News & Update

History says that Guru Nanak Dev visited Kathmandu in 1516 AD during his third udasi (long journey) and spent a-month-and-a-half there. His first night in Nepal was on the banks of the Bishnumati river. To commemorate 500th year of Guru Nanak’s visit to Nepal in 2016, a Dubai-based charitable trust plans to develop a lesser-known shrine at Thapathali town of the hill country into a major religious destination.

Dubai-based Sikh entrepreneur and philanthropist SP Singh Oberoi told Hindustan Times on Sunday that he had a Rs. 100-crore plan for the scientific preservation of Guru Nanak Math at the shrine.

After Sarbat Da Bhala Charitable Trust, a public charity floated by Oberoi, has given the gurdwara a facelift, the shrine management committee of Sikhs and Nepal government representatives would maintain it. The birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev was celebrated at Thapathali early this month.

“Pilgrimage to Nankana Sahib, birthplace of the Guru and one of the most revered places for Sikhs, is tedious and expensive owing to strained political relations with Pakistan; whereas, Nepal has simplified rules for foreign pilgrims,” he said. On the basis of revenue records in which the Math land was still registered in the name of Guru Nanak, Oberoi’s trust managed to convince the Nepalese government to recognise its religious significance.

“In 1516, the-then Nepal emperor Raja Jaya Jagat of the Malia dynasty had donated about 200 acres as religious service to the Guru. As there was no one to take care of the math, people encroached upon the land to construct houses and hotels. Now only 4 acres is in the possession of the shrine and some people are planning to sell even that illegally,” said the philanthropist.

The local Nepali population and officials helped his core team get access to the original papers signed by the-then Malia king of Nepal under his official seal. To make the offering non-disputed, Malia had made his son a witness. Multi-millionaire Oberoi said he had come across the math by accident three years ago. “I was looking for a place for a gatka (Sikh martial art) academy in Nepal when a Sikh devotee, Pritam Singh, told me about the neglected shrine. Once I was convinced of its link with Guru Nanak, I fought a long legal battle on foreign soil,” he said.

SP Singh Oberoi plans to construct a museum at the Thapathali math in Nepal, where he will keep a rabab (stringed musical instrument) believed to be of Guru’s disciple Bhai Mardana and an old 1,554-page manuscript of Guru Granth Sahib.

His team will search more relics related to the Guru and put the items on display after scientific preservation. He also plans an orphanage and adopting 100 children whose education his trust will sponsor. The martial arts academy plan is also very much on.

Source: Hindustan Times

A retired cobbler from northern India, Mahashta Mûrasi, claims he was born in January 1835, making him not only the oldest man on earth, but the oldest to have ever lived, according to the Guinness World Records.

According to Indian officials, the man was born at home in the city of Bangalore on 6th January 1835 and is recorded to have lived in Varanasi since 1903. The man’s birth certificate and identity cards all seem to confirm his version.

“I have been alive so long, that my great grand-children have been dead for years” explains Mr Mûrasi. “Somehow death forgot about me… And now there’s hardly any hope left. Look at the statistics, nobody dies past 150, even less at 170. At that point, I guess I’m immortal or something. I might as well enjoy it!”

~ Source: http://worldnewsdailyreport.com

Professor Panditrao Dharennavar – “My pen and cycle will not stop till people realize the sacrifice made by Baba Deep Singh ji for humanity.”

Pandit Rao C Dharennavar is Assistant Professor in Govt College Chandigarh. He is basically from Karnataka, but he has learnt Punjabi so well that he has written 8 books in Punjabi and He has translated Shri Jap Ji Saheb te Shri Sukhmani Saheb into Kannada. He has also translated the Zafarnama (the letter by the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, to Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in 1705

He visited various schools during his Yatra and carried the photo of Baba Deep Singh’s photo on Cycle and spreading the message of Baba Deep Singh ji. He told the children that Baba Deep Singh ji was invited by Sri Guru Gobind Singh ji at Talwandi Sabo in 1705, where he helped Bhai Mani Singh in making copies of the Guru Granth Sahib. Baba Deep Singh ji freed a large number of women and prisoners and raided Durrani’s considerable treasury.

His leaves a message for all us “I am blessed to carry on the message of Baba Deep Singh ji who scarified his life for saving holy place, Sri Harminder Saheb. I am blessed to spread Baba Deep Singh’s message everywhere. My pen and cycle will not stop till people realize the sacrifice made by Baba Deep Singh ji for humanity. Today I carried cycle Yatra in Ajitgarh and Chandigarh and one day I will carry on this work to south India also.

Panditrao Dharennavar, Assistant Professor, PG Govt College, Sector-46 Chandigarh- 9988351695”

~ Tapasleen Kaur
~ New Delhi, 19th Nov ’14

Officials from the ATF and the Illinois State Fire Marshal’s office were called to investigate a two-alarm fire that destroyed a Sikh temple Tuesday night in Island Lake, northwest of Chicago.

Firefighters arrived to see smoke “billowing from the building,” said Wauconda Fire Chief David Dato.

Crews upgraded the call to a second alarm, and additional fire departments from the surrounding area responded, Dato said. At first, firefighters were able to battle the blaze from inside the building, but as flames spread, crews had to take a defensive position, Dato said.

Fire crews had to tackle the fire from outside the building using headlines and aerial streams due to unsafe conditions caused by hidden fire in the walls and the floors above.

The fire did extensive damage to the Sikh temple and caused the building’s roof to almost entirely collapse.

“The interior as well as the exterior has suffered heavy damage,” Dato said. “”This is a very, very old structure.”

Firefighters put out the blaze just after midnight, and no injuries were reported, officials said.

Baba Daljit Singh, Gurdwara’s pastor, came to the scene. He said nobody was inside the building at the time of the fire.

“It’s very sad news for us,” he said. “I feel I am burning inside…I have no words.”

Fire officials said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Illinois State Fire Marshall will investigate the fire Wednesday morning because the structure housed a place of worship.

This reminds us that we have to prioritize security arrangements for our Gurdwaras.

~ Source: Chicago Tribune