The Source Book On Sikhism

Guru Gobind Singh Ji (1666 - 1708)

Guru Gobind was only nine years of age when he was called upon to undertake the onerous responsibilities of Guruship in those times of tribulation and stress. Having passed his childhood at Patna, he had picked up eastern Hindi and Sanskrit, and then he not only improved his knowledge in these languages but also learnt Persian and Gurmukhi characters. For some time, he retired to the Nahan State in the Himalayas in a place called Paonta Sahib and read much of the literature that had been composed in Sanskrit and Braj. He learnt to write poetry. He then translated the whole gamut of heroic stories as found in the Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Puranas, to instil the virtues of heroism and chivalry in his people. He employed 52 poets to undertake a similar task. In this literature, much of which has been lost and only some of which is preserved in his Book, the Dasam Granth, compiled after his death, the same old strain of the oneness of God and the whole humanity runs as in the works of his predecessors. All superstitions and taboos are decried in a humourous vein, and a spirit of go-getting and sacrifice for righteousness inculcated.

His spirit of optimism can be gauged from the reply he is said to have given his father when asked what a man should do when he became utterly helpless. Both the verses are the compositions of Guru Tegh Bahadur, in the form of, it appears, question and answer. Guru Tegh Bahadur’s inquiry was:

“My strength is gone and I am in bondage,

and from it now there is no escape.

God alone is my support, and He alone will help as he did the ‘Elephant’.”

To this Guru Gobind Singh’s reported reply was:

“I have rallied my strength, my bonds are loosed,

there is every hope for me,

Sayeth Nanak, everything is in the hands of the Lord,

Now help me, my God.”

This, then, is the shift in emphasis that Guru Gobind Singh brought about in the Sikh movement. He has often been accused of his anti-Muslim bias, but there is not a trace of it in his works. Says he:

“The same are the temple and the mosque.

The same are the Pooja and the Nimaz.

All men are the same all over,

though each a different appearance has.”

And, as we shall see, the Guru in his military campaigns fought with equal zeal with the Hindu hill chiefs who surrounded him, and the Moghul imperial forces. Both Hindus and Muslims constituting his army and following, even in the worst days of crisis and struggle.

Like his grandfather, Guru Hargobind, he too was forced by circumstances to prepare himself for war, but he never once acquired an inch of territory for himself. The first battle he fought was with Raja Bhim Chand of Kahlur (now in Himachal Pradesh), who, jealous of his growing influence, attacked him unprovoked in 1686. The battle was fought at Bhangani, near Paonta Sahib in the Nahan state. The Guru trounced his adversary, helped by a force of 700 Muslims who fought alongside of him under the leadership of Pir Budhu Shah, a great admirer of his. The Pir lost two of his sons in the battle.

In those days, the Imperial Government of Delhi levied a tribute on the hill chiefs and when a demand was made on them, many of them, led by the Raja of Kahlur, refused to pay it and requested the Guru to assist them. Though the Guru had been earlier engaged in a battle with Kahlur, he readily agreed and joined hands with them to resist the attack launched by the Governor of Jammu under orders from Delhi. In this battle again, the forces of the hill chiefs, led by the Guru, were victorious.

Alarmed at this, Aurangzeb sent his son, Muazzim (later called Bahadur Shah) to put the affairs of the Punjab in order. The Prince sent a force from Lahore to punish the hill chiefs and also the Guru. But, while no harm came to Guru Gobind Singh, the hill chiefs suffered defeat, for they got divided on the basis of caste. The Guru later tried to bring them together, but found the task impossible as superstitions and mutual jealousies, which have been the bane of this country for centuries, stood in the way.

The Guru, therefore, decided to create a community which would not only fight against all shams and taboos of caste, dress, diet and status, but being worshippers of the One Supreme Being would look upon all humanity as one. They would be the spearhead of a world-wide movement for synthesis and dedicated service. Such a force was in any case to wear a distinctive appearance as it often happens in almost every age and clime in respect to dedicated men and women. And such a force the Guru created in 1699 on the day of Baisakhi at Anandpur.

Thousands of people from far and near had gathered on this auspicious day to pay homage to the Guru. The Guru with a naked sword in hand, came to the congregation and asked for the head of a Sikh for the cause of Dharma. There was great consternation in the Assembly, but one by one five of them came forward to present their heads to the Guru. Then the Guru called his five beloveds (Panj Pyare) and administered to them sugared water stirred with a steel dagger. This was called Amrit (or nectar) and when the Guru had administered it to them himself, he stood, with joined palms, before them, and said, “Now it is my turn to be baptised by you”. and so they baptised him, their Guru, thus emphasizing the democratic spirit of the faith. Truly it has been said of the Guru:

“Blessed is Gobind Singh who is the Guru as well as a disciple.”

About 80,000 Sikhs were baptised in a similar way in a few days' time. The Guru asked them to shed all superstitions of caste and birth, of idol-worship and belief in anything but the One God. They were told to keep ever ready to defend the faith, not only theirs, but even of others as Guru Tegh Bahadur had done before. They were to act as a unifying force in the world and live to work, work to share, and share to Believe. “My Sikhs shall obliterate the differences between Hindus and Muslims, touchables and untouchables, high and low, and create one fraternity of man believing in the fatherhood of God.”

The Sikhs were also asked to wear five K’s (namely Keshas, unshorn hair; Kangha, the comb, to keep them clean; Kara, the steel bangle, symbol of the omnipresence of God; Kachna or drawers, symbol of chastity; and Kirpan or the sword as symbol of resistance to evil).

The Hindu hill chiefs were afraid of this, and sought the help of Aurangzeb to fight the rising power of the Guru. The Moghul emperor sent orders to the Nawabs of Sirhind and Lahore to assist them which they did. The whole force marched upon Anandpur in 1701. For three long years, they laid siege to the fort but the Guru did not capitulate, even though many of his followers died of hunger and thirst and many were slain on the field of battle. Forty Sikhs even disclaimed him and left for their homes in the thick of the night. But, shamed by their womenfolk, they returned and died fighting later at Mukatsar. These are called the “Saved Ones” (Muktas).

But the endurance of man has its limits. The Guru wanted to hold out at the fort, but his followers persuaded him to leave for some other place of safety. But as soon as they came out, they were pounced upon by the enemy. The Guru’s family was separated from him, only two elder sons remaining with him. He now moved towards Chamkaur, his mother, Gujri, with her two younger grandsons taking shelter with a Brahmin servant of theirs, named Gangu. Gangu, however, betrayed them to the Nawab of Sirhind who got the two tender sons of Gobind bricked up alive. Mother Gujri died of shock. In the battle of Chamkaur which followed, the Guru lost his two other sons as well, and hard pressed by the five Sikhs left with him in the improvised fortress, he was ordered to leave. Here, he was helped by two Pathans, Nabi Khan and Ghani Khan, who declaring him to be a Muslim Pir, escorted him to safety through the Moghul forces that were combing the countryside in search of the Guru. Crossing the forests of Machhiwara, he came to Jatpura, where another Muslim, Rai Kalha, offered him help. But, as the imperial forces were pursuing him, the Guru left this place for Mukatsar in the Ferozepur district and, collecting a small force, pounced upon his adversaries. The Moghul forces were defeated, and the Guru now turned towards Talwandi Sabo, where he stayed for nine months. It is now called Damdama Sahib, or the resting place, as well as the Guruís Kashi. for, it is here that he recited the Adi Granth from his memory.

From a place called Dina, he sent a letter, written in Persian verse, called Zafar Nama (the letter of Victory) to Aurangzeb, saying that though he called himself a religious man, he acted most irreligiously. He also reminded him that although his sons and many of his followers were killed, he himself was yet alive. Justifying his use of the sword, he said:

“When the affairs were past any other remedy,

I thought it righteous to unsheath the sword.”

Aurangzeb wrote back to him that he should come and see him. But before the Guru could do so, he heard that Aurangzeb had died. The Guru thereupon left immediately for Delhi and Bahadur Shah, seeking his help in the war of succession, the Guru helped him with a detachment and, on being victorious, Bahadur Shah invited him to his court at Agra. Negotiations proceeded about settling the differences between the house of Nanak and the house of Babar. But nothing came of them and the Guru thereupon left for the south and settled at Nanded in the Deccan.

Here, he converted a Bairagi, Madho Das, who, born in Rajauri in the Poonchh district of Kashmire, had renounced the world and had come to settle here on the banks of the Godavari leading the life of a recluse. He was renamed Banda Singh, for he now called himself Banda (or slave of the Guru).

It is here that the Guru met his end at the hands of two Pathans, sent, it appears, by the Nawab of Sirhind who, afraid of the Guruís growing influence with the new Emperor, wanted to do him to death. The wound, inflicted by the Pathans (who were also put to death there and then) was sewn up, according to some writers, but it burst open later when the Guru was trying a bow. On October 7, 1708, he breathed his last.

When the Sikhs asked him who their Guru would be in the future, he said, “The Word is the spiritual Guru as contained in the Adi Granth; the secular Guru is the Panth or the Whole Khalsa.”