Singh Sabha Mum­bai cel­e­brated World Red Cross Day and Red Cres­cent Day by hail­ing the hu­man­i­tar­ian work of thou­sands of good Samar­i­tans who are pro­vid­ing food, gro­ceries, med­ical care, san­i­ta­tion fa­cil­i­ties and suc­cour to the hun­dreds upon thou­sands ail­ing from the storm of the COVID-19 pan­demic and ded­i­cat­ing it­self to con­tinue the self­less ser­vice of hu­man­ity.

EVERY EPI­DEMIC, DIS­AS­TER, WAR AND BAT­TLE IN HIS­TORY has put forth he­roes and good Samar­i­tans, who de­spite the dan­gers of the in­fec­tion-rid­den at­mos­phere, have re­sponded to the call of hu­mans in dis­tress. It is their fear­less ap­proach which has ap­plied the much-re­quired balm to the suf­fer­ing hu­man­ity.

The heal­ing touch, the nurs­ing of those in­flicted of plague by the Eighth Mas­ter Guru Har Kr­is­han Sahib, in Delhi, the nurs­ing of the in­jured in war by Bhai Ghanaiya Ji, the hu­man­i­tar­ian and med­ical treat­ment of Bha­gat Pu­ran Singh are ex­am­ples from Sikh his­tory which make every Sikh proud of their un­matched con­tri­bu­tion.

Not only do Sikhs take pride in their Sar­bat da Bhala-ori­ented self­less ser­vice -Sewa, they go all out to do as much as they can. Re­spond­ing to the call for cooked food and ra­tions in the pre­sent dif­fi­cult times in Mum­bai, the apex body of the Sikhs in Mum­bai -Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Dadar Mum­bai, with the un­tir­ing ef­forts of Se­wadars -self­less vol­un­teers, pre­pared and served many tonnes of cooked food, packed and de­liv­ered to the needy, mi­grant and other dis­tressed peo­ples and com­mu­ni­ties.

On World Red Cross Day and Red Cres­cent Day, let us also re­mem­ber the work of its founder Henry Dunant, who was born on 8 May 1828 and who founded the In­ter­na­tional Com­mit­tee of the Red Cross and was the re­cip­i­ent of the first No­bel Peace Prize.

Singh Sabha Mum­bai em­braces the good work of all hu­man­i­tar­ian agen­cies, ac­tivists and vol­un­teers across the world, who con­tinue to show to the world that hope in God and hu­man­ity is not lost and we will come out of this once-in-a-life­time cri­sis that we are in.

To­day is also the time to proudly ac­knowl­edge and com­mend the work of all Sikh in­di­vid­u­als and or­gan­i­sa­tions world­wide who have risen to the call of duty -mak­ing and dis­trib­ut­ing food in hos­pi­tals, homes of the el­derly, lock­down and quar­an­tine shel­ters, on the streets to truck­ers and pedes­tri­ans, on rail­way plat­forms and bus stops, to the po­lice and med­ical staff.  His­tory will record this and the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity will take note of it.

The words of grat­i­tude and ad­mi­ra­tion of the Sikh com­mu­nity by Prince Charles in the UK, say­ing, “In these chal­leng­ing times, the Sikh com­mu­nity is mak­ing an ex­tra­or­di­nary and in­valu­able con­tri­bu­tion to the life of this coun­try and to so many oth­ers just as it has al­ways done,” are a trib­ute to the ex­em­plary work Sikhs have done and are do­ing not in Eng­land but across the world.

“In these chal­leng­ing times, the Sikh com­mu­nity is mak­ing an ex­tra­or­di­nary and in­valu­able con­tri­bu­tion to the life of this coun­try and to so many oth­ers just as it has al­ways done.”

Prince Charles

If renowned writer Ira Pande says that “she wants to be born as a Sikh in her next birth” and she ex­horts the fol­low­ers of other re­li­gions to adopt the tra­di­tion of Lan­gar, it is glow­ing re­spect to the con­cept of Guru ka Lan­gar and the Sikhs who con­tinue to serve hu­man­ity, ir­re­spec­tive of caste, creed, colour and re­gion, notwith­stand­ing the dif­fi­cult cir­cum­stances. Her ap­peal to the pa­trons and pa­tri­archs of other re­li­gions must not be ig­nored.  Re­li­gious or­gan­i­sa­tions world­wide have done sub­stan­tially, but much more needs to be done.

Think­ing ahead, let’s con­tinue re­mem­ber­ing,
ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਕੀ ਸੇਵਾ ਸਫਲ ਹੈ ਜੇ ਕੋ ਕਰੇ ਚਿਤੁ ਲਾਇ ॥
Fruit­ful is ser­vice to the True Guru if one does so with a sin­cere mind.