The Source Book On Sikhism

Tegh Bahadur and Amritsar

The seat of the Master and the disciples, as we said, had shifted to Kiratpur; and Amritsar was already in he hands of impostors, priests who saw the money to be got by priest-craft at Hari Mandar. When the Guru had gone towards the hills, the disciples also departed thither and only priests remained behind. Since the time of Arjun Dev, there had sprung up a kind of civic administration, which collected the offerings of people at large for the upkeep of the Sikh cities, temples and tanks. Often the administration got into the hands of people other than the disciples, though everyone was eager to call himself a Sikh in those halcyon days. For some time the civic administration worked well; but later the surrounding enemies of the House of the Master came in and enlisted as Masands or collectors of offerings, and made the whole administration inimical to the disciples. They afflicted the true disciples in many way, and the disciples endured without a sigh or murmur all that came from Masands in the name of their Beloved. A full revelation of their ill-doing was made to Gobind Singh in a drama played before him at Anandpur, and it was he who abolished the Masand administration and destroyed the tyrants.

The signs of this tyranny were visible when Tegh Bahadur paid a visit to Hari Mandir. The priests shut the doors of the temple against the Master, and he said, "The priests of Amritsar are men of blind heart that burn in their own lust of greed." But, as the news spread, all Amritsar came out to pour their soul at his feet. The women of the Holy City of Song welcomed him with the Master’s song and went singing all the way with him to the village Walia, where he stayed in the lowly abode of a devoted disciple.

Tegh Bahadur could not stay in one place, for the accumulating sorrows of the people grew to be more than he could bear. He was perpetually on tour, meeting his disciples in villages and in lonely jungle-huts. He travelled as far as Dacca and Kamrup in eastern India burning lamps of human hearts in memory of Guru Nanak, wherever the Master had been before him. At Dhubri, Tegh Bahadur raised a mound. He organized a Sangat in Assam, and illuminated many a family with the light of his face.