It's difficult to describe the overwhelming sense of pride I experienced when I attended a rainy day Nagar Kirtan parade in Yuba City on November 7, 2010. Wet weather, rather than dampening enthusiasm, seemed to foster exhilaration. Every imaginable sort of makeshift rain gear could be seen. As we approached the gurdwara on foot beneath our umbrellas, we saw devotees wearing shopping bags or black plastic bags over their turbans. Passing by the floats as they came rolling out on to the streets lined with protective plastic canopies.
I became choked up witnessing the heart and spirit on display and tears like heavy rainclouds loomed behind my eyelids threatening to spill over.
No big deal, I told myself in an effort to keep my emotions at bay, Plenty of people attend football, baseball and other big parades in rainy weather. But then, I reflected, they may go out in the rain, but when they arrive they have to buy food from vendors, because there is no langar.
Every few feet along the roadside of the nagar kirtan parade route tents had been set up for cooking and serving free langar. When we reached the gurdwara parking lot we wandered through a maze of row after row of langar tents. I tried to imagine what it might be like to sample everything along the way, but it defied possibility. I felt sure if anyone lived through the experience they would have to be carried away on one of the many passing floats filled with devotees.
I'm reminded of something Guru Nanak wrote:
"Sarvar meh hans hans meh sagar
The water is in the swan and the swan." SGGS 685
This is interpreted to mean ," The Guru is in the Sikh and the Sikh is in the Guru."
I think it would be safe to say that in many instances the Guru's langar is in the Sikh and the Sikh is in the Guru's langar. I would loved to have been able to share a photograph as an example, but alas my camera battery died just as we came across one family with whom we are close who had set up a tent and been making and serving pakoras to passersby. The father of the family came out to say "Fateh." Pakora batter plastered his forearms where he had been 'in the langar' mixing batter literally up to his elbows. His children took trays of freshly fried pakora and handed them out to passers by in the street, who after consuming the tasty morsels then had the Guru's langar in them.
The enormity, of witnessing families coming together, to provide hundreds of thousands of free meals, left me feeling quite humbled.
ਸਰਵਰ ਮਹਿ ਹੰਸੁ ਹੰਸ ਮਹਿ ਸਾਗਰੁ ॥
The water is in the swan and the swan.” OR
The swans are in the pool, and the pool is in the swans.
Unfortunately this is a wrong interpretation for the verse above. Not only that, you have misunderstood it and used the analogy in a demeaning way.
ਸਰਵਰ = Pool = small gathering of sangat
ਹੰਸੁ = rationalist, rational, intelligent; wiseman, sage, philosopher.
ਸਰਵਰ ਮਹਿ ਹੰਸੁ = refers to the presence of a rationalist, rational, intelligent; wiseman, sage, philosopher in a small gathering. A Gurmukh among ordinary people.
ਸਾਗਰੁ = Ocean = abundance of knowledge, presence of Almighty
ਹੰਸ ਮਹਿ ਸਾਗਰੁ = within this Gurmukh (swan) lies an abundance of knowledge of Waheguru
The verse describes the unknown/unseen quality of a Gurmukh who may look ordinary to one but carries within him a wealth of knowledge, the presence of Waheguru.
Now look at your analogy and see if you have done justice to the verse.
” The Guru is in the Sikh and the Sikh is in the Guru.” ?
Waheguru ji ka Khalsa
Waheguru ji ki Fateh
I believe I have indeed captured the essence of
Sarvar hans hans Sagar
for all of what you have outlined so eloquently is imbibed in langar which is much more than a morsel of food but the principles of Sikhi (naam japo, kirat karho, vand chako) which are partaken with guru ka langar.
There is no separation between Waheguru , Guru and Sikh and no separation of Sikh and Guru ka langar. Where else can you find an example of this willingness to feed the masses nourishment for both body and soul on earth but in Sikh sangat?