Lesson video

Hello and welcome.

My name's Mr. Hutchinson and this is religious education.

We're learning all about Sikhism.

We've already learnt about how the religion began, the first 10 Gurus.

We've learnt about the Guru Granth Sahib.

So much already! You're doing an amazing job and you already understand this religion really well but one thing we haven't discussed is where and how Sikhs worship, their place of worship.

So, that's what we're going to be exploring today.

I can't wait to get started.

First of all, we will look at the place of worship.

It's called a gurdwara.

My turn, your turn.

Gurdwara.

Say it out loud.

I know it might be a little bit weird but say it out loud.

You'll remember it better, you'll get used to saying it, and it'll make it easier to write it.

Gurdwara.

Great work, well done.

We're going to learn about the features of a gurdwara.

We will learn about how, very often, food is made together in the gurdwara.

We'll learn about how charitable giving is an important aspect of worship for Sikhs.

And we'll finish with our end-of-lesson quiz.

First of all, though, a recap.

We learnt in our last lesson where we were learning about Sikh beliefs about God that one thing that Sikhs do this kind of like a prayer or a practise of repeating the name of God, the qualities of God, the different names.

Can you remember what that was? Can you write it down? Let's see if you were right.

So, you should have written naam japna.

If you wrote naam japna, then well done.

Amazing work.

Give yourself a tick.

If not, you've got time to correct it now.

We also discussed some of the qualities of God within Sikhism, often from the Guru Granth Sahib, the religious scripture.

Can you remember what omnipotent means or omnipotent? Omnipotent.

What does that mean? One of the features of God that many Sikhs believe.

Well done if you said all-powerful.

So, omni means all and potent means powerful.

So, omnipotent.

God is all-powerful.

There's nothing that they can't do.

So, let's now look at the place of worship within Sikhism, the gurdwara, and some of the features that we'll find if we went into a gurdwara.

Now, gurdwaras come in all shapes and sizes.

You can find them in all sorts of towns and cities, especially around India.

But around the world, you'll find gurdwaras.

And one of the features of a gurdwara that we've talked about before is that there's four entrances to indicate that everybody is welcome.

It's a religion of equality.

It doesn't matter what somebody's status or caste is.

It doesn't matter what job they do, whether they sweep the streets or whether they're doctors or lawyers.

Everybody is welcome and equal within the gurdwara.

It doesn't even matter what religion you practise; you'll still be welcome within the gurdwara.

It doesn't matter your gender, how much money you have; all four entrances are always open.

So, could you write a quick paragraph or a few sentences explaining why there are four entrances to the gurdwara? You might like to talk about occupation, religion, gender, status as you write that paragraph.

So, try and use those keywords if you can.

Pause the video and give that a go.

Awesome.

Let's see what you wrote.

I wrote down this: "There are four entrances to the gurdwara to show that everyone is welcome regardless of their occupation, religion, gender, or status." Give yourself a tick if you included each of the keywords.

Make sure that you wrote in nice, full sentences with the correct grammar and that your spelling is correct, especially of gurdwara.

Sometimes it's written slightly differently, maybe with guru at the start with a U.

As long as you're consistent, that's okay.

I'm spelling it as gurdwara like this.

So, let's take a little bit of a closer look inside the gurdwara.

You might see something that looks like this and you see amazing decorations, beautiful decorations, and a nice big chandelier here.

And this is called the Divan Hall which is the main prayer hall.

That's where people will collect together, sit down, and pray and worship together, maybe looking at the Guru Granth Sahib or listening to the Guru Granth Sahib or maybe the Guru within the prayer hall.

And in the day, the Guru Granth Sahib will be there because that is the living eternal Guru within Sikhism.

At night, gurdwara is put to bed and it is put to bed in a room.

We talked about that in the last lesson, how it's taken up carefully at nighttime and put to bed.

It has it's own room- 'cause it's treated like a person- to rest, and that room is called the Sach Khand.

That's the room that the Guru Granth Sahib is kept at night.

So, within the gurdwara, you usually find a Sach Khand, a room for the Guru Granth Sahib, as well.

We know that langar, or open kitchen or free kitchen, is a really important part of Sikhism.

And you can see here these people all working to make some delicious treats for people to eat.

So, within the gurdwara, there would be a free kitchen.

The food is available to everyone that wants to eat there and it's free.

It's vegetarian meals, very often some rice, some bread, a kind of vegetable curry.

And it's made by volunteers.

Everybody will chip in; everybody will work together to make that meal so that everybody can have a nice meal.

So, what's a langar? Is it the main hall where the praying happens? Is it the entrance or one of the four entrances? Is it the free kitchen where meals are served by volunteers? Or is it the room where the Guru Granth Sahib is kept at night? Choose the correct answer now.

Point to it.

Let's see if you're right.

It is the free kitchen where meals are served by volunteers and langar is an important part of the Sikh faith.

So, well done if you got that right.

Awesome work! You're doing really well! See now if you can put all of that together and write a paragraph discussing some of the main features of a gurdwara- that there are four entrances, that there's the Divan Hall where the prayer happens and the Guru Granth Sahib will be in the day, the Sach Khand where the Guru Granth Sahib is put to bed later on, and langar, that important food kitchen area where people can make a meal together to serve to anybody that would like it.

So, pause the video and write out a description of the gurdwara now.

So, here's my answer and let's see how you did, if you got something similar.

I wrote, "Gurdwaras come in all shapes and sizes and can be found in towns and cities around the world.

All gurdwaras feature four entrances to show that anyone is welcome.

Once inside, you will find the Divan Hall which is where prayer takes place.

The Guru Granth Sahib is found in the Divan Hall during the day but at night is 'put to rest' in the Sach Khand.

Food is an important part of Sikhism and gurdwaras will have a free, open kitchen known as the langar where everyone will help to prepare food together and eat as a community." Similar to yours? Different to yours? Maybe you got some ideas that I didn't.

Maybe there's some in mine that you missed out.

Why don't you have a quick look again? Pause the video and see if you can give yourself a tick for anything that you included and add in anything that you missed.

So, pause the video and improve your answer now.

Great work! Well done.

You've got a brilliant answer all about gurdwaras.

Now, we mentioned that making food together is a really important part of Sikhism, the food is an important part.

And that will happen within the langar and the idea that people come together to make that food is sometimes known as sewa.

So, sewa is a name that's given for that selfless service.

So, you do sewa.

You volunteer to help your community, to do your bit to do something for other people within your community and it's very important within Sikhism- the idea that everybody's equal and everybody pitches in.

And the name for that is sewa.

So, see if you can drop that down now 'cause it's an important term.

So, pause the video and write in your own words what sewa means within Sikhism.

Great work.

Let's see if your answer is similar to mine.

I just put, "Sewa means selfless service to the community." And you might have gone on to give some examples like, for example, helping with the food in the langar.

Another important part of Sikhism, sometimes known as one of the golden rules, is sometimes people say that it has three golden rules.

Constantly observing, thinking about, acknowledging, worshipping God.

Giving to charity and helping those that are less fortunate.

And understanding that everybody is equal.

And so, this idea of giving to charity to make sure that everybody is looked after is very, very important within Sikhism.

So, one of the ways- You might be thinking, "Hold on a second.

There are all these free meals with langar.

Well, how is that paid for?" Well, within Sikhism, there's something called a golak and the golak is like a collection box where people can put money.

So, if you have a bit of extra money, then you can donate it to the golak and then that'll be used for the langar.

It'll be used to support the gurdwara, to buy the food, and that means that everybody can have some food to eat.

So, by all pitching in together, everybody is able to eat.

So, what's the name of the collection box in the gurdwara called? Another new term.

Can you remember? Was it sewa, golak, or langar? What's the name of the actual box that collects the money? Choose now.

And well done if you said golak.

Awesome work.

So, the golak is how the whole community pays for the whole community.

And that's a way where people, maybe if they have a bit more money, then they can contribute a little bit more and so the wealth is sort of shared out to make everything a bit more equal.

That's the end of our lesson today and you've worked extremely hard and I'm really proud of you.

Hopefully, you know a little bit more about the place of worship within Sikhism, about where and how Sikhs worship, and some of the main features of a gurdwara so you know even more about the Sikh religion.

You've worked really hard and I'm really proud of you.

Awesome work.

I'll see you in our next lesson where we'll learn even more about Sikhism.

I can't wait.