It has been the pleasure of Sikhs to feed people from the very beginning. Guru Nanak, the first Sikh Guru and founder of Sikhism, was the despair of his own father, who saw his meditating son as an idler. Guru Nanak’s father urged Nanak to do something profitable, such as become a merchant, making the best investments possible. To this end, Guru Nanak’s father gave Nanak some money to make purchases, and off Nanak went to the nearest large town. On his way back from town, Nanak spotted some holy men, who were naked and hungry. Nanak went back to town, took all his earnings, and used it to feed and clothe these holy men. By Nanak’s standards, this was the best investment possible.
Feeding and serving others is the best investment according to Sikh values. Feeding people is a favorite Sikh service (Seva). At the Golden Temple (Hari Mander Sahib) in Amritsar, volunteers feed some 100,00 people on an average day with the number increasing exponentially to well over a million people on special occasions. When you sit down to langar (the communal meal) at the Golden Temple, you may be sitting next to a beggar or a business tycoon, a devout Sikh or a tourist.
Providing free meals to everyone is common in Gurdwaras with a large enough sangat. It’s been said, “In Amritsar nobody goes to sleep hungry.”
Seva (selfless service) is one of the pillars of Sikh Dharma (Sikhism as a spiritual path) and an indelible part of the Sikh psyche.
In common with members of most faiths, Sikhs are involved in relief work to this day. UNITED SIKHS, a U.N. affiliated, multi‐national, non‐profit organization originally organized in New York in 1999, acts for the good of all without regard to race, religion, creed, gender or age. UNITED SIKHS’ relief work embraces the United States as well as foreign countries.
Learn more and donate to UNITED SIKHS here.
Sikhs see God in all. In Sikh Dharma, we know the whole human race to be one family under God indivisible and serve everyone with devotion as a way of serving God with devotion. Sikhs believe that we’re all One.
Follow Sikh Dharma International’s “Sikhs Feed People” page on Facebook to keep up with Sikh efforts to feed people around the world.
~Resource: Sikh Spiritual Practice: The Sound Way to God (2010) by Siri Kirpal Kaur Khalsa.
(Note: the 2010 statistics from the book have been updated here to reflect the numbers as they have been recorded for 2024.)
