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Doors Open
Monday, May 4th, 2009 by GetawayBC.com
doors open
It’s barely visible to motorists on Highway 91, but for anyone on Westminster Highway in East Richmond, it’s a religious beacon.
White bulbous domes stretch to the sky and five ornate gateways lead to two simple doors. Behind them is a source of inspiration for Richmond’s Sikh community.
The Nanaksar Gurdwara Gursikh Temple at 18691 Westminster Hwy. opened its doors to worshippers and the curious alike in the city’s first Doors Open event last year.
From places of worship to artist studios to museums to national historic sites, 31 venues participated, opening their doors to all visitors for free-no strings attached.
Doors to the Sikh temple have been open 24 hours a day since it opened in the early 1980s. During Doors Open, temple volunteers like Gursharan Brar help people-who don’t normally pass through the temple’s doors-to learn the truths of Sikhism.
Sikhism was founded over 500 years ago by Guru Nanak, and is based on his teachings and those of the nine Sikh gurus who followed him.
Most Sikhs come from the Punjab province of India, and the religion is ranked the fifth largest in the world. Sikhism preaches a message of devotion and remembrance of God at all times, honest living, quality of mankind, being generous to the less fortunate and serving others.
Inside the Westminster Highway temple, the scripture of Sikhism, the Guru Granth Sahib, is continuously read in the inner shrine-every hour of every day. Volunteers take two-hour shifts, some keep regular reading schedules, others volunteer to read the Punjabi script as needed.
Its 1,430 pages-unchanged poetic writings of the 10 gurus-take 48 hours to read inside the inner shrine, whose walls are adorned with scripture and a symbol meaning “One God.”
So important to worshippers is the continuous reading, another volunteer stands by the reader to call for help in the event of a health emergency and reading stops.
“To have this continuity is a very important part of the religion. We believe there is a lot of power in prayer, and to do that you need a community. You can’t do it yourself,” said Brar, a Vancouver pharmacist who immigrated here from Kenya over 20 years ago.
Brar regularly leads tours of the temple for high school students, teaching them about the religion’s history, its customs and rituals.
“I think they leave with a really, really good understanding. We’ve had people come up and say, ‘I’ve got a friend who’s a Sikh, and now I know why they wear a turban,’” she said.
“I really make an effort to make them understand that drug use and terrorism are bad, they’re forbidden in the Sikh scriptures. If we fall prey to them, then we’re not living as true Sikhs.”
She also seeks to dispel myths that surround a once public debate that turned violent in Surrey around the use of tables and chairs in a temple’s dining hall.
The Richmond temple has a dining hall, and most people use tables and chairs. But if worshippers would rather sit on the floor, no one takes issue with it, said Brar, who describes the temple as “moderate” and stays out of politics.
Food is a huge part of Sikhism. Free vegetarian meals are served all day. Elderly women volunteer in the mornings to cook huge pots of lentil soup, large batches of curried vegetables, rice and chapati. Fruit is prepared for dessert.
A few hundred people are fed each day. On busy days, like Sundays, thousands of people come to worship and to eat meals, cooked in pots so large they take three men to lift.
Eating together, Brar says, is not only social, it’s healing-and so is understanding.;