archive: The Khalsa - then and now
The Khalsa - then and now
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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