Inspire Your Community & Support SikhNet

At this very special and sacred time of year, Sikhs all over the world are about to celebrate Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s 541st Gurpurab together with great love and affection. I’m sure that you are celebrating too. It’s a great time for parents and children to listen together to the inspiring Stories of Guru Nanak that we have produced and made available online at SikhNet

In thinking and writing about Guru Ji and his life lately, I’ve been thinking of his constant consciousness of seva, and how he brought people together, despite their apparent differences, wherever he tirelessly travelled. Many SikhNet visitors have been inspired to write to us asking how they can do some seva for SikhNet. Well, we have come up with a great new way for you to help spread the Guru's message through SikhNet, and you can get started online on Crowdrise.com.

Have you ever made a donation to, or sponsored, someone who is going on a Run or a charity Bike Ride? It’s similar to that. When you come to Crowdrise, you can join any of four SikhNet projects, or even come up with an idea for your own project.  When you "Join the Team" of any of the SikhNet projects you can organize your friends to get involved, and set a goal for how much money YOU would like to raise for SikhNet with your project in your local community. Then you can invite your friends and family to JOIN THE TEAM  and/or DONATE to support SikhNet through your project.  Use Guru Nanak Dev Ji's Gurpurb as a motivating drive to start one of these projects & complete it in the coming weeks.

All the funds that you raise for SikhNet will go to create more youth related services on SikhNet in 2011, and to carry on sharing the Gurus teachings.

  The three SikhNet projects online now are:

1. Holding a Sikh Youth Akandh Path with your friends and community members. This will be a great inspiration for youth getting together to organize a continuous reading of the Siri Guru Grant Sahib from start to finish. We often see our Sikh elders doign this. Why not get the youth together of all ages and have them do it! This will be a great learning experience.
2. A project we’re calling "Tera Jap" (in honor of Guru Nanak Dev Ji) You invite your friends and family come together for 13 days (tera) of chanting Japji Sahib or the Mulmantra together for 20-30 minutes each day. Perhaps you can line up 13 friends or families and do it at a different person’s home each evening.
3. A special community Langar. Organize and serve langar to your Sangat or to people in your community who are in need. You could make a special dish to serve at your Gurdwara or you and your friends and family can participate in an existing program in your community that serves people in need.