Posted: October 25, 2016, 12:39am
Sikhism is one of the largest religions in the world with currently over 20 million followers. Its unique history and structure makes it an intriguing topic for theologians worldwide. If you’re wondering whether this is another article crafted over religious fanaticism, rest assured, it’s not even remotely directed there. I wasn’t too surprised to know that there indeed is a Sikh temple present near Hollywood and I was in fact lucky enough to visit it the other day.
This apparently is the first ‘Gurudwara’ (a Sikh temple) ever built in the States. I was one among the fifteen people who went there that day. From around half a mile away I could see the saffron flag in its complete majesty, flowing high in the air. There’s a historical relevance to everything that one would encounter in a Gurudwara. The saffron flag is stationed in a way so that anyone in the vicinity knows they’re close to the temple. A few centuries ago when the religion was founded, the flag was a shout out to every person that their search ends here. Be it food, a place to rest, or anything that ails your life, the temple provides you everything. And so it happened; days of cravings for Indian food ended there! A community service called ‘langar’ provides food to everyone who visits the temple. Prince or pauper, you just have to cover your head as a symbol of respect.
It was a lot of divinity and a familiar essence put together in that premises which actually reminded me of my journeys with my grandparents to several religious places in India. Travelling with those wizened faces brimming with wisdom is generally underestimated. But out of my extremely busy schedule round the year, I always enjoyed spending time with them while exploring different places. Telling people the importance of each and everything they could see in there brings an inexplicable inner contentment. This day was no different with respect to that.
We ate to our heart’s desire! It was so filling. And fulfilling! After the lunch we met the founder of the temple who was incidentally present there that day. It was a memorable experience knowing how much charity he does and how he got the building constructed. He’s an extremely learned person, a doctor by profession, who lives in Malibu currently and so dearly invited us to his place. I’d suggest you to go there at least once and get a little view of what the Sikh community is about. It is beautiful, always. 🙂
Published on July 25th, 2017
Last updated on January 20th, 2021