(via Sunny Narang)
#OnSikhLangars #DalSubziRotiKheer #OnlyVegetarian#WaheGuruDaKhalsa #WaheGuruDiFateh #KartarpurCommune#BangladeshLowestPerCapitaMeatConsumer
"False are kings, false their subjects, false the whole world;
False are mansions, false palaces, false those who dwell therein;
False is gold, false silver, false he who weareth them
False the body, false raiment, false peerless beauty;
False husbands, false wives; they pine away and become dust.
Man who is false loveth what is false, and forgetteth the Creator.
With whom contract friendship? The whole world passeth away.
False is sweetness, false honey, in falsehood shiploads are drowned--
Nanak humbly asserteth--Except Thee, O God, everything is thoroughly false."
Salok Mahala 1 (Asa Ki Var) SGGS p.468 .
The Lahore territory was farmed from the Emperor , Ibrahim Lodi (r. 1517–1526),
by a millionaire Khatri, whose name was Duni Chand.
by a millionaire Khatri, whose name was Duni Chand.
He became a disciple of the Guru, Guru Nanak had uttered the above Shabad on the occasion.
There were Sikh Gurus who are meat , and there is no religious sanction in Sikhism against eating meat , but simultaneously the fact that many do not eat meat , and From Nanak onwards the Langar was meant to feed all castes of all sampradaya , the food was kept pure vegetarian .
It is a simple rule in India , you give a feast for the community and so it's your decision to decide the menu according to who you want to feed .
And people are welcome not to attend .
Hence if you want the maximum people to attend you will go by their dietary habits .
It's a simple and pragmatic choice .
There are Hindu sects that eat meat as Prasad . Those in Himalayan regions , those with Tantric or Shakt influences , those living near the sea or ocean , or of warrior castes like Rajputs or many castes dealing with livestock rearing or hunting/fishing .
Still rarely in India in a public feast in a religious place or occassion meat is served .
And ofcourse it's much more expensive for huge numbers.
The fact is that beef is the cheapest meat in India ( mostly buff or buffalo meat ) almost half the price of goat meat per kg .
And Nepal the earlier Hindu state eats it the maximum.
"Buffalo meat is preferred the most by Nepalis followed by goat, chicken and pig meats. Tek Prasad Luitel, senior agro economist at the Agriculture Ministry, said that buffalo meat—called buff locally—contributes 58 percent to the total meat production. "
So there is nothing against eating buffalo meat even among Hindus .
The fact remains that due to cost reasons we are all low meat eaters .
The above article from Nepal says :
"Based on the figures, on an average a Nepali eats 11.15 kg meat per year. Per capita meat consumption was 9.8 kg per year in 2008 and 9.7 kg in 2000.
Despite the growth, Nepal is still far behind other developing countries.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the world average meat consumption stands 42.5 kilograms per person per year.
In developing countries, the rate is 32.4 kg. In industrialised countries, average meat consumption amounted to 79.2 kg."
India’s per-capita consumption of meat stands at 4.4 kg per person, which puts it at the second position on the list of countries with the least meat consumption per-person.
(Bangladesh is lowest at 4 kg per person , Pakistan is 14.7 kg )
So a good nutritious vegetarian meal is the best scaled up option for subsidized public feeding .
Sikhs got it right 500 years before !
The Akal Takht (Central Body for Sikh Temporal Affairs) represents the final authority on controversial issues concerning the Sikh Panth (community or collective).
The Hukamnama (edict or clarification), issued by Akal Takht Jathedar (head priest or head caretaker) Sadhu Singh Bhaura dated February 15, 1980, states that eating meat does not go against the code of conduct (Kurehit) of the Sikhs; Amritdhari Sikhs can eat meat as long as it is Jhatka meat.
Some religious sects of Sikhism—Damdami Taksal, Akhand Kirtani Jatha, Namdharis, Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha and the 3HO —believe that the Sikh diet should be meat-free.
The reason for the disagreement with this ruling is that these sects had many Vaishnav converts to Sikhism who were staunchly vegetarian.
Within the gurdwara, the Guru ka Langar (Guru's community kitchen) serves purely lacto-vegetarian food because the Langar is open to all.
Since people of many faiths with varying dietary taboos, and since Sikhs accept these restrictions and accommodate people regardless of their faith or culture, the Sikh Gurus adopt vegetarian food for Langar.
Meat was included in langar at the time of Guru Angad, but was discontinued to accommodate Vashnavites.
The exception to vegetarian langar today is when Nihangs serve meat on the occasion of Holla Mohalla, and call it Maha Prashad.
"Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib is located in town by the same name Kartarpur (Ravi) in Pakistan.
The nearest town on the Indian side of the border is Dera Baba Nanak (1Km. from Border) in the district of Gurdaspur.
The shrine is located about 3 kms from the Indo-Pakistan border.
The original abode established by Guru Nanak was washed away by floods of the river Ravi and the present Gurudwara was established by Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
The then Governor Duni Chand of the area, where Kartarpur , the first commune of Guru Nanak was set up , met Guru Nanak at Pakhoke and donated 100 acres of land to Guru Sahib.
This land is on the right bank of river Ravi.
On the Guru’s acceptance of the land he decided to settle there and a small building or hut was constructed. Kartarpur thus became the first Sikh centre.
There is a reference in the historical books that Guru formally laid the foundation of Kartarpur on Magh 13, 1572 Bikrami year (1515AD).
Apart from Duni Chand, Guru’s disciple Doda was also helpful.
The Guru donned the clothes typical of a Punjabi farmer and began to cultivate the land around his new settlement. Soon his family; father, mother, wife and sons arrived at Kartarpur.
Here the Guru lived the life of a householder for 18 years. Sikh history is replete with pleasant stories connected with Guru’s pious deeds at Kartarpur where he started the tradition called Guru ka Langar (a communal kitchen).
Soon with his Sikhs moving to join the community a sarai (rooms for pilgrims, ect.) were built along with a meeting room where the sangat (congregation) gathered daily to listen to kirtan the Gurbani music and the Guru’s discourses.
The Guru ka Langar was the place where the Guru's belief in the equality of every man and woman was first manifested in India, which had long been a segregated society based on the idea of varna, more commonly known outside of India as caste.
People dined together irrespective of their former caste, creed or even their wealth.
The food was grown, prepared and served by the sangat with members of Sangat taking turns as volunteers."
"Everyone eats the same food being dished out by the volunteers: dal, vegetables, and a thick South Asian rice pudding called kheer. It is lunchtime at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, and of the nearly 100,000 people who eat here on an average day, not a single one of them will pay for the food they consume.
Who said there is no such thing as a free lunch?
A meal of this scale is made possible by a cadre of volunteers and an astonishing amount of raw materials: 12,000 kilos of flour, 1,500 kilos of rice, 13,000 kilos of lentils, and up to 2,000 kilos of vegetables.
While much of the work is done by hand, a mechanized oven and conveyor belt turn out 200,000 rotis on a daily basis.
The langar, as it's called, never closes—and even late at night, pilgrims will stop by for a meal.
Nearly 500 years ago, a Sikh guru living in the Indian subcontinent introduced a revolutionary idea when it comes to the consumption of food. The idea was simple enough: a place should exist where everyone, regardless of religion or social status, could sit on the ground together as equals and eat the same food.
The philosophy behind this free meal behind this free meal was a radical departure from the prevailing norms, where caste hierarchies decided what you ate and with whom you ate it.
Tradition tells that Guru Nanak, the first Sikh guru, disappeared at the age of 30 after having a vision.
Three days later, he reappeared, saying only that "there is no Hindu, and there is no Musalman [Muslim]." With these words, and the belief attached to them that all are equal before God, the Sikh faith was born.
At the core of Sikh teachings about equality and oneness is the langar, a free community kitchen where everyone is welcome regardless of social or religious distinctions.
The langar at the Golden Temple is a living example of the Sikh faith's rejection of the notion of caste.
Although Sikhs are not exclusively vegetarian, the langar at the Golden Temple serves only nourishing vegetarian meals.
The volunteers here come from different faiths and socioeconomic backgrounds. They are young, old, and in-between, and work in a highly efficient, almost machine-like way.
With each onion chopped or roti flattened, you can hear them chant, "Wahe Guru...Wahe Guru," invoking the name of God."
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