Ardaas Shakti – Unlimited Langar Via Gurmat Bibek
Below, is a true account of the power of Ardas:
In 1941 my Grandfather was stationed in Afghanistan with the British Army. In his Rasala, was a group of 21 Faujis, and one day they decided to approach their Subedar to request celebrating a Gurpurab. The Subedar who was a strict rehitvaan Singh gave the permission for the small group to gather all necessary supplies.
Later on that evening various English and Dogra officers from other rasaley who often frequented post gathered at a meeting. Somehow that evening, word got out that my Grandfathers rasala were celebrating Gurpurab and all regiments in the local area were quickly notified.
As soon as the Subedar heard, he was not impressed as the food ordered was only enough for a small group of men. Nevertheless the following morning at 4am (day of the Gurpurab) he gave orders to all the men to bathe from head to toe and to prepare the langar with simran on their lips.
They had also arranged for a halwai to make poorian, kheer and parshad.
In the tent where the langar was to be served the Subedar posted a guard and gave him strict orders not to let anyone other than the people serving in. He also instructed for all the tubs in which the dhaal, sabji, poorian etc were placed to be covered with chadraan and not to be uncovered at any time. Hence, the people serving were not to look into the tubs even when serving.
Once all the langar was ready, the Subedar performed Ardas.
On the day of the Gurpurab approximately 2000 soldiers from various regiments turned up at 0900. Langar was served in accordance with the strict instruction of the Subedar and until 1300 hours.
All the men were served 4 poorian each along with dhaal, sabji, kheer an so forth. No one came back for seconds.
With Guru Ji’s mahaan kirpa, all the men ate to the full and the remaining langar had to be buried.