News & Update

The Sikh Press Association recently celebrated its first year of operation with an event held in London to review its achievements.

The Sikh Press Association’s first Annual Review was attended by representatives from Sikh organisations including Akaal Publishers, Sikh Channel, SWAT, Guru Nanak’s Free Kitchen, Midland Langar Seva Society, NSYF, Khalsa Aid, SEVA Group, United Sikhs and more.

These organisations represent just some of those that the Sikh Press Association (Sikh PA) have worked with in its first year, whilst gaining media coverage with an estimated monetary PR (public relations) value of over £1 million. Sikh PA also received excellent feedback on their first year, as illustrated in the testimonials video, which can be seen below.

At its first year review, the Sikh PA outlined the work carried out based on three outlined aims;

To raise the public profile of Sikhs.
Empowering Sikhs by developing skills in media.
Providing a media source for facts, resources and promoting articulate Sikh speakers.

A significant portion of coverage came from self-created PR campaigns such as International Langar Week and Chabeel Week. These initiatives saw groups of Sikhs around the world publicising Sikh concepts to wider communities. These campaigns gained coverage by various international media corporations including the BBC and Times of India.
Sikh PA highlighted work on individual projects of sevadaars and Sikh organisations. There was also an insight given into the work done to publicise Sikh issues, with the most pertinent example being the #SikhLivesMatter campaign.

Another example of the work of Sikh PA shown was the continuation of Media Workshops held across the country, all led by a panel of experienced media professionals. These are designed to explain the workings of the media to the Sikh sangat and how Sikh groups can increase their chances of getting exposure and recognition in the mainstream media. Videos from the workshops have also been made accessible to view. The monetary value estimated for these workshops is £3000 each, bringing the total to £12,000 (with four workshops held from 2015-16). This figure is included in the estimated total value of Sikh PA’s first year of work.

Other future objectives of Sikh PA include hiring a new member of staff, building both regional and international correspondents, running enhanced campaigns and continuing to find articulate Sikhs to connect them with media.

The Sikh PA also provided an opportunity for the sangat to voice any questions with a Q&A session at the event. As a sangat funded organisation, Sikh PA always aim to be transparent with their aims and workings.

~ Source: sikhpa.com.com

Mehta Kalu (Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s worldly father) noticed that as Guru Ji grew older, his quietness increased, and thus took him to a Muslim priest to learn Persian (official language of the time).

According to Gur Balam Sakhiya:

“The Muslim priest, out of consideration for the son of an official, respectfully asked him to sit and asked him sit and he wrote thirty alphabets of Persian on a writing board. The child read those as if he already knew them. He had shown mastery of the language from the start. Then later, he started bunking and remained serious, missing school a lot. The priest said “O Nanak, you don’t study as diligently as you used to. I don’t know how much you study at home…

Nanak said “I have already read and done everything” He gave the Muslim priest his paper.

On the paper were written all the Persian alphabets and against every alphabet there was a stanza written in praise of the Lord. On seeing the paper, the Muslim priest fell at the child Guru’s feet and said: You are a prophet. You have gained all the knowledge without being taught.

Source- lifeofasikh.tumblr.com

GURDWARA SHRI MEHDIANA SAHIB is situated in the Village Mehdiana, Dsitt. Moga. GURU GOBIND SINGH JI came here while travelling across the Malwa region. During the Mughal rule, SHRI GURU GOBIND SINGH Ji while delighting the followers of Raikot, Lamme Jattpure & Maanke village, reached Mehdiana Dhaab (A natural water reservoir ) & stopped here looking at the holy water of this Dhaab. There was no habitation till 2-3 miles. At this Dhaab, GURU GOBIND SINGH Ji & the Singh followers did Daatan (Piece of a twig of tree used as tooth brush) & took bath. Then SHRI GURU GOBIND SINGH Ji Maharaaj started meditating. Bhai Daya Singh Ji requested his GURU Ji that the Singhs & their family have parted & what is the next step they should take. GURU SAHIB instantly put the Teg on his chest & said that Bhai Daya Singh I have returned the Debt & have become victorious. GURU SAHIB Ji replied with humbleness that Singh & Tiger are king of one jungle. Singhs should keep faith in Almighty. Bhai Daya Singh Ji again requested GURU Ji on behalf of all the Sikh followers to which GURU GOBIND SINGH Ji humbly said

“Singho Dhaende Desh Da Jadon Sahara Nahin Si Udo Pita Nu Desh Te Variya Main|
Mata Gujri Sirhind De Vich Gujri Sama Gujareya Jiven Gujareya Main|
Char Puttar San bakshe Parmatma Ne Oh Vi Joda Joda Kar Ke Variya Main|
Mainu Shahenshah Na Tusi Kaho Singho Kishtan naal Hai Karza Utareya Main|”

GURU SAHIB said humbly ” Sangat is bigger than GURU”. Sent father to Delhi on Kashmiri Pandits plea, then on Sangat’s request left Anandpur Sahib, left Chamkaur Di Garhi on Sangat’s request, now you are asking me on Sangat’s behalf. It was evening by the time the discussions were going on & on, he prepared his mind to prepare the Jafarnama. There was no place to stay on the Dhaab, so GURU SAHIB went to village Chakkar. The next day going via village Takhtupura, village Madhe & village Deena Sahib, he made his mind to stay with Lakhmir & Shamir. Here he wrote the Jafarnama & sent it to Auranzeb in Aurangabad through Bhai Daya Singh & Bhai Dharam Singh. This place has GURU Ji’s blessing, so whoever comes here with a wish, his prayer doesn’t go waste.

~ Source: HistoricalGurdwaras.com

Baba Fareed Ji’s mother, Bibi Mariam, said to her son as a very young child, “Oh my son, do simran (meditate on the Lord)”. As any innocent child, Baba Fareed Ji would ask, “Ma, if I do Simran, then what will I get in return.” His mother replied, “The people who do Simran, God gives those people sweets to eat.”

Children are drawn to eat sweets and love to eat them. Baba Fareed Ji would cross his legs, close his eyes and do Simran. His mother would put some sweets in to a bowl and put it front of him. Baba Fareed Ji would open his eyes after doing simran and see the sweets in front of him. “Look ma, God has given me sweets to eat.” He would then happily eat the sweets and his mother would look at him and smile.

Baba Fareed Ji looked forwards to doing Simran and being rewarded with sweets by God. For a time he would keep doing Simran and his mother would each time put sweets in front of him and when he closed his eyes so that when he opened his eyes, he could eat them.

But one day Baba Fareed Ji, opened his eyes and didn’t look at the sweets. He didn’t eat the sweets but still looked happy and content. His mother asked, “Fareed, today you haven’t eaten the sweets God has given you.” Baba Fareed Ji answered, “O Ma, once you taste the Name of God, then all other sweets in the world taste bland.”

‘Fareeda, sakar khand nivaath gur, maakiyau maanjhaa dudh. Sabhey vastoo miteeyaa(n) rab naa pujan tudh…’

Fareed: sugar cane, candy, sugar, molasses, honey and buffalo’s milk – all these things are sweet, but they are not equal to You (Waheguru)’ (Ang 1379, SGGS).

When we praise Baba Fareed Ji, we always praise his mother. With a little incentive of giving sweets, we can see the blessings bestowed on Baba Fareed Ji.

Do today’s mothers give their children sweets to eat? Yes they do! Three times a day mothers give their children different types of sweet foods and sweet dishes to eat.

But today’s mothers don’t say,
“If you wake up and say ‘Waheguru’ and going to sleep say ‘Waheguru, then you can have sweets.”
“First say ‘fateh’ to your grandparents and then I will give you your sweets.”
“I’ll give you sweets, if you come with me to do the Gurdwara and help me do some sewa.”

Irishman Max Arthur Macauliffe (1841-1913)

A hundred years ago, on 15 March 1913, one of the first western scholars of the Sikhs died at his home in Kensington, London, reciting verses by Guru Nanak.

Irishman Max Arthur Macauliffe (1841-1913) was a civil servant in India before becoming a prolific scholar and author who gained renown for his groundbreaking translations into English of Sikh scripture and history.

So intrigued was he by the message contained within the Guru Granth Sahib, he retired his well-paid post as a divisional judge in Amritsar to pursue the mammoth task ahead of him.

In a lecture delivered at the annual session of the Lahore Singh Sabha, Macauliffe proclaimed that the Guru Granth was ‘matchless’ as a book of holy teachings.

Incredibly, some commentators even believe that he adopted the Sikh way in the 1860s – indeed, his personal assistant remarked in his memoirs that on his death bed at his home at 10 Sinclair Gardens, Kensington, Macauliffe was heard reciting the Sikh morning prayer, ‘Japji Sahib’ ten minutes before he passed away.

~ Source: Sikh Discover Inspire

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered a formal apology in his country’s House of Commons for an incident that took place more than a century ago.

In mid-May 1914, the Komagata Maru, a Japanese steamship, arrived in Vancouver after leaving Hong Kong in early April. On board were 376 passengers, most of whom were Sikh migrants from what was then British India. The ship was not allowed to dock.

For our indifference to your plight.
For our failure to recognize all that you had to offer.
For the laws that discriminated against you, so senselessly.
And for not formally apologizing sooner.
For all these things, we are truly sorry.
-Justin Trudeau, Prime, Minister of Canada

A 1908 Canadian law at the time forbade arrivals in the country who did not make a “continuous journey” from their nation of birth or citizenship. In an era when hundreds of thousands of white European immigrants were settling in Canada, the law was seen as a measure to stymie Indian arrivals because it was practically impossible to travel directly from the Indian mainland to North America.
In a challenge to the rules, the Komagata Maru, chartered by a Sikh businessman with ties to an influential Sikh political party in the Americas, steamed across the Pacific. Its arrival in Canada was anticipated by doom-mongering local headlines, which warned of an impending “Hindu invasion.”

Sir Richard McBride, then the Conservative premier of British Columbia, made clear the explicit racism of Canada’s policies on the night the Komagata Maru reached Vancouver.

“To admit Orientals in large numbers would mean the end, the extinction of the white people,” he said. “And we always have in mind the necessity of keeping this a white man’s country.”

After an almost two-month standoff, which also involved feisty demonstrations by ethnic Indians on Vancouver’s shores, the ship was eventually turned away. When it reached Calcutta, now Kolkata, in India, British colonial authorities attempted to seize suspected Sikh radicals on board. The semi-riot that ensued saw security forces kill at least 19 passengers and arrest many others.

The incident is a reminder, particularly for Canada’s considerable Sikh population, of the widespread discrimination and bigotry meted out on Indians and other Asians on the west coast of the Americas a century ago.

“Mr. Speaker, today I rise in this House to offer an apology on behalf of the Government of Canada, for our role in the Komagata Maru incident,” Trudeau began at the end of Question Time in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

“Today – while knowing that no words can fully erase the pain and suffering experienced by the passengers – I offer a sincere apology on behalf of the government for the laws in force at the time that allowed Canada to be indifferent to the plight of the passengers of the Komagata Maru,” he said.

“Canada cannot solely be blamed for every tragic mistake that occurred with the Komagata Maru and its passengers. But Canada’s government was, without question, responsible for the laws that prevented these passengers from immigrating peacefully and securely. For that, and for every regrettable consequence that followed, we are sorry,” Trudeau concluded, to a standing ovation in the chamber.

~ Source: thestar.com

It is said that Guru Gobind Singh ji came here(Shikaar Ghat, Nanded, Maharashtra, India) following the chase (shikar) and killed a rabbit which in a former birth had been Bhai Moola, who belonged to Sialkot (now in Pakistan). He had once accompanied Guru Nanak Dev ji during his travels. Once when Guru Nanak Dev ji went to visit him, Moola (on the request of his wife) avoided the Guru and hid himself for fear that the Guru might take him away on another long journey. Sensing this Guru Nanak Dev ji went away, but such is the travesty of fate that Moola died soon after of snakebite.

His wife realising her folly begged Guru Nanak Dev ji for forgiveness. Guru Sahib said he was my Sikh and thus I will surely free him but in my 10th form. Since then his repentant soul had been wandering in different sub-human bodies (joons) until Guru Gobind Singh ji emancipated it (now in the form/joon of a Rabbit) by the touch of his arrow. When questioned by his Siksh why he’d killed an innocent animal, Guru jee explained that it was Bhai Moola and he had liberated his soul.

~ Source: Tuhitu.blogspot.com

Five semi trucks carrying donated goods to help Fort McMurray wildfire evacuees arrived in Alberta’s capital Monday afternoon thanks to the efforts of B.C.’s Sikh community.

The goods were collected by the Lower Mainland Sikh Community before being loaded onto trucks Sunday and brought 1,139 kilometres from Surrey, B.C. to Edmonton. The community had already deployed four trucks to bring clothes, blankets and other supplies to Edmonton earlier this month and says in total, the nine trucks delivered over $1 million worth of goods to Alberta.

“I think this is the Sikh way of life you know – share with the needy people and help the humanity – that’s the core values of Sikhism,” Kulmit Sangha, with the Sikh Federation of Edmonton, said. “I feel very proud and humbled.”

The goods were brought to the Edmonton Emergency Relief Services Society’s warehouse in the city’s south side.

“The Sikh community came and approached us about them wanting to come and help support us as soon as they found out that Edmonton Emergency Relief Services were going to be helping maintain the relief efforts,” Nicole Geoffroy, media relations for the Edmonton Emergency Relief Services Society, said. “With the donations that have been coming in we’re going to be sure that we’re going to be able to help get all the basics to them (evacuees) as fast as we can.”

The supplies delivered Monday were collected through a one-day donation campaign in Surrey, Vancouver and Abbotsford on Saturday. Organizers said over 200 volunteers worked to collect, sort and pack the donations. They also said a group of volunteers will be taking a bus from Surrey to Alberta to help those displaced by this month’s massive wildfire in Fort McMurray.

~ Source – Globalnews.ca