Gurmukh

Just want to let the sangat know that the Gurmat Studies Foundation will be doing English Katha at the following locations in the coming weeks: Sat/Sun, March 6 & 7 - Seattle, Washington Wed, March 10 - Khalsa School Surrey (11:50 - 12:20) Friday - Thursday, March 12 - March 18 - Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh (Sabha Malton) - Toronto, Ontario (Hola Mahala Youth Camp & English Katha in the Evenings) Fri - Sun, March 19 - 21 - Calgary, Alberta Sat/Sun, March 27 & 28 - Victoria, BC (including a Gatka Show by Shaheed Baba Deep Singh Ji Gatka Akhara) Fri - Sun, April 2 - 4 - Edmonton, Alberta - Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha (tentative - may be changed to a later date) Sat., April 10 & 11 - Gurdwara Saheb Dasmesh Darbar - Surrey, BC (during the Vaisakhi celebrations and the Nagar Kirtan) Fri - Sun, April 16 - 18 - International Gurmat Speech Competition - Various locations across BC For more info visit http://www.gurmatstudies.com

The reason the event was not mass promoted is because the SSA was only able to obtain a room that can seat 250. It was a full house. All the seats were taken, so even if they did promote more there would have been no where to sit. I think you are judging the event by just the few pictures on the site. In reality about 40% of the people attending were non-gursikh youth. The entire event was geared towards youth that are not familiar with their religion.

The UBC SSA Saint Soldier Conference videos and pictures are up at www.gurmatstudies.com under English Katha in the multimedia section

As next year is the 20th Anniversary of the Attack on Harmandir Saheb, the Gurmat Studies Foundation (www.gurmatstudies.com) & sevadars of www.saintsoldiers.net have teamed up to make a documentary movie of the 1984 operation Bluestar & a powerpoint presentation on 1984. This documentary movie and slide show will be shown during the Gurmat Studies Winter Youth camps taking place in Fresno (Dec. 21-27) & Freemont (Dec. 28 & 29), California. The sangat is urged to come out and watch the movie and slide show to remember those Gursikhs who sacrificed their lives for the Panth. We are hoping that these projects will help the new generation of Sikhs understand the history behind the attack and realize all of the hardships that our Gursikh brothers & sisters had to go through. We request all the sangat to come out and let others know about these programs. The movie & slide show sill be shown at other Gurdwaras all around the world during 2004.

New recordings of English Katha have been added to the site in the last month. SO Check them out!! http://www.gurmatstudies.com/katha.htm and http://www.gurmatstudies.com/multimedia.htm Also, we have another 40 hours or so of English Katha that we still have to put up. (Just been too lazy to do it). Hopefully they will all be up in the next month or two.

The pictures from the conference are also up at www.gurmatstudies.com under the image gallery.

I just wanted to inform the sangat that audio speeches from the 14th Annual World Religions conference (University of B.C) which took place on October 7, 2003 are now onlineat the following link http://www.gurmatstudies.com/kathact/oct2003.htm The conference featuered speakers from 6 different religions including Sikhism.

I just wanted to inform the sangat that audio speeches from the 14th Annual World Religions conference (University of B.C) which took place on October 7, 2003 are now onlineat the following link http://www.gurmatstudies.com/kathact/oct2003.htm The conference featuered speakers from 6 different religions including Sikhism.

Sohila Saheb Ji?

We are looking for any video clips or pictures. Also looking to interview people who went through the attack. We are trying to get a hold of some of the BBC reporters who covered the attack to get their accounts, but have been unsuccessful so far. If anyone can get us the contact numbers of these reporters we would appreciate it. I heard that there was a demonstration on the anniversary of 1984 in London this year and one of the reporters who covered the story also came and spoke at the demonstration. Maybe if you know the person who organized the demonstration they might have the contact numbers for the reporters. Any help you can give will be appreciated. We just wish to get as much clips and information possible to make this movie.

Sorry I took so long to respond. You may check the English Katha schedule at the following link: http://www.gurmatstudies.com/schedule.htm

There is a line, I don't remember the exact one which states that amrit vela begins a suva-paher (3.75 hours) before the sun rises. I know that many Sants have also repeated this thought. Some sants like baba Ishar Singh Ji got up way earlier than that, but the official time of Amrit Vela begins 3.75 hours before sunrise. As per the question if it is O.K. to stay up all night. If you can stay up all night and keep your focus on meditation/Gurbani then it is a good thing, but if you are tired then it is not. Bhai Vir Singh Ji use to say that one should be rested before doing Simran in the morning or else they will not be able to concentrate on the shabad. They use to say that it is not our goal to just sit and do simran with our mouth, but to do it while keeping full concentration on the shabad. So start off getting up Amrit Vela and then as your concentration increases and tardiness decreases then start to get up earlier and earlier. I have found that to be the best method.

There are not many, but one I know of is Mata Jaswant Kaur Ji. She was Sant Variyam Singh's sister and was trully blessed with Sikhi. From a very young age she was towards Gurbani and met Sant Baba Uttar Singh Ji when she was just a child. She said that Sant Uttar Singh Ji put his hand on her head and from that very moment she started to hair Anihad Shabad inside of her. Sant Uttar Singh taught her kirtan and told her to spread the gift of kirtan to the world. She spent her entire life doing kirtan and today there are weekly kirtan divans that she started happening in countries like Canada, America, U.K., and India. All of the sangat that met her say that she was a great saint and had the same Awustha as her brother Baba Variyam Singh Ji. The two of them use to sit together discussing Gurbani for hours.

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh! This is a request to all of the Sangat that we are making a Documentary movie of the Attack of 1984. We are hoping to have it ready by June 2004 to commemerate the 20th Anniversary. This is quite a big project to collect all the information as possible. We would like the Sangat's help that if anyone out there has any video/audio clips, news clippings, books, or personal experiences that would help us in this great project PLEASE contact us. We can only complete this project with the Sangat's help. We do not wish to do injustice to the Shaheeds of 1984 by missing out on important information. Obviously we cannot fully explain the entire incident and all of the great sacrifices all those Sikhs made, but we wish to do the best we can to honour them. If anyone has any material or information that would help us then please e-mail us at comments@gurmatstudies.com. I know that it is a forum rule not to give out e-mail addresses on postings, but I hope the moderators will give us an exception for this one time since it is a valid cause. Also, since this is a big project for the Panth which will take us upto another year to complete we wish to ask the administrators of this forum if they can make this a Sticky Topic so that new members who might have material may also see this post. Thank You, With Satguru Ji's blessings we hope to complete this great seva. Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh!

The Katha done on our gurmatstudies website is done by various members of our society. Veer Steele Bangle, while it is true that there is some Katha of Bhai Bikramjit Singh Ji on our website, the Guru Gobind Singh Ji and Chamkaur Saheb Kathas are not done by him. Bhai Saheb Bikramjit Singh Ji's Katha is "Life is too Short" The Guru Gobind Singh Ji Katha is done by Bhai Saheb Parminder Singh Ji who is also a member of our society. There are also a few kathas done by veer Harjinder Singh Ji from the U.K. I hope that helps everyone who was wodering what the names of the Singhs were. It is nice to know that the Sangat is enjoying these Kathas. Parminder Singh is out on a Katha tour right now and a lot of his Katha is being recorded and we will be adding it to our website in the near future.