Ashram News Ashram News - Hacienda de Guru Ram Das

Volume 17 Issue 12 December 2008
SatPaul Singh, Sikhdar Guru Amrit
Kaur, Bibiji and Shanti Kaur during the
300th Guru Gaddee Day Yatra. More
pictures on page 6
Punjabi Chhole—p 5
Pictures of 300th Guru Gaddee
Day Yatra—p 6
NOTE: The Ashram phone number
has changed to 505-753-6341
Table of Contents
Lecture by Siri Singh Sahib
Ji
Ashram Calendar 2
Missal Duties 2
Community News 2
Computer Corner 3
Ads & Tidbits 4
Food for Health 5
Sangat Birthdays 6
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Ashram News
Winter Solstice Sadhana
Lake Wales, Florida
December 19 - 25, 2008
White Tantric Yoga®—December 21
to 23
Advance yourself! Join us in the serene
setting of Central Florida for a rejuvenating
experience guaranteed to bring
the light back into your life during the
cold winter months.
As the year ends, join the warm and
welcoming international spiritual community
for a week of inspiration, rest,
and renewal. The camp, situated around
a quiet lake, is nestled in the tranquil
hills and lovely gardens of Lake Wales,
Florida. Celebrate autumn‘s passing,
connect with friends old and new, and
give yourself the chance to start the
new year with a greater sense of tranquility
and fulfillment.
For more information, go to:
http://www.3ho.org/events/yogaretreat.html
Paying Attention
Lecture by the Siri Singh Sahib
December 3, 2002
The very fact that a man is born is so he
can study and see deeply into the life
around him. From his first breath of life,
if he doesn‘t get into the habit of penetratingly
paying attention to everything,
to reach to the core of creativity, he loses
the chance to be certain, and doesn‘t understand
the message and doesn‘t understand
the Universe.
God created so many things. Ultimately,
everything is in balance. Nature is neither
a friend nor an enemy; it is simply
indifferent. When a human pays attention,
then he understands the meaning of
indifference, the life purpose of it, the
glory of it. And also he can see the darkness
and sadness of it. Such an involved
human being comes out of all circumstances
with absolute sensitivity and fairness
of purpose. He enjoys life and extends
that joy to his own self and to others,
and lives a very fulfilled life.
On the other hand, people who do not
pay attention are unfortunate; they want
to get attention. They forget the purpose
of life. When you want to get attention,
you have to play so many games, show
so many colors and shadows; you have to
lie and tell bigger lies to get people to
hear you.
In the long run, people who get attention
paid to them by unnatural means are very
dull and extremely cunning. They do not
have strength of character. They cannot
see that they can be liked and loved for
(Continued on page 4)
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Hacienda De Guru Ram DAS
Dec. 19-25
December 21
December 22
December 25
6th of the
month
Sundays
6:30 am
Wednesday,
6:00 pm
Every Thursday,
12:30 pm
Every Thursday,
4:00 pm
Fridays
4:30—5:32 pm
Gurdwara or
langar hall
Sunday‘s after
langar
December Ashram Events
Winter Solstice Sadhana
Lake Wales, Florida
Winter Solstice Day (first day of
Winter)
Hannukah
Christmas Day
Ongoing Events
Gurdwara commemorating the martyrdom
of the Akal Takhat.
This is traditionally a ―Wish-and-a-
Dish‖ langar .
Ishnaan Seva, washing the marble
floors in the Gurdwara. All are
welcome to participate in this uplifting
event.
Sat Nam Rasayan classes are held
Wednesday evenings from 6:00 to
7:30 pm at Terath Nivas, the home
of Guru Terath Singh and Jivan Joti
Kaur. Call 505-753-6241 for more
information
Langar served in the Langar Hall.
All welcome! To help, call Amrit
Kaur, 753-7705 for food preparation,
and Deva Singh at 927-0988
for general information.
Return of the Children‘s Program
every Thursday: This program is
held in the Langar Hall at 4:00pm
each Thursday. There are activitiesfor
the children followed by a simple
meal prepared by the parents.
Guru Simran Kaur from the Ranch
coordinates the program.
Prosperity Meditation to ―develop
the intuitive business mind and
bring prosperity home.‖
Free healing sessions are held in the
Gurdwara. Acupuncture treatments
by Guru Mitar Kaur and Sat Nam
Rasayan Free Clinic facilitated by
Jivan Joti Kaur.
Mayoral Proclamation for Yoga Day in Santa Fe
The Mayor of Santa Fe proclaimed 12/14/08 as Yoga
Day in Santa Fe -- and our community is noted in the
proclamation as providing music for the 108 Sun Salutations
on that day! If you can, please make it a priority to
attend -- to do some or all of the sun salutations and/or to
provide music!
The 108 Sun Salutations for World Peace is on Sunday,
December 14, 2008 from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at
the Genoveva Chavez Community Center. Please come
with a donation of some amount. The goal is to raise
$5000 for the Yoga In Schools program in Santa Fe.
Contact me at devsuroop@devsuroop.com or 505-927-
2519 for more information.
New Sushi restaurant in Espanola
There is a wonderful new sushi restaurant. It's not a
chain and is run by a local family. I spoke to the owner
and she is very sweet and said she designed their menu
with vegetarians in mind....Age Tofu, edamame, delicious
cucumber, avocado, asparagus rolls and more. It's
located in the Lowe's parking lot, in the new building,
right next to Eatza Pizza Buffet. It's called Jo-Ji's Sushi
and Teppan Grill, 747-4113....in case you want to call
ahead and get take out the next time you take a trip to
Walmart!
Blessings, Dr. Japa Kaur
December Missal Duties
Date Set-up Langar Clean-up Akhand
Path
12/1-12/7 1 2 3 4
12/8-
12/14
12/15-
12/21
12/22-
12/28
12/29/08-
1/4/09
Community News
2 3 4 1
3 4 1 2
4 1 2 3
1 2 3 4
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Hacienda De Guru Ram DAS
Computer Corner
Microsoft Word Tips
By Guruka Singh
Many of us open Microsoft Word in one of its many available
versions for our routine word processing needs. Few of us,
however, explore some of the subtleties that add to our experience
and can make a world of difference in our productivity
and the final output. I‘m going to explore just a few of
those tips. Some are unique to only one or two of Words'
versions and, if known, the version will be indicated.
SHRINK DOCUMENT BY ONE PAGE IN MICRO-
SOFT WORD. A document whose last page is mostly blank
is a waste of printer paper, especially if you have to make a
lot of copies. Your letters and mailings will also look more
professional if they fill the pages nicely. If Print Preview reveals
a skimpy last page, click the Shrink to Fit (Word 2003)
or Shrink One Page button (Word 2007). Word will tweak the
fonts in the document to make it a page smaller. Don't like
the results Just press Ctrl-Z to Undo.
MICROSOFT WORD CALCULATES IN TABLES.
Sure, you can embed an Excel worksheet in a Word document,
but if you just need a few simple calculations, you can
use Word's own math skills. Select a cell at the bottom of a
column and click Formula on the Table Tools Layout ribbon
(Word 2007), or select Formula from the Table menu (Word
2003). Word will suggest =SUM(ABOVE), but you can select
among over a dozen functions. Besides choosing
ABOVE, BELOW, LEFT, or RIGHT to work with all cells in
the specified direction, you can reference individual cells and
ranges as you do in Excel-for example, =AVERAGE(A1:C3).
MICROSOFT WORD MERGE TO EMAIL. If you need
to send a common message to a group of correspondents, you
may be unaware that the familiar mail-merge feature can also
send email messages. In Word 2007, complete your letter,
click Finish & Merge in the ribbon and choose Send Email
Messages from the menu. In Word 2003, select "Email messages"
at the very first step of the Mail Merge wizard. Either
way, you'll be prompted for a subject (the same for every
message) and for a data field that holds email addresses of the
recipients.
COMPARE TWO DOCUMENTS IN MICROSOFT
WORD. In Word 2003 open the old document, choose Compare
and Merge Documents from the Tools menu, and select
the new document. In Word 2007 choose Compare | Compare
from the Review ribbon and select both the old and the new
document.
INSPECTING DOCUMENTS IN MICROSOFT WORD
2007. Your Word 2007 documents contain considerable information
such as tracked changes, comments, hidden text,
private properties, and more. To learn what information is
carried by your document, click the Office button at the top
left, point to Prepare, and click Inspect Document in the resulting
menu. In Word 2003, some of this information may
also be found at the Security tab of the Options dialog. To
guard against disclosing information to other recipients of
your documents, check the boxes "Remove personal information
from file properties on save" and "Warn before printing,
saving, or sending a file that contains tracked changes or comments."
MICROSOFT WORD'S BUILT-IN TRANSLATOR. The
Research panel in both Word 2007 and Word 2003 includes an
option to translate the selected text or the entire document
between various languages. It's more useful when you're trying
to puzzle out what a foreign-language document means
than when you want to communicate your own thoughts with
those who don't speak English. To see why, translate a few
sentences from English to another language and then back to
English.
EQUATIONS IN MICROSOFT WORD. To insert an equation
into Word 2007, choose Equation | Insert New Equation
from the Insert ribbon and use the tools on the Equation Design
toolbar that appears. In Word 2003, select Insert | Object
from the menu, choose Microsoft Equation 3.0, and click OK,
then use the Equation toolbar that appears.
USE MATH AUTOCORRECT IN MICROSOFT WORD
2007. Click the Office button at the top left, click the Word
Options button, select Proofing, click AutoCorrect Options,
and check the box "Use Math AutoCorrect rules outside of
math regions." Now you can type \aleph to insert an aleph (),
\int for an integral sign () or even type \quadratic to insert the
entire quadratic equation (x=(-b±(b^2-4ac))/2a).
CHANGING CASE IN MICROSOFT WORD. Have you
ever needed to change a word or section in a Word document
from upper case to lower case (or vice versa) such as when
you accidentally hit the CAPS LOCK key by mistake Or
simply decide to call attention to a word or section by using all
upper case Well there is a much quicker way than clicking
through the formatting menu or retyping.
Simply select what you want or need to change by highlighting
it, then hold the SHIFT key down while tapping on the F3
key. Voilà! You will see that you can toggle back and forth
between upper and lower case. And that's the Word from here.
Have you ever seen a ―winmail.dat‖ file in an email
Winmail.dat is an email attachment you normally don‘t see. It
contains formatting information for RTF (rich-text format)
messages sent by Outlook. The system used for this is called
TNEF (Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format ) but despite
the word ‗neutral‘ it‘s a proprietary Microsoft format. Because
it‘s an ‗in-house‘ Microsoft format some non-MS email programs
(such as Lotus Notes) can‘t convert the incoming mes-
(Continued on page 7)
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Hacienda De Guru Ram DAS
(Continued from page 1)
their organic beauty, nor do they develop wisdom to replace
their organic existence so that they are naturally
liked.
If you develop the habit of paying attention, then you
reach the heart of everyone.
By paying attention,
you attract warmth, wisdom,
analytical reach, and
superior understanding of
another person and his
qualities, faculties, and
facets, which are the elements
of his character.
That can add to your own
character and characteristics.
In this way your life
runs smoothly, sincerely,
cozily and warmly and
there is great dedication and strength of character in
your words. Everybody likes you, even though you do
not know why.
There are none in this world who don‘t have wealth,
value, virtue, and the sixth sense. If you can realize this,
you will look on any individual and his universe and his
space in a simple way. You will know the beauty, the
essence, and the exaltedness of the person.
When I became an adult, I reversed my childhood cycle
of getting attention to paying attention and I was so
loved, so liked, so gifted that I couldn‘t believe how,
with that one little change, my life could become so vast
and I could cross any hurdle. Instead of pretending to
have tears in my eyes, I tried to put on a face of smiling
beauty, and I got what I wanted. No doubt I was born
rich but that was the time when I understood and liked
the meaning of richness.
Ads & Tidbits
Ancient Healing Ways—To order Siri Singh
Sahib lectures, call us at (800) 359-2940 or
(505) 747-2860
For other products go to:
http://www.a-healing.com/index.html
Gurdwara Date Topic Lecture Date
November 2 Marriage 3/20/87
November 9 Story of GRD Chant 10/30/88
November 16 General lecture 5/10/87
November 23
November 30
Lecture @ Vancouver
Khalsa School
Relationship to your
Soul
5/25/90
3/5/88
Snatam Kaur and Sopurkh Singh are happy to
announce the birth of Jap Preet Kaur, born in
Espanola, NM on Saturday, November 22, 2008
at 11:27AM MST. Her name means “one who
loves to constantly meditate on God” - and we
are feeling blissful in this vibration!
In the same way I understood courage; in the same way I
learned to walk tall in my life. I found out another secret.
God walks with me in every nook and corner of my
life. I always have a companion. I simply pay attention
to it. It is there all the time, through thick and thin, and
my journey of life is getting completed. Walk with me
and pay attention. Surely we will enjoy it and we‘ll
make the journey so happy that we‘ll never get tired.
That is the way to walk.
© YB Teachings, LLC 2002
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Hacienda De Guru Ram Das
Food for Health
Punjabi Chhole: Chickpeas, the Punjabi way!
by A MAD TEA PARTY
http://www.sikhchic.com/article-detail.php
id=527&cat=7
Serves 6
3 C chickpeas/garbanzo beans, soaked overnight (or
soak for 3-4 hours in hot water)
½ t baking soda
1" piece of ginger, peeled and grated
2 C chopped onion
1 C chopped tomatoes
2-3 T oil
2 t red chili powder
1 t garam masala (optional)
salt
for the masala:
2 T (heaped) coriander seeds
1 T anardana (seeds of wild pomegranate), omit if not
available
1" cinnamon stick
4-5 cloves
1 t black peppercorns
3-4 black cardamom
2 t cumin seeds
1 or 2 whole dry red chilies (optional)
to garnish:
green chilies, slit down the middle
tomatoes, cut into thick wedges
lime, sectioned
Drain the chhole; some of what makes these beans
hard to digest is water soluble and you will get rid of
some of that this way. Rinse them out once more to
make sure. Put them in a pressure cooker with enough
water to cover them (by about an inch). If you like
your chhole a bit on the softer side, add half a teaspoon
of baking soda (more will make them mush) to
the chhole. No salt at this point. Cook under pressure
for 20 minutes, or cook covered in a heavy pan till
tender.
grind to a powder.
Heat oil in a heavy pan (or karahi). Add ginger and stir
till just fragrant. Add chopped onions and cook till
pink, when they are just getting tinged at the edges.
Now add the tomatoes and fry (bhunno), stirring all the
time, till the oil separates. There isn't much oil to separate
here, so it has to be done on medium heat and takes
a long time (20-30 minutes).
When cooking a larger quantity (or when short on
time), I would suggest you increase the amount oil (one
and half times or double) since you don't want to be in
the kitchen for the good part of a day.
Once the ginger-onion-tomato is fried well and almost
dry, add the fresh ground spice blend, garam masala
(optional), and red chili powder. Add the slit green
chilies and stir for a few minutes till your kitchen
smells like heaven (Remove the green chilies and add
this fragrant paste to the cooked chhole, and salt.
Adjust water to your liking - I like mine really thick.
Mix and cook (simmer) for 20 minutes, stirring every
now and then, or cook in the pressure cooker for 10
minutes.
Serve hot with poori, bhature, or naan, garnished with
the green chilies you have set aside, wedges of tomatoes
(drizzled with oil and swirled around in a hot pan
for a minute or two, if you like), and lime.
While the chickpeas are cooking, heat a pan to roast
your whole spices - I use my cast iron pan. On medium
heat roast the spices, all together, shaking and
tossing, till they have almost blackened. Cool and
5

Hacienda De Guru Ram Das
Pictures from
300th Guru Gaddee Day Yatra
Prabhu Singh with a friend in Sword Shop
Dr. Balkar Singh with a friend
December Birthdays
2 nd Sat Mitar Kaur (OR)
5 th Sat Want Singh
Sat Jiwan Kaur (FL)
6 th Satya Singh
Siri Simran Kaur
Jagat Singh
Dharma Kaur (Birs)
7 th Krishan Shiva Singh
8 th Dharma Singh
Guru Nam Kaur (CO)
11 th Nirbhe Kaur
Gurunam Kaur (DAO)
Dev Dharam Kaur
13 th Sat Bir Singh (Santa Fe)
Nirinjan Kaur (Santa Fe)
15 th Dr. Sat Kirpal Kaur
Ragu Bir Singh
Ruby Kaur
Sat Shabad Kaur
16 th Guru Tera Kaur
17 th Sree Aatmaa Kaur (daughter of Gobind
S & Vir K.)
18 th Dr Sat Siri Kaur
19 th Dharam Singh (Dharam K.)
Dharma Kaur (daughter of Parmatma S
& Guru Daya K)
20 th Siri Nirongkar Singh
21 st Siri Karam Kaur
22 nd Daya Singh
Sat Sangeet Kaur
25th Bhajan Kaur
26 th Hari Har Singh (Nam Nidhan K. )
Saat Pursha Singh
28 th Hari Rai Kaur (daughter of Dharm S &
Guru Kirn K)
31 st Guruka Singh
Guru Kirn Kaur, Shanti Kaur, Sat Jiwan Kaur
and Sat Hari Singh taking a chai break
6

Hacienda De Guru Ram Das
(Continued from page 3)
sage into a fully formatted message – the result is plain text
plus a mysterious winmail.dat attachment.
These days RTF formatted messages have been largely replaced
by HTML formatting because it‘s more widely supported
by email software. Outlook has supported HTML formatted
emails for the last few versions and is much preferred
over the proprietary Microsoft system.
The solution is to check your Outlook settings and make sure
all messages are sent in HTML format.
Switching to HTML format
These days even Microsoft recognizes the superiority of
HTML formatted messages. The default format is HTML and
there‘s even an option to convert RTF messages to HTML
format when sending to Internet email addresses (as opposed
to intra-organization recipients). Go to Tools | Options | Mail
Format to see the default message format (should be HTML)
then click on the Internet Format to see Outlook Rich Text
option to convert messages.
Outlook - Rich text option - convert to HTML.jpg
Most Outlook users (except perhaps those in large companies)
would be using HTML formatted messages already without
even knowing it. If you have people asking about winmail.dat
messages from you then check your Outlook settings.
Individual Messages
You can control the formatting for individual messages and
override the global setting in Outlook. In Outlook 2007 this
choice is on the Options tab:
Meebo
The real-time benefits of instant messaging need no hype. If
you've used IM to communicate with friends or colleagues,
you know what a time-saver it is, and how useful it can be to
reread archived conversations. The problem is that for the
most part, the major IM networks don't talk to each other—
that's AIM, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Google's Gtalk, to name
the four biggies. Thus, you may have accounts on some or all
of them so you can talk to everyone you know.
If so, you need a multi-protocol IM client. There are several,
but it's hard to beat Meebo for sheer simplicity and price
(free). You don't need to install a thing, it's entirely Webbased.
You don't even need an account with Meebo to sign
into one IM network at a time. If you do sign up, Meebo can
log you into all four IM networks at once, with one giant
buddy list. Got more than one AIM account Multiple Gtalk
accounts You can have Meebo sign into all of them simultaneously.
The Meebo Rooms feature lets you create chat areas to use
with anyone, even guests who aren't regular Meebo users.
Inside the room, users can share media files. Some are public,
and would remind you of an old-school AOL chat from
the early '90s, but with music. Create a private, passwordprotected
room instead to chat with your coworkers. If the
room is public, you can also embed it in a Web page.
Other options: Downloadable multi-protocol IM clients
abound, including Trillian, Pidgin, and Digsby, but new Web
-based services are popping up all the time, including imo.im
and eBuddy.com.
Please do keep letting me know if this column is useful to
you, and also keep sending me your suggestions for column
topics, along with your own tips or cool downloads, so I can
share them with the Sangat here. Just email them to me at
guruka@sikhnet.com Thanks!
Outlook 2007 - mail format for single message.jpg
In Outlook 2003 the same choices are on the e-mail toolbar.
In normal practice you‘d skip over the Rich Text option entirely.
HTML is the best and most compatible choice for most
purposes. Plain text is handy for special situations like messages
to ‗Email to phone‘ gateways.
But what if someone sends you an email with a winmail.dat
attachment and you can‘t read their email Well just save the
file and upload it here http://tud.at/php/tnef/ and it will decode
it for you.
Hacienda de Guru Ram Das Newsletter
01-A Guru Ram Das Place
Espanola, NM 87532
505-753-6341
Co-Editors: GuruMeher Kaur, Sr. and Guru Meher
Kaur Jr.
If you would like to submit an announcement or an
article, call GuruMeher Kaur, Sr. at 505-753-6341
or email to: GurumeherK@sikhdharma.org
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