IB World Religions 7.2.5. Society and Ritual: the Gurdwara, the Five Ks and Langar Notes

7.2.5. Society and Ritual: The Gurdwara, the Five Ks and Langar

The gurdwara

1. A gurdwara is not defined by its architecture. The word means the Guru's door, and any room in which the Guru Granth Sahib has been properly installed is one, whether a marble complex in Amritsar or a converted chapel in Leeds.
2. The mark of a gurdwara from outside is the Nishan Sahib, a saffron flagpole flying a triangular flag with the khanda emblem on it.
3. Inside, the main hall is called the darbar, the court, and the scripture rests at the front on a manji sahib, a cushioned platform under a canopy.
4. There is no altar and no image anywhere in the room. The only focus is the book, and Sikhs bow to it on entering and then sit on the floor facing it.
5. Everyone removes their shoes and covers their head before entering, visitors included, and everyone sits at the same level rather than in ranked seating.
6. Many Sikh homes keep the pattern in miniature. A family with a full copy of the scripture sets aside a room for it, so the household worships in a gurdwara of its own.

Parkash karna and sukhasan

1. The scripture is not left out overnight. It is brought into the hall each morning in a rite called parkash karna, the making of light, and put to rest each night in a rite called sukhasan, the posture of ease.
2. Parkash is done before dawn. The volume is carried in on the head, set on the manji sahib, opened, and the day's first hukamnama is read aloud from it.
3. Through the day an attendant stands behind it waving the chaur, a whisk of white hair or nylon, which is the honour once paid to a ruler seated in court.
4. At night the book is closed, wrapped in its rumala cloths and carried back to a room of its own, where it rests on a bed made up for it.
5. Sikhs are explicit about what these honours mean. The volume is treated as a living Guru is treated, so the courtesies are those given to a person rather than those given to an object.
6. Because the two rites are demanding, most Sikh households keep a gutka, a small volume of selected prayers, rather than a full copy that would require the full daily observance.

Katha and kirtan in diwan

1. The congregational service is the diwan, another word borrowed from a royal court, meaning the assembly held in the Guru's presence.
2. Its parts are fixed but its length is not. A diwan includes readings from the Guru Granth Sahib, kirtan, katha, Ardas, a hukamnama and the sharing of karah parshad.
3. Kirtan is the singing of the Gurus' hymns in the musical measures set down with them, led by ragis with harmonium and tabla, and it usually fills most of the service.
4. Katha is spoken exposition: an explanation of a passage and of what it asks of the congregation now.
5. Sikhism appoints no weekly holy day. Attendance follows local convention instead, so gurdwaras in Britain and North America are busiest on Sunday while those in Punjab keep a daily rhythm with larger gatherings on sangrand and puranmashi.
6. Nobody is turned away. The diwan is not restricted to Sikhs, which follows from the same principle that opens the kitchen to everyone.

Ardas and karah parshad

1. Every diwan closes the same way. The congregation stands for Ardas, the Sikh prayer of petition, and it is the one point at which everybody is on their feet together.
2. Ardas has a fixed opening that invokes God and calls the ten Gurus to mind, then a long recital of Sikhs who suffered for the faith, then free petitions for whatever occasion is in hand.
3. It closes with a line Sikhs know by heart: in Nanak's name may spirits be high, and by God's will may all people prosper.
4. That last clause matters to Sikhs. The prayer ends by asking good for everyone rather than for Sikhs alone, and teachers regularly cite it as the summary of Sikh social ethics.
5. A hukamnama follows. The scripture is opened at random and the hymn at the top of the left page is read as the Guru's word to that assembly on that morning.
6. Karah parshad is then shared: a warm pudding of wheat flour, sugar and clarified butter, prepared with recitation and placed in the cupped hands of everyone present.
7. The distribution carries the argument. It goes to each person in turn without regard to caste, gender, wealth or religion, so the congregation is levelled at the moment it breaks up.

The five Ks

1. The Panj Kakke, five Ks, are the articles Guru Gobind Singh required of initiated Sikhs in 1699. They are worn as a uniform rather than as charms.
2. Kesh is uncut hair, left as it grows and covered by a turban for men and by many women.
3. Kangha is a small wooden comb kept in the hair, standing for order and cleanliness against the matted hair of the ascetic.
4. Kara is a steel bracelet worn on the wrist, a circle without end and the most visible of the five in ordinary working life.
5. Kachhera are drawers cut for activity, and kirpan is a sword worn on a strap, carried as the duty of standing between an aggressor and the weak.
6. Their function in this context is communal. The five make an initiated Sikh recognisable anywhere, which makes it impossible to hold the faith privately, and Sikhs give that visibility as the point.
7. Carrying the kirpan raises practical questions in the diaspora, and courts, schools and airlines in Britain, Canada and India have each made specific accommodations for it.

Langar and sewa

1. Every gurdwara runs a langar, a kitchen serving free food to anyone who comes, at any hour, of any religion or none.
2. The rule that gives it force is the seating. Everyone eats sitting on the floor in rows called pangat, so that nobody is served above anybody else.
3. Guru Nanak began the practice and Guru Amar Das made it a condition of access, requiring everyone who came to see him to eat in the row first, the emperor Akbar included.
4. The food is vegetarian, which Sikhs explain as a practical decision rather than a doctrinal one: it lets people of any dietary rule eat what is served.
5. Sewa, unpaid service, supplies the labour. Cooking, serving, washing up and cleaning shoes are taken in turn by the congregation, and the humbler tasks are treated as the more valuable.
6. The scale can be very large. The kitchen at the Harmandir Sahib is reported to feed tens of thousands of people a day and runs without closing.
7. Sikh relief organisations have carried the langar outside the gurdwara altogether, serving at flood sites, refugee camps and city centres, and the practice became highly visible during the pandemic years.