Mayor of of Riverside, Mayor of Rancho Cucamonga at 300 Saal Gur Gaddi Nagar Kirtan in Riverside, CA on Nov. 29, 2008

Los Angeles, Nov 30, 2008
Gary Singh/ Jaswinder Dhillon

The management committee of Gurdwara, Riverside, California hosts Akhand-Paath and Kirtan Programmes to mark the celebrations of 300 years of Guru Granth Sahib Ji as Sikh Guru.

More than 2000 Sikh NRIs from Riverside County and Los Angles area get together in Sikh Gurdwara Riverside (approximately 60 miles from LA airport) to celebrate this event. Another land mark of this year’s Nagar Kirtan was that two mayors attended 300 Saal Gur Gaddi Nagar Kirtan.

The Honourable, Ron Loveridge, Mayor of Riverside was invited and he gave best wishes on behalf of the American people community to celebrate the 300 year milestone in the history of Sikh faith.

The Honourable, Dr. Donald Kurth, MD, Mayor of Rancho Cucamonga, California along with Karmjit Grewal, well known entrepreneur and philanthropist also took part in the the procession of Nagar Kirtan . (Also see new press release when the management committee of Gurdwara, Riverside, California invited Dr. Donald Kurth, MD, Mayor of Rancho Cucamonga, California along with Karmjit Grewal, well known entrepreneur to discuss the awareness of sikh mistaken identity issues)

The procession started at 1:30 pm, ends 4.30pm, it moved through the streets and lanes of the city (2.5 long) and are accompanied by music, singing and chanting scriptures and hymns. Large number of devotees including women, school children, band parties and members of various Sikh religious organizations participated.

In Nagar Kirtan, many are not wearing any shoes regardless of weather conditions, clean the roads before the Panj Piyaras and our Sacred Guru Granth Sahib Ji is transported and Sadh Sangat are also singing the praises of Waheguru throughout the route. When participating in the Nagar Kirtan, one can truly reach a state of Nirvana when indulging in the singing of Kirtan while following the Sacred Guru Granth Sahib Ji. This is what the Nagar Kirtan is all about.

‘Nagar’ means town and ‘Kirtan’ is a term that means singing of hymns from the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book. The term, ‘Nagar Kirtan’ therefore effectively describes the most essential feature of Baisakhi Procession, which is recitation of hymns from Guru Granth Sahib through the streets of the town. The Nagar Kirtans is the term most popularly used for traditional Processions lead by Panj Pyaras.

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Mr. Sandhu, Ron Loveridge, Mayor of Riverside and Paranjit Singh Bogarh, (Chairman)