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Baba Ji kirtan in Canada

       Tours across the world

World Tour.
During the 80's Baba Ji went on numerous tours overseas which took in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Italy, France Canada and the USA. Even today Baba Ji takes regular trips to Malaysia, Canada although this has been curtailed a little due to the pandemic. On each trip Baba Ji is doing kirtan, parchar and spreading the sacred word of Guru Nanak Dev Ji.


 

In the early 80's arrived for the first trip from Jaludhar to Dehli airport taking an Air India flight to Canada. Accompanying Baba Ji was Sant Dhaya Singh Mittey Twanaywale and landed in Montreal where they met Gurbachan Singh Banvait. Stayed in Toronto for a month and performed kirtan at the Pape Gurdwara and all the Gurdwarey in and around Montreal. Also visited gurdwarey in Kitchner, Dundas, Hamilton, Niagara Falls Windsor, Brentford and London, at this time Sant Damaliwale, Harjit Singh Nadulawale, tadi NathuMall Rangila, Balbir Singh and Paragat Singh from AKJ were also in Canada. Also met Bahi Mindhar Singh Chagger who was an amazing gursikh with much piyar for Baba Ji, they kept Baba Ji at their home for the duration of their stay in Montreal. In and around Montreal Baba Ji performed four Amrit Sanchars. At the time there were very few Gurdwaras on Canada and mostly the Sikh sangats would hire the local school for the Sunday divans and parkash of Guru Sahib Ji would take place well after 12 o'clock noon. Baba Ji encouraged the youth and young Sikhs to come close to the path of Sikhi and start keeping unshorn hair. One Jarnail Singh Dhillon did very nice sewa and kept Baba Ji in his house in Windsor. Also travelled via train to Edmonton and stayed at Dr Shako and Jasbir Kaurs house. Performed kirtan at the gurdwaras and performed Amrit Sanchar here. 

In Toronto Minder Singh, Bhogal and Satwant Singh Dhillon and his brother arranged for Baba Ji to go into the Purewal studio and cut an LP for shabad kirtan, it was distributed free by Minder Singh and the Jatha. 

Stayed in Edmonton where there were no kesdhari Sikhs all were clean shaved. Here Baba Ji met a young girl who was very ill and could not get out of bed. Baba Ji prepared a degh/parshad did paath for her, after ardas was performed the young girl got up and ended up preparing langar for Baba Ji and the jatha. With Baba Ji's encouragement a lot of Sikhs took amrit including Gurdev Singh, Bhogal, Bhooi and Virdi who owned a radio station.

Also travelled to Montreal where they met Tarsam Singh and Darshan Singh and performed kirtan in various gurdwaras. Travelled from Edmonton to Calgary through Canrop, Price George, William Lake and Merritt town. Also Affesford and Raw Street Gurdwara in Vancovar where Baba Ji met Maskeen Ji and Tadi jatha.














Babj Ji asked them very politely to cover their heads but again they refused. Baba Ji came out the Gurdwara and most of the sangat follwed and they all went to the house of one of the sangat and held the divan there. Rajinder Singh Padhair who owned the local Western Samachar newspaper published this in the paper and was very close to Baba Ji taking them everywhere by car. The granthi at Raw Street gurdwara was also a very good soul.  All the Sikhs from Toronto, Kitchener, Edmonton, Prince George and William Lake gathered together in support and in the end Daljit Singh took the whole issue to the courts and got a ruling that this being a gurdwara you are not allowed to sit in the presence of Guru Granth Sahib Ji without covering your head and the judge ruled this and the bare heads had to comply. The bare heads were not pleased and were out looking for Baba Ji but Rajinder Singh had whisked them away and they travelled back to Toronto.

Met Mindhar Singh and met by the Sikhs who had travelled all the way from Detroit USA and wanted Baba Ji to come to the city. They needed to raise the nishan Sahib at the Gurdwara so Baba Ji agreed and they obtained a travel visa for the USA and travelled and did kirtan in Detroit. When time came for Baba Ji to return to India it got very emotional as the sangat gave much piyar to Baba Ji and even Baba Ji had a few tears in their eyes.     
    
From Jalandhar Baba Ji obtained a travel visa to the UK facilitated by Mohinder Singh who met Baba Ji at Heathrow airport and brought them to Souhall. Baba Ji did kirtan at the gurdwaras of Southall, Oswell Road Ramgharia, Urbonia Road, Slough Singh Sabha, Maidenhead, Shephards Bush and Putney Bridge. From here went on to Gurdwaras around the country, East Ham, Rosebury Avenue, Neville Raod, Woolwich, Gravesend, Rawchester Kent and then Back to India. A second tour was arranged and this time Baba Ji visited the gurdwars of Slough Singh Sabha, Haspat Road, Hitchens, Bedford, Coventry, Leamington, Warwick, Leicester, the gurdwaras og Birmingham including Guru Harkrishan Sahib Gurdwara, Nanaksar, Sedgley Street in Wolverhampton and on to Manchester gurdwaras, and up to Glasgow and stayed in Scotland for a time and then back to London and then to India. Then around 1985 received a sponsorship from Bhai Tarlochan Singh, Ravidas Gurdwara in Southall and Baba Ji came over on a permanent basis.  
    

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Malaysian Sangat

In those days at Raw Street Gurdwara the sangat would sit bare head in the presence of Guru Granth Sahib Ji and Baba Ji did not like this and refused to do kirtan until everyone covered their heads. There was great opposition to this, and this issue rumbled on for quite some time but Baba Ji with Guru Ji's blessing was determined that the bare heads would not succeed. In Nanaimo Gurdwara Baba Ji performed kirtan Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday but on the Friday the bare heads came into the gurdwara and again Baba Ji refused to do kirtan.

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Toronto Sangat                                                                                    Cincinnati Sangat

Came to the UK for a second time with the help of Gursharan Singhs son, accompanied on tabla by Jaipal Singh. Toured all over the UK and met the most loving and piyar sangat and in those days the gurdwara management committees were by and large very loving and supportive of the raggi that came over from India taking the kirtanias from one gurdwara to the other. Arrived at Southall gurdwara and met giani Pritam Singh from the taksal and the parvandhak or committee leaders were Balwinder Singh and Bhamra who were all very loving chardi kalla and gave lots of piyar to Baba Ji, stayed  about a month and then went to Hounslow with again a very supportive and loving committee led by Bhall. Then on to Reading, Maidenhead, Swindon, and then back to Hanslow where the granthi was giani Surjit Singh, performed Amrit sanchar . Then on to Rosebury Avenue where met Mohan Singh Siddhu and Jasbir Kaur where they would book programs and take Baba Ji to the gurdwaras, very nice loving couple.

Then toured the London gurdwaras, Slough, Ravidas temple, Puttney Bridge, Tooting, Ipswich, Shepherds Bush where met Ranjode Singh who was the gurdwara secretery at the time and stayed here for about 2 months. Then on to Wimbledon, Bhatra gurdwara, Manor Park, Leyton where stayed with very loving elderly couple and family. Then to Upton Park, Ramgarhia gurdwara at Neville Road where stayed for 4 weeks again management committee were very supportive, loving and helpful and chardi kalla. Then to Barking with such loving sangat, Seven Kings and on to Woolwich Ramgahria with a great loving committee, stayed here and performed kirtan for many weeks. Then to Erith, Dartford and Gravesend. Many sangats would invite Baba Ji to do kirtan in their homes. Then to Rawchester raisbhai where met very loving giani Gian Singh Surjit and Sital Singh Sitara who also had a sangat school for teaching children. Also met Arjan Singh and Sathi Surjan Singh who were a very helpful and accompanied Baba Ji on many kirtan programs. Then on to Brighton and Bristol where in those days the gurdwaras were not permanent buildings and sangats would hire out schools or even old churches on the weekend to do divans. On to Watford, Hitchen where met a Barrister who asked Baba Ji to his house many times and took them to all the programs in the area.  On to Bedford where met Harbhajan Singh Chagger, Bhogal family with Kartar Kaur where gave great piyar to Baba Ji.  On to Milton Keynes where met Ubhi from the committee and again very helpful and loving soul. 

Then on to the cold north and Nottingham, Warwick and Leanington Spa where stayed for 4 weeks. On to Coventry and Nanaksar Gurdwara, Singh Sabha, Ramgahria gurdwara all very nice helpful committees and full of chardi kalla. On to Wolverhampton Sedgley Street, Ramgarhia, West Bromwich then on to the gurdwaras of Birmingham, Soho Road, Smethwick, Baba Deep Singh, Nanaksar gurdwaras. On to Derby and to the gurdwaras of Manchester where met Nirmal Singh and Sukhwinder Singh from the management committee who were very loving and helpful.  On to Leeds and Chapeltown Road, Nishkam Sevek, and Ramgahria gurdwaras where met giani Amolak Singh and onto Leicester very committee was very chardi kalla. In those days the gurdwara committees were loving and chardi kalla and giving raggies and kirtanias £100 to £200 or more per week. However, as time went by the attitude of a lot of gurdwara committees changed and they would instruct Baba Ji what to say and what not to say on stage. Some would say you are only allowed to do kirtan and no katha. Some would say you are not allowed to talk about Amrit sanchar and if they did then they would shorten their stay at the gurdwara. Many would say no harsh katha, just nice feel good katha nothing controversial and no mention of taking amrit. Then on to the frozen wastes of the upper north gurdwaras of Glasgow  where some places sangat at the time were very sparse and then back to London and returned to India. 

On a side note, Baba Ji was very close to Sant Puran Singh Ji Karichowalle who had done great sewa for the Sikhs firstly in Africa and then in the UK and who had set up the Nishkam Sevek Jatha Gurdwara on Soho Road in Birmingham. When Sant Puran Singh Ji passed away, their atma came to Baba Ji in the night and did fateh before departing to Satch Khand and said we are now leaving this world. At the time Baba Ji was in London staying with a Gursikh sevak. In the morning they tavelled up to Birmingham where Sant Puran Singh Ji's body was laying in state. There was a huge queue of sangat who had all arrived to do darshan of Karichowalle Baba Ji. Sant Bhagwan Singh Ji did ardas and asked Guru Ji to help them get through the long queues that had built up, went up to sewathar who was manning a barrier at the entrance to the building only allowing very few people in, and walked straight past him with no hindrance at all, and did darshan of Karichowalle Baba Ji's body.   

The third tour of the UK started with Manmohan Singh organising Baba Ji's passage from India. Accompanying Baba Ji was Jaswant Singh and Saroop Singh. Manmohan Singh booked gurdwaras across the UK and Baba Ji and jatha did lots of kirtan , Anand Karajs and a numner of Amrit Snachars, they had a one year visa and stayed for around 10 months.

The fourth tour of the UK again started in London and local gurdwaras with the help fo Piara Singh, Virdi and Manhohan Singh. Manmohan Singh suggested making a LP record, this was duly done and was well loved by the sangats. It was about this time that Manmohan Singh who had much piya and affection for Baba Ji and had doen tireless sewa passed away. The Ravidas Temple sevadars including Tarlochan Singh and Atma Ram Tanda, Ramchand Virdi and Dharjodan all did loving sewa of Baba Ji asked them to do kirtan sewa at the temple. Baba Ji stayed here for few years before getting sewa mukhat and then did sewa at the Guru Nanak Fondation with help of Manmohan Singh Siddhu  Atama Ram Tanda and a few others. While doing sewa Babj Ji had applied for residency of the UK and this came successfully came through. Some of Babj Ji's family had also come over and settled in Southall, London where they set up the asthaan of Akaal Purkh Dusht Daman Shahidia. 

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