By: Krishan Narsinghani
On Sunday, November 22nd, a group of volunteers from the Sant Nirankari Mission Los Angeles hosted a Thanksgiving Drive-Thru to provide food and COVID safety items to nearly 300 families (1200 people).
The Drive-Thru took place at the congregation hall’s parking lot in Norwalk where the fire department and Sheriff’s Department joined the charity event. Lines of cars spanned across four blocks. Prime local news channel ABC 7 covered the giveaway along with other radio and global press. A livestream was captured on their Facebook page.
“Our goal is to give these items to families from across multiple Los Angeles and Orange County communities and to the first responder teams, who are putting themselves and their families at risk to protect everyone.
After seeing and hearing stories repeatedly over the past few months, we felt it was time to provide support in a big way that touches many people. So, we are ready to roll-up our sleeves and work day and night to pack hundreds of boxes with food, masks, sanitizers, disinfectants, soap, lotion, coupons, gift cards and more. To ensure we can maximize the number of people that benefit, we want to make this a larger community effort and procure large quantities of these items. There are countless numbers of families whose jobs have been impacted. Many families have had to also increase their risk to maintain the safety of others.”
The team is part of a humanitarian outreach organization called, Sant Nirankari Mission (SNM), which is headed today by Her Holiness Sudiksha Mata Ji. SNM has been working hard to provide aid and support during COVID-19 around the globe, including here in Los Angeles to communities, hospitals, shelters, assisted living centers, and more. SNM’s continued inspiration to serve humanity is their strength.
All funds contributed went directly to the cause.
This event was one of many COVID support efforts lead by the SNM Los Angeles team. As of late, they provided over 15,000 meals to local food banks and senior centers. This past summer they also donated masks to various hospitals, assisted living centers and some shelters. In addition, the youth of the mission prepared “thank you videos” for the medical professionals.
The pursuit of Truth is a universal phenomenon. Religious faiths all across the world proclaim to preach it, and amongst them they agree that there is no greater Truth than the Supreme Being, the Creator of the Universe, the Almighty Formless One – Nirankar. The many and varied names for God all represent an omnipresent, all-pervasive, omniscient, and Supreme Entity.
Bio:
All the sages, seers, saints, gurus and prophets from across time have, therefore, preached the same Ultimate Truth; God. The approach, however, might have been different. The various Holy Scriptures are the milestones representing the flow of Divine Thought. These writings and teachings were meant to reveal the Ultimate Truth. History, however, shows that rituals and dogmas overwhelmed the essential Truth behind these teachings, creating confusion and division between religions, sects, and communities.
Baba Buta Singh Ji, the founder and first Satguru (Master) of the Sant Nirankari Mission, recognized that adhering to rites and rituals does not enable humans to realize God. That can happen only with the grace of a God-realized soul. In 1929, Baba Buta Singh Ji began to show the path of uniting with God. This is how the Sant Nirankari Mission and Satguru tradition began.
The Satguru tradition states that God-realization is possible only through the Satguru, the teacher of God Knowledge. The mission of the Satguru is eternal, for there is always another candle to light, another life to transform.
Ideology:
Human being has been described as superior to all other species created by God. It is the human being alone who has been bestowed with intellect that enables him to distinguish between Truth and the falsehood, reality and a non-reality, desirable and the undesirable. For this, however, one must be familiar with what is true, real and desirable. Life being so precious, one must realize the truth about its beginning and its end. While living, one must know the supreme source of entire existence. And this is the primary objective of human life. Once accomplished this makes life blissful here and hereafter.
Ordinarily we find everything surrounding us, occurring in day-to-day life and everything we do as true, real and a matter of fact. But looking at all this carefully, we shall find that these realities are not ever-lasting or eternally true. They change with the change of time, place and person. What we need, therefore, is the Ultimate Truth, the Ultimate Reality, infinite and eternal, beyond time, beyond birth and death, beyond places – the same everywhere, and beyond persons – the same for everyone.
And this Ultimate Truth, Ultimate Reality, this supreme, eternal and infinite entity is God. In His formless form it is He who was there when nothing was, He is there when everything is and He shall be there when there shall be nothing – animate or inanimate. Hence the principal aim of human life is to know God. This is what we are living for. Once it is accomplished and God gets associated with our thought, word and speech, we know what is true, real and desirable. We keep immersed in God while living, merge with Him at the end and stand liberated from the cycle of birth and death.
No doubt the body has its own requirements. We must fulfill the same. As a matter of fact, man has made wonderful achievements to provide more and more comforts to the body from material point of view. The mind, however, may remain in tension and continue to suffer because what it needs ultimately is peace within. This is the man’s spiritual need, the need of his soul and can be fulfilled by spirituality alone. One must link the mind with God all the time at all places and in all circumstances. This will make life meaningful and purposeful.
This link, this state of mind will take man to the realm of Truth which needs no proof, no calculation, no measurement. Here there is belief, there is faith. One comes to be known as a devotee who rises above dualities. He remains attached to the material world but with a spirit of detachment. He stays in what is known as Sehaj – a state of complete harmony. His life becomes balanced and blissful. He enjoys all the comforts of material world in his physical form while his mind and his soul remain linked with God. He is neither entangled in nor carried away by the material wealth. His aim is to use it for his own well-being as also the welfare of others. He transcends the negative feelings of selfishness, ill-will, hatred and violence and leads a life where there is peace inside and calm all around. This makes life happy here and earns the bliss that is eternal, hereafter. As the end arrives, man realizes that he has not only achieved the aim of this human life but lived also in such a way that he gave life its meaning and achieved its purpose.
