Concept of Langar in Sikh Gurudwaras

Last week, I got the opportunity to pay the visit to one of the most famous Sikh Temple in Delhi NCR - Gurudwara Bangla Sahib. Number of people have asked me about the concept of Langar (food for everyone) & during my visit to Gurudwara, I decided to cover it in my blog post. Here you go:

Sikh Langar is based on Sikh religious principals of Seva (Voluntary service of community) and ‘wand ke chakhna’ (share one’s food around).  The principal dictums of Sikh living are “to earn one’s living by honest labour.  Remember Almighty Lord or Supreme Being – Akal Purakh all the time and “Share with others what you can afford to give”. Thus for Sikhs to serve in Langar for cooking, cleaning, distributing or donating are fulfillment of their religious obligation.

Sikh believes in existence of “One Supreme being” for the whole universe and also that all humans are children of same one supreme being which is formless, not subject to life and death, Omnipresent.  Thus service all humans without any inhibition on account of cast, color, financial status is compliance of Sikh religious code. 

Here are some of the pictures of langar hall from Delhi's Gurudwara Bangla Sahib (famous Sikh Temple)..

Outside Langar Hall - Waiting for their turn (Inside the hall, another round of langar is going on). People come in large group, they eat and then another set of people arrive for Langar. And this cycle goes on every half an hour 365 days in the year (people come and eat food without any cost). Amazing. For me, this is Truly some Blessings of Guru!

Inside Langar Hall - waiting for food to be served while some people are chanting prayers

God's food with HIGHER Taste!

People volunteer themselves to perform Seva (Voluntary service of community). In this image, volunteers serving devotees the Amrit or medicinal water of the kund (water pool).

Some other images from the Gurudwara:

People gathered outside in standstill to pay respect to the Guru (God) as prayers are going on inside Gurudwara

Camera quality isn't that great because I wasn't carrying my device, but will make up in next post. Hope you like this post on Sikh Langar.

Will continue on this post someday soon.....