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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