Guru Ka Langar, FOSS and Humility

I had published about my recent Delhi experiences in a post earlier. This is my second part in the same series.

India is a diverse place where one often gets to visit places of worship of a variety of religions. I have visited Temples, Churches, Mosques, Bahai Lotus Temple, Gumpas (Buddhist monasteries) and Gurdwaras many times. One has to live in India to experience this.

During my tour of the northern states last month, I had the opportunity to visit two Gurdwaras, the Bangla Sahib Gurdwara in New Delhi and the Harmandir Sahib (the picture I shot of, above) in Amritsar. I had visited the Manikaran Gurdwara, which is situated next to a Himalayan geyser in Himachal Pradesh, in 2005. The experiences in all these places of worship have been nothing short of, "surreal and inspiring".

I have discussed this topic with my students at various B-schools and many are amazed. A few years ago, my friend Prof. Amit Agrahari said, very profoundly, "Venkatesh ji, our business schools are too corporation-oriented. We tend to give the students an impression that corporate structure is everything and there are no alternatives in the society. However, there are many structures that are equally good or better. Look at Amul, an example of an excellent organization that is a cooperative!".

I realized that voluntary institutions are also viable social structures and last long, probably longer than corporations. In information technology world, the voluntary service acquires the structure of a Free and Open Source Movement. For beginners, FOSS means Free and Open Source Software. The most open software allows unlimited use by anyone, but also lets the users to modify the code, with the condition that such modifications be made again, open, i.e., free for unlimited use and freedom to improve further. Simply put, the most free form of Open Source makes it conditional for the users to share the benefits of improvements also, free of cost, just the way they benefited from the contributions of their predecessors. We always can see farther than our predecessors, because they let us stand on their shoulders! Who are these volunteers that contribute designs and software? They are hardworking humans too, with a goal of social contribution. Many contributors are well paid employees in their day jobs and have a hobby to contribute technology know-how to the society.

What is Guru Ka Langar and what is its connection with FOSS?

Guru Ka Langar literally means the kitchen of the teacher. The teacher is the one who shows the way. Since pre-Biblical times, many teachers also fed their students and followers. Gurdwaras are the places of worship of Sikhs, who are fondly addressed as 'Sardarjees'. Most often, many religious places of worship offer free food to the visitors. I have had food in many of those, with diverse experiences. In a few such places, visitors are segregated, based on various rules established by those places. Gurdwaras offer food too, in Guru Ka Langar. The strength of Gurdwaras lies in allowing anyone to visit and to have food there, no questions asked. The food there, always vegetarian, is common to all visitors, no special dishes for anyone and no segregation of any kind. In Manikaran Gurdwara, the volunteers insist that all the visitors have food in the Guru Ka Langar. In the Gurdwaras is anyone is allowed to perform "Seva" - the service. One can visit the Gurdwara and contribute in many ways - offer money, offer groceries, sweep the floors, paint the walls, chop the vegetables, cook, clean the plates, clean the cooking vessels, take care of the luggage of other visitors, watch the visitors' footwear and any role a volunteer will like to perform. In FOSS movements, contributors can take voluntary roles of their choice, like in Gurdwaras - contribute money, develop software (contributing groceries), perform quality assurance, building (cooking), cleaning (bug fixing), documentation (guiding the visitors), technical support (caring for luggage and footwear of the visitors), etc. In Manikaran Gurdwara, the food is cooked in the Himalayan geyser - food containers are suspended in the geyser and they get cooked quickly! I saw contributors bringing food in huge trucks to Manikaran Gurdwara! In Gurdwara Bangla Sahib, I noticed labeled containers for visitors to contribute groceries - wheat, rice, lentils, etc. This is similar to voluntary coders being guided to check in their code / documentation to specific branches of the Open Source software. People who do not contribute or cannot contribute too are welcome to use FOSS, just like any visitor is welcome to have food at the Gurudwaras without offering any voluntary service. Who are these volunteers in Gurdwaras - people from many religions and of various economic standing. I am told that most Guru Ka Langars serve food round the clock, without turning away anyone. This is similar to the voluntary Open Source community offering free technical support to the users. Gurdwaras are said to have been safe havens for people in times of wars, epidemics and natural calamities. There is a steering committee in a FOSS project, similar to the Gurdwara administration committees. Just like the FOSS puts a rule to share the improvements, Guru Ka Langars request visitors to consume only as much as they want and to not waste. This system works fantastically well. Harmandar Sahib is the world's largest open source kitchen. Free voluntary service is a great concept - if everyone follows, no doubt, there will be peace everywhere.?

And finally, the lasting lesson I learnt in humility. My wife, daughter and I had dinner in Gurdwara Bangla Sahib's Guru Ka Langar. The dinner was sumptuous - rotis, two types of vegetables and many others. After the dinner, I sheepishly put in money in the offering box, sheepish because I thought I should have done some voluntary service too. Then, we went to pick our shoes. At the shoe counters, there were exceedingly rich Sardars, returning the shoes to visitors, with folded hands and a smile. The lady (a Sardarni) who returned our shoes was bedecked with jewels, but did not bat an eyelid about lifting shoes of strangers. That is their great humility - their economic status never came in their way of voluntary contribution to the humankind. To top it, that lady volunteer even gave a candy to my little 9-year young daughter; my daughter was delighted. We took a three wheeler and returned to our hotel. The next morning, when I was about to wear my shoes, I noticed that they were shining brightly. The previous day (the day when I had dinner at Guru Ka Langar), we had taken the sightseeing ride on Delhi HOHO and my shoes were all dusty by evening. I wondered how this magic had happened. I realized that the volunteers at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib had polished my old shoes, better than how they were when manufactured! I was at a loss of words; the rich Sardar volunteers had polished my (a stranger's) shoes! I wish that I can reciprocate soon.

I had written a chapter about FOSS in my first book "Marketing of Information Technology" and a little about it in my second book "Create Profitable Products" (iBook here). I have also taught about FOSS movement at various schools of higher education for many years. Yet the goodness in my experiences at?Gurdwaras left me speechless - they were great! I somehow tried to explain all this to my little daughter. I was unsure whether she would understand all this. I am happy I was wrong. After my narration, she curiously asked me the most appropriate question, "Daddy, when can we offer our services there?". Hopefully soon!