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Summary of Question:	Poverty And Wealth
Category:	General Sikhism
Date Posted:	Wednesday, 11/29/2000 3:09 PM MST

i have a really hard RE coursework to do. the teachers tried to make me do christianity but i told them i wanted to do sikhism.

what i need to know is, what is the sikh view on wealth and poverty, is it really true that u need to give dasvandh to the gurdwara.
what sikhi groups are there that help the poor and needy??
i have one more question which i feel is really important and i need somebody to answer this, on the 300th and 301st Vaisakhi, i saw about 15 different "singhs" holding the nishan Sahib with a ciggarette in their mouth. what should i do??


thank you
harminder singh
[email protected]

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Greetings and blessings to you in the Name of God and Guru.

Excellant! Doing your coursework on Sikhism should be greatly informative to your classs and your school.

Giving your tenth is a practice of recognizing that every thing comes from God the Giver. One tenth of your income should be given back to God, the giver. This demonstrates your recognition that your income comes to you from God and therefore, your giving back one tenth to the Giver, demonstrates your faith and devotion this Giver. This giving is a seed. It is a seed of trust that actually has the effect of multiplying your income just as a seed sprouts and grows into more plants. It is a principle called tithing. Many religious groups do this and really prosper from the practice.

Another example of one tenth is... one tenth of your day(24 hours) is 2 1/2 hours. As Sikhs we have the practice of dedicating one tenth of our day, 2 1/2 hours (Amrit Vela) to devotion and meditation to set ourselves each day. As Guru Ram Das descibed it, rise before the coming of the dawn and bathe and meditae on God's Name ans inspire others to do this.

You do not have to give your tenth to the Gurdwara. You can put that money aside to do some charitable work. There are organisations that do help the poor and needy. One such Sikh organisation is "Amar Infinity" that you can give monthly too. You can also give to Sikhnet.

About the Nishan Sahib incident....that is really shocking to hear that you saw Sikh men smoking cigarettes and also doing it while handling the Nishan Sahib. Did you report this incident to the Gurdwara management or to the Granthi's?

God bless you and keep up!