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1 July - Sept 2013 Edition The Newsletter of the Canberra Sikh Association CSA COMMITTEE PRESIDENT Jasdeep Sidhu Randhawa VICE PRESIDENT Gurminder Singh Girgla SECRETARY Amardeep Singh ASSISTANT SECRETARY Surjit Singh Kang TREASURER Madhusudan Singh Sidhu ASSISTANT TREASURER Vickram Singh Grewal ExCOM MEMBER Hardeep Singh ExCOM MEMBER Harbans Singh Melli ExCOM MEMBER Kanwalpreet Singh Phawa Ex OFFICIO MEMBER Bharpur Singh Sekhon Message from the Incoming CSA President Mrs Jesse Randhawa Guru Pyari Sadh Sangat Ji, Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh I stand here today in this office humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust that the Sikh Sangat have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices and am thinking of those few Sikhs who envisioned the dream of establishing a Sikh Centre in Canberra. Not only a place of worship and religious congregation but also to serve the needs of the Sikh Community, especially the community members of greater Canberra. I July - Sept 2013 Edition

2 would like to extend my gratitude and thanks to all the role players that have made it possible for us to collectively work on this dream as we move forward, taking short steps, to make this dream a reality. I would like to acknowledge the initiative of our previous committee in establishing a regular Punjabi School. I will always stand for the promotion of the Punjabi language and its importance as our mother tongue towards the preservation of one's own culture, faith, religion and the recognition of a need for a sense of "belonging" and shared heritage. We will continue to strengthen and further improve the workings of the Punjabi school in It would be our endeavour to seek the guidance from the teachings of Shri Guru Granth Sahib and carry out congregational service more frequently and keep the Gurdwara open seven days a week. I will take this opportunity to thank the outgoing committee for the hard work done by them. I would publicly like to acknowledge Inderpal Kang, Baljit Nahl, Jagdeep Singh, Davinder Thind and Gagandeep Singh for their support to the Gurdwara cause, especially Baljit who put in many hours of hard work overseeing the construction of the Gurdwara sahib. I also take this opportunity to thank Tejinder Singh Hunjon for his contribution towards CSA newsletter over the years. Lastly, I would like to extend my gratitude to Inderpal Singh Walia and Rattandeep Walia who have been doing the invaluable service towards the respectful establishment and transportation of Guruji's sarup from their house to the place of congregation on behalf of CSA. In moving forward we will work assiduously and with great devotion to achieve great things together, with your help instilling the love for Sikh religion, its beliefs, values and customs among young Sikhs here, molding and guiding the future generations of enlightened minds. It is hard to describe how meaningful it is for the Sikh family today to be able to come together to share in fellowship and praise of the Guru and embrace the Guru's word. I leave you with the words from the Guru Granth sahib, page 83, pauri ਸਭ ਆਪ ਤ ਧ ਉਪ ਇ ਕ ਆ ਪ ਕ ਰ ਲ ਈ, You Yourself created all; You Yourself delegate the tasks. Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh Jesse Randhawa President CSA Inc. Message from the Outgoing CSA President Dr Inderpal Singh Kang Dear Members, Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh It has been a great honour to be President of the Canberra Sikh Association (CSA). The Executive Committee (ExCom) that I worked with has achieved a lot during the last year. For example 1 Installation of Nishan Sahib 2 Conducting Gurmukhi classes on a regular basis 3 Fixing the floor in Gurdwara Sahib that is easy to clean and is also thermally efficient 4 Installation of electric heaters which are economical to operate and provide good heating during winter months July - Sept 2013 Edition Page 2 of 13

3 5 Completion of the temporary kitchen as well as fitting sinks for washing up after Langgar. The Committee has been very prudent in looking after the Association s funds by ensuring that only absolutely necessary items of expenditure are approved and obtained at the best price. I have always prayed for Waheguru to endow unity upon our Members and Sangat. I believe that CSA should work as a single unit by ensuring that all Sections of our Community are represented in the Executive Committee and also to ensure that no single group dominates its proceedings. For this reason I recommend to all CSA members to give serious thought to the elections today so as to ensure that only the right persons are elected to the Executive Committee. Further I always believed that in its present form the Executive Committee has complete control as to how our funds are spent. There are limited checks, balances or controls as to how our funds can be expended. When this Gurdwara Sahib was under construction we were always short of funds and the thought of spending our scarce funds without serious consideration did not ever arise. However due to the generosity of the Members and Sangat the flow of funds has now reached significant levels so much so there is a serious need for checks and balances to be put in place. My vision for the long term well being of CSA is to ensure that these checks and balances are put in place now so that no future CSA Executive Committee is able to misuse the Association s funds. Wrong decisions made by the Executive Committee can have serious consequences that will be felt by all our Members. Hence, I call upon all members to support the motion of establishing a Guardian Council (GC). The Guardian Council would review the financial decisions made by the CSA Executive Committee. Should there be disagreement between the GC and the CSA ExCom on any issue a Special General Meeting would be called to resolve the issue. Finally my Best Wishes to the incoming Executive Committee. May Waheguru Bless us all. Dr Indar Pal Singh Kang Canberra Sikh Association Inc Executive Committee Report S. Bharpur Singh Sekhon Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh Dear Members of Canberra Sikh Association (CSA) It is with great pleasure that I table this report at the 24 th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of our Association. As had been our practice over the past 23 years, we have held regular Gurdwara, ExCom meetings, fundraising activities and when possible organised and held Punjabi Cultural Activities as spelt out under the Aims and Objects of our Association. During this year ( ) we held 10 Regular Executive Committee (ExCom) Meetings, 1 Emergency Meeting and this, our impending 24 th Annual General Meeting. July - Sept 2013 Edition Page 3 of 13

4 This year has been a year in overdrive for most of the Executive Committee with the near completion of Phase 1 of the Canberra Sikh Centre and the start of our regular 2 times a Month Gurdwara. The ExCom has received requests for weekly Gurdwara but unfortunately; due to lack of funds to pay for the salary and accommodation of a Granthi, it was not feasible for our Sewadharis to take on this additional workload. Our aim has also been to save as much capital as possible to start the next phase of the Centre. At the 3 day paath which was held when we started to use the building there were about 1200 Sangat present. This number was double the estimates we had in our population growth projections. The initial plan for the Centre was to accommodate 300 people; as such, our building was already too small to accommodate a full turnout of Sangat. The current ExCom has had preliminary discussions on future direction for our community and have concluded that we will need to start work on a second building that will be able to accommodate 1000 persons or more very soon. This would mean that we would need to raise over $2m to implement the next Phase. The incoming Committees will need to do some serious thinking and planning to make this a reality. During all these past years I have seen every Committee Members put in their hearts and souls in doing sewa for our Community without bias or favour. This sewa reached its peak in the past year when everyone worked late hours to meet deadlines. A special mention for the very hard work and time put in must go to Baljit Kaur Nahl our Vice President and Gurminder Singh Girgla - Ex Officio Member. The expertise and knowledge in their fields of sewa proved invaluable, for the completion of the Centre and in keeping the Punjabi School going together with the organisation of the Gurdwara thereafter. The Treasurer, Jagdeep Singh has also done an excellent job of ensuring that the books are kept in order and all accounting rules are followed. He was also instrumental in recruiting his sister Sandeep Kaur, who set up the Canberra Sikh Association website. We have had unreserved support from every Committee Member in carrying out their responsibilities for the betterment of CSA and the Canberra Sikh Community as a whole. As unpaid Sewadharis I must say that they are a pretty effective and efficient lot! I also acknowledge, on behalf of the Canberra Sikh Association all the sewa provided by various members of the Sangat and Association in the form of Electrical fittings, welding, cooking and so many other jobs. Space prevents me from mentioning them all here but we thank them all. May Waheguru bless them for their selfless contributions and services. On another topic; as mentioned in the President s speech, I too support the motion put forward to you for the formation of the Guardian Council and urge you to vote in its favour. Now, on a more personal note, before the last AGM (23 rd ) I had intimated to the ExCom that after having continuously served CSA members for the past 22 years, I had reached a stage in my life when I needed to step back a little from active involvement in the ExCom. The ExCom Members requested that I stay on for another year, which I did. That year has now passed and I therefore shall not be standing for office this year. I wish the incoming Executive Member all the very best for the huge task they have ahead of them and may Waheguru endow us all with His Light so that we can be effective July - Sept 2013 Edition Page 4 of 13

5 people and are enabled to carry out his work with fervency and zeal. Waheguru ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru ji ki Fateh Bharpur Singh Sekhon Canberra Sikh Association Inc The Canberra Khalsa Punjabi School Report S. Amardeep Singh We have completed another successful quarter of Canberra Khalsa Punjabi School. In the previous term the students were elevated to the next level of learning. During this quarter, in addition to recognition of Gurmukhi alphabets, the students were trained on gender differentiation and recognition within a communication. Students were also taught to distinguish and correctly use singular and plural verbs and nouns. The Punjabi school management introduced the prize distribution system to encourage the students who perform over and above expectations, the prizes were awarded for achievements and efforts demonstrated by the students. This provided a lot of encouragement and enthusiasm with in the students which is evident from an example where one of CKPS students Jaskaran Singh who had to miss a class because he was travelling overseas with his mother, communicated with the teacher over the phone (long distance) to submit and read the allocated oral homework, to make sure that he secures his credits for allocation of the prize. Learning the language our assertors not only reveals how our elders used to think and feel, what they have experienced and value, it also provides a cultural mirror in which we can more clearly see and weigh our own society. The Canberra Khalsa Punjabi School is determined to equip its students with the wealth and adoration of Punjabi language (the language of our Guru) because with languages, we can move from one social situation to another. With Punjabi, Punjabi s are at home anywhere in the world. Amardeep Singh Sewadar Punjabi School STRANGE BUT TRUE Taken from: Dogs and cats consume over $11 billion worth of pet food a year! Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails! Humans blink over 10,000,000 times a year! Every second, Americans collectively eat one hundred pounds of chocolate A fetus develops fingerprints at eighteen weeks! The fear of vegetables is called Lachanophobia! There are approximately fifty Bibles sold each minute across the world! Every year, kids in North America spend close to half a billion dollars on chewing gum! Important Notifications From CSA Committee S Gurminder S Girgla PLEASE SEE SANJHI NOTICE BOARD SECTION IN THIS SANJHI. July - Sept 2013 Edition Page 5 of 13

6 July - Sept 2013 Edition The Newsletter of the Canberra Sikh Association SANJHI Articles The Great Sikh Leaders With the blessings of Shri Guru Granth Sahib ji and the sanctifications of Saadh Sangat I am starting a series for Sanjhi on the life and contribution of Sikh heroes who lived as per the pathway shown by Shri Guru Grant Sahib and provided us the motivation to follow their footsteps in following Guru ji s command. S. Amardeep Singh In portraying the life of these great personalities I will try to maintain the historical accuracy to best of my ability. The description would be based on my understanding developed over the years by listening to various historians and studying the publications of Sikh Missionary Collage and other books based on Sikh history like The Forgotten Hero of Punjab by Sumant Dhamija and Glimpses of ancient Punjab Published by Punjabi University, Dept. of Punjab Historical Studies. Before I start with the life of Sultan ul Quam Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluwalia I would humbly request the reader to exonerate me for the shortcomings in my writings towards this meek initiative. July - Sept 2013 Edition

7 Sultan ul Quam Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluwalia The ancestral heritage of Sardar Jassa Singh has its significance since the times of sixth Guru Shri Guru Hargobind Ji. Bhai Saha Singh and his son Bhai Wadhawa Singh enrolled themselves in the Army of the sixth Guru Sahib. They demonstrated their fighting skills in all the four battles fought by Guru Sahib and earned his blessings. A few years later, Ganda Singh son of Wadhawa Singh established himself as a great warrior. He was courageous enough to attack the Eastern part of Lahore three times. Dilawar Khan the Deputy Governor of Lahore could not capture Ganda Singh. Succumbing to his inability to capture Ganda Singh he offered an arrangement and he managed to enrol Ganda Singh in his army. In the battle of Multan, the bravery of Ganda Singh ensured the victory for royal army, which could have been a certain defeat without him. As a token of recognition of his services, Dilawar Khan awarded the Jageer of villages of Ahlu, Hallon, Sadho, Tinn. and Chakk. He also excused him the payment of revenue of village Ahlu. Sadhu Singh, son of Ganda Singh started living in and looking after the establishment of village Ahlu. Thus he and his sons were acknowledged as Ahluwalias (resident of village Ahlu). The Kapurthala Dynasty starts with Gopal Singh and Deva Singh son and grandson of Sadhu Singh respectively. Badr Singh, the youngest son of Deva Singh took Amrit during the time of Guru Singh ji. Bhai Badr Singh was married to the sister of Sardar Bagh Singh of village Hallo-Sadho. This family of Badr Singh and his wife was blessed with a son on 03 May, He was named Jassa Singh, Jassa Singh Ahluwalia. To be continued July - Sept 2013 Edition Page 7 of 13

8 British Soldier Meets Guru Gobind Singh Ji and How He Became a Sikh An Article made available to Sanjhi by S Mulkhbir Singh Grewal October 9, 2013 By Daily Sikh Updates. Originally Published by Manvir Singh Author: Bhai Ranjit Singh (Jalandhar) In 1964, when some of the weapons of Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji were brought back from England, an Englishman, in complete Sikh form, accompanied them. Out of curiousity, someone asked the Englishman what inspired him to adopt the Sikh form. Was it due to respect for the weapons or was there some other reason? The explanation given by him at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib in Delhi is something that should be of interest to all readers. My name was A. David. I happened to be commanding a Sikh Regiment during World War II. My Regiment suffered very heavy losses fighting the Germans. Most of the Sikh jawaans (soldiers) of my Battalion were killed. Only a few survived and we were all surrounded by the Germans. As there were very remote chances of our survival, I called the Subedaar major of the Battalion and informed him about our precarious situation. Death was facing us and there was no chance of survival. I suggested to him that the jawans should individually attempt to escape from the enemy encirclement and save their lives. The Subedaar Major replied, We cannot bring ignominy to the Sikh Regiment by running away from the battlefield. However, he suggested that they should perform an Akhand-Paath ceremony and take action as per the Divine Hukam (Holy Command). Accordingly, necessary security arrangements were made and the Akhand-Paath ceremony was completed without interruption. After the supplicatory prayer (Ardaas), the Divine Hukam from the Holy Scripture was explained to me by the Subedaar Major and the religious teacher (Granthi). The Guru s instruction as per the Divine Hukam was that we should not abandon the battlefield; victory will be ours. Then I conveyed to them the miracle that I had witnessed during the supplicatory prayer. While standing with my eyes closed during the Ardaas, a fully armed Sikh on horseback with a unique grandeur appeared in front of me and ordered Follow me. I pointed out the direction in which the fully armed Sikh went after giving the order and asked them about the identity of the warrior. The Subedaar Major said that from the description I had given, he seemed to be none other than Sri Guru Gobind Singh himself! So, we got ready and launched an attack in the direction pointed out by the Guru. After a short while, we were able to break through the German encirclement and save July - Sept 2013 Edition Page 8 of 13

9 ourselves. We then got in touch with the Brigade Commander on wireless and requested for additional help. After the war, I reflected upon the incident and the divine personality who had saved our lives from the impregnable enemy encirclement in a desperate situation by ordering me to follow him. I made up my mind to follow him for the rest of my life. I resigned from the Army and along with my daughter, embraced Sikh Dharam with the initiation ceremony of the Khalsa. Now my name is Devinder Singh and my daughter s name is Surjit Kaur. This is due to the blessings of Guru Gobind Singh that he made us his disciples. July - Sept 2013 Edition Page 9 of 13

10 Pothi Dada Ji ki An article by - Mrs Paramjit Kour July - Sept 2013 Edition Page 10 of 13

11 1. CSA Langar Roster The Newsletter of the Canberra Sikh Association SANJHI NOTICE BOARD CSA Langar Roster will be separately communicated by the CSA Executive using CSA List. 2. Important Notifications from CSA Committee Gurminder S Girgla (CSA Vice President) (a) CSA Executive committee would like to inform Sangat members that now Gurdwara congregation will be held on every Sunday and diwan timings are 10-12noon. (b) Gurdwara sahib is also open For Sangat every day from Monday to Saturday. Timings: Morning to 8.30 am; Evening to 8.00 pm (c) The upcoming Gurdwara Sahib Events are: (d) Diwali - Sunday, 3rd November 2013 * Regular Sunday Diwan 10-12noon * Special Evening Diwan 6-8pm (e) Gurpurab - Guru Nanak Dev Ji - Sunday, 17th November Major Events in period July ~ September 2013 Gurminder S Girgla (a) installation of Nishaan Sahib in August July - Sept 2013 Edition Page 11 of 13

12 3. Sikh Calender 2013 for remainder of the Year This article on Sikh calendar has been taken from site: Sikh Festivals Calendar 2013 JAN Saturday Guru Gobind Singh Jayanti 13 Sunday Lohri 31 Thursday Birthday of Guru Har Rai (Nanakshahi calendar) MAR Thursday Hola Mohalla (Lunar Calendar) APR Sunday Baisakhi (Founding of Khalsa) 18 Thursday Birthday of Guru Angad Dev (Nanakshahi calendar) 18 Thursday Birthday of Guru Tegh Bahadur (Nanakshahi calendar) MAY Thursday Birthday of Guru Arjan Dev (Nanakshahi calendar) 23 Thursday Birthday of Guru Amar Das (Nanakshahi calendar) JUNE Sunday Martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev (Nanakshahi calendar) JULY Friday Birthday of Guru Hargobind (Nanakshahi calendar) 23 Tuesday Birthday of Guru Har Krishen (Nanakshahi calendar) OCT Wednesday Birthday of Guru Ram Das (Nanakshahi calendar) NOV Sunday Diwali 17 Sunday Guru Nanak Jayanti 24 Sunday Martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur 6. Sending your article for printing in Sanjhi If you have an article related to Community News, Sikh Religion, Gurdwara Sahib, Current Affairs, Poetry, Jokes, and similar other articles and wish to publish this in your favorite Sanjhi then please send them to Tejinder Singh Hunjon at Thank you for your Contributions to SANJHI July - Sept 2013 Edition Page 12 of 13

13 July - Sept 2013 Edition The Newsletter of the Canberra Sikh Association July - Sept 2013 Edition