Advanced: How do Sikhs show care?

Palkin: Hi, I’m Palkin, and I’m Sikh.

Our gurdwara is an important place for Sikhs to come and pray together.

We help others at the gurdwara but Sikhs also help and serve in the community, at schools, parks or anywhere!

Helping others is very important for Sikhs. We call it ‘seva’ which means ‘selfless service’, helping others without wanting anything in return.

That means we try to work to make the world a better place for everyone.

Every gurdwara has a kitchen where we prepare langar, a free vegetarian meal for our community.

We serve the food every day, and everyone is welcome to come and eat langar. It doesn’t matter if you’re Sikh or not!

Everyone sits together on the floor to eat to show that we are all equal.

And all Sikhs volunteer to cook and clean because serving others is a way of serving God.

I really like that I can help prepare langar in the kitchen!

And because not everyone can come to the gurdwara, we also take meals to local foodbanks and other places that need it.

I’m really glad we have the gurdwara and can help so many people!

One hot day, Guru Nanak and his two companions, Mardana and Bala, were feeling thirsty.

They had been walking for a long time and stopped to rest. Guru Nanak saw a house at the top of the hill and sent Mardana to ask the man who lived there for a drink of water.

Hot and thirsty, Mardana began to climb up the steep hill. At the top of the hill lived a rich man who owned a deep well full of cool water. The well was the only place where the people from the village could get water for drinking and washing.

At last, Mardana reached the top of the hill.

"What do you want?" asked the man who owned the well.

"Please can we have a drink of water?" asked Mardana. "We have travelled a long way and we are very thirsty."

"You have to pay for my water," the man said crossly. "No money, no water."

Mardana didn't have any money, so he walked back down the hill to Guru Nanak and told him what the man had said. Guru Nanak told Mardana to ask the man again.

Mardana climbed back up the hill and politely asked the man again for a drink of water. Again, the man refused and Mardana went back to Guru Nanak without any water.

"We must give a person three chances to do the right thing," Nanak said.

So Mardana tried a third time.

"I don't care. You don't have any money to pay for my water, so go away!" the man shouted.

When Guru Nanak heard the man had refused, he sighed.

"Don't worry, God will take care of us."

Guru Nanak took a stick and dug a hole in the ground. Then an amazing thing happened.

Where Guru Nanak had dug, water began to flow. His companions were delighted and enjoyed a long, cool drink of water.

Soon, people from the village began to crowd around, excited that they could at last get water for free.

From the top of the hill, the man who owned the well was watching. When he looked into his well, he saw that the water was disappearing. He was furious.

The man was so angry that he pushed a huge boulder down the hill towards Guru Nanak and the people enjoying the water.

The boulder was rolling faster and faster right towards Guru Nanak. People shouted out to warn him, but Guru Nanak stayed where he was.

Just as the boulder was about to hit him, Guru Nanak put out his hand and the boulder stopped rolling.

The boulder had stopped so suddenly that Guru Nanak's hand had left a perfect print in the hard rock.

On the top of the hill, the man realised he had made a terrible mistake. He knew it was time to learn to share with everyone else.

After this, the man became kind and generous.

He realised that whatever God had made was meant to be shared, so he then decided to spend the rest of his life sharing with others and teaching them to share as well.