The modern day service organizations like United Nations and Red Cross, provide world-wide services of protecting Human Rights, Peace, Security, Economic and Social Development However, the Sikh faith, since its inception in 1469, has sustained itself by providing the above services to mankind. In fact, Sikhism came into being for the sake of service to those who were suffering and to uplift the conditions of the downtrodden. Whether the service was in the form of spiritual, social, political or military assistance, it was always the idea of service to humanity which prompted the Sikh Gurus to adopt a certain course of action resulting in ameliorating the conditions of the people. The Sikh Motto of Service as given in Gurbani is : If we serve the humanity in this world, then we will be welcomed in the court of God - Page 1379 of Guru Granth Sahib Service is Sikhism is known as SEVA, which is derived from Sanskrit root sev ( to serve, wait or attend upon, honour, or worship), is usually translated as 'service' or 'serving' which commonly relates to work paid for, but does not convey the sense in which the term is used in the Sikh tradition. The word seva has, in fact, had two distinct connotations; one, it means to serve, to attend to, to render obedience to ; and the second, to worship, to adore, to reverence, to pay homage to. Traditionally in the Indian ( Hindu) society, seva in the sense of worship (of gods) has been the preserve of the high-caste Brahmans, while that in the sense of service (to man) relegated to the lowest of the castes. In the Sikh sense, the two connotations are merged together for the reasons: first, because of its egalitarian meaning. Sikhism does not recognize cast, distinctions, and hence no distinctive caste roles in it; and second, God in Sikhism is not apart from His creatures. He pervades His Creation. Therefore service rendered to humanity (i.e. God in man) is indeed considered a form of worship. In fact, in Sikhism, no worship is conceivable without service. The Sikh is forbidden from serving, anyone apart from God Serve you the Lord alone. None else must you serve - Page 490 of Guru Granth Sahib However, this also means that whomsoever we serve, we really serve our Lord through him. Therefore it becomes incumbent upon the Sikh to render service with the highest sense of duty since thereby he or she is worshipping, the Lord. Service in Sikhism is imperative for spiritual life. It is the highest penance. It is a means to acquiring the highest merit. A Sikh prays to God for a chance to render service. I beg to serve those who serve you - Page 43 of Guru Granth Sahib I, your servant. beg for service of your people, which is available through good fortune alone - Page 802 of Guru Granth Sahib He who is turned towards the Guru finds repose and joy in service - Page 125 of Guru Granth Sahib Three varieties of service are sanctioned in the Sikh lore : that rendered through the corporal instrument (Tan), that through the mental apparatus (Mun) and that through the material wherewithal (Dhan). The first of them is considered to be the highest of all and is imperatively prescribed for every Sikh. Cursed are the hands and feet that engage not in service - Bhai Gurdas, Varan 27.1 In traditional Indian society work involving corporal labour was considered low and relegated to the humblest castes. By sanctifying it as an honourable religious practice, the Sikh Gurus established the dignity of labour, a concept then almost unknown to the Indian society. Not only did the Gurus sanctify it ; they also institutionalized it. Sikhism says that the creation is an expression of God Himself and HE (God) resides in our heart. However, man is unable to realize God because of his EGO and therefore the liberation of man lies in giving up his EGO. Therefore, the first step on the path of Sikhism, is to give up their EGO, by being useful to the others (irrespective of their colour, caste, religion, sex or social status) and by rendering them unselfish service, without any motive for personal rewards. Service is not possible without Sacrifice. The Sikh Gurus made service a part of the daily life and converted the Gurudwaras into a laboratory for practicing servicing Corporal Service (Service with Tan - Physical Service) as a matter of daily routine, in order to prepare them in the long run, to provide Service to the whole mankind. In order to give up his EGO, in a Gurudwara a Sikh provides services by preparing langars (the free Community Kitchen in the Gurudwaras), cleaning and sweeping of Gurudwaras precincts, cleaning and looking after the shoes of those who come for prayers to Gurudwaras, cleaning and washing of used vessels in langar, cleaning toilets in the Gurudwara, and doing physical service in building of Gurudwaras, dispensaries and educational institutes with enthusiasm. These services in the Gurudwara premises, teach the Sikh, the art of true service to be performed in life, which needs unassuming devotion, compassion, humility and self-sacrifice. Visit a Gurudwara and you will find even the richest of Sikhs doing the above Physical Service. I beg of you, O, Merciful One, make me the slave of your Slaves... Let me have the pleasure of fanning them, drawing water for them, grinding corn for them and of washing their feet - Page 518 of Guru Granth Sahib Service through the mental apparatus (MUN) lies in contributing ones talents-creative, communicative, managerial, etc.- to the welfare of the community and mankind in general. It also lies in sharing the pain of others. Response to the pain of others is akin to the membership of the brotherhood of man. That is why the daily Sikh prayer (Ardas) said in unison ends with a supplication for the welfare of whole Creation (Nanak, Naam Chardi Kala, Terey Bhaney Sarbat Da Bhalla). Seva of this kind is motivated not by the attitude of compassion alone, but primarily to discover practical avenues for serving God through man. Service through Material means (DHAN) or wealth was particularly sought to be made non-personal. The offerings made to the Guru and the Dasvandh (Mandatory Contribution of 10% of ones Income for the purpose of Service) contributed by the Sikhs goes straight to the common coffers of the community. The service in form of Material Contribution helps in giving up of SELF-CENTREDNESS and helps acknowledge and respond to that which is other than oneself. A Sikh contributes materially in the Gurudwara so as to feed the hungry, lodge the travelers, educate the young and ignorant and shelter the destitute. The Sikh is particularly enjoined upon to serve the poor. The poor man's mouth is the depository of the Guru - Rahitnama of Chaupa Singh The poor are thus, treated as legitimate recipients of charity. In serving the poor, one serves not the individual concerned, but God Himself through him. Even as one feeds the hungry, it has been the customary Sikh practice to pray : The grain, O God, is your own gift. Only the service is mine which please be gracious enough to accept In the Sikh way of life, service is considered the prime duty of the householder (Grihasthi). That home in which holymen are not served, God is served not. Such mansions must be likened to graveyards where ghosts alone abide - Page 1374 of Guru Granth Sahib The Sikhs are all ordained to be householders, and service is their duty. In Sikh thought, the polarity of renunciation is not with attachment, but with service. True service - according to Sikh scriptures must be without desire (Nishkam), guileless (Nishkapat), in humility (Nimarta), with purity of intention (Hirda suddh), with sincerity (Chit Lae) and in utter selflessness (Vichon Aap Gavae). Such service for the Sikh is the door-way to dignity as well as to liberation (Mukti). If one earns merit here through service, one will get a seat of honour in His Court hereafter - Page 26 of Guru Granth Sahib According to Sikh tenets, You become like the one you serve - Page 549 of Guru Granth Sahib Therefore, for those who desire oneness with God, serving God and God alone is the prime way. But God in Sikhism is transcendent as well as immanent. The Transcendent One is ineffable and can only be conceived through contemplation. Service of God, therefore, only relates to the immanent aspect of God and comprises service of His creatures. Humanitarian service is thus the Sikh ideal of service. The Sikh Gurus motivated the Sikhs to not only limit the scope of service to social aspects of society but also extended it to military service, in order to protect the fundamental rights of the people and nation and to keep the dignity of mankind. Under the motivation of selfless service, the Sikhs were able to give up their self, wealth and fear of death. The 3 principles to be practiced by a Sikh are : 1. Dharam Di Keerat Karna - To earn their living through honest mean 2. Wand Chakna - To share their earnings with others 3. Naam Japna - To be God Oriented in their thoughts and actions The 3 fundamental Values of Sikhism are : 1. Deg - Actions to provide Economic Adequacy 2. Teg - Actions for imbibing Organization Strength to resist tyranny and oppression 3. Fateh - have a firm faith in attaining victory for the right cause The combination of above principles and fundamental values motivates the Sikhs to be active contributors to the society (you will never find a Sikh begging on the roads, inspite of having been uprooted numerous times). They are known for sharing with others their material wealth for social causes as well as for sacrificing their life for the right cause and found to be always in high spirits, which enables them to look at life in positive terms. Besides providing socio-religious service, the Sikh Gurus also undertook to provide politico-military service to the weak and harassed people. Today, United Nations provides the service of peaceful political negotiations between disputed parties, which if fail, are then supplemented by military resolution. The Sikh Gurus, about 400 years back, advocate the same principle as being followed by United Nations today. The tenth Guru (Guru Gobind Singh) in his Zaffarnama (letter of Victory) to Aurangzeb, said When all means for peaceful negotiations have failed, then it is justified to pick up the sword for self-defence an protection of basic human values - Zaffarnama by Guru Gobind Singh The fifth Guru (Guru Arjan Dev) sacrificed his life rather than permit the subjugation of people of India. The ninth Guru (Guru Tegh Bahadur) offered to sacrifice his life for the cause of Kashmiri Brahmins who approached him for protection, due to the tyranny by Mughal Empire to forcefully convert them, which is contrary to the fundamental right of an individual to practice a religion of his own choice. This was a unique & unparalleled sacrifice in the annals of human history. He laid down his life in defence of religious tolerance, of freedom of worship, and freedom of conscience. He gave his life so that the Hindu's right to wear the sacred thread is not violated despite the fact that Sikhs themselves did not believe in these rituals. This was a martyrdom for the defence of basic human values. The concept of service reached its peak, when under the leadership of tenth Guru (Guru Gobind Singh), thousands of Sikhs gave the service of supreme sacrifice of their lives to uphold the dignity of mankind. The tenth Guru had his four sons and everything that belonged to him sacrificed on the altar of service to mankind. The Sikhs that the Gurus created were no less. Post the times of tenth Guru and later throughout the eighteenth century, they fought against the tyranny of the Mughal empire against unimaginable odds and suffered untold atrocities, but finally put an end to the power of the despotic rulers. The Sikhs sacrificed their lives for the protection of fundamental rights and never occupied any territory post winning their battles. The principles of service as provided today, by modern Red Cross Society were initiated by Sikhs, some 300 years ago. During the battles for righteousness fought by Guru Gobind Singh, against the might of the Mughal Empire, a Sikh by the name of Bhai Kanahia would go out giving water and medicine to the wounded soldiers of the Mughal Army, against whom the battle was being fought. This event implies that Sikhs are exhorted to serve mankind without any discrimination on the grounds of race and religion etc. The message of the Gurus to the Sikhs was : There ought to be no vengeance against those who do not fight against you. Even if they were your enemies before, when they are wounded, they ought to be treated with the same compassion as one's own wounded soldiers, for God resides in all. Between 1713 and 1801 the Sikhs were homeless and living as Guerillas, demonstrating heroic acts of courage at every possible instance. The tyrant rulers had put a reward of Rs. 25/= for every Sikh head and Rs. 100/= for every Sikh caught alive. (The value of Reward eas very high for those days). Those caught alive would be cut to pieces. During this phase, in 1738 Nadir Shah, the Persian ruler invaded India from Kabul and went on a rampage upto Delhi and between 1748 & 1765, Ahmad Shah Abdali the ruler from Afghanistan rampaged India 9 times. When they were returning to Persia and Afghanistan it was peak summer during their passage from Punjab. They carried back a huge booty of looted wealth, Kohinoor diamond, women, artisans and slaves. To avoid the summer heat, the convoy would rest during the day and travel in the night. At the peak of the day heat at 12 noon, when the invaders would be resting, the Sikhs started attacking the convoys right from Punjab upto the Indus. The Sikhs took upon themselves this noble service of protecting the motherland from invaders and freeing the enslaved women from mainland India, being taken by the invaders. No one else in India dared to fight the might of Nadir Shah or Ahmed Sahah Abdali, but the handful of Sikhs. The service offered by the Sikhs was for the protection of Righteousness. They managed to free many women, artisans, slaves and deprived the invaders of large amount of wealth. The women were escorted back to their homes, right upto Delhi by the Sikhs. It would be not out of place, to mention here that it was for this heroic service, which no one else dared in India, to fight against the might of Nadir Shah by a handful of Sikhs and freeing the women and returning to them to their homes in mainland India, that the Sikhs started getting seen as people who go mad at 12 Noon and therefore the 12 o' clock jokes of nowdays against them by their own fellow countrymen. It leaves one wondering that how selfish could the future generations of the receipients of a noble service (performed by Sikhs to protect the sisters, mothers and wealth of mainland India) get in todays world to think that Sikhs are a bunch of people who go mad at 12 Noon. Later when the British were in power, the Sikhs, under the leadership of the spiritually awakened Baba Ram Singh, in the year 1863 were the first to serve the country through a non-cooperative movement against the British Rule in India, much before the non-cooperation movement started by Mahatma Gandhi in 1919. The sacrifices, which were given by the Sikhs during this movement are worth noting as initiators of non-cooperative movement. The Sikhs took an active part, peaceful and violent, in order to end the British Raj. During this period, the Service of Sikhs, who are less than 2% of Indian Population, in the freedom struggle against the British rule can be summed up as follows"

Book source : "History of Indian National Congress".

Where in the world can you find an act of service of sacrifice like that of Sikhs in 1922, willing to offer lives of their wives, children and themselves by lying on the rails to stop a train of freedom fighters passing through Nankana Sahib, who only had to be fed because the Sikhs wanted to feed the freedom fighters with the Gurus Langar (Food prepared in Gurudwara). British ordered not to stop the train at Nankana Sahib and the Sikhs decided to provide the noble Service of giving up their lives by sitting on the Railway track, in order to forcefully stop the train. The train finally stopped after killing a few Sikhs, but there were no grudges as the hungry freedom fighters were finally fed with Langar. The motto of the Sikh Regiments in the Defence Forces is what their 10th Guru taught them, Grant me this boon, O Lord, at last when the end of life is near, I may die serving in the battlefield for the sake of righteousness - Guru Gobind Singh This motto has enabled the Sikhs to serve for the defence forces in the most gallant manner. Contribution of Sikhs towards the Indian Defence Services is the highest with respect to their 2% population size. This community has also won the maximum number of gallantary awards since independence - 5 Param Vir Chakras (PVCs), 40 Maha Vir Chakras (MVCs), 209 Vir Chakras (VrCs). Sikhism advocates "Service with Humility". Around the year 1700, Kapur Singh, the great leader of Sikhs, accepted the title of Nawabi (the tile of rulership) and Jagir from the Mughal Government but he did not give up the menial service of fanning the congregation of devotees. The secular nature of Sikh Service, which transcends all religious barriers, is demonstrated by a recent example (The Tribune Newspaper - 29th December). Today when the country is ravaged due to Ayodhya (Babri Masjid issue) and mosques are being broken down. Sant Waryam Singh has constructed a mosque in the CHAHAR MAJRA (Mullanpur - Punjab) for the 15-odd Muslim families who had preferred to stay back here than migrate to Pakistan at the time of partition more than 50 years ago. All these years, these Muslims, in the absence of place of worship nearby, had to go all the way either to the Sector 20 Jama Masjid or the Mosque at Burail village, which are more than 10 to 15 km away, to offer their prayers. Being poor farm labourers, they could not afford to build their own mosque. This unprecedented gesture of a Sikh saint for his Muslim brethren may perhaps be a shining stone in the country's secular necklace. The same secular gesture of Service was shown by Maharaja Ranjit Singh (when post capturing the Khyber Pass he stopped the centuries old attacks into India by foreign invaders), he crossed religious service boundaries to serve the sentiments of Hindus, whose temples (Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi and many more around India, had been deprived of wealth by the invaders from Afghanistan and Persia), by donating more than 16 Quintal of Gold for getting these temples gold-plated. This donation was made, not because the Sikhs believed in the Hindu form of worship or had religious belief in these temples, but because their nature of service made them cross religious boundaries to make these temples shine back to their historic past, which they had been deprived of by the invaders. It is unfortunate, that the Brahmin priests, later removed this Gold plating for their personal wealth. Sikhism takes a holistic view of Service, making the Servers' actions God-Oriented. A service without devotion to God results in vanity and only compounds EGO, as the server then looks for name and fame as an outcome of service provided. A Sikh is to act, and not be concerned with the results. The fruit of action is not his motive but being devoted in God-Oriented Service actions is his objective.