The religion founded in the Punjab by Guru Nanak (1469–1539) on the teaching that there is one formless God beyond every human division, and that caste, ritualism, and the Hindu–Muslim divide are beside the point — a truth lived through honest work, sharing with others, and devotion. Carried forward by a line of ten Gurus and then by a living scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, and the initiated community of the Khalsa, it is today the world's fifth-largest organized religion.
In a Sikh place of worship, anyone who walks in is fed. The kitchen is called the langar, and at it a banker and a beggar sit on the same floor and eat the same food from the same pot. This was the point from the start. The faith's founder, Guru Nanak, taught that there is one God who belongs to no nation and ranks no one above anyone else. The langar grew from that teaching, built up by the Gurus who came after him. Five centuries later, Sikh kitchens still serve vast numbers of free meals around the world every day.