a job offer from L&T Company; I am also planning to go abroad for further studies. For the society & people at the villages I would want to say that education is the key to transform & uplift a life and feel empowered. I feel Baru Sahib & the academies are doing a great job in providing efficient schooling & education to the rural children – I wish to appeal to people to help The Kalgidhar Trust of Baru Sahib, increase its reach by helping them with their Daswand’s to help them build more schools, to help prevent our families and youth from Drug/Alcohol abuse. GurFateh!

We are proud to announce that one of our volunteers, Deeksha Singh, at the Kalgidhar Trust, recently won accolades for her work of photography in UN Women’s ‘Freedom from Violence for Women & Girls’ Photo Competition.

Deeksha Singh is an avid writer & photographer and has been a star volunteer at the Baru Sahib’s New Delhi office of the Kalgidhar Trust; she has been serving the organization with her astonishing work of writing & photography since almost a year now.

Her Picture-Entry which got selected in the 2013 contest recently got published in UN Women’s 2014 Calendar which features the winning entries from the ‘Freedom from Violence for women and Girls’ Photo Competition. Check out the pics or download your own, free calendar here: http://bit.ly/1eidgnD

Checkout & Download High-Res Copy of Deeksha’s Winning Picture here : http://www.unwomensouthasia.org/assets/May_2014.jpg

Sukhdeep Kaur Chohan of Hickory Wood Public School of Brampton, Ontario, is the only South Asian teacher to receive the 2013 Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence.

The awards were announced to coincide with National Child Day, which marks the date that Canada adopted the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said: “Good educators guide, inspire and motivate us to want to learn on our own. They sow the seeds of knowledge that yield well-educated Canadians who are able to compete with the best in the world and generate new ideas and prosperity.”

He added: “I would like to congratulate all of the recipients of this year’s awards on their remarkable achievements. It is particularly fitting to be celebrating their merits on National Child Day.”

Teaching is a divine blessing that allows one to serve children from the heart.
~ Sukhdeep Kaur Chohan

The awards recognize outstanding elementary and secondary school teachers who, through the innovative use of information and communications technologies, help Canadian students meet the challenges of a 21st century society and digital economy. This year marks the 20th anniversary of this award, with more than 1,600 educators honoured to date.

Chonan used “Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s words, saying “Make divine love thy pen, and thy heart the writer,” are the core foundational pillars upon which my teaching practice rests. I believe that teaching is a divine blessing that allows one to serve children from the heart.”

She added: “That entails connecting them to the world outside the classroom, providing opportunities where their ideas blossom, instilling ideals for serving humanity with compassion (Seva), and establishing a platform from which they can share their voices with the global community.

“By providing an inclusive and inviting classroom environment in which varying learning needs are met, differences are respected, cultural traditions are cherished, and religious practices are honored, it is important for me that each of my students feel acknowledged and loved, thrive in a nurturing environment, and know that their presence in the world makes the world a better place.”

Dhan Sikhi! Dhan Khalsa!

Sikhs will gather again to celebrate March 14th as the 2nd Annual Sikh Environment Day. This day marks the Gurgaddi Diwas of Guru Har Rai Ji who is remembered for his deep sensitivity to kudrat, or nature.

Worldwide, Gurdwaras and schools will focus Kirtan and Katha on the environment, plant trees, hold children’s activities, and make their own commitments to care for nature.

Did You Know?

Mangoes in Gurdwara Amb Sahib ripening again in January, reflect on the historical connection between our Gurus and Punjab’s native trees, including bohr, pipli, garna, karir, phalahi, reru, luhura, tahli, imli, ritha, kalp, ber, andamb.

Gurdwara Amb Sahib marks the area where the devotee Bhai Kuram was engaged in deep meditation, when he realized he did fulfill his promise to the Guru to provide mangoes for the sangat. Guru Har Rai Ji encouraged him to look at the tree he was meditating under to see the rare site of mangoes in the wintery off-season of Poh (mid-December), which Bhai Kuram then offered as parsad.

Today, a number of indigenous mangoes still grow in Punjab, such as those in the Inami Bagh in Hoshiarpur. Here exists a biodiversity heritage site and rare ecological treasure: ten acres of 165 mango trees and over 37 rare native varieties.

Dhan Sikhi! Dhan Dhan Guru Har Rai Ji!

Scientists have found the biggest and oldest reservoir of water ever–so large and so old, it’s almost impossible to describe.

The water is out in space, a place we used to think of as desolate and desert dry, but it’s turning out to be pretty lush.Researchers found a lake of water so large that it could provide each person on Earth an entire planet’s worth of water–20,000 times over. Yes, so much water out there in space that it could supply each one of us all the water on Earth–Niagara Falls, the Pacific Ocean, the polar ice caps, the puddle in the bottom of the canoe you forgot to flip over–20,000 times over.

The water is in a cloud around a huge black hole that is in the process of sucking in matter and spraying out energy (such an active black hole is called a quasar), and the waves of energy the black hole releases make water by literally knocking hydrogen and oxygen atoms together.The official NASA news release describes the amount of water as “140 trillion times all the water in the world’s oceans,” which isn’t particularly helpful, except if you think about it like this.

That one cloud of newly discovered space water vapor could supply 140 trillion planets that are just as wet as Earth is.

Mind you, our own galaxy, the Milky Way, has about 400 billion stars, so if every one of those stars has 10 planets, each as wet as Earth, that’s only 4 trillion planets worth of water.

The new cloud of water is enough to supply 28 galaxies with water.

Truly, that is one swampy patch of intergalactic space.

Equally stunning is the age of the water factory. The two teams of astrophysicists that found the quasar were looking out in space a distance of 12 billion light years. That means they were also looking back in time 12 billion years, to when the universe itself was just 1.6 billion years old. They were watching water being formed at the very start of the known universe, which is to say, water was one of the first substances formed, created in galactic volumes from the earliest time. Given water’s creative power to shape geology, climate and biology, that’s dramatic.

“It’s another demonstration that water is pervasive throughout the universe, even at the very earliest times,” says Matt Bradford, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and leader of one of the teams that made the discovery. (The journal article reporting the discovery is titled, without drama, “The Water Vapor Spectrum of APM 08279+5255: X-Ray Heating and Infrared Pumping over Hundreds of Parsecs.”)

It is not as if you’d have to wear foul-weather gear if you could visit this place in space, however. The distances are as mind-bogglingly large as the amount of water being created, so the water vapor is the finest mist–300 trillion times less dense than the air in a typical room.

And it’s not as if this intergalactic water can be of any use to us here on Earth, of course, at least not in the immediate sense. Indeed, the discovery comes as a devastating drought across eastern Africa is endangering the lives of 10 million people in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia. NASA’s water discovery should be a reminder that if we have the sophistication to discover galaxies full of water 12 billion light years away, we should be able to save people just an ocean away from drought-induced starvation.

The NASA announcement is also a reminder how quickly our understanding of the universe is evolving and how much capacity for surprise nature still has for us. There’s water on Mars, there’s water jetting hundreds of miles into space from Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, there are icebergs of water hidden in the polar craters of our own Moon. And now it turns out that a single quasar has the ability to manufacture galaxies full of water.

But it was only 40 years ago, in 1969, that scientists first confirmed that water existed anywhere besides Earth.

by Charles Fishman
Source: www.fastcompany.com

Punjabi University formally launched “Punjabipedia”, an exclusive online treasure relating to Punjabi language. While describing it as a big leap in the direction of fulfilling ‘Mission Punjabi-2020’, furthering university’s aim of promoting Punjabi, vice-chancellor Jaspal Singh said the effort would help in putting Punjabi language among the top languages of the world.

He said it would soon be made available on smartphones, tablets and other online gadgets, free of cost.

Taking a leaf out of online encyclopaedia Wikipedia’s book, the university has published Punjabipedia to help internet users get details relating to the state’s history, culture, literature, traditions and other information in Punjabi.

Introducing the project, Devinder Singh, director, planning and monitoring, who is also coordinator of the Punjabipedia, said that though Punjabipedia had been designed on the pattern of Wikipedia but it would be more authentic and reliable as the entries will be controlled and monitored by the university staff and not by the public in general as in case of Wikipedia.

He said at present Punjabipedia contain more than 72,000 entries. Its database will soon be enlarged to cover topics relating to not only Punjabi language, art and culture but other subjects as well.

“The data is available in Gurmukhi script “, he said.

As per available, ‘Encyclopaedia of Sikhism’, all four volumes of ‘Bal Vishav Kosh’ (children’s encyclopaedia), a first Punjabi-based encyclopaedia published exclusively for the 6-14 years age group and a Punjabi conceptual dictionary has been added in the Punjabipedia content.

However, another master piece, Encyclopedia of Sikhism, also a four-volume publication with a total of nearly 20,000 printed pages, comprises nearly 3,500 entries on various aspects of Sikh history, philosophy and customs. Social, religious movements, art, architecture and shrines also found place in the contents of Punjabipedia.

“We had planned to upload Punjabi language encyclopaedia ‘Mahan Kosh’ compiled by Kahn Singh Nabha but could not do so due to some technical glitches. It will be uploaded soon”, he said.

– HT