A short video of the world’s largest langar kitchen at the Golden Temple in Amritsar in action and some thoughts and facts on service, the Sikh faith, karma yoga, & karma.
Dear Reader – I don’t want to inundate your inbox and in hindsight, I should’ve probably combined the pilgrimage newsletter with this one. Since I didn’t, today I’m sending out this edition of the newsletter with a brief video about the Golden Temple in Amritsar and its Langar community kitchen that feeds nearly 75k people every single day. I also dig into karma yoga as a spiritual path since service is a big part of the Sikh faith in the article below. Karma yoga is service in action and the people who run the kitchen and serve are living examples of this practice. Plus, karma yoga embodies practical spirituality.
You can read the separate piece on pilgrimage here.
So let’s get to it and if you are triggered by the word ‘god’ read my little note below or jump to the video. I’ll be posting more videos directly on Youtube so I’ll see you there or here on substack next month.
Note: I am using the word ‘God’ in this text and I know some people are triggered by this word being used to describe the ineffable but please get over yourself here. I don’t always like it either. The word does not mean a person or some figure that controls your life or destiny. It doesn’t mean you believe in something either. All I can say here is if you are triggered by that sorry, not sorry or whatever! Let’s use language to convey the general consensus meanings here without getting prickly. If you don’t like that practical approach, this newsletter is not for you.
Just like you, all beings are nothing but God.
The World’s Largest Community Kitchen aka the Langar Kitchen at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, India
A langar kitchen is a community kitchen that feeds hundreds or thousands of people each day depending on where it is located. The Golden Temple, a Sikh temple in Amritsar, Punjab has the largest Langar kitchen feeding approximately 75k people each day and serving ceai to several thousand more. In the Sikh faith serving food is a duty that is not taken lightly. If you come in the early morning hours for tea or a little later to eat you will be directed to sit on the floor in a line. Social constructions of caste, gender and class are null and void. All are equal. Everyone has the right to worship as they see fit.
On average more than 15,000+ kilograms or over 33,000 pounds of a variety of ingredients are used each day to prepare meals at the Langar.
Wheat Flour: 10,000 kg or 22,000 lbs
Plus 2,500 kg or 5,500 lbs
Rice: 1,000 kg / 2,200 lbs
Sugar: 1,000 kg / 2,200 lbs
Pure Ghee: 500 kg
Milk: 5,000 Liters
The temple was destroyed previously and rebuilt at different times. The kitchen is operated mostly by volunteers and relies on donations to feed the multitudes.
You might want to know this about the Sikh faith:
Sikhism is a religion based on the teachings of Guru Nanak (1469-1539) and nine successive gurus. Under Ranjit Singh (reg. 1799-1839), the Sikhs created an independent kingdom in the Punjab (1799-1849). After 10 living gurus, the final guru so to speak is the book itself. That book is read 24/7 and there is a daily ceremony called the opening of the book.
Sikhism includes inclusivity, equality and service, these things are reflected in their beliefs:
Everyone has direct access to God. There is one universal God that is without form and genderless
Everyone is equal before God. All humans are equal – caste, class, gender, ethnicity, labels – none of that matters.
Humans [limited by their senses] do not have the capacity to understand God.
No religion is better than the other. All religions may have truth in them.
We get closer to God by living an ordinary life.
We serve God by serving others. A good life is lived as part of a community, by living honestly and caring for others
The Langar, or free food kitchen, is a community act of service and it embodies the Sikh philosophy of selfless service known as Seva. Service to others here can be likened to Karma yoga. Karma yoga is without expectation of reward and to me it is practical spirituality in action.
Practical Spirituality: Karma Yoga
By putting your spirituality into practice with karma yoga, you are freeing yourself from all worldly things (including heavens and hells) and moving towards mukti or liberation from samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth. All yogic paths lead to liberation but karma yoga is the only yogic path that is not solely personal. It is the one yogic path that puts you in direct contact with the public.
Karma yoga is a spiritual path that puts you in direct contact with the public.
Karma yoga has three levels:
WORK AND WORSHIP → renunciation of the result, giving up the result and doing it as worship of the Lord. No matter if you have a structured belief system or not work and worship, both are there.
Sidenote: Who is your Lord or God? fill in the blank this isn’t about dogma. If you are Christian you can say Jesus or if you are Muslim then Allah, or if you are agnostic, the universe, the creator, etc.
WORK AS WORSHIP → I will do the work, I have no more choice – neither I seek nor avoid. Work as worship means I know it is work, but I see it as a practice.
WORK IS WORSHIP → I am not the doer. And, nature is doing everything. God is doing everything through Maya. All of our impulses thoughts, speech, and actions bubble up from the depths – all is thy will divine mother. I am not the doer and I am not the experiencer either. Thus, work is worship.
If you are on the yogic path, it is recommended to practise all four paths of a yogi even though your personality may prefer one to another. Even so, when you practise karma yoga, there are different approaches and some include the other yogic paths. None of them are in a vacuum.
To get deeper into understanding Karma yoga, it makes sense to touch on the meaning of the word karma.
Meaning of the word Karma
Karma isn’t simply action or cause and effect. It includes those things but there is more to it. Five things are imperative to karma:
Karma is done by a living being in a living body (not a machine).
Karma requires agency → consciously done work “I am doing it”
That which we are working towards results in enjoyment or suffering. In comparison to a machine, a machine does not enjoy or suffer, it has no emotion therefore it cannot enjoy or suffer something. Bhoktstva (bhokta) is the experiencer that enjoys or endures/suffers.
Karma has a moral dimension to it that is of two parts:
good/bad
freedom of choice
By doing this action, it produces a cosmic result. By doing this karma I get some result – good/bad, righteous/unrighteous. Swami Vivekananda says that the law of karma is good/good, bad/bad and none whatsoever escapes the law. Whoever wears the form (body) wears the chain.
Swami Sarvapriyanada in his series on Karma yoga says this about past karma:
“We are what we are from many lives – babies are ancient creatures.”
The law of karma is accepted by all Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, etc., and all Indian philosophies – belief and faith – believe in past lives. Anything we experience even that which we deem as good, isn’t good because all experience is samsara the chain of birth, death and rebirth. When we break free of this cycle we find liberation.
Karma has three effects –
an immediate direct effect. i.e. You give food to the hungry. They are fed. There are no questions about it.
an effect on your own mind. Doing for others produces samskara → psychological effect.
merit or demerit. Dharma leads to punja → a heap, mass, quantity, multitude – a multitude of things. Merit leads to sukha →happiness
Thanks for joining me today on this expedition and I look forward to sharing more highlights with you from my upcoming trip to India and other ways you can go on a virtual pilgrimage or implement practical strategies to incorporate spirituality into your everyday life.
If you like this post, please share it, give it a heart like and/or comment. Also, not all the videos will be shared in the newsletter, so if you want to see them, please subscribe to the YouTube channel here.
Namaste!
Amy
NOTES:
My notes on Karma are based on my studies from YTT, a variety of lectures and specifically reference much of Swami Sarvapriyananda’s teachings on the subject. If you don’t know who he is you can learn a lot from him on the NY Vedanta Society’s YouTube channel or if you are in the NY Metro area attend one of his talks there.
If you want to learn more about the fifth-largest religion in the world this well-done video by ___ is worth watching.