Second Nirankari Service at Interfaith Community Church, Seattle

"Creating Cultures of Peace, Justice and Healing for the Earth and All Living Beings"

On July 6th 2008, saints from the Nirankari Mission were invited for the second time to present a congregation to the Interfaith Community Church by Rev. Karen Lindquist. The congregation was attended by more than 50 people. About 10 devoted saints from the Vancouver Canada branch drove down to Seattle, including Rev. Baldev Arora (head of Nirankari Mission Vancouver) and Rev. Daljit Sidhu (General Secretary Nirankari Mission Canada). Around 25 others arrived from the local Seattle interfaith community. They were greeted with a simple breakfast at the church before the proceedings began. While the community was arriving and getting settled into the congregation hall, verses from the Holy Avtar Bani were being played. Every person was handed a booklet which introduced the Mission in detail and described the day's program. The booklet also gave a quick introduction of the speakers, who were to speak on the topic, "Creating Cultures of Peace, Justice and Healing for the Earth and All Living Beings".

The service started at 10AM with a short prayer and lighting of candles by Rev. Debra Lajimodiere. Shiv Bijlani from Seattle introduced the Nirankari Mission and welcomed the respected guests from Vancouver. Jagjit Paul from Vancouver was the first speaker who shared his view on universal brotherhood. He said,

"A spiritually enlightened person realizes the fatherhood of God by the brotherhood of man. He or she finds the image of the one and the same supreme father in every human being. The whole human society stands unified into one family - the universal brotherhood. And from this the attitude of man transforms from jealousy into cooperation, violence into non-violence and there prevails the sense of equality, liberty, fraternity & justice for mankind".

Tina Rai was requested to share her thoughts next. Her heartfelt words were appreciated by all when she said,

"A man is a man when he is human. He is human when all mankind is family. All mankind is his family when all-pervading formless god is his home. God is his home when he actually knows him and blissfully identifies him... Awareness is oneness of god, oneness of religion and oneness of mankind."

Before the epilog ("Manglacharan") was sung by sister Shivangi from Vancouver, Ravi Ji and Rev. Baldev Arora spoke on the topic. Arora Ji touched peoples hearts when he said,

"The importance of human life lies in adapting truth and devotion, love and tolerance. It is very easy to achieve these things by connecting to a True Master and knowing the Truth. Once we have the true knowledge and we realize that we are humans, our perception of life changes our horizon gets bigger and wider - and we say that our world has changed".

Everyone was able to participate in singing the epilogue along with sister Shivangi as its lyrics were printed in the program booklet. Rev. Daljit Sidhu first explained the meaning of Simran and then delivered His Holiness Baba Ji's message in his discourses. He said,

"The whole strife in this world is because of the misunderstandings of the second person...Today we have come to one platform and are here to start something that is really wonderful...My message from His Holiness is that we are all the same. His Holiness Baba Avtar Singh Ji laid down 5 principles 60 years ago and all of you in interfaith are doing that now, sitting together and respecting each others faith. This is a start and now we have to go forward from here."

The service ended at 11:30 AM with recitation of the concluding prayer ("Dhuni"), after which everyone proceeded to the kitchen area where local saints served a community meal ("Langar"). During this time, saints from the Mission socialized with the local community and had discussions with attendees over lunch.

The service which was conducted for an hour and a half served several objectives. Rev. Arora Ji formally invited the local community to the weekly congregations in Vancouver and also described the various events that have been organized in Vancouver. Tina Rai Ji spoke about His Holiness Baba Ji's visit to the European Parliament and other such milestones. This was also a good opportunity for the leaders of the Mission to be introduced to the ministers of the interfaith community.

The church has invited us to become partner members of the Interfaith Council of Washington and participate in discussions with the church's guiding council.

May Almighty bless us in spreading the message of His Holiness and creating a culture of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all its living beings.

East Coast Youth Conference, Washington DC

Illuminate the path of humanity with the light of spirituality

The two day youth conference held by the Washington DC branch was an inspiration to all those who attended. More than 400 young saints (between years 16-30) formed the majority of the attendants, who were more commonly referred to as “participants”.

Program

The first day started at 10 AM with registration. Here the participants were given a T-shirt with the Mission's message on it and a binder which had the details of the program and various other documents that were used during the presentation. Each participant was also given a group number. The day started with an “ice breaker” game. Here each group played a game where a group member would introduce themselves, and chose a word that is associated with spirituality. Each consecutive member would repeat the information of all those that preceded him or her.

The next exercise involved taking the groups one at a time through the exhibition where saints from all over NA had displayed pictures of the activities that they had organized in the past.

After lunch, three presentations were given that touched the Missions history, especially its history in NA. Often questions were asked from the audience. This was followed by two group discussion events. In the first, each member of a group would talk about ideas that would help promote the Mission among Non-Indians. A group leader was elected who would explain the group’s ideas to all the participants. For the second group discussion, each group was given a unique question to answer. Questions were like “How would you introduce the Mission to someone who is unfamiliar with it?” and “What would be one thing that you would use to spread the Mission’s message”. Before the dinner break, 3 saints conducted a panel discussion on the topic – “Peer pressure & Stress management”. One saint shared, “Why should I be stressed, When I am so blessed!” . An interesting discussion also involved “positive peer pressure” and “parental pressure”. All these discussions involved heated debates and participants had lots to share and were often hurried due to time constraints.

The program ended with cultural performances by Toronto, Montreal, Washington DC, Michigan and Boston. One skit demonstrated how we erroneously attempt to customize the Mission as we customize our coffee. Another attempted to host a Nirankari version of the popular TV show “Are you smarter than a fifth grader” called “Are you smarter than a young saint”.

The second day congregation was from 10 AM to 2 PM, but prior to that, Sheelu Ji from Houston held a Yoga session. Here too the talent demonstrated by young saints was spectacular and very often the audience broke into a rapture of applause. All speeches that were delivered were heartfelt and some even broke into tears.

Organization

• The event took place in Shady Grove Middle School.
• The main objective of the event was to give the youth opportunity to demonstrate leadership and develop leadership abilities.
• The binders were created so that participants would preserve them. It will serve as a memory and a quick way to show those who could not attend what they missed out on. They served as a medium for note taking as well.
• An extensive publication stall was set up and advertised by the stage secretary every so often.
• Except for the discourses from the stage, the entire event was presented by youth members.
• An essay writing competition was held prior to the event. Essays were printed and filed in the distributed binders.
• All saints from abroad were put up in a comfortable hotel about 7 miles away from the event.

Monthly Congregations in Seattle

We would like to continue to seek and keep the company of enlightened ones through congregations which will be held as follows:

1. First Sunday of every month (11.00 am - 1.00 pm) - with webcast discourses from His Holiness Satguru Baba Hardev Singh Ji.

2. Third Sunday of every month (11.00 am - 1.00 pm)

	19th April '08 - Amit Oberoi & Anurag's residence
	6th April '08 - Sameer Doultani's residence
	23rd March '08 - Ranjit Ubbi's residence
	19th Feb '08 - Manish Verma's residence