Gobind Sadan
GOBIND SADAN’S CHARITABLE PROGRAMME
Early in his life, Baba Virsa Singh began being instructed in vision by Baba Siri Chand, elder son of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh, the great 10 th Sikh Guru. Imbued with their teachings, he began to develop practical means of supporting himself and his followers and sharing with others. Being a farmer, from a family of farmers, in June 1968 he took a small piece of seemingly worthless barren land on the outskirts of Delhi and began trying to turn it into a productive farm, naming it “Gobind Sadan” (The House of God). With very hard work and great faith in God, he and his followers pulled out rocks and dug wells by hand, levelled fields, developed gravity-fed irrigation channels, built a dairy, and began planting crops. They themselves lived very simply in bare shelters and ate and shared from their own produce.
From that base, Babaji then developed other larger farms in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The largest of these, Shiv Sadan, arose on a huge alkaline, flood-prone wasteland on the banks of the Ganges River. Again the extremely hard work and faith in God of Babaji and his devotees turned that poor area into flourishing fields whose income helped to provide food, medical services, and education for the poor people of the surrounding area. Seeing that the land was being productively developed, the government at last began to provide some basic services, too, including brick roads to replace the old mud cart-tracks, bus service five times a day, and telephone connections.
Babaji explained,
People have to eat. If you look at an area which is barren, an alkaline wasteland, and you see that the people of the area are poor and hungry, if that land can be farmed, then people will have food, and if they come and work they will receive an income as well. We look at it as a way to serve those in need, not just as development. If we cultivate the land, then people will be fed. We will give them fees for school and also help them come closer to God. Working for people is a great thing. We feel that all we have is for the poor, for the weak. Then we can feed whoever comes. We don’t expect people to give us anything in order to stay with us. We say, “Even if you have nothing, we will feed you and give you a place to sleep.” This also plays a role in Dharma: serving people, feeding people, giving them clothes and medicine. But you are only able to give if you have earned the money yourself. So we have been very successful cultivating wasteland and using the income to help others.
Babaji did not approve of giving to people who sit idle and beg. He always said that we should help those who work hard but still cannot meet their basic needs.
Gobind Sadan continues its dedication to serving those in need, without resort to fund-raising or government aid. Although Baba Virsa Singh left his physical body in 2007, compassionate services he inspired are ongoing, with help from voluntary donations by devotees from their own hard work. A free school for poor children has been created in Babaji’s name in Gobind Sadan’s Delhi campus. It now serves 180 students from pre-nursery to fifth grades. Although the children’s parents are mostly illiterate in any language, the children are getting high-quality instruction in English to prepare them for good jobs. Since the parents cannot help them with their homework, most are also receiving supplementary tuition so that they can handle the challenging curriculum. Poor children of older grades are also given financial assistance with school fees, uniforms, books, transportation, and tutoring so that they can do well in higher-level schools. The children are highly motivated to learn so that some day they can earn and help to support their parents, most of whom are manual workers.
Citizens of India as well as visiting foreigners have been inspired to share their used clothing with the poor who live and work in Gobind Sadan, so clothing distribution goes on constantly. Medical care is often beyond the means of poor Indians, so Gobind Sadan offers free medicines and also takes people to doctors and hospitals and arranges for their care. It is very heartening to see that when someone needs an emergency blood transfusion, those who are willing to give blood include people who are not their relatives, nor are they of the same religion, but they have compassion for others as if they were their own brothers or sisters. Such health services offered by Gobind Sadan have saved many lives over the years. But when people have died, whether from old age or sickness, their survivors receive great support from other members of the community who are not their blood relations. Many members of the community pitch in to help with cremation and memorial arrangements, share in the grieving, and console the survivors.
Malnutrition is a great problem among the poor of India. To help alleviate this scourge, Gobind Sadan sponsors many feeding programmes, including weekly distribution of nutritious sweet bread (rot), sweet rice, and black grams. Langar (free kitchen) is being run constantly to provide three hot meals plus tea daily to the volunteers, working staff, and visitors. In addition to support for the materially needy, Gobind Sadan offers support to the spiritually needy. Many people come or send requests for prayers and spiritual practices to help overcome their depression, anger, fears, family problems, financial difficulties, educational challenges, legal problems, and the like. They are encouraged to share their resources with others in order to improve their own karma, so they often help to sponsor feeding programmes or bring fresh fruits to distribute to the poor. One volunteer has been blessed by Babaji to pray for people every hour, twenty-four hours a day. Another has been given the duty of praying for people of all religions every evening before a compassionate statue of Jesus. Miracle stories and cases of personal transformation are quite common following these prayers and offerings.
Gobind Sadan’s compassionate services are inclusive. Everyone of all castes, religions, and genders is invited to partake, and everyone is included in serving, as all are considered fellow members of one human family. The community serves as a refuge for many differently-abled or rejected people who cannot survive in the outside society, and all are given some useful seva to do.
These practical services are a constant feature of Gobind Sadan life, but services go on quietly, naturally, with no fanfare. Baba Virsa Singh advised his devotees to just keep serving without self-interest, never expecting any praise or reward. “Just do and keep moving ahead,” he said. “Every person has to work and help others, for this is God’s hukam (divine command). One who simply sits idle and meditates will not find favor in God’s court, and because he is not helping people, he will not find favor in the world either.”