Interesting thoughts

Prayer is not only worship; it is also an invisible emanation of man's worshipping spirit - the most powerful form of energy that one can generate. If you make a habit of sincere prayer, your life will be very noticeably and profoundly enriched.

Prayer is a force as real as terrestrial gravity. As a doctor, I have seen men, after all therapy had failed, lifted out of disease and melancholyby the serene effort of prayer. Such occasions have been termed miracle. But a constent, quieter miracle takes place hourly in the hearts of men and women who have discovered that prayer supplies them with a steady flow of sustaining power in their daily lives.

Too many people regard prayer as a formalised routine of words, a refuge for weaklings or a childish petition for material things. Properly understood, prayer is a mature activity indispensable to the fullest development of personality. Only in prayer do we achieve that complete, harmonious assembly of body, mind and spirit which gives the frail human reed its unshakeable strength.

How does prayer fortify us with so much dynamic power? To answer this question (admittedly outside the jurisdiction of science) I must point out that all prayers demonstrate the same truth; human beings seek to augment their finite energy by addressing themselves to the infinite source of all energy. When we pray, we link ourselves with the inexhaustiblemotive power that spins the universe. We ask that a part of this power be apportioned to our needs. Even in asking, our human deficiencies are filled, and we arise strengthened and repaired.

In order really to mould personality, prayer must become a habit. One can pray everywhere; in the street, the office, the school, in the solitudeof one's own room, in a church. There is no prescribed posture, time or place. But it is meaningless to pray in the morning and to live like a barbarian the remainder of the day. True prayer is a way of life; the truest life is literally a way of prayer.

Today, lack of emphasis on the religious sense has brought the world to the edge of destruction. Our deepest source of power and perfection has been left miserably undeveloped. Prayer, the basic exercise of the spirit, must be actively practised by man and nations. For if the power of prayer is again released and used in the lives of common men and women, there is yet hope that our prayers for a better world will be answered.

(Prayer is Power by Alexis Carrel in Reader's Digest March 1963).

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Times of general calamity and confusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The purest one is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storm. (Colton)

Nations, like individuals, derive support and strength from the feeling that they belong to an illustrious race, that they are heirs of the greatness, and ought to be the perpetuators of their glory. It is of momentous importance that a nation should have a great past to look back upon. It steadies the life of the present, elevates and upholds it and heightens and lifts it up, by the memory of the great deeds, the noble sufferings and the valorous achievements of the men of old. (Samuel Smiles)

Ideas have never conquered the world as ideas, but only by the force they represent. They do not grip men by their intellectual contents, but by the radiant vitality which is given off at certain period in history...The loftiest and most sublime idea remains ineffective until the day when it becomes contagious, not by its own merits but by the merits of the groups of men in whom it becomes incarnate, by the transfusion of their blood, then the whithered plant, the rose of Jerico comes suddenly to flower, grows to its full height, and fills all the air with its aroma. (Roman Rolland)

Typed by sevadaar of RSYA

Movie days at the Gurdwara!!!

We bet you can't believe it!!

A Gurdwara - a place where parents bring you even though you may not want to be there is showing films?!?

YEP! We sure are, each month on a Saturday during Sikhi class, we will show a Sikhi based film. (Saves the Sikhi class teacher from boring everyone to sleep! lol).

Please see poster attached to find out next movie day!!

P.S. Feel free to bring popcorn and juice!

Kirtan in loving memory of Bhai Gurnam Singh Ji - Pics

The Kirtan programme in loving memory of Bhai Sahib Bhai Gurnam Singh on the 12th September was a great success as many kirtanis and sangat attended from all over UK.

Below are some pictures taken on the day, enjoy!

Bhai Harsevak Singh

Bhai Gurvijay Singh

Bibi Ji

Bhai Ragbir Singh doing Chaur Sahib Seva

Bhai Nanak Singh

Kirtan event in loving memory of Bhai Sahib Bhai Gurnam Singh Ji

There is a kirtan programme on the 12th September in loving memory of Bhai Sahib Bhai Gurnam Singh, the first president of Siri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara, Reading.

Bhai Sahib were also one of the founding members of Akhand Kirtani Jatha UK when in it was set up in 1976. Bhai Sahib did seva as its General Secretary from then until 1995. They arranged many of the old international smagams in the UK, single handly, nowadays there are smagams everywhere but back in the day in the 70's, 80's, it was harder to get keertanis to smagams, as the majority of keertanis were in India and getting visas was not as easy as it was now.

The Rehansbai's we enjoy today are due to the hard work done by these Gursikhs in the past. Please please attend.

It is the RSYA team's humble request that you attend and get the laha of Kirtan, Simran and Saad Sangat.

Please see poster.