Monday, September 29, 2008

THE FOUR CANDLES

THE FOUR CANDLES

The four candles burned slowly, their ambiance was so soft you could
hear them speak.

The first candle said, "I am Peace, but these days, nobody wants to
keep me lit." Then Peace's flame slowly diminished and went out
completely.

The second candle said, "I am Faith, but these days, I am no longer
indispensable." Then Faith's flame slowly diminished and went out.

The third candle spoke, "I am Love and I haven't the strength to stay
lit any longer. People put me aside and don't understand my
importance. They even forget to love those who are nearest to them."
And waiting no longer, Love went out completely.

Suddenly, a child entered the room and saw the three candles no
longer burning. The child began to cry, "Why are you not burning? You
are supposed to stay lit until the end."

Then the fourth candle spoke to the little boy, "Don't be afraid, for
I am Hope, and while I still burn, we can relight the other candles."

With shining eyes the child took the candle of Hope and lit the other
three candles.

Never let the Flame of Hope to go out of your life. With Hope, no
matter how bad things look and are... Peace, Faith and Love can shine
brightly in our lives.


By: Unknown Author
Source: http://forums.panthic.net/index.php?showtopic=25578

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Cambridge Youth Kirtan Darbar - Sat. Sept 27th

Vaheguruu ji khalsa, Vaheguruu ji ki fatehh




Its that time again, where Universities host their local YKDs. First up for September is Cambridge hosted by LaurierSSA, in October its in London by WesternSSA and then Waterloo in November ! More information will be sent out as we get it.






Cambridge YKD
Saturday September 27th
6pm-1am




For the convenience of sangat living in the GTA, there will be a bus available at dixie gurdhwara. The bus will be leaving at 5:00p.m. sharp.



Destination:
1401 Roseville Road
Cambridge, Ontario
(519) 623 – 7972

From Toronto/Ottawa:

Take Hwy 401 WEST towards LONDON
Take exit # 275
FOUNTAIN ST. / RR-28 / HOMER WATSON BLVD toward CAMBRIDGE/KITCHENER
Turn LEFT onto FOUNTAIN ST S / HOMER WATSON BLVD – go 0.5 miles
Turn RIGHT onto DICKIE SETTLEMENT RD / RR-71. – go 1.9 miles
Turn LEFT onto ROSEVILLE RD / RR-46 / RR-71. Continue to follow ROSEVILLE RD / RR-46. – go 1.1 miles
Gurdwara is on your RIGHT side

From London:

Take Hwy 401 EAST towards TORONTO
Take the CEDAR CREEK ROAD EAST / RR-97 E exit- EXIT 268A- toward CAMBRIDGE.
Merge onto RR-97 / CEDAR CREEK RD.
Turn LEFT onto DUMFRIES RD / RR-47.
Turn RIGHT onto ROSEVILLE RD / RR-46
Gurdwara is on your RIGHT side

Previous Recordings/Pics from Cambridge Kirtans are up on SikhVibes.com !!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

21 REASONS for being VEGETARIAN

21 REASONS for being VEGETARIAN

Vegetarianism is the fastest growing trend in the developed world. Here are 21 reasons why you should think about turning green too.

* Avoiding meat is one of the best and simplest ways to cut down your fat consumption. Modern farm animals are deliberately fattened up to increase profits. Eating fatty meat increases your chances of having a heart attack or developing cancer.

* Every minute of every working day, thousands of animals are killed in slaughter-houses. Pain and misery are common. In the US alone, 500,000 animals are killed for meat every hour.

* There are millions of cases of food poisoning recorded every year. The vast majority are caused by eating meat.

* Meat contains absolutely nothing - no proteins, vitamins or minerals - that the human body cannot obtain perfectly happily from a vegetarian diet.

* African countries - where millions are starving to death - export grain to the developed world so that animals can be fattened for our dining tables.

* 'Meat' can include the tail, head, feet, rectum and spinal cord of an animal.

* A sausage can contain ground up intestines. How can anyone be sure that the intestines are empty when they are ground up? Do you really want to eat the content of a pig's intestines?

* If we eat the plants we grow instead of feeding them to animals, the world's food shortage will disappear virtually overnight. Remember that 100 acres of land will produce enough beef for 20 people but enough wheat to feed 240 people.

* Every day, tens of millions of one-day-old male chicks are killed because they will not be able to lay eggs. There are no rules about how this mass slaughter takes place. Some are crushed or suffocated to death. Many are used for fertilizer or fed to other animals.

* Animals who die for your dinner table die alone, in terror, in sadness and in pain. The killing is merciless and inhumane.

* It's much easier to become (and stay) slim if you are a vegetarian. (By 'slim', I do not mean 'abnormally slender' or 'underweight' but rather, an absence of excess weight!)

* Half the rainforests in the world have been destroyed to clear ground to graze cattle to make beefburgers. The burning of the forests contributes 20% of all green-house gases. Roughly 1,000 species a year become extinct because of the destruction of the rainforests. Approximately 60 million people a year die of starvation. All those lives could be saved because those people could eat grain used to fatten cattle and other farm animals - if Americans ate 10% less meat.

* The world's fresh water shortage is being made worse by animal farming. And meat producers are the biggest polluters of water. It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat. If the US meat industry wasn't supported by the taxpayer paying a large proportion of its water costs, then hamburger meat would cost $35 a pound.

* If you eat meat, you are consuming hormones that were fed to the animals. No one knows what effect those hormones will have on your health. In some parts of the world, as many as one on four hamburgers contain growth hormones that were originally given to cattle.

* The following diseases are commoner among meat eaters: anemia, appendicitis, arthritis, breast cancer, cancer of the colon, cancer of the prostrate, constipation, diabetes, gallstones, gout, high blood pressure, indigestion, obesity, piles, strokes and varicose veins. Lifelong vegetarians visit hospital 22% less often than meat eaters and for shorter stays. Vegetarians have a 20% lower blood cholesterol level than meat eaters and this reduces heart attack and cancer risks considerably.

* Some farmers use tranquillizers to keep animals calm. Other routinely use antibiotics to starve off infection. When you eat meat you are eating those drugs. In America, 55% of all antibiotics are fed to animals and the percentage of staphylococci infections resistant to penicillin went up from 14% in 1960 to 91% in 1988.

* In a lifetime, the average meat eater will consumer 36 pigs, 36 sheep and 750 chickens and turkeys. Do you want that much carnage on your conscience?

* Animals suffer from pain and fear just as much as you do. How would you like to spend your last hours locked in a truck, packed into a cage with hundreds of other terrified animal and then cruelly pushed into a blood soaked death chamber. Anyone who eats meat condones and supports the way animals are treated.

* Animals which are a year old are often far more rational - and capable of logical thought - than six week old babies. Pigs and sheep are far more intelligent than small children. Eating dead animals is barbaric.

* Vegetarians are fitter than meat eaters, many of the world's most successful athletes are vegetarian.



Source: http://www.giveusahome.co.uk/articles/vegetarianism.htm



Some quotes:

“It is my view that the vegetarian manner of living, by its purely physical effect on the human temperament, would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind.”
— Albert Einstein

"There will never be any peace in the world as long as we eat animals." -Isaac Bashevis Singer

"If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals." -Albert Einstein

"I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals." -Henry Thoreau:

"Flesh eating is simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an
act which is contrary to moral feeling: killing. By killing, man
suppresses in himself, unnecessarily, the highest spiritual capacity,
that of sympathy and pity towards living creatures like himself and by
violating his own feelings becomes cruel." "As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields." -Leo Tolstoy

"If man wants freedom why keep birds and animals in cages? Truly man
is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them. We live by the
death of others. We are burial places! I have since an early age abjured
the use of meat." -Leonardo-da-Vinci

“My refusing to eat flesh occasioned an inconveniency, and I was frequently chided for my singularity, but, with this lighter repast, I made the greater progress, for greater clearness of head and quicker comprehension.”
— Benjamin Franklin

http://www.vegetarianimage.com/Quotes.htm






Meet your Meat -----------------> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIjanhKqVC4

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Power of Ardas

During the partition of India and Pakistan, in a remote village near the border in the Western Punjab (Pakistan side), there were few Sikh families who used to go to the local Gurudwara where the head Granthee jee always preached the Guru's word. One night when the riots started, everyone gathered in the Gurudwara. They started asking the Granthee jee if Guru is going to come and rescue them from this.

Granthee jee went in front of the Guru Granth Sahib jee and did the Ardaas. "Hey Sache Patshah, I have always lived by your word. I have always belived and taught everyone Gur Mere Sang Sadda hai Naale. Hey mere Sahib, the time is here where everyone is looking at me and asking me if you will save us. Hey mere Waheguru jee, please show everyone that you are always our Ang Sang. Please save us."

The Granthee jee did the Ardaas and went to the people. Everyone started questioning him, where is your Guru? Where is the one who will save us? The mob started getting near the Gurudwara. Everyone could hear the angry mob and started getting anxious.

Then they heard a truck's voice. Someone looked outside and saw a Gursikh Army officer honking the truck and calling everyone to get in the truck. Everyone ran and sat down in the truck. The Granthee jee looked at the Gursikh and asked him where did he come from? The Gursikh told him that he was here to take everyone to the other side of the border (Indian side). The Singh had a shiny face and he looked very calm. He was constantly reciting the naam and baani. After reaching the Indian side of the Punjab, the Singh took everyone to the Gurudwara sahib where every one got off safely.

Granthee jee thanked the Gursikh and asked him again who he was and where did he come from. The Gursikh told him that his duty was done and it's time for him to go now. After saying Waheguru ji ka Khalsa Waheguru ji ki Fateh, the Gursikh left. Granthee jee started weeping becaause he knew that GurSikh was none other than Sahib Guru Gobind Singh jee himself who heard his Ardaas and came to help him.

Source: http://www.sikhsangat.com/index.php?showtopic=39211&st=0