Date:29/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/29/stories/2008102954330500.htm

Karnataka

Ninety-six years and still serving

T.V. Sivanandan

Gurudwara Langar Sahib has been providing food and shelter to pilgrims

Service above self: The langar at the Gurudwara Langar Sahib in Nanded city in Maharashtra.

Nanded (Maharashtra): The Gurudwara Langar Sahib has a special place in the history of Nanded and the Takhat Sachkand Sri Hazur Abchalnagar Sahib, one of the five Takhats of Sikhism in Nanded city.

The embers in the kitchen of this famous gurudwara have been burning for the past 96 years, and its doors have never been closed even once, ever since pilgrims began paying obeisance at the gurudwara and tasted the “prasad” provided with devotion and service by the kar sewaks.

Founded by Sant Baba Nidhan Singh, who hailed from Hoshiarpur in Punjab, the Gurudwara Langar Sahib has been rendering yeoman service to the pilgrims visiting the Sachkand Gurudwara Sahib, by providing food and shelter to them.

History

Legend says that Sant Baba Nidhan Singh, who was in the British Army, quit his job and came to Nanded in 1910 to serve in the gurudwara as a kar sewak. He was there for 12 years. One day, while he was preparing to leave for Hoshiarpur, Guru Gobind Singh appeared before him in his dreams and directed him to open a langar for serving pilgrims visiting the gurudwara in Nanded. When Sant Nidhan Singh told the Tenth Guru that he had no money to run the langar, Guru Gobind Singh told him “Kissa mera haath thumara” (I will provide the resource, you serve the people).

The present chief of the Gurudwara Langar Sahib, Sant Narinder Singh, who himself came as a young boy to the gurudwara as a kar sewak several years ago, said that Sant Baba Nidhan Singh started the langar with a handful of channa dal in 1912.

Sant Narinder Singh said that the langar hopes to feed more than one crore pilgrims during the period, from October 9 to November 3, this year to commemorate the 300th death anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh.

The kitchen and the langar is manned by more than 500 kar sewaks hailing from different parts of the country and abroad. These kar sewaks have devoted their lives to the service of the gurudwara, having given up their families for service. Their moto is service to humankind and the almighty.

Apart from this, there are 5,000 other kar sewaks who have come forward to serve in the langar and kitchen to cope up with the demand during the 300th centenary celebrations.

Devotees from all over the country provide a regular flow of foodgrain, fuel, wood, ghee, milk, sugar and vegetables to the langar. Sant Narinder Singh said: “We do not keep an account of how much foodgrain comes in and how much is spent. Our aim is to serve the people with a smile on our faces. Nobody is allowed to go away with an empty stomach, irrespective of his caste and community.”