Langar and Lessons

Sikh history and values, told around the kitchen

Harpreet Singh Gill2 episodes2 min of audio168 playsEpisodic

Episodes

One episode is free to sample for 60 seconds. Sign up free or log in to play every episode in full.

S1 · E2Mar 1, 20260:51103 plays Preview

1699: the five who stood up

Harpreet recounts the Vaisakhi of 1699, when Guru Gobind Singh asked for a head and five men stepped forward, and explains what the Khalsa, the five Ks and the name Singh were meant to change.

S1 · E1Jan 12, 20260:5765 plays Members

Why everyone sits on the floor: Guru Nanak and the first langar

Harpreet tells the story of Guru Nanak buying food for hungry strangers with money meant for business, and explains how that moment became the free kitchen that now feeds millions every day.

About the show

Langar and Lessons is a weekly show about Sikh history and the values behind it, recorded in a gurdwara kitchen in Surrey, British Columbia, where Harpreet Singh Gill has volunteered on Sunday mornings for twenty years. Harpreet taught high school history before becoming a school principal, and he tells the Sikh story the way he taught it: with dates, with sources, with the uncomfortable parts left in. Each 35-minute episode takes one chapter or one principle, Guru Nanak's journeys, the founding of the Khalsa, why the langar hall seats everyone on the floor, what sewa means when nobody is watching, the 1984 that his parents still do not talk about, and pairs the history with a guest from the kitchen: a truck driver, a nursing student, an elderly woman who has made dal for 10,000 strangers. The show is made for Sikhs who want their own story told well and for anyone who has wondered what the turban means.

Listen on

RSS feed

Any podcast app can follow this show with its RSS feed, even before it appears in a directory.

Hosted by