Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Bradford Trip - Gurmat Kamaaee Camp


From Friday 11th to Sunday 13th July, a Gurmat Naam Kamaaee Camp was organised at Bradford Singh Sabha Gurdwara by the local youngsters. The idea of doing the camp was inspired by the Gurmat Naam Kamaaee Camps that used to be held by the late Baba Harnam Singh jee at Rampur Khera in India. Bhaji Harbir Singh (Southall) took the train up to where I live and then we went together in the car to Bradford. It took about 2hrs 30mins. You know that you have arrived in Bradford because there is a very large Pakistani Muslim population. In addition to that Bradford and Yorkshire on a whole has wonderful stone built buildings. The stone houses look really nice.

The camp time table was as follows:
3am - Parkaash of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji followed by Naam Simran
5am - Nitnem Banian
The local Giani Ji, Bhai Tarlochan Singh jee, does beautiful paatth. He recites Gurbani with a mellow melody filled with love. Very soothing to hear!

6am - Aasa Kee Vaar Keertan (Ardaas & Hukamnama)
Bhai Santokh Singh jee (Damdami Taksaal) were doing keertan duty at the Gurdwara for the week. They have such an angelic voice and did beautiful keertan. Waheguru.

8am - Breakfast
The breakfast as suspected was Parothay!! Aunty jees and bhenjis put in a lot of effort into the Langar.

9am - Rest
After eating all those Parothay you need 2 hours of sleep! hehe. (Sounds really unhealthy! I am sure its not good. Chalo! I am sure all the Simran and paath cancels out the health concerns).

11am - Sukhmani Sahib
Giani Tarlochan Singh jee did the paatth. English translation was shown on the projector. It was very peaceful hearing the paath.

12.30pm - Langar
The langar was quite "full on". Waheguru. There was curry (when I say "curry" I mean the Panjabi sabjee. I don't mean "Indian curry" like Gore say. Just needed to clarify), chowl ("rice" if you didn't know!), daal, and semee'aa (ermm, I don't know the English for semee'aa - perhaps "hot sweet noodles"?). The Langar was very heavy!

1.30pm - Silent Naam Simran.
After eating all that heavy food what do you expect to do next? Go for a jog, walk, or do some physical activities? Well, it was sitting cross legged and doing Simran in silence. Waheguru. As you can imagine, I felt extremely tired and drowsy! I really think that doing "silent" simran after eating so much was a bad idea! I think I fell asleep on the first day (I didn't think anyone knew! But apparently it was obvious! Waheguru). Thankfully the next day the quiet simran was mixed with some mellow Simran on the vaaja, which helped with concentration and focus.

2.30pm - Rest
Waheguru. Well I suppose I got my rest through the silent simran. Seems like a lot of sleeping! (Joking! hehe).

4pm - Gurmat Vichaar (Talk/ discussion)
Bhai Satnam Singh jee (Damdami Taksaal) did Kathaa on Naam Simran and Gurmantar on Friday. Daas did seva of sharing a few Sikhi stories on Saturday and Sunday.

5pm - Naam Simran through Keertan, followed by Rehraas
Everyone in Bradford does really nice keertan. I hope that someone can make some recordings and forward them on. Or perhaps if someone can upload them on to the Internet. Really chardi kalaa keertanis!

6.30pm - Langar (Keertan)
Waheguru. Again, very chardi kalaa (and heavy) langar. I am sure that in addition of adding some extra kamaaee to the spiritual account, it's easy to add some extra calories and pounds on the physical side! hehe. Really, the aunty jees and sevadaars did a lot of seva. May Guru Sahib keep them all in Chardi kalaa!

7.30pm - Kathaa
8.30pm - Samaaptee & Sukhaasan
Bhai Satnam Singh jee (Damdami Taksaal) did Kathaa every day. He kept the theme of Simran, Waheguru, and Bhagti. He has a lot of knowledge on different religions and provided good comparisons when doing Kathaa.


During the trip I visited three other Gurdware (as part of my research). All the Gurdware people were really nice! Met some really chardi kalaa and pyaar wale Gurmukhs. May Waheguru keep everyone in chardi kalaa and bless us all with eternal love for Him and Gursikhi Jeevan. We left Bradford at about 5.30pm on Sunday. The aunty jees were more than generous of given loads of Pasta, a few cartons of tropical juice to drink on the way (although drinking and driving is illegal. hehe), and some sandwiches.


Dhan Hai Guru, Dhan Hai Teree Sikhee.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

what did giani satnaam singh discuss and how much gian kamai has he got? did he seem chardi kalaa? who is he? where from?

Manvir Singh (UK) said...

I don't know what the intention of your question is(?)

Anyway, Bhai Satnam Singh is very good Kathaavachik. Over the weekend I was not able to listen to all of Bhai Sahib's kathaa because during the same times I had to go elsewhere to meet people at different gurdware.

The feedback from the Sangat was very positive. According to what I know the topics were on why we should praise God, why we should do simran, how amazing Waheguru is, how amazing the creation is, how different religions praised and worshipped God and how Gurmat is unique.

Bhai Sahib is Gurmukh Pyaare and an Abhiyaasee of Gurbani. He has training for Jatha Bhindran (Damdami Taksaal), Mehta Chownk and therefore well versed in Guru Granth Sahib Ji, Dasam Bani, and Bhai Gurdas Ji Vaars. In addition to this he has interest of reading comparative literature in his spare time. Very nice person.

Anonymous said...

sounds like a wicked camp. wish i had went... but i was doing your duty in switzerland

lol

maybe next time a camp like this can be done local in warwickshire

Anonymous said...

Yeah I heard all the world's people go to Switzerland to open bank accounts after they return from India. Only place you can make black money white again!


Manvir Singh Ji the tiredness you felt after langar was you falling into samaadhi. hehe