DGSMC to organise langar across Delhi for four days on Prakash Utsav

To mark the celebrations of 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) will be organising "Guru Ka Langar" (free community meals) for four days at 50 different locations across Delhi.

The four-day langar will commence from November 9.

The birthday of Guru Nanak Dev falls on the full moon day and this year, it will be observed on November 12.

"We have planned to organise Guru Ka Langar outside main hospitals, railway stations, bus stands and slum areas in around 50 places across Delhi to provide nutritious, tasty and fresh food to around two lakh people daily. We will serve mainly the needy and poor people irrespective of caste, religion, region in order to celebrate Guru Nanak Dev Prakash Utsav," said Manjinder Singh Sirsa, President of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee here on Sunday.

Sirsa further said that langar will consist of hot meals including dal, sabzi, roti, rice, fruits and kheer, a traditional Punjabi sweet--during breakfast, lunch and dinner at a specified location in the capital so as maximum people could benefit from the langar.

The four-day drive will mainly serve people who work and live near the railway station, bus stands, slum colonies like-- rickshaw pullers, daily wage labourers, beggars, street children, people living below pavements and those who come from far off places for various works in the national capital region.

The objective of organising Langar is to make Delhi a hunger-free city during Gurpurb and promote love and compassion among its citizens as enshrined in sacred Gurbani, Sirsa said.

In order to create a network for providing food, many Sikh organisations, Singh Sabhas and NGOs have joined hands with the DSGMC for this initiative.

The DSGMC will also commence a multimedia campaign to popularise the initiative by actively involving Sikh celebrities that should help in adding up to the hashtag trend on social media like twitter, facebook, Instagram and other online media platforms in order to spread the message among common masses.

"We believe feeding the hungry, irrespective of their faith, belief, status is one of the best ways to spread the message of love and serve humanity," said Sirsa.

The concept of Langar came into light in 1480 when Gurn Nanak Dev was given Rs 20 (a princely amount of those times ) by his father Mehta Kalu to strike good business and make a lucrative profit.

When Guru Nanak Dev left home in order to commence a good business, he found a group of hungry people and saints on his way. He observed that those people had not eaten a full-time meal for many days. He then bought food items of those Rs 20 rupees and fed the needy people and told his father that there just couldn't be a more profitable deal then feeding the hungry men in the society.

A Gurudwara named Gurdwara Sacha Sauda has been constructed at the place where Guru Nanak Dev had fed poor people back then and since then the tradition of langar started.