Golden Temple Chapati Seva
Sahaj Singh Khalsa
Amritsar,India
This year in India was a difficult year. I am sure that most of you have heard about our difficulties, but I have realized that few people have heard of the high points of the year, which were many. We were in Amritsar, which allowed us to fulfill the prayer of every Sikh in the world by taking a sip and a dip in the nectar tank of the Harimandir Sahib. We also had the opportunity to meet and spend time with the Jethadar of the Akal Takhat, Bhai Ranjit Singh. He was kind enough to meet with the children on a few different occasions and answer all their questions regarding Sikhism, Gurbani, life in general, and whatever else was asked.
One of the greatest achievements of the year was the Junior age students, who are in second to seventh grade, completing 40 days of seva at the Lungar Hall of the Golden Temple. The idea for this sadhana came from the kids themselves. Once they began, they were 100% into it for the whole forty days. Their sadhana started at the end of March, and they completed it just a few days before they left India. Daily, the kids would get up at 5:30 AM, get themselves dressed, and be on the bus by 6 AM ready for the drive to the Golden Temple. They would get off the bus at the Golden Temple, bow on the Parkarma and walk around to the Lungar Hall kitchen to get started with their seva.
In the Lungar Hall there were a few different jobs to be done; they could make the dough into balls (which was well liked because it then involved tossing the balls to the people rolling them), rolling the balls flat into chapatis (which resulted in some strangely shaped chapatis), putting the uncooked chapatis on the skillet, flipping them so that they cooked evenly, and stacking the hot cooked chapatis into piles to be taken into the Lungar Hall. The children would spend about fifty minutes doing whatever was their favorite task, and then it was time for them to grab a quick snack in the Lungar Hall and head home to get them and their rooms ready for school.
During the time the Juniors were doing this seva, one of the children (Hargobind Singh 4th grade) moved from the Twin House, where the Junior girls and some boys lived, to D-96 House, where the Junior boys were staying. The Twin House kids had started their sadhana one day after the children at D-96 House, so when the other kids there had completed their sadhana, Hargobind Singh had one more day to go. He made sure that he had a way to get up the next morning so he could complete his 40 day seva. Seeing that was one of the most inspiring things of the year.
While the Juniors were getting up every day to do their seva, they obviously came across the occasional Sunday and holiday. The kids, who were used to having their Sundays to rest for “yogis day off”, at first put up a little resistance to the idea that 40 days meant 40 consecutive days. Once they got through that, they had a vote on the bus one morning to see what time they should get up on Sundays for their Golden Temple seva.
I was expecting them to choose a time later then our usual 5:30 AM because Sunday breakfast is not until 9 AM, so they had the opportunity sleep in. To my surprise, the time that won the vote was 4 AM. They wanted to go earlier, spend more time at the Golden Temple, and then come back to get their sleep.
The time they were doing their seva was when they showed a small part of what they are capable of. Their behavior improved immensely while they were doing it. Their keeping up spirit, including even the initiative to get the 40 day seva program started, was very impressive to see.