Sport, culture and service in London, Ontario
Culture and heritage
ਧੰਨ ਧੰਨ ਰਾਮਦਾਸ ਗੁਰੁ · Prakash Gurpurab · Tuesday 27 October 2026
This week Sikhs around the world celebrate the birth of Guru Ram Das Ji, the fourth Sikh Guru: the orphan boy from Lahore who served in the langar, founded the city of Amritsar, and gave Sikhs the hymns sung at every wedding.
Guru Ram Das Ji was born in 1534 in Chuna Mandi, Lahore, and was named Jetha. His parents, Hari Das and Mata Anup Devi, also remembered as Mata Daya Kaur, died when he was about seven, and he was raised by his grandmother in the village of Basarke. As a boy he earned his keep selling boiled chickpeas in the market.
In Basarke he met Guru Amar Das Ji, the third Guru, and followed him to Goindwal. There he served wherever he was needed: in the langar, and carrying earth for the baoli, the stepped well the Guru was building for the town. In 1553 he married Bibi Bhani, Guru Amar Das Ji’s daughter.
In 1574 Guru Amar Das Ji passed the Guruship to him, and Bhai Jetha became Guru Ram Das, the fourth Guru of the Sikhs. His youngest son, Guru Arjan Dev Ji, would become the fifth.
Guru Ram Das Ji founded a new town around a pool on land Guru Amar Das Ji had set aside, and began the work of digging it out as a sarovar. He invited traders and craftspeople of every background to settle there. The town, first called Ramdaspur or Guru ka Chak, grew into Amritsar, named after the pool of nectar at its heart.
Guru Arjan Dev Ji later built Sri Harmandir Sahib in the middle of that sarovar. The langar there still carries the fourth Guru’s name, Guru Ram Das Langar, and serves free meals to tens of thousands of people of every faith, every day.
Guru Ram Das Ji’s 638 hymns in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji are set in 30 ragas. Among them are the four Laavan, sung at every Sikh wedding. As each verse is sung, the couple walk around Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji together, so every Anand Karaj in London and around the world carries his words.
His hymns return again and again to humility, and to beginning each day with the Name. One of his best-known lines describes the life of a Sikh:
The Sikh institutions in Amritsar date the Gurpurab by the traditional calendar, so it moves from year to year. In 2026 it is marked on Tuesday 27 October, and Amritsar is lit up for three days, from 25 to 27 October, with a nagar kirtan through the city on the 26th.
Some sangats follow the solar Nanakshahi calendar of 2003, which places the day on 9 October. That is when it was marked this year at his birthplace in Chuna Mandi, Lahore, by Sikh pilgrims from Pakistan, Canada and around the world.
London’s Gurdwaras hold their own programmes. Check with your local Gurdwara for timings.
A simple “Happy Gurpurab” is always welcome. In Panjabi: ਗੁਰਪੁਰਬ ਦੀਆਂ ਲੱਖ ਲੱਖ ਵਧਾਈਆਂ (Gurpurab diyan lakh lakh vadhaiyan), “many, many congratulations on the Gurpurab”. Everyone is welcome at a Gurdwara and at the langar, whatever their faith.
Guru Ram Das Ji’s life began with service long before it was a life of leadership. He served the langar, carried earth, and welcomed people of every trade and background to the city he founded. The Panjabi Sports and Social Club tries to work in that spirit: an hour picking litter in Meadowgate Park, a morning at the blood camp, or a shift setting up an event is sewa too, offered to neighbours we may never meet.
Give an hour to the club’s next clean-up, blood drive or community event.
Volunteer with usThis page is a short introduction written by the Panjabi Sports and Social Club, London, Ontario, for our community and neighbours. Accounts of the Guru’s life differ in some details and dates; readers who want to go further should ask at their Gurdwara or consult published Sikh histories. The date of the Gurpurab follows the calendar of the Sikh institutions in Amritsar and is confirmed each year.
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