People gathered early Sunday at the Sikh
Temple of Wisconsin to meditate on God and to serve others — key requirements
of their religion.
Six of them died as they lived, shot down
amid acts of prayer and kindness.
Suveg Singh Khattra, 84, once a dairy
farmer in the Punjab region of India, was there well before the 11 a.m.
service, because he was a man of habit.
He got up every morning at 4:30 to watch
the news and a live broadcast from India of readings from the holy book, The Guru
Granthsahib. Then he'd catch a ride to the nearby Temple in the Oak Creek
suburb of Milwaukee, where he would pray and help prepare meals.
"Whoever needs to eat can just walk
in," says Khattra's granddaughter, Sandeep Kaur Khattra, 24. "Nobody
ever suspects (strangers) because we have a lot of visitors who watch and
observe, and they join us for our meals."
This Sunday, Wade Michael Page, tattooed
with hate symbols, walked in.
Page shot Khattra, police said. Khattra's
daughter-in-law saw his body in the temple sanctuary as police led her and 15
others out of the kitchen pantry, where they hid from the gunfire.
Satwant Singh Kaleka, 62, ran to confront
Page — living up to the Singh name given to most Sikh men. It means
"lion." Gurus have taught for 500 years that the faithful stand for
justice.
Kaleka — president of the congregation he
helped to found in 1997 and who helped to build the temple in 2007 — was armed
only with a small knife. Police said they found it near his body.
It may have been the small, dull knife
carried by faithful Sikh men, a symbol of their willingness to defend all
without concern for caste or class. Or it may have been a butter knife from the
kitchen and dining area that is built next to the prayer hall in many of 122
Sikh temples in the USA.
Every house of worship has people like
Khattra and Kaleka — the people who come early, who set up the chairs or stack
the programs or get busy in the kitchen preparing food for all who are hungry
for both God and lunch.
Paramjit Kaur, 41, drove over to Oak Creek
from Milwaukee every Sunday, to pray and pitch in. She was living up to the
Kaur name given most Sikh women. It means "princess." Her friend,
Manpreet Kaur, called Paramjit sweet, outspoken and devoted to her two sons and
her faith.
Her sons, Harpeet Saini, 18, and Kamal
Saini, 20, told CNN that the shooter took their world away.
Kamal Saini, 20, described what he learned
of his mother's last moments: "My aunt told her that there was a shooting
going on outside, we need to get up and leave. Rather than just getting up and
leaving, she wanted to just bow down and pray for the last time and then get up
and leave. She was just getting up. She was shot in the back."
Sita Singh, 41, and his brother Ranjit
Singh, 49, killed Sunday, were at the temple every day. Kulwant Singh Dhaliwal,
a temple member, recalled Tuesday that they were "very nice people. They
served the food sometimes and were very helpful."
Before he was killed by police, Page took
six lives at the temple, a touchstone place for new arrivals, most from India,
where three in four of the world's 25 million Sikhs live. The Washingon-based
Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund estimates more than 500,000 live
in the USA.
When Prakash Singh, 39, first came from
India, he lived at the temple, where he helped lead prayers. "He just got
his green card and rented an apartment for his family," Dhaliwal says.
Singh's wife and two young daughters joined
him in Wisconsin eight weeks ago.
The temple was the place where Khattra, an
old man who didn't speak much English, could hear his native Punjabi, the
language of home and of scripture.
Until Sunday, the family's experience in
the USA had been almost an American Dream.
Khattra's son, Baljinder, immigrated in the
1990s and drives a cab, Baljinder's daughter, Sandeep Kaur Khattra, says. She,
her mother and brother joined Baljinder in 1998. Now she and her brother,
Mandeep Singh Khattra, 26, are pursuing degrees in business and biotechnology.
On Tuesday, strangers and friends brought
wreaths to the temple to honor the dead. Funerals are being planned from
Wisconsin to India. Vigils are being organized coast to coast.
Oak Creek's Sikh community is asking all
who want to express sympathy and solidarity to donate food to their local food
pantry and flowers to their own places of worship. Their message on the city's
website says, "If you are moved to volunteer, please donate your time and
talent in your own community."
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