Jagmohan
Organiser
April 25, 1999
Title: The Khalsa - then and now Author: Jagmohan Publication: Organiser Date: April 25, 1999 It was Guru Gobind Singh's deep attachment to the ideals of justice, liberty, equality and freedom of conscience and religion that brought the Khalsa into being 300 years ago. It was a glorious moment in the Indian history when Guru Gobind Singh to use the words of Sri Aurobindo, "picked up five souls from the multitude and breathed fire of faith into them." Guru Gobind Singh's highly awakened spirituality and insightful practicality led him to believe that organised and institutionalized evil could be vanquished only by organised and institutionalized good and the forces of injustice, intolerance and tyranny could be successfully fought only by injecting ferver, faith and fighting spirit in the pure and pious minds. It was in pursuance of this belief that he founded the Order of Khalsa-a brother-hood of saint-soldiers who were to wield sword to protect virtue against vice. In the hands of the Khalsa, the sword was to act, not like the knife of a butcher but like the knife of a surgeon whose mission was to root out the cancerous tissues from the society and keep it m a healthy and vigorous state. In Guru Gobind Singh's preachings respect for justice and respect for one's religion mean one and the same thing. This fact comes out eloquently in Zafarnama (Letters of Victory), wherein addressing Emperor Aurangzeb, he said: "Did your God ask you to tyrannise over others? Here me: do not employ your sword to murder the innocent, for the God on high would for sure punish you." Guru Gobind Singh's strong and noble attachment to justice and freedom of religion was inherited from his saintly father, Guru Teg Bahadur, who suffered martyrdom to protect Kashmiri Pandits from injustice and cruelties that wore being heaped on them. It was in this atmosphere that Gobind Singh assumed Guru-ship, gave a clarion call to his followers, infused them with a fighting spirit and elevated them to such heights of courage and fortitude that sparrows literally turned into hawks and one soldier could stand against 1,25,000 opponents. Gum Gobind Singh conceived God as a primordial energy, an all-pervasive force, a Shakti, that sustains the Cosmos and the moral order. Describing this Shakti, the Guru has said : "Thine arm is infragible; Thy brightness refulgent; Thy radiance and splendour dazzle like the sun; Thou bestowest happiness on the good; Thou terrifiest the evil; Thou scatterest sinners." This Shakti is the creator as well as the created. It is One that is in all and all that is in One. In Guru Gobind Singh's hands and in the hands of the Khalsa that he created, the sword was a symbol of this Shakti, an instrument of the Divine Will-Parmatma-of which the individual-Jivatma- is an inseparable pan. He made it known that, while the Moghuls and their generals derived their powers from their 'armies, armouries and treasuries', he and his Khalsa derived their strength from the Immortal Shakti-the timeless and boundless akal. The individual who is a member of the Order of die Khalsa has to have a pure self and lead a disciplined life in which he must wage a continuous struggle against all evil practices and patterns of the social order by drawing up the sword of divine knowledge, of divine reason, of divine prayer and, if necessary and as a last resort, as divine force. Sri Aurobindo has summed up the phenomenon of Sikh Guru-ship in these meaningful words : "Nanak initiated the Sikhs in the fire of spirituality. Guru Teg Bahadur died with the name on his lips - the very emblem of heroic leadership but he died without resistance, a true satyagrahi. Guru Gobind Singh clasped the sword him self and transformed a race of udasies into a race of fiery Kshatriyas". The pre-eminence which Guru Gobind accorded to the Khalsa could be seen from the fact that shortly before his death in 1708, he declared : "Hence-forth the Guru shall be the Khasla and the Khasla the Guru". After the passing away of Guru Gobind Singh, Banda Singh Bahadur, a Rajput who hailed from Rajouri in Jammu region and whose original name was Madho Das and who had become an ardent follower of the Guru, kept the flag of the Khalsa flying and carried out valiant fight against injustices and atrocities of the Mughals. He resorted to guerrilla warfare and wrote many a new chapter in the saga of rise of the Khalsa. After Banda's torturous death. the Sikhs were mercilessly persecuted. But their persecution only added to their will to fight in the highest spirit of the Khalsa. heir heroic deeds, while marching towards the jungles of Bhatinda and Ferozpur, under the command of Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluwalia and Sardar Chorat Singh Sukarchakkia, have few parallels in the profiles of courage and fortitude. The Khalsa attained zenith of its power under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. It is, indeed. amazing that, at a time when the map of India was increasingly turning into red, a lad of 12 years who became head of 'Sukarchakkia Misl', after the premature death of his father, created a vast and powerful kingdom from Sutlej in the south-east to Kabul, in north-west and from Ladakh in the north and to the boundaries of Sind in the south-west. Ranjit Singh showed how state polity and administration could be run on secular lines without relegating one's religion to a secondary place. He was a devout Sikh and never took any major decision without seeking blessings from the holy Granth. He preferred to call himself 'Sarkar Khalsa'-Chief of the Commonwealth of Sikhs. The first set of coins that he struck carried not his name but the inscription of Nanak-Shahi. Through all vicissitude of subsequent history-whether they constituted triumphs or tragedies-the undaunted spirit of the Khalsa did no abate. It manifested itself in events like Kamagatamaru and Gurdwara Reform Movement of the twenties during the course of which at least 400 Sikhs were killed, 200 injured and 30,000 arrested. Because of their perseverance, they, to use the words of Mahatma Gandhi, "won decisive victories" and all the Gurdwaras were liberated from the Mahants. The Sikhs played a notable part in the freedom struggle and invariably acted as a swordarm for the defence of die country. With the attainment of Independence and adoption of a democratic and progressive Constitution, the Khalsa's objective of securing justice, liberty, equality, fraternity and freedom of religion has been attained. But the task of injecting moral fervour, discipline and rectitude in the masses and maintaining the same at a high level has yet to be fully fulfilled. The country requires men and women of high character and commitment. It is only such persons who can bring about a truly fair and just means and strengthen India's unity and integrity to enable to become a mighty country - mighty in thought, mighty in deeds, mighty in culture and mighty in service to humanity. Then alone, the underlying motivation and mission of founding the Khalsa would fully fructify. At this moment, when we are observing tercentenary of the Khalsa, we must not look only at the part and present but at the future as well. Today, the world is changing at a mind- boggling pace. Human knowledge is doubling every ten years. In the past decade, more scientific and technological advance has taken place than in all human history. The computer power is doubling every 18 months. The Internet is doubling every year. A new eivilization is emerging. New life-styles new values and new techniques of influencing others, mind am developing. The world is becoming closer. It could, if the present trends continue, become a wholly-profit-even world and the developed and powerful countries could impose new kinds of injustices, and inequalities. In these circumstances, it needs to be considered what role could the Khalsa play in ensuing that both at the national international level, the emerging patterns of civilization and culture rest upon the same moral principles and the same ideals of equity, justice and fair-play for which Guru Gobind Singh founded the Great Order three centuries ago on Baisakhi day which is associated with regenerative spirit of man.
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