LANGAR’S LESSON IN SERVICE

WRITTEN BY SARAH NEESE

SERVICE LEARNING AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT are foundational concepts at Central, making up one of six major pillars the university hopes to instill in each of its students. However, for UCO political science major Harman Kaur, service is already woven into her identity. Kaur is a Sikh.

“Sikhism was founded by Guru Nanak Sahib Ji. He was a revolutionary social reformer who challenged cultural and religious norms in the fifteenth century in South Asia,” Kaur said. “Guru Nanak wanted to empower the common person to seek and realize God while living an honest family life, free from rituals and pilgrimages. His teachings were designed to promote equality among all humans, irrespective of caste, color, creed, gender or race.”

As a Sikh, Kaur serves as the general secretary of the World Sikh Parliament, which has 30 members from across the United States. As a member of the parliament, she helps coordinate major projects, like serving food to others in the community during a global pandemic. While the community’s need for food was intensified by the effects of COVID-19, Sikhs have been serving food to those in need long before this pandemic had a name.

Langar, in Sikhism, is the concept of serving free meals to the surrounding community, regardless of religion, caste, gender, economic status or ethnicity. Within langar, people sit and eat together, with all the ingredients donated, and the entire operation maintained and served by volunteers. The free meal promotes the Sikh tenet of seva, or selfless service.

Some of the largest gurdwaras (Sikh Temples) around the world serve more than 100,000 people every day, free-of-charge, as part of langar, and the Sikh Center of New York is known to serve thousands of people each week.

“Langar is important, because as a Sikh, it is our duty to serve people wherever we live. It is part of my duty,” Kaur said. “The Sikh community is able to do this because of our Guru’s blessings. Guru Nanak Sahib started langar with 20 rupees, and today, the Sikh community feeds millions of people.”

For Kaur and her family within the Oklahoma City community, langar exists on a smaller scale.

“In Oklahoma, there are not many Sikhs. I was the only Sikh in my high school, and I believe I might be the only Sikh at UCO, so langar is not a massive scale as we see in Dallas and other places, but it does exist,” she said. “With me and my family’s effort, we are still able to provide langar to the communities.”

However, as the pandemic raged across the globe, langar began to look a little different. Volunteers now take extra precautions while preparing meals, physically distancing while cooking and wearing gloves and masks while preparing food. Perhaps the largest change is that the meals have gone mobile. Instead of serving food inside of gurdwaras, Sikhs have taken to the streets.

Kaur recently served members of the homeless community in Oklahoma City, wearing a mask while making deliveries. Not allowing the pandemic to halt her langar efforts, she feels that serving those during the pandemic isn’t so different from any other time of need.

“The Sikh community has always come out in other natural disasters too,” she said. “For example, whenever there has been a hurricane or the fires in California last year, Sikhs have always opened doors to the gurudwara and served langar. There are Sikh serving in Yemen and even in warzones, like in Syria.”

“Sikhs are known for their helping nature. Whenever someone is in trouble in India, they always come up to a Sikh for help. Similarly, I want America to know that they can ask for help from Sikhs. We are of a loving and giving nature.”

SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, WORLD SIKH

HAS MADE AN IMPACT THROUGH THEIR ACTS OF SERVICE.

1,000 HOMELESS SERVED

20,000 FREE MASKS

145,000 FREE MEALS PROVIDED 50 HOSPITALS SERVED