Section
Five
CHAPTER-XII
Voluntary Service
Article XXI
1. Seva
(Voluntry Service) is a prominent part of Sikh religion. Illustrative
models of voluntary service are organised for imparting training,
in the Gurdwaras. Its simple forms are : sweeping and plastering
the floors (In older times, buildings, particularly in rural
areas had mud and not brick paved or cement floors. To give
these floors firmness and consistency, they were thinly plastered
with a diluted compound of mud.) of the Gurdwara, serving water
to or fanning the congregation, offering provisions to and rendering
any kind of service in the common kitchen-cum-eating house,
dusting the shoes of the people visiting the Gurdwara, etc.
a. Guru
Ka Langar (Guru's Kitchen-cum-Eating House) The philosophy behind
the Langar (Guru's kitchen-cum-eating-house) is two-fold : to
provide training to the Sikhs in voluntary service and to help
banish all distinction of high and low, touchable and untouchable
from the Sikhs' minds.
b. All
human beings, high or low, and of any caste or colour may sit
and eat in the Langar. No discrimination on grounds of the country
of origin, colour, caste or religion must be made while making
people sit in rows for eating. However, only baptised (Amritdhari)
Sikhs can eat off one plate.