sikhpride

SAGA contest held annually at different places, is a unique contest wherein the personality, the general ability and the spiritual awareness of the contestant is judged. The Sanstha started such a contest for the first time, when it was held in December, 1999 at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. The SAGA for the selection of ‘He Khalsa’ and ‘She Khalsa’is a three rounds competition. In the first round, called personality round, the participant walks on the stage,gives his introduction and walks away.The second and the third round are meant for showing some item and answering questions put to him on computer or asked by the nominated judges.Thus , whereas in the first round judges judge personality traits like walking and speaking style,confidence level and dress sense and selection, in the other two rounds they judge the talent and spiritual knowledge of the participant. He and She Khalsa are declared on the basis of total marks obtained in all the three rounds. This competition continued for fifteen years. It was followed by child SAGA programmes which were held for five years at Chandigarh, Karnal, Delhi, Ludhiana and Amritsar. In these programmes, the children below 12 years were made to participate in SAGA competitions, meaning thereby, Spiritual and General Ability contests. The purpose was to motivate the children at a young age to shed their stage fear and show their skill with whatever item they thought they could do best. In addition, they were given a syllabus for spiritual and general knowledge questions and were tested on these accounts before making them child Khalsa and two runners-up.

WHAT IS SAGA?

The SAGA programme held on 16th December 2018 at Ludhiana was quite different as it was for the first time in the world that three generation groups were made contestants for Khalsa family and two runners-up. The young couple with their parents and children appeared on the stage in respective groups and displayed their personality, the joint talent and jointly answered the questions asked to them on Sikh religion as well as general knowledge.

The Sanstha was also the first organization to start the celebration of Bhai Taru Singh Day in July ( As the sanstha was founded on that day and was dedicated to the great martyr) and Bhai Gurdas Diwas in August every year. It also opened the first ever free ‘Dastar Sajawan Sikhlai Kender’ at Amritsar which has been training since then the Sikh boys to tie the Turban neatly and beautifully. More than 12000 boys have benefited from this centre so far.This centre was hailed as unique in a prominent Indian magazine ‘Outlook’.It also found an entry in India Book Of Records 2020.

Among the various religious programmes organized by the Sanstha starting from the third centenary of the creation of the Khalsa followed by the Sikh Historical centenary of 2004, there were included Kirtan Darbars, Katha Vichars, Processions, Seminar on Guru Granth Sahib at Allahabad, an Inter Religions Seminar at Guru Nanak Dev University, a Light & Sound Show entitled “Nischay Kar Apni Jeet Karon” at Company Bagh, Amritsar and an exhibition on the subject “The Indian Tradition of Unshorn Hair” organized at Art Gallery, Amritsar.

As a part of the centenary celebration of the creation of Khalsa, a calendar containing six colored paintings was published by the Sanstha. This has been a unique calendar with quotes from Gurbani given on all 365 days in a year. The calendar was prepared with the help of S. Bhupinder Singh Nanda & S.Kulwant Singh Gill member artists of the Sanstha.

The Sanstha has organized various free medical camps including three camps to give 3 doses of Hepatitis-B injections to more than 200 persons free of charge. These camps have been organised at Amritsar, Ludhiana and Delhi.One of these camps was organized by the Sanstha in Raghubir Nagar area of Delhi which is inhabited by poor people who cannot afford medicines and consultations for their serious diseases. In this camp various Doctors, specialists in respective fields including Homoeopathic Doctors provided free consultation for the diseases and the recommended medicines were also given free of charge. It was also ensured that the patients also get the benefit of free consultations from the doctors when they visit their respective clinics. It has so far adopted more than 50 poor students for meeting their educational expenses for three years. The Sanstha has also helped some poor parents in getting their daughters married.

Whereas the Sanstha has organized various spiritual, educational camps at Delhi, Amritsar, Dalhousie, Baru Sahib (Himachal) and Cheema Sahib with a view to make the young ones conversant with their spiritual heritage and golden values, it has also endeavored organizing intellectual meetings for discussing the innovative ways of propagating the spiritual way of life among the people by the teachings of the Masters , particularly those enshrined in Sri Guru Granth Sahib. It was in this context that an intellectual meeting was held in May 2005 at Khalsa College, Delhi, wherein a number of Principals of Sikh Educational Institutions in the Capital city had participated. Further, a seminar discussion was held on 1st July, 2005 at Ludhiana where prominent Ragees and Katha Vachaks were invited for discussion on a very important subject relating to Sikh Panth “Role of Ragees and Katha vachaks min spreading the message of Great Gurus”.

A Landmark seminar by the Santha was organized on 7th May 2011 at Bhai Veer Singh Sahitya Sadan, New Delhi. The subject of discussion was ‘How to bring unity and uniformity among the Sikhs’. A large number of speakers were invited from different religious, social and political groups. Many of them were opponents of others, but the sanstha emphasized that the subject being crucial, nobody should go beyond the subject. Personal comments or remarks were not permitted. The seminar went smoothly and at the end all agreed that efforts should be continued to bring such a unity among different groups by holding subsequent meetings at different places. This was followed by meetings wherein various organizations were invited, at Chandigarh, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana. In the course of meeting at Ludhiana, it was decided that all such organizations which have been taking interest in such a move, be united in a collegium. It started with more than 50 organizations which agreed for this decision and the said collegium was named as ‘Panthak Taalmel Sangathan’. It was decided that by constituting this collegium no new organization will be formed, nor any office bearer will be appointed therein. It will be a group of all the organizations constituting the Path promoting the golden concept of Guru Granth and Guru Panth as given by the tenth Master. This Taalmel Sangathan identified a number of Panthak issues which need to be decided after obtaining the collective wisdom of the Panth by following the golden principle as given in Gurbani:

j’fJ fJesq fwbj[ w/o/ GkJh d[fpXk d{fo eoj[ fbt bkfJ.. (SGGS, p. 1185).

Gyani Kewal Singh former Jathedar, Damdama Sahib, Talwandi Sabo was made convener. The first thing PTS did was to check the use of alcohol and drugs during elections held in 2012. The PTS group under him visited a large number of villages in Punjab and convinced the people to use their vote without any temptation like that of alcohol etc. Such a step helped in reducing such a use to a great extent. The movement was intensified with the efforts to spread the message that all the Sikh organizations should join hands in enlarging the Taalmel Sangathan not merely for increasing its number, but for enriching the same with their valuable views and suggestions. It is in this context only that Giani Kewal Singh and a group from the Taalmel Sangathan visited various Gurdwaras in Delhi and Punjab for interacting with the Singh Sabha Committees managing such Gurdwaras as to clarify to them the concept of ‘Taalmel’. Giani Ji also visited a number of other Indian states to elicit the support of the people. It was made clear to all the organizations that each and every organization will continue to do its work with its own office bearers and the Taalmel Sangathan in no way will interface with their functioning and the objects to be achieved. It will only act as a coordinator among all the organizations being the constituents of a bigger and broader group. Gradually, when some morAe organizations joined the sangathan, Akal Purakh ki Fauz headed by S. Jaswinder Singh Advocate also became a part of this organization. S. Jaswinder Singh Advocate became very active in Sangathan’s activities and started acting as Deputy Convener along with Giani Kewal Singh Ji. They associated with S. Sukhdev Singh Bhaur and other like minded people to initiate the constitution of a panthak assembly which was formed on the lines of Punjab Assembly. It held its first session on 20th Oct 2018 at Amritsar. The committee which was formed to convene this session was composed of S. Jaswinder Singh Advocate, Navkiran Singh, Prof. Jagmohan Singh, S. Jagmohan Singh, S. Sukhdev Singh Bhaur and S. Kanwarpal Singh. The session was attended by representatives of various Sikh organizations, including people from various parts of the Indian subcontinent and USA and Dubai. In this session ten resolutions were passed relating to various panthak issues like ban on the activities of Sauda Dera at Sirsa, suitable action for Bargari and Behbal Kalan incidents and installation of the portraits of Bhai Kishan Bhagwan Singh and Bhai Gurjeet Singh, the martyrs of Behbal Kalan police firing in the gallery of martyrs at the Central Sikh Museum Amritsar. Another Session was held on 2nd March 2019 at Ludhiana, wherein also important Panthik issues were discussed along with the agenda issue of fielding some Panthik personalities in Gurdwara Management election as well as state Assembly elections.

OTHER IMPORTANT PROGRAMS

Among the other important programmes, mention may be made of two important seminars on Sikh leadership and Sikh vision 2025 at Guru Granth Sahib Vidya Kendra and Mata Sundari auditorium at Delhi  respectively. Number of Sikh leaders and scholars participated in these seminars. Senior citizens day was celebrated on 6th October 2016 at Sri Guru Harkrishan Public School, G.T. Road, Amritsar. The purpose of this celebration was to promote among the younger generation the love for their grandparents, both maternal and paternal and encourage the grandparents to play their role in inculcating love for their religion and values by telling them social and religious stories including the life stories of the Gurus. The celebration of Senior Citizens day was not the only programme organized with this object. Even in the SAGA functions, the participants who brought their grandparents with them were given extra marks for the same. The last SAGA function as mentioned above made the grandparents a part of the SAGA contest. An essay competition was also organized on the topic regarding the role of grandparents in imbibing the spiritual values among the children. It was on the day of prize distribution for this essay competition that the grand parent’s day was celebrated.

ESSAY COMPETITIONS

Kes Sambhal Parchar Sanstha has been organizing essay competitions from time to time along with seminar discussions and declamation contests with a view to promote the ability of writing, expressing views and speaking among the younger generation. These programmes also connected the younger generation with the subjects given to them. For example, the sanstha noticed that many Sikh girls were marrying non Sikh boys, but no organization was paying any attention to this social problem. Thus, an essay competition followed by speeches by the best essay writers was organized on the subject ‘Why a Sikh girl must marry a Sikh boy?’. In the course of discussions, a large number of students attending the function were addressed by some Sikh scholars who apprised them of the various problems being faced by those girls who married outside their religion. The general discussion with active participation by the students came to a conclusion that marriage in one’s own religion provided a happier married life rather than marrying in some other religion. It was made clear that sometimes marriage failed even in those cases where the marriage was between the persons of the same religion, but the risk of marriage failure was more in the marriages where the partners belonged to different religions. This programme was organised at Guru Nanak public School, Rajouri Garden. The Sanstha also organised a workshop at Guru Nanak Public School Rajouri Garden for the purpose of personality development of the students. This workshop was conducted by a psychologist Dr. Gurvinder Kaur Ahluwalia.

ADOPTING GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS

The sanstha conducted various programs to help the poor children in accordance With Government policies. In 2006-2007 it ORGANISED training programs like English speaking, communication skill,software, mobile repair etc. When MODI Ji announced a new policy, sanstha started skill development programs at Sach centre (Sastha’s headquarter office at Amritsar ) which were going on successfully till the outbreak of the present  corona pandemic.These programs will be resumed in near future.

ASSOCIATING WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS

It is the policy of Kes Sambhal Parchar Sanstha to associate with other organisations or to organize programmes jointly with other organisations for showing strength and cooperation for the fulfilment of wider objectives. In earlier years, the Santha associated with Baru Sahib organisation in organizing spiritual camps, Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee in organising All India Competitions on Sikh Living ( This kind of unique competition was held twice ) and Chief Khalsa Diwan  in organising the senior citizen day as mentioned above. One of such programmes was organised in association with Eco-Sikhs, Amritsar (a unit of International Organisation Eco-Sikhs) on the occasion of the foundation day of Sri Amritsar Sahib on 10th June 2015. It was a seminar on the subject of ‘how to make Amritsar a cleaner and more beautiful city?’. In this seminar, whereas the scholars and experts in environment spoke on the subject, the prominent figures from the concerned authorities were also present to highlight the programmes planned by them in this regard. Thus, Sri Pradeep Sabharwal, Deputy Commissioner, Dr. P.S. Mahura, Head of the Architecture Department, Guru Nanak Dev University and Municipal Commissioner with their presence made the seminar Successful and meaningful

TWO PRESTIGIOUS PROJECTS

The two major projects of the sanstha, which were mainly aimed at spreading the information about Sikhs and their organizations among their co-religionists with a view to bring them closer to each other for strengthening the unity and uniformity among the Sikhs, have got international fame. The first project was presenting in a book form 500 Sikhs role models from different walks of life from all over the world. Never before, such a project was taken on these lines. Although, there were directories giving details about Sikhs in business or professions, but, Sikhs in Sikhi Saroop working in different spheres were never highlighted and that too in such a big number as 500. Thus, this compilation categorized these role-models into various categories to include Sikh Preachers, Economists, Environmentalists, Scientists, Scholars, Historians, Writers, Educationists, Politicians, Actors and Singers. S. Trilochan Singh, the former Rajya Sabha Member, described this compilation as a 3 encyclopaedia of Sikh personalities. This project was hailed as a unique one and the compilation was released both in India as well as Canada. It was circulated in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and East Asian Countries.  It was also kept in the libraries of all the schools of Baru Sahib Group of institutions, Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee and Chief Khalsa Diwan. It was also kept in various other libraries in India and Canada. As this project was dedicated to the 350th Birth Anniversary of Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji, another project was initiated to commemorate the 550th Birth Anniversary of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji. This compilation in the form of a directory has been titled as ‘Prominent Gurdwaras and Sikh organizations of the World’. Whereas, it gives information regarding most of the historical gurdwaras and more than 300 prominent non historical gurdwaras, it mainly deals with the management systems being adopted for these gurdwaras. It also deal with around 500 prominent Sikh organizations which are functioning in different parts of the globe in the fields of Sewa, Simran, Education, Healthcare and Promotion of Punjabi Language and Culture. In addition, a number of organizations which empowered the Sikhs economically, socially and politically and also to popularize the Sikh identity have also been discussed in great details .The organizations promoting Sikh traditions of Langar, gatka etc. also find a notable place in this directory, whichI was released in May 2019 at Delhi.Both the publications were reviewed by a good number of papers and magazines including prominent Sikh journals like  Nissan and Sikh Review

The Sanstha has so far published considerable literature and distributed it free of charge as to make the people aware of their cultural and spiritual heritage as well as the dangers of intoxicants in our life. Such literature include souvenirs, and certain pamphlets like ‘Khoob Teri Pagree’ and the ‘Main problems of Sikh parents’, which have been highly appreciated. Sanstha is also publishing a quarterly trilingual magazine ‘JEEVAN RISHMA’ which contains useful material on various subjects aiming at the development of human mind, body and soul for all round development of spiritual human personality. The 80th issue of this magazine was to be released in June 2020 , but due to shut down, ( Carona pendomic effect) it had to be postponed. This magazine is aimed at the overall development of human personality by promoting spiritual way of living..It has also a page on Facebook vide https://www.facebook.com/SJSPall.KSPS and also on YouTube.

TWO WEBSITES OF THE SANSTHA

The Sanstha had planned two websites in the recent past. The first web-site (sikhpride.org) was launched in July  2020 to commemorate the  325 th martyrdom day  of shaheed Bhai Taru Singh Ji.It is aimed at promoting sikh history and teachings of the Gurus and saint poets as enshrined in SRI GURU GRANTH SAHIB.Although, Sikh religion is now one of the major Religions of the world, still most of the people do not know about their identity and achievements.Our object is to make the same known by spreading the relevant. information and highlighting their achievements in different fields of life. Thus we have included herein  those sikh icons all over the world who have contributed considerably in their respective fields for the progress of the country of their birth and their adoptive countries. This portal will not only enrich the people with valuable information about them, but will also inspire the coming generation of our community. Further, it has lot of useful information regarding Panthak organisations, their activities and events and moments of glorification of Sikh religion and its followers.

Another. Web-site(gurmatquiz.in) was  started in November 2020 on the completion of 550 th birth centenary celebrations of the first Guru Sahib.This is a new experiment in the field of propagation of Sikh religion.It  has around 1000 questions and answers  under following categories:

1 Masters and the word Divine

 2 Sikh History

3 Sikh Concepts and Teachings

4 Sikh culture and Heritage

 5 Sikh way of living

 6 Prominent Places and Persons

There is also  a provision to invite the seekers to ask any questions not covered as above on line and they will be given replies by our specialists on line

System for testing knowledge and motivating incentives

In the end,there are platforms for ‘testing the knowledge’ of seekers .In this. category, there are two platforms,one of 10 Questions and the second of 25 questions.The seeker  has to answer ten questions on line and if his eight answers are correct,he gets a C ..certificate generated automatically on line. He can have a print of that. Similarly,on the second platform he has to to answer 25 questions and if his 20 answers are correct, he gets a B certificate automatically generated. Questions on these platforms will be changed periodically.No body can have more than one certificate by answering the   same questions.

Although sanstha had to cancel many of its public programmes, it undertook certain programs to help the people during this period. People were informed through social media including two songs regarding the precautions they should take to protect themselves from deadly pandemic. A medical camp was also  organized at Guru Nanak Hospital at Karnal to apprise the people about precautions and treatment of Covid.Sanstha made donations to various funds for helping the affected people. One of its projects was to help the poor students who were unable to pay their fees and purchase books, stationary etc in the current session because of the fall of income of their parents due to covid problems.

When the sanstha entered its twenty-fifth year,an online programme was organized by Barkat AUSTRALIA.It was in the form of a seminar on BHAI TARU SINGH JI., A number of prominent persons participated,including the only Sikh councillor (of Blacktown N S W) , S Moninder Singh.GIANI Santokh Singh , a well known Sikh preacher from Sydney spoke on the life and sacrifice of Bhai TARU Singh ji. S Tejinder Singh from Melbourne  dwelt upon sanstha achievements particularly its role in promoting Sikh identity and  teachings by organizing different types of programmes S Inderjit Singh from Delhi and others remembered many such programs. The program was hosted by Rasna HS and was concluded with a mesmerising poetical presentation  describing the the great sacrifice of BhaiTaru Singh.

Twenty-Fifth year celebration programs were concluded by a unique first ever international turban tying and awareness competition. This competition was organized on 13th March 2022 at a good number of centers in India, Europe, Australia and Hong Kong. The organizing of this competition on same day at so many places constitutes a number of new records..

A photo exhibition to showcase sanstha programmes and achievements was organized at Art Gallery Amritsar on 15 th March 2022.It was followed by a cultural program wherein while celebrating 25 th year ,those  prominent persons who had helped and associated with Sanstha for success  of sanstha programmes were honoured.