'Demystifies the Sikh way of living a good life in seven simple steps' Vogue India Think of any scene of disaster and you'll find Sikh volunteers rallying to the site to perform seva - pronounced 'say-va', meaning selfless service - feeding migrant workers, helping riot victims, and cleaning up after earthquakes and floods. Why has this 30 million strong community become the world's Good Samaritan? What is it about their values that makes so many of them do so much good? And how is it that they're also able to channel so much joy and laughter while serving others? Through science-based studies, interviews with Sikhs and a look at history and fables, Seva unlocks seven Sikh-inspired rules to help anyone become kinder, happier and lead a more meaningful life. A secular handbook for the modern world, Seva is a beautiful, inspiring and moving book that will change you from the inside out.

How does someone share a passion for service, for hospitality, when life itself can be so inhospitable? Like many young Indian women of her day, Kiran's life was shaped by family tradition and duty. Her life trajectory was pre-set. Yet, while still a young girl, the most unlikely of events ultimately shaped Kiran's calling and ignited a passion for service. Her own grandmother's inspiration would completely transform her life and her career.As a young mother living in Hong Kong, Kiran faced personal struggles and an uncertain future. Unshaken, she was determined to make her own way. She drew on her instinct to serve and leapt into the arena she knew best - hospitality. Leveraging her cooking and design skills acquired as a young girl, Kiran launched a successful catering and concept design business, quickly followed by a specialty foods venture.Prior to venturing out on her own, Kiran was a social mover and leader in her community. Now she found herself a hands-on leader in the "trenches". Her work was diverse and exhilarating. Kiran found herself pitching her concept designs in a board room in the morning, and then standing on an eighteen-foot hydraulic lift completing decorations in a 5-star hotel late into the night. Her sheer tenacity and drive to share her gift opened up doors to some of Asia's top restaurants, hotels and institutions.After the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, Kiran's family decided to relocate to San Francisco. The adjustment to a new life in completely unique surroundings produced another crossroad and a life-altering decision. Kiran was a self-made entrepreneur and artisan of service, but she lacked classical training. Should she pivot and recast herself in a completely different environment? In this reflective memoir, Kiran Robinson paints a portrait of service leadership, or Seva-leadership - a person who overcomes adversity to lead through selfless service. Imparting insight gathered over her 30-year career in the hospitality industry, Kiran draws on her personal journey to convey the key ingredients to becoming a leader in this field.

In villages around India, many people have no facilities that provide adequate health care and education, despite the Indian government allocating an enormous amount of funding. In order to offset this lack of health care and educational facilities in Indian villages, many private individuals and organizations provide medical services and educational opportunities to the poor. This book details two major SEVA projects founded by Mr. and Mrs. P.C. Mangalick in Agra, India. SEVA is selfless service that an individual or group provides to underprivileged people. These acts of selfless service are prompted by an awareness of the presence of God in all beings. This book describes how SEVA leads to a purified mind and, therefore, an understanding of the self, the part of "one source" (God) within an individual’s personality.

This book provides a unique understanding of the concept and practice of seva (service) in modern India. It examines social reform, key ameliorative programmes, seva organisations, nationalist politics and colonial anthropology to show the critical linkages between caste politics, tribal welfare and capitalist development. Drawing upon archival research and field interviews, the author establishes a critical dialogue with both historiography and ethnography. Further, he explores how the works of Gandhi, Nehru, Ambedkar, Gokhale, and others functioned in the political discourses and practices of their time. This lucid and comprehensive study will interest scholars and researchers in political theory, modern Indian history, sociology and social anthropology, Dalit and tribal studies, and cultural studies.

SEVA-PATHA TRANSFORMATION THROUGH SEVA : INSPIRATION, EXPERIMENT AND RESULT Author: BRAJENDRA PAL SINGH Translated from Hindi by S.R. RAMASWAMY Foreword by K. SURYANARAYANA RAO

The first part of the book gives practical aspects of performing seva in the USA, India and Guyana, South America. I give case histories from my own experience and how I navigated the turbulent waters to deliver what we set out to accomplish. I hope that our teams work will motivate others to understand the difficulties and find solutions to fulfilling the goal of seva. At the end, we could not achieve anything without the help of dedicated team members many of whom gave up their vacations and willingly gave their money and energy to make a difference. The second part of the book examined 5 case studies of our work dealing with kidney and corneal transplants in Guyana, blood and bone marrow drives in the USA under the auspices of the Hindu Mandir Executive Committee, distance learning in the UK and the Global Energy Parliament, Kerala, India. The third part of the book gives cautionary lessons in managing seva projects across the world. The fourth part of the book gives theoretical aspects of seva, which include social networks in management of complex missionary projects, the use of social networking technology in the promotion and scaling up of complex global health initiatives, the growing phenomenon of voluntourism and Distance Learning. Our case histories represent a variety of situations across continents. Having initiated and carried these projects from scratch to fruition has given us an insight into the many issues others may face when they initiate their own projects. We experienced frustration at many points in the trajectory of our projects; however, we persevered and perhaps achieved modest success. We should confess that we thought of abandoning and giving up at multiple stages of our projects, however, we were reminded of the beneficiaries and continued against many odds and obstacles. Some of these could have been prevented but others were inevitable.