CHAPTER II
PHENOMENALITY
OF SIKHISM
In the preceding
chapter are named some reasons for man’s retreat from religion during the last two
centuries and to certain recent trends in the domains of Physical Sciences, the
realities of political systems, and the dead ends into which analytico-linguistic
philosophical speculations have reached, that tend to stimulate return towards
religion.
Mental energy which this retreat from religion released in the
West was primarily turned towards Natural Sciences, but the very methodology of
these Sciences provided man with new tools for studying the history and
phenomena of religion as such and the methods of approach and the results
obtained thereby are likely to mould and influence the direction of this newly awakened interest. It was the German
philosopher, Hegel, (1770-1831) who dominated the philosophical thought of the
West during the 19th century. His
assumption that the essential nature of the movement of human thought resembled
vertical crawling of a snake wherein the first movement constituted the thesis,
and the second the anti thesis, the opposite of that assertion, and
the third movement, the synthesis, in which both the first movements
were amalgamated. Hegel saw this basic characteristic of human thought as the
essential nature of all movement of Reality, whether physical or mental, and
he built his metaphysical system and his interpretation of human history this
wise. This methodology of speculation is still the basis of, what is called,
the Materialistic interpretation of History, and the Communist systems of
thought, currently dominating a large part of the political globe. It was
Hegel who made the assumption, unwarranted as is now demonstrably clear, that
an “Age of Magic” preceded the “Age of Religion”. He asserted that in the
History of mankind, there were periods when ancient and primitive human
societies were preoccupied with ‘magic’ as their sole theory and activity of
their understanding and adjustment in relation to the universe. Magic is a
theory as well as a practice. The basic idea underlying the theory of magic is
that the processes of Nature can be strictly controlled by man through spells
and incantations. This theory is as old as the Vedas and is still held by the
widespread tantrik practices in most parts of India
Sir E.B. Tylor
(1832-1917) in his great book, Primitive Culture, (1871) rested the
entire structure of his history of religion on what he called, Animism. His
theory was that animism was the essence of religion, the minimum definition of
religion, as he called it, the final source from which the whole paraphernalia
of religion has developed. His argument was that from observation of such
phenomena as dreams, trances and visions, man had transferred to the natural
order, the sun, the moon, the stars, the trees and the rivers, a concept of
animating spirits whereby these natural objects perform their functions in the
universe like man and animals. In this way, as Sir James Fraser put it, the man
had located “in every nook and hill, every tree arid flower, every brook and
river, every breeze that blew and every cloud that flaked with silvery white,
the blue existence of Heaven,” a spirit such as he believed animated his own corporeal frame. From this
notion, the man advanced to the stage, when eventually from these innumerable
spirits, a polytheistic system of gods emerged which controlled the various
departments of Nature. For instance, instead of a separate spirit for every
tree, there was supposed and conceived a god of Woods in general, and similarly
a god of the Wind with a distinct character and features. From this polytheism to strict monotheism is only a logical
step.
Sir
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), a speculative philosopher, who has extend much
influence on the thought of the second half of the 19th century, believed and argued that the idea of
God and religion in general and originated from the theory of ghosts and the
practice of the worship of ancestors. He attempted to demonstrate that, “the
root of every religion” was in the worship of ancestors, which ancestors after death, were
believed to live in the form of ghosts and which later on were deified. Since these ancestors were regarded with awe and reverence during
their life-time, they were apotheosized after their death, and consequently a
complicated system of worship developed. This, he thought, was the whole story
of religion.
This
speculation was in line with the evolutionary thought which dominated the 19th
century and this mode is still there in the popular mind and literature of
today, although the evidence which has been painfully accumulated since,
refuses to fit in with this theory of the origin of religion, as Andrew Lang in
his book, ‘The Making of Religion’ (1898) was believed to have shown. There has been, as the irrefutable
data now shows, no
unilineal development from animism to polytheism and to Monotheism, or from illustrious mortals to
deified Immortals.
The
argument behind all such speculations was two-fold. (One), that there has been
an evolution in religious thought i.e. that there were certain phases of
religious thought which were chronologically anterior to certain other phases,
and (two), that, therefore, these so-called later phases were superior and
higher than the former phases, this being a postulate of the Theory of Evolution that the later
in time is qualitatively superior to the earlier.
It is this kind of
speculation and argument which has occupied the minds of intelligent men during
the last one hundred years or so, in respect of religion, but it is now no longer dogmatically held that both or either
of these two propositions is self evident or demonstrably true.
It is not correct
that, in fact, certain phases of religious thought and practice, such as magic
or ancestor-worship, preceded in the history of human society, the other
phases. Viewed chronologically, they are
often found to be simultaneous and they run along side by side with each other.
Secondly, it is fallacious to argue that chronology is a spiral measure of
value. To argue that because ancestor worship precedes polytheism, therefore,
polytheism is a superior religious practice to ancestor-worship is a fallacious
argument. That one is superior to or more excellent than the other, depends not upon whether its
chronological origin is earlier or later. Its mode of assessment is quite
different and it consists in a certain power of perception of quality, of
evaluation, which forms the part of a properly developed trained and a cultured
mind. To argue that the origin of a thing determines its value is the ‘naturalistic
fallacy’. It
is a fallacy which wrongly supposes that the value of a fact is dependent upon
and is determined by its origin.
Whatever,
therefore, may be the hang-over of
these 19th century speculations and modes of approach in the
popular mind of the uninformed, the intelligent minds have already perceived
clearly that a true
understanding and appraisal of religion can only be achieved through the interior religious experience
itself and not through the discipline of other sciences and philosophy. This realisation has been made possible
in the recent years, firstly by the analytical thought of logicians and
philosophers such as Dr. A.E. Moore who in his Principia Ethica
clearly explains the nature and implications of what has been called the, ‘naturalistic
fallacy’ and it was Dr. Otto who in his The Idea of the Holy (1928)
clearly showed that the core of religious experience consisted of an awareness
of non-moral holiness as a category of value, which was quite distinct from the
aesthetic and the moral experiences. This category of value he called, as numina
i.e. a spiritual experience of reality peculiar to religion. It is this numinous
experience which is the core and base of religion and its ingredients, awe
and reverential wonder around in a religiously sensitive mind in relation to
his apprehension of himself and the universe around him.
This word, numina,
is etymologically related to the Sanskrit word, naman, the English
word, name. Its antonym is phenomena. ‘Phenomena’
is that which appears as reality to the sensory motor apprehension of
man, precisely the subject matter of investigation of Physical Sciences. ‘Numenon’
is that which lies at the root of the phenomena and which causes and supports
the phenomena but which is not discernible either through sensory motor
apprehension or even through speculative processes grounded in the data of the
sensory motor apprehension. “They are not
these, but other eyes with which my Beloved may be seen,” says Guru Nanak. 1
In other words, what the Physical Sciences investigate through observation and
controlled experiment is all phenomena. The theories which the Physical
scientist subsequently builds to explain the data which he thus collects is
also phenomena-grounded. This data and these theories are both like-wise
phenomenal and they, therefore, pertain to a category of reality which is not
the subject matter of religion. The presupposition and the basic postulates of
all great religions is that this, category
of reality which the Sciences investigate into and speculate over, is illusory
and not real and that the ultimate Reality is something which lies at the base
of all phenomena, which is numenon about which the Hindu Brihadarnyaka (III.
2.12) says that when “a man dies, what does
not forsake him, najahiti, is his
numenon, naman.” It is this that is meant when it is said that the ultimate
Reality is a ‘numenon’ and that numenon
alone endures. The numenon alone endures, as the essence of the purified soul,
as the divine light in the heart of man, and as the God of the Universe. “Nanak
(approves of him) who holds steadfast to this Testament of the Guru, while
actively operative in the vista-scope of the phenomenal forms that the Numenon,
as explicit in the Self-realised man; as the Light and Guide of mankind and as
the God Almighty alone endures.” 2
The
real subject matter of all true religious activity is the apprehension of or an attempt to establish contact with
this numenon, and the true religion tempts the man with nothing less than the
vision of this ultimate Reality. Put thus there is no real antagonism between
Science and Religion as the religion implicates an
activity which is independent of scientific activity and relates to a category
of experience which is neither confirmed nor falsified by whatever the
scientific discoveries or speculations may reveal or establish.
Sikhism
is essentially, and more than anything else, the religion of the Numenon, and
throughout the voluminous Sikh scripture, consisting of approximately 30,000
hymns, there are not many hymns Or pages of this Book where it is not asserted
through repeated statements, literary similies and allusions, that the essence
of true religious theory and practice is the Name : “There is nothing
comparable to the Name in all religion.” 3 The congregational Prayer
of the Sikhs ends by fervently beseeching God to grant “progressive prevalence
of the Religion of Name, preached by Nanak.” 4
It is
in this context that the historical epiphany of Sikhism is of interest to the
modem man.
Sikhism
is not a history-grounded religion, i.e. the truth the validity of Sikhism does
not depend upon any event that has occurred in History, as is the case with certain other
religions. Islam, Christianity, and Judaism all maintain and proclaim that
there is, in their possession, a special and unique self-revelation of God
through their own divinely-appointed channels. It is a matter of history that
the Nazarene Jew, who is claimed as the Christ of God, or Abul Kassim,
who became, “The Praised One”, Mohammed, and who is asserted as the prophet of Allah
par excellence, or Moses to whom God spake directly through a burning bush,
appear as historical individuals. If in fact these special channels of the
revelations of God did not exist in history as is claimed, and are only myths
or fictions, then the whole basis of the claim of these religions, that their
dogma carries its own validity with it,
falters and falls to the ground. This is a point of strength in these religions
in so far as it guarantees to them an element of psychological certitude and a
historical continuity. But it is a weakness
in so far as it binds these religions to a pre-determined interpretation of the
reality. Thus, the Christian theologians would normally start with the
postulate that there can be no advance on the Revelation, which is already
fully given in the life and teaching of the Christ as the Son of God. The whole
task of the Christian theologian is to render what has already been revealed,
more explicit. The Muslim and Jewish theologians would proceed on similar lines
in respect of their final terms of reference. Similarly, though in a somewhat
different way, their Hindu counterparts in India
(a)
that the ultimate Reality is not comprehensible through the sensory-motor
perceptions or pure speculations of thought.
(b)
that this ultimate Reality is continuous with and partakes of the religious
experience of the numenon, which experience is the matrix of other values of Truth, Beauty and Good,
and which experience is implicit in and inheres in the universal human religious
consciousness.
(c)
that there is a way of cultivating and making explicit this consciousness of
the numena such as leads to the vision of God.
The
founders of the Sikh religion have merely asserted that there is technique and
there is a discipline, which is called the Practice of the Name, in the
Sikh scripture, which is more suitable and efficacious for achieving this
vision of God than others in the present Age and in the current mental climate
of mankind. There is no other claim which Sikhism makes and there is no other
dogma which it asserts as basic to its teachings, and in a way, therefore, the time-point of the epiphany and
the historical origin and growth of Sikhism is not strictly relevant to the
truth or validity of Sikhism.
The epiphany and the
history of Sikh faith, however, is of
interest in an other respect. In recent years, in Europe ,
a School of thought has arisen which goes by the name of, Phenomenology, the
study of the development of human consciousness and self-awareness itself in
abstraction from any claims concerning existence. Its adherents seek to
determine the meaning of what has happened in history on the presumption that
all knowledge is phenomenon and all existence is phenomenal. They have adopted this term from Edmund Husserl
(1859-1939) who inaugurated a philosophy which is passionately interested in
the tiniest details of experience as providing a clue, to art, law, religion,
history and all other aspects of the universe. Husserl insists that philosophy
which he. calls,
Pure Phenomenology, is distinguished from all empirical sciences in its
peculiar method,
which though not easy to expound is a form of intuition concerned not
with the appearance of facts but with their essences, forms or structures. These structures are not the perceived aspects
of things or the ideas of them; they are obscurely akin to the sambhogkaya of
the Trikaya doctrine of the Mahayana
Buddhism; and the intuitive prehension of these accounts in the historical
events and human experiences is stated as the true task of philosophy to be
accomplished through an intricate process of phased perception, analysis and
meditation; called, “presuppositionless
method”, an exposition which remains
somewhat obscure even in the texts of Husserl’s, Ideas, General
Introduction to Pure Phenomenology (1931 New York). When, however,
this term, Phenomenology, is applied to the investigation of the structure
and significance of religious phenomena, independently
of its setting in a particular culture or at a particular time, it is used in a somewhat
different sense from that of Husserl. The method employed is to collect
material from all ages, states of culture and parts of the world without laying
stress on chronology, environments, functions in
society or validity. That what appears, i.e.
appears as a phenomena, is collected and
correlated for the purpose of pure description without making any attempt to
pass a judgement on it. Since God does not fall within the purview of the ‘presuppositionless
method’ either
as a subject or an object, a phenomenologist would describe it as beyond his scope
of enquiry. This, he would say, is the business of theology and not philosophy,
as his sole aim is to understand the religious fact as it appears to the
religious man and as he reacts to it. It is, thus, a method of enquiry to
assess the meaning and significance of religious phenomena, and Phenomenology,
therefore, concerns itself with the study of the history of a religion for its
material, postulating that this study of history of a religion is itself conditioned
by the results of historical research and as such the inner religious experience and the outward
manifestation of the phenomena are really complementary aspects of the same
whole and discipline. It is on the basis of some such approach that Malnowsky,
B., in his Magic, Science and Religion and other Essays, (Illinois
“the
comparative science of religion compels us to recognise religion as the master
force of human culture. Religion makes man do the biggest things he is capable
of, and it does for man what nothing else can do; it gives him peace and
happiness, harmony and sense of purpose; and it gives all this in an absolute
form”.
It is
in this context that a bird’s eye-view of the history of Sikhism is of special
interest.
Sikhism
was founded by Guru Nanak (1469-1539), who was born in that part of the Punjab
which is now in Pakistan
This is, in short, the whole essence of Sikh History.
Guru Nanak was born on April 15, 1469, in the war-like kshatrya
clan of Hindus in the village of Talwandi, now called Nankana Sahib, the holy
birthplace of Nanak, about 40 miles to the south-west of Lahore in Pakistan.
His father was a Village Accountant, and at the age of seven Nanak was put to
the village school from where he learnt three Rs. Islam, as a political force, had already entrenched itself in
the whole of northern India for the last four centuries and Islamic culture and religious lore was already a
part of the ethos of the people of this region. A considerable number of Hindus had been converted to Islam
already, either through the sword and political coercion or by pragmatic
choice, and the father of Guru Nanak engaged a Muslim teacher to teach his son
Persian and Islamic literature, the knowledge of which had a direct
politico-economic value, Nanak supplemented these rudiments of education thus
acquired by travel and self-study and by association with the learned men of
all schools of thought, Hindu and Islamic both not only in the whole of India
but in the entire Middle East i.e. Arabic Mesopotamia and Afghanistan. Thus he
became a truly learned and cultured man, as is evident from his revelations now
preserved in the Sikh scripture, the Guru Granth. His hymns and compositions,
revealed pronouncements and spiritual statements, are replete with literary
allusions, sophisticated and subtle references to ancient writers and classics
of both Hindus and Muslims and all his poetic revelations are characterised by
a rich acquaintance with literary conventions and styles of his times and are
permeated with deep learning and astonishing common sense. He, however, was careful to assert
and explain that the validity of what he testified in the form of spiritual
revelations was not dependent upon any source or matrix outside his own
interior and authentic experience through which God Himself had confronted and
communicated with him. This is the true justification of Guru Nanak being the Founder of Sikh
religion, namely, that he claimed that God had directly, without any intercession, revealed
Himself to him, that what he spoke was directly from God Himself, unalloyed and
undistorted. It was in the years A.D. 1496, when Guru Nanak was 27 years old, that he had the unique
experience of having a full and direct vision of God when he perceived that he
stood before the Throne of the Almighty and received from Him the commission to
preach the new religion for the coming Age, the Religion of the Name.
Guru Nanak is the first prophet ever born m the long and rich
spiritual history of India
Guru Nanak spent the rest of his
life in travelling and teaching throughout India ,
and in the Middle East, and during the closing years of his life he settled as
a farmer in a newly set up community-centre, called, Kartarpur founded on the
banks of Ravi now left in Pakistan India Amritsar Amritsar
All
through this time, however, a fundamental change had occurred on the Indian
political scene.
Islam
as founded by Ubul-Kassim, “Mohammed”
the Praised One, had
already become the State religion of Arabia by
636 AD when Mohammed was 60 years of age. Not long after, the desert Muslim tribes, had spread Islam from India to Spain ,
and Egypt , Syria , Asia
minor, North Africa, Gibralter Peninsula and Constantinople
fell before the advance of Muslim ecclesiastical empire. It was in AD. 1732
that this tide was stemmed, when Charles Mortel of France gained “the great
victory” over the Arabs at Tours and thus saved Western Europe for Christianity. In their advance, the Muslim peoples had unwittingly
lent strength to the Roman Papacy by destroying the Patriarchates of
Alexandria, Jerusalem and Antioch
as well as by the removal of the Bishop of Carthage and by weakening the Patriarchate
at Constantinople . As this religious empire of
Islam spread, ancient languages were obliterated, ancient cultures were persecuted and extirpated and beautiful
mosques, dream court-yards and palaces, Granada
and Seville in Spain ,
to Badshahi Masjid at Delhi and Taj Mahal at Agra Tours Nicaea Tours India ,
led and inspired by the great Rana Sanga of Mewar, made a last bid to remove
the heavy foothold of Islam from the Threshold of Hindu Sanctorum through the
subtle strategy of inviting the Mongol adventurer, Babur from Central
Asia who defeated the Pathan King of Delhi Ibrahim the Lodhi, at
Panipat in 1526 A.D. But the next move of Rana Sanga to expel these Mongol
predators from the threshold of the Hindudom failed at the battle of Kanuha on March 17, 1527, when ·two hundred thousand Hindu braves
melted away from the battlefield to leave, it in the hands of mere thirty thousand Central Asian Mongols
under Zahirud Din, the Babur, and thus the Mughal Empire was firmly established
in India. Guru Nanak was an eye-witness of this invasion of Babur, the Mongol,
and has made pungent, poignant references to the sufferings and misfortunes
of the people of north India India
“Accordingly,
the leading noble, Sheikh Farid Bhukhari, having been sent by the others as
their representative came to the Prince (Salim, entitled, Jehangir), and promised in their names to place
the Kingdom (of India) in his hands provided that he would swear to defend the
law of Mohammed.”
V.A. Smith in his, Akbar, (page
322), and Sri Ram Sharma in his, “Religious Policy of Mughal Emperors” (page 71), confirm that a promise had been extracted from Jehangir
before he was helped to ascend the throne, to defend Islam, which in practice
means to make political Islam prevail with the aid of the sharp edge of the
sword. In the 8th year of the reign of Jehangir, his son, Khusrao, a
person of cultured disposition and tolerant religious views, was forced to flee
for his life, from the Islamic arm of the state. This flight for freedom of
prince Khusrao, was described as rebellion in the political parlance and
Khusrao was pursued by the Imperial hosts to be captured and liquidated. Sheikh
Farid Bhukhari, ‘the Master of the Pen and Sword’, rendered conspicuous
services in the capture and liquidation of the royal prince and thus he earned
the title of Murtaza Khan, a military rank, for his services to the
Imperial throne. His rank was increased to the command of ‘6,000 Horses’, according to the Tozaki-Jehangiri.
Guru
Arjun, in the Adi Granth had made the uncompromising declaration that the political Islam
which seeks to destroy and extirpate ancient languages and cultures, civilization and peoples with their own ways of life, was wholly unacceptable to the
people of India, i.e. non-Muslims adding that “coercive rule of one people over another was against the God’s
Will as now revealed to mankind through Sikhism, and all governments,
henceforth, may exercise
power, through persuasion and mutual consent and not otherwise.” 20
Sikhism, being the defender of the oppressed Hindus and as the entelechy of the
spirit of man had, Guru Arjun declared, no quarrel with Islam as a religion, a
way and technique of man’s relationship with God, but it stoutly refused to accept the Arabic socio-political
pattern of life, based on the ethnical norms of Muslim rulers. The Revelation in the Sikh
scripture contained the call that,
“Let a
Muslim be compassionate in heart. Let his Islam consist of cleansing the
impurities of his soul. But he must not confuse
his religion with a desire to dominate and subjugate others. Such a Muslim only
we accept as worthy and as socially pure.” 21
Prince Khusrao, apparently agreed
with the justice of this demand and he held the Guru in great esteem otherwise
also on account of his spiritual eminence. In his flight from the hosts of Jehangir,
the Prince crossed the river Beas at the ford
of Goindwal which was then the seat of Guru Arjun. Guru Arjun, well aware of
the consequences it might entail, succored the unfortunate prince by providing
his companions with meals and with words of spiritual consolation, and
Jehangir made this a pretext for passing a ‘death sentence with severe tortures’
on the Guru according to the barbaric Mongol laws of the Yasa. He admits
in his, Tozuk, that ‘eversince his ascendance to the throne it had been
his intention either to force Guru Arjan to accept conversion to Islam, or to
punish him with death, as the Guru was preaching a religion which was growing
popular amongst “simple minded Hindus” and “foolish Muslims”. It was Sheikh
Farid Bhukhari, the Murtaza Khan to whom Jehangir handed over the person
of Guru Arjun, “to be destroyed by killing him with severe tortures, in
accordance with the Mongol law of the Yasa”. It was this Murtaza Khan
to whom Sheikh Sirhindi, the Mujaddid Alif Thani had jubilantly
written that the accession of Jehangir to the throne “was auspicious for Islam
in India
“Now
when the Emperor has .got no sympathies with the non-Muslims, karus, the prevalence
of heretical practices which were introduced in the past is very loathsome to
Muslims. It is the duty of every Muslim that the Emperor should be informed of
the evils of the rites of the unbelievers and all the believers should make
efforts to remove these evils because it is just possible that the Emperor may
not know the evils of heretical innovations.”
This ‘Regenerator
of Islam in the Second Millennium’, paid several visits to .Sheikh Farid Bhukhair, the Murtaza
Khan, at the imperial court of Jehangir and his proclamations and numerous
letters 24
make no secret of his dynamic hatred against non-Sunni Muslims in
general and non-Muslims in particular, and it is clear that he had no sympathy
whatever with anyone outside the orthodox Sunni fold of Islam , and he regarded
tolerance as a tacit compliment to evil and heresy. It is the rise and growth
of Sikh religion and the activities of the Sikh Gurus tending to convert and
encompass the intelligent and sincere minority of the Hindus and Muslims both,
which particularly disturbed the afflated soul of the ‘Regenerator’
and it is, therefore, Sikhism, the ‘heretical innovation’, which he particularly desired
the Emperor to destroy and which desire
the emperor, later on, himself owns as his long cherished aim, in the Tozik,
when justifying his handing out of death sentence on Guru Arjun. In another letter25 written
to a Mughal grandee, Jehangir Kuli Khan, alias, Lalla Beg, a Commander of 4,000
Horse’ the Mujaddid gave out the order that:
“If from
the very start of the reign (of Emperor Jehangir) Islam gets a footing and the
Muslims establish their prestige, well and good, but if the matter is delayed
the task (of restoring political Islam in India
This Lalla
Beg was another fanatical follower of ‘the Regenerator’ and he and the Murtaza
Khan were his two chief agents for the purpose of employing the Imperial
power to destroy Sikhism so that, “Islam gets a footing,” in India. It was
without doubt, this Sheikh Sirhind, the Regenerator of Islam in the
Second Millennium. who, through Sheikh Farid Bhukhari, the Murtaza Khan and the Lalla Beg had extracted a promise from Prince
Salim, who later became the Emperor Jehangir, that the Emperor would suppress
the Sikhs and liquidate Sikhism by destroying Guru Arjun, and it is to this promise that Jehangir makes a
cryptic reference in his Memoirs, the Tozak. It was in execution
of this promise that Guru Arjun was put to death with tortures on a framed-up
pretext, under the orders of Jehangir in the year 1606 and it was in pursuance
of the politico-Islamic policy, embodied in the oft-proclaimed dictum by the Mujaddid,
ash-shara ‘tahatus-saiyaf that is, that Islam
enjoins that its politico-social system must be enforced through sword on all
peoples who fall under the subjugation of Muslims. Islam had come to India India
The
Sixth Nanak, Guru Hargobind (1595-1645) in compliance with the directive and
will of the Fifth Nanak brought about conspicuous change in the character of
the Sikh movement by claiming for the Sikh people the status of
spiritual-cum-secular sovereignty in relation to all secular authority by
giving currency to and legitimising the concepts of the “rightful sovereign”, sacca
padishah, “governance”, raj, “seat of government”, takht, “Privy Council
Hall of the State”, darbar, as structural ideas of Sikh movement, and he
established the custom of “sitting in state”, wearing two swords, the emblems
of unicentral spiritual and temporal sovereignty . When the Tenth Nanak, Guru
Gobind Singh, ordained the Order of the Khalsa, in 1699, pledged to make every
sacrifice to ensure the prevalence of Sikhism and its growth into a Global
Brotherhood of Man, it was this emblem of Two-Swords, the Double-edged Disintegrator,
Khanda, which became the central object of the Mystery of Initiation for
the members of the Order. These activities of the Sixth Nanak did not escape
the notice of the Mujaddid, it seems, for the Emperor, on being apprised
of “the evils of these acts of the unbelievers”, ordered that Guru Hargobind be
incarcerated as a political prisoner in the fort of Gwalior Tehran Agra Delhi
Khwaja
Mohammed Ma’soom, (1007-1079 A.H.) was the third son of the Sheikh Sirhindi,
the Paraclete and it was this Ma’soom who succeeded the Regenerator of the
Second Millennium. At the death of his father, Khawaja Ma’soom continued the
policy of his illustrious father with a remarkable vigour, and he maintained
and continued a prolific
correspondence with men of eminence in the State and society. He wrote letters
even to rulers outside India, such as the ruler of Bulkh, in Central Asia, and
as the writer· of the
Rauzatul-Qayyumi 28, a detailed compilation on the lives
and miracles of Sheikh Sirhindi and his three immediate successors,
testifies, Aurangzeb, as a Prince, became the disciple of Khawaja Ma’soom.
After his accession to the throne, the Emperor expressed a wish for initiation
into the mysteries of Islamic Sufism by the Khwaja Ma’soom, but since the
latter had become too old by then he sent his son, Khwaja Mohammed Saifuddin
(1044-1096 A.H.) for the spiritual illumination of the Emperor to Delhi, and
Khwaja Mohammed Saifuddin remained in constant attendance on Aurganzeb
throughout his long military campaigns in Deccan. The
letters written by Khwaja Mohammed Saifuddin are collected in the publication
called Maktubat-Ma’soomiyeh, (Amritsar India
“This humble faqir offers his respects and expresses his gratitude
for the glory of Islam and the stability of Islamic Principles (resulting from
the policy of the Emperor). He always prays to God for long life, prosperity,
and his all-round success as he has had a deep attachment and close association
with him, the Emperor, for a long time past.”
A
modern Muslim scholar, Dr. Mohammed Yasmin, M.A., Ph.D. of Lucknow University,
in his recent publication (Lucknow
“It
will not be an exaggeration to say that Aurangzeb’s State policy was prompted
by the voice of the Sirhindi from behind the scene.”
The
same scholar endorses, our conclusions regarding the martyrdom of the Fifth
Nanak, Guru Arjun, when he says (p. 157) that,
“Occasional
outbursts of bigotry on the part of Jehangir and his anti-Hindu sentiments may
ultimately be traced to the influence of the Mujaddid on the fickle
minded Emperor.”
Aurangzeb, according to the contemporary records, (Ma’assari
Alamgiri, Urdu, page, 54), issued a general ukase to his Provincial
Governors, in A.D. 1699 that all the temples and teaching seminaries of the
non-Muslims should be demolished and forcibly closed. As the news of this fresh
onslaught of political Islam, on the Hindus and the Sikhs both, reached the
Ninth Nanak, Guru Tegh Bahadur (1621-1675), while he was touring and preaching
in Assam, the Guru, thereupon returned to the north-western India posthaste,
and went about from place to place, encouraging and heartening
people, asking them to organise and resist this imperial tyranny. It was, there
is little doubt, under the influence and at the suggestion and instigation of
Khwaja Mohammed Ma’soom that Aurangzeb decided upon the death and destruction
of Guru Tegh Bahadur, and, accordingly, the Guru was
arrested, and
on his refusal to become a Mohammedan, was put to death on the forenoon of the
11th November, in the year of 1675, in front of the Mughal Police
Station of old Delhi, where now the memorial Gurdwara of Sis Ganj stands. The
Jesuit Father, Manuci Niccolao, 29 tells us that the last words of
Aurangzeb at his death bed were,
“I die
happy, for at least the world will be able to say that I have employed every effort
to destroy the enemies of Mohammedan Faith.”
It
may b6 reasonably surmised that, the Emperor had the martyrdom of Guru Tegh
Bahadur, in particular, in his mind besides other things, at his last hours on earth, firmly
believing that by ordering the execution of Guru Tegh Bahadur and by persecuting
the Tenth Nanak, Guru Gobind Singh, he had committed a deed of such high merit
as will ensure his reception in the Paradise of Mohammed as promised in the
Koran to those who engage themselves in fighting the opponents of the Faith, as
well as memorable niche in the World history, which to his closed mind merely
meant the history of political Islam.
When
Guru Tegh Bahadur was publicly beheaded in the Silvery Esplanade, the Chandni
Chowk, of the Mughal Delhi on the eleventh of November, 1675, on his refusal
to accept Islam to save his life, his son who then became the Tenth Nanak, Guru Gobind Singh, was
only nine years’ old. In his unfinished Autobiography, called, ‘This life is
Wonderful’, Bachittranatak, he has evaluated this martyrdom of his
father in the following words :
“Tegh
Bahadur broke the mortal vessel of his body by striking it at the head of the
Emperor of Delhi and retreated to his ‘Original Abode’, the
God. Truly incomparable is this great deed done to assert and project three
basic human rights : One, to secure for every man the liberty to worship; Two, to uphold the inviolable dignity of
every man’s private and personal point of contact with God and his right to
observe dharma, what he conceives as basic principles of cosmic or individual
existence; and thirdly to uphold every good man’s imprescriptible right to
pursue his own vision of happiness and self fulfillment.” 30
Guru Gobind Singh thereafter retired for some years to the
Himalayan hills in the Hindu principality of Nahan, where he built a fortified
establishment near a strategic ford of the river, Jamuna, and gave it the
picturesque name of, ‘The Bracelet’, Paonta, for, here the river encircles the spur of the mountain
like a bracelet. The Guru spent a number of years at this place in acquiring
self-education and he thus completed the academic tuition his father had begun. He acquired mastery of Sanskrit
language and delved deep into its literature, besides the vernacular literature
and he also acquired acquaintance with the Arabic and
Persian languages and their respective literatures. He did a great deal of
creative literary work besides organising the religious and social activities
of the Sikhs but his plans were interrupted by a sudden and concerted attack on
his camp by the local levies reinforced by a contingent of the imperial troops,
no doubt, under the orders of Emperor Aurangzeb who was then campaigning in
Deccan. The Guru repulsed the attack by inflicting heavy losses on the enemy
but he decided to transfer his seat of residence from ‘The Bracelet’ to the old
village founded by his father, Anandpur, at the banks of the Sutlej .
It was at Anandpur that Guru Gobind Singh proceeded to mature his plans for the
regeneration of his people and for organising them into a power that would
ensure liberty of worship and a dignified living for all peace-loving people.
He organised an Academy
of Letters Anandpur India India , and Central Asia ,
to join the Order of the Khalsa and the chronicler had recorded that, within a
short time, more than 80,000 men and women joined. As soon as the news of this event
reached the Imperial ears of Aurangzeb down south, he felt a deep concern and
issued fresh orders, obviously under the advice and spiritual guidance of the
grandson of the Mujaddid, Khwaja Saifud-Din, reaffirming his previous prescript
of November 20, 1693, in which he had directed his Military Governors in the
north to the effect that,
“Gobind
declares himself to be the Nanak. All Military Commanders concerned are ordered
to prevent him from assembling his followers.” 31
It was in pursuance of these orders that the Military Governor
of Sirhind and the Military Governor of Lahore
“Who
art thou?
To
this the Guru made the answer:
Look
within thy-self and find out.”
The ascetic then slowly came out
with the question.
“Art
thou Guru Gobind Singh?
The
Guru nodded and the ascetic prostrated himself at the Guru’s feet in
submission, saying, “I am thy slave, your bandeh, at your bidding and
command.” 32
This
ascetic was initiated into Sikhism and was then knighted as a member of the
Order of the Khalsa, and was appointed as the Commander of the Sikhs. Soon
after, on October 7th, 1708, the Guru, while resting in his mid-day
siesta in his tent at Nanded, in South India, was treacherously stabbed by a
Pathan assassin, who, on the pretence of seeking spiritual illumination had
gained admittance into the tent of the Guru. This assassin had been sent, all
the way, from Sirhind, by .Bajida, instigated by the fanatical Khwaja Mohammed Saiful-Din,
the spiritual guide of Aurangzeb and the grandson of the Mujaddid, who
by now had returned to and settled down at Sirhind. It was the hidden hand of
the Khwaja Saiful-Din that procured Imperial orders for the siege of Anandpur
in 1701, its sack and destruction by treachery in 1704, and the barbarous death
to which the two infant sons of the Guru were bricked alive at Sirhind. The
stabbing of Guru Gobind Singh was a link in the chain. Although the Guru dispatched
the assassin on the spot, as his other companion was killed by the Guru’s
bodyguard, the Guru refused to allow his stomach wounds, stitched up, to heal,
declaring, according to a tradition, “We have no further use of this stitched-up corporal frame. That
what was assigned to us by the God Almighty has been accomplished. The Order
of the Khalsa is now already nine years old, which is the legal age of majority
for warriors. We now must go back to where we came from, for, such is the Will
of God.” Thereafter, as all accounts
agree, the Guru had a funeral pyre of odoriferous wood made up, and after
conferring his last benedictions on mankind as a whole and speaking words of
comfort to his beloved Order of the Khalsa, he set this funeral pyre aflame
through the all-consuming cosmic fire emitted through his nostrils, 33 and no relic of his body
was found within the cold ashes, which were curiously probed into, against the Gurus
instructions. The chronicler records that the last words which the Guru uttered
while sitting in the lotus posture on the funeral pyre, were : Waheguruji ka Khalsa Waheguruji ki
fateh, that is, “the Order of the Khalsa
is of God, to whom the final victory for ever and for ever more.” 34
A year
earlier, Commander Banda Singh, on whom the title of, Bahadur, had been
conferred by the Guru, had arrived in northern India where, gathered around him thousands of
them, the Knights of the Order of the Khalsa, in compliance with Guru Gobind
Singh’s written directives communicated through Bandeh Singh, to declare an
open war against the Imperial authority of the
Mughals. In the war manifesto he issued he declared, inter alia, that,
“The
Guru has done me the honour of appointing me as his slave, a bandeh, to
chastise the foreign depredators, the Turks. In fulfillment of my Mission
Thus
the Sikh doctrines preached by Guru Nanak fully blossomed into the concept of
the Order of the Khalsa which was to be a closely-knit Society of voluntary
members and selected on the basis of special qualifications, disposition and
character, pledged to make the Sikh Way of life prevail, with the ultimate
objective of establishing a plural, free, open global society grounded in a
universal culture. Arnold Toynbee, in his monumental work, A Study of,: History, 36 is quite
right in assessing that the Order of the Khalsa is the true prototype of the
All Russian Communist Party of Lenin, though he is mistaken in his judgement
that the Slave-household of the Ottoman Padishah, and the Qyaslbash fraternity
of the devotees of the Iranian Safawis were permeated with a similar ethos as inspires the Order of the Khalsa, or as animates
the Communist Party of Russia. The Order of the Khalsa is the first human
society in the world-history, organised with the deliberate object of and
pledged to bring about an oecumenical human Society, grounded in a
world-culture, which represents a free and organic fusion of the various
strands of the spiritual heritage of Man.
The
basic commandment of the The tenth Nanak, Guru Gobind Singh, to the Knights of the Order of the
Khalsa is,
“Thou
shalt not submit to slavery, in any form whatever.” 38
Our
historian, Arnold Toynbee, is quite wrong in supposing, in his, An Historian’s
Approach to Religion, that,
“Sikhism
fell from (its) religious height into a political trough, because the Sikh
Gurus, Hargovind and Gobind Singh succumbed to the temptation to use force.” 39
There
was no succumbing here to any temptation whatever, for, the Order of the
Khalsa, as conceived and founded by Guru Gobind Singh, was a logical
consummation of the teachings of Guru Nanak. All higher religions are founded
on the concept of what they conceive to be the summum bonum for man
and they attempt to hold out a vision of the man who has realised this end, the
Ideal Man. Guru Nanak, while describing the true nature of Reality, and the discipline
through which it may be approached and contacted, has given unmistakably clear
clues, couched in the vakrokati, the ancient “tortuous speech”, which
reveals the penumbra of the Mystery, as to the nature and status of this Ideal
Man, by revealing that this Ideal Man is a human being who, after he has
,achieved a new integration of his personality and his ultimate harmony with
the Reality, operates and functions in and through the sociopolitical context
on this earth. These doctrines are laid down in the concluding four stanzas of
the Japu, and when Guru Gobind Singh founded the Order of the Khalsa, he
merely gave a concrete form to these doctrines of Guru Nanak and did not just
attempt to meet any contingent situation such as, “a decision to fight the
Mughal ascendency with its own weapons”, as Arnold Toynbee concludes. If Bandeh
Singh or Banda Singh Bahadur raised the standard · of revolt against the Mughal ascendency in the north
west of India
It is
a basic conception of the Sikh religion that the Ideal Man operates in and
functions through the socio-political human society: It is a fundamental postulate of
Sikhism that such a man is a free man. He is a free man in the sense that he
has transcended the limitations of his little ego, the individual self. He has
identified or he strives to identify himself with the universal Self, the God. As such, his existence is incompatible with
subjugation or slavery. He, therefore, must never submit to slavery. A Sikh chronicler, Rattan Singh
Bhangu, in his Prachin Panthparkash (early 19th century)
quite rightly defines a Sikh as one “who owes allegiance to no mortal and thus
is politically sovereign.” 40 The Order of the Khalsa is a
Society of such Sikhs, who voluntarily agree to join it and are deemed fit to
dedicate their lives for creating necessary conditions for the prevalence of
the Sikhs, the
Sikh way of life, and culminating in a plural, open and tolerant World Society and a World culture. Achieving
political effectiveness at the decision-making levels, therefore, is the purpose and destiny of the
Khalsa and the privileges and duties of this destiny are specifically bestowed
on the Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh. 41 The special discipline of
wearing uncut hairs, and
certain other symbols, and the commandment to insist on enjoying the unlicensed
right to wear arms freely is a part of the discipline made mandatory for the ·Knights of the Order of the Khalsa. A Sikh, who for some reason, which
by its very nature can only be personal and expediential, does not voluntarily enlist in the
Order of the Khalsa, remains
a Sikh nevertheless.
It is
vital to understand this, for,
on account of lack of this understanding a great deal of confusion about
Sikhism has arisen and many
unnecessary resistances have been generated in the minds of many well-intentioned people about Sikhism
as a World religion, and
its future as a spiritual oecumenical Impulse.
The
Sikhs, under the command of Bandeh Singh Bahadur, occupied, Sirhind, the redoubtable Mughal military
cantonment of north western India, in May, 1710,
and conquered the whole of the adjoining region soon after. Formal sovereignty
was assumed by the Sikhs with their capital at Mukhlispur, renamed,
the Steel Fort, Lohgarh, in the hilly area of the present Ambala
District, and the coin was struck with the following legend inscribed on it,
“The
sword of the central Doctrine of Nanak destroys the evils of both the worlds,
the poverty and slavery on this earth, and the sickness of the soul hereafter,
and we hereby proclaim our sovereignty over both the worlds, the seen and the
unseen. The final victory in our struggle has been vouchsafed by Guru Gobind
Singh, the Harbinger of the good Tidings of the ever present Grace of God.” 42
It was
not to be supposed that this audacious proclamation and this seismic act would
there and then destroy the Mughal empire in India
“I was privileged and 1 am proud that my Master, Guru Gobind
Singh, chose me as His instrument to inflict punishment on the heads of those
of whose inequities even the heavens were asleep.” 43
Before
Bandeh Singh was executed with unspeakable tortures, he was asked by the Mughal
emperor, Farrukhsiyyar, as to ‘how he would like to die’. The reply of Bandeh
Singh was’: “the
same way as you wish to die”. And sure enough, Farrukhsiyyar
met his end, with tortures soon after, while imprisoned in the royal hell-hole
prison of the Red Fort, Tripolia, where Bandeh Singh had been kept captive.
From 1716
till 1765, a period of half a
century, a tiny band of Sikhs, organized into the Order of the Khalsa, faced persecutions, pogroms and
well planned genocide campaigns, organised and executed, by the mightiest Empire of the
times, the Mughal empire and the Pathan empire, and some of the greatest generals
of Asia, such as Ahmed Shah Durrani,
but they neither flinched nor abjured their faith, nor did they ever relent or
waver in their profession and aim of freeing themselves of all political
tyranny and social slavery, with the ultimate object of gaining decision-making
political power to employ it as a lever for creating conditions in which a free
and just society can arise and function. During this period, they were hunted like wild beasts after
having been outlawed as a People, and a price was put on their heads, making
them liable to be killed at sight, but the history does not record a single
instance of voluntary apostasy or wavering in the face of these terrible
persecutions, and the Sikh martyrs constitute some of the brightest jewels in
the necklace of religious martyrdoms that graces the Neck of God, and emits
effulgence of the glory of Man. In the year 1765, the Sikhs took possession of Lahore , the seat of the regional Imperial authority in the
north western India
The
consolidation of the political power of the Order of the Khalsa over the whole
of north western India, including Kashmir and Little Tibet during the 18th
century is a matter of recent history, but what is not generally known is that
the political Islam as represented by its ulema, with their apotheosis
in the Mujaddid of Sirhind, continued its efforts, relentlessly to
oppose, and if possible to destroy, Sikhism. The story of the hidden hand of
the Mujaddid behind the execution of Guru Arjun, the incarceration and intent
to kill Guru Hargobind through a full scale military operation, the persecution
of Guru Har Rai, the evil plan against Guru Hari Krishan, the public decapitation
of Guru Tegh Bahadur, the cruel killings of the infant sons of Guru Gobind
Singh, and infliction of grievous wounds on his own body has been told, in
brief, and this story now must be further told. Like the Murtaza Khan, the
real murderer of Guru Arjun, and the Lalla Beg, who with his army made a
murderous attack on Guru Hargobind, the Sayyids of Barah, were also
fanatical followers of the Mujaddid. Who were these Barah Sayyids? True
Sayyids are the sons of Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed, and
strictly speaking, they are only those descended from Fatima, the daughter of
the Prophet. But there are ulvi Sayyids, descended through other wives
of Ali. Barah Sayyids ascribe their origin to one Sayyid Abdul Farrah
Wasti ibn Sayyid Daood who came to India Patiala India India Delhi
These Barah
Sayyids were in the forties of the 18th century rendered
impotent and relegated to obscurity by the Sikhs, through subjugation and destruction
of their estates and headquarters in the trans-Jamuna tract, particularly the
region of Muzzafarnagar. But the flames of political Islam which the Mujaddid
had lit and directed against Sikhism, were by no means extinguished.
By AD. 1760, the greatest Hindu Power of the day, the Marathas,
had spread their influence up to Indus, and the Marathas, therefore, had become as odious to the political Islam in India, as
expounded by the Mujaddid, as the Sikhs and Sikhism. It was Shah Wali-Ullah Dehlvi, an ulema, and a staunch follower and
successor of the Mujaddid, with his seat at Delhi, to which
place the Mujaddid headquarters had been moved ever since 1710, who
worked tirelessly for instigating Najibul-Dawla, the Rohilla Chief, and Ahmed
Shah, Durrani, the King of Kabul, to join hands to extirpate the “evil
of the unbelievers”, from the country of India, as a result of which the fifth
invasion of the Durrani took place, culminating in the historic battle
of Panipat fought on January 14, 1761 which sealed the fates of the expanding
Maratha power in India. But the Sikhs still remained
alive and kicking, and Shah Wali Ullah, therefore, sponsored the sixth
invasion of the Durrani as a result of which over thirty thousands
Sikhs, men, women and children were suddenly pounced upon and massacred by the Mughal
invaders, near Ludhiana Amritsar
Even when by the first quarter of the 19th century, the Sikh
political power was securely and firmly established in the Punjab, Afghan
Frontier province, Kashmir and Little Tibet, the followers of the Mujaddid were
still active against the Sikhs. One Ahmed Shah, Brelvi, a successor of the Mujaddid,
with his headquarters further removed to Bareli, a town in the Gangetic
plain under the wings of the British and secure from the reach of the Sikhs as
Delhi was no longer so, undertook an extensive tour of Arabia and other
neighbouring Islamic countries in the twenties of the 19th century
with a view to canvassing support for organising a holy Muslim war, jehad, against
the Sikhs, and with the tacit sympathy of the British rulers of India he was
enabled to organise and collect, in 1831, a formidable and well equipped force
of more than two hundred thousand fighting men near Nowshera on the Afghan
Frontier, then a Sikh frontier town, to destroy the Sikh political power. In the
resultant contest, however, it was the reverend. Ahmad Shah, who
perished, and the task of finishing the Sikh political power fell to the lot of
another People who had little sympathy whatever with the ideas and ideals of
the Mujaddid of Sirhind.
For
want of proper ideological awareness and comprehension, the Khalsa Commonwealth
by now had degenerated, in fact, into a Monarchical system of government, with
the result that they fell a prey, though by no means an easy one, to the
predatory onslaughts of the Western adventurers, in the middle of the 19th
century and their homeland and their dominions became a part of the British
Indian Empire in the year 1849. But, as an enemy writer and an eye-witness, Joseph Davey Cunningham generously
records in his, A History of the Sikhs, at the battle field, while
abandoned by their Hindu controlled Civil Government, and treacherously abandoned
by their pseudo-Sikh military Generals; and
“although assailed on either side, by squadrons of horse and battalions of foot, no Sikh offered to
submit and no disciple of Guru Gobind Singh asked for quarter. They everywhere
showed front to the victor and stalked slowly and sullenly while many rushed
singly forth to meet assured death by contending with a multitude. The victors
looked with stolid amazement upon the indomitable courage of the vanquished.”
And
followed a hundred years of British subjugation for the Order of the Khalsa,
during which century its Knights neither forgot the use of arms, which the Guru
had commanded them never to neglect, nor their resolve to he sovereign,
although the art and the aim could not be coordinated in view of the
circumstances in which they were placed. This too was the Will of the Timeless
Person, the GuruAkalpurkh, subserving Divine Design!
The
exit of the British from India in 1947, once again saw the Sikhs engulfed in
the resultant fury, which was a hangover from the centuries-old struggle
between Sikhism, in its determination to survive, and the political Islam, of
which the Regenerator for the Second Millennium was a symbol, in its aim of
destruction of “the evil of the unbelievers”, and as a result; two hundred
thousands Sikhs perished in the communal fury of the Partition of the country
in which they struck as many blows as they received.
It may
now almost be said that Sikhism has successfully withstood the fury and
onslaughts of the political Islam in India, and with the spiritual Islam, it
never had any fundamental serious quarrel, and this has made possible an
understanding and mutual accommodation, genuine and sincere, between Sikhism
and Islam such as was the original aim and wish of the Founders of Sikhism.
From
its traditional role of the Protector of the Hindus and its historical role of
a defender of the basic values of life, Sikhism has now been placed in the
position of a nominally subordinate partnership, but in practice, complete
subjection, with a politically resurgent Hinduism, which finds it difficult to
tolerate any non-conformity, or to accept and concede the right of others to
exist in their own right and to forgive those whom it has already and
grievously wronged. As Sikhism is an afflation of man’s culture, its flower and
entelechy, and thus, there is no question of a genuine quarrel between
Hinduism and Sikhism. But the reality of the neo-socio-political Hinduism as it
has manifested in recent years, in its attitudes towards Sikhism, lends some
colour to the genuine fears of some keen observers that in the second half of
the 20th century, the Sikhism, faces a real crisis, a possible
consequences of which might be its diffusion in spirit and physical dispersion
abroad, obliging it to seek refuge, for its sheer survival, in some political
arrangements that promise a haven of safety. But it is also likely that as time
passes, a saner, a less parochial strain in the Hindu mind, might assert itself
such as does not deem crafty subtlety as wisdom, cruelty as firmness, narrow
self-interest as statesmanship, and legalism and cauistry as the true essence
of Hinduism, and which no longer regards intentions unrelated to moral
responsibility, as legitimate dynamism of mature human conduct.
However,
Sikhism, as a World religion, and as spiritual impulse will have failed to
establish its claim as such unless it can successfully meet the challenge that
is implicit in their present situation and predicament as successfully as it
did in the past in its encounter ‘with the formidable political Islam.
That
this situation is not an easy one, particularly in view of the notions that
political Hinduism now entertains about its abiding and inalienable prerogative
always to remain at the top. The Sikhs have a faith of playing a positive role
in the future as destined by the unseen, concealed world, still hidden beneath
the surface but indicated and revealed by Guru Gobind Singh as the Will of God 46,
of the Sikh People a derivative not from the calm regular course of things, but
sanctioned and conceded on all sides, irrespective of what hopes and fears
about the future of the Sikhs and Sikhism one may choose to have.
1. Se
akhian beann jinahi disandro mapri.
2. nam rahio sadhu rahio, rahio gur, gobind, kahu nanak is jagat
main kini japio gurmant.
3. nam tull kichhu avar na hoe.
4. nanak namu chadhadi kala.
5. guru binu ghor andhar — Sikh
scripture.
6. jot soi jugat sai sahi kaya pher pallatiya — Sikh scripture.
7. Heschel, Abraham, J., The Prophets, N.Y. 1963, p. 364.
8. pavai ta so janu dehi jis nau hori kil karhi vecaria.
9. es nao horu thao nahin sabdi lagi svaria.
10. satguru bahjon hor kacei hai bani.
11. kahinde kacce sunde kacce kaccin akh vakhani.
12. chit jini ka hir laia maia bolain pae ravani.
13. anand anand sabh ka kahai, anand
guru te jania.
anand bhaia meri mae satguru main
paia. — Sikh Scripture.
14. dvi vinsat dilli umraev, iti sikh manjis bithaiv — Gurpratap
Suryodey Granth.
15. satian ehu na akhierh jo jali aggi marran.
16. hor manamukhi daj ji rakhi vikhalahi so kad hankaru kacen pa.
17. “pap di janj lai kabulon dhaiyo
jori mange dan ve, Lalo, kadian, bahmanan ki gall thakki akad padhe saiton ve Lalo. — Sikh Scripture
18. Maktubaat. Lucknow
19. Du Jarric, Father Pierre, Akbar and the
Jesuits, (trans. H. Payne) 1st. edition, London
20. hun hukam hoa meharvan da, pai koi na kisai rinjan do, sab sukhali, Vulhian hoa hamlemi raj jio – Sikh Scripture.
21. “Mussalman momdil hovai,
antar
ki mal dil te dhovai,
dunia rang na avai nede,
jio kusam patu ghio pak hara.”
22. Maktubat I.
23. Maktubat I.
24. Ibid. x. 54, 80, 163, 165, 193.
25. Mulctubat I.
26. Sheikh Badrud-Din Sirhindi, tr. Khwaja Ahmed Hussain, Mansur Steam Press, Lahore
27. Mohammad Hasham Kishmi Burhanpuri, Zubdehtul-Muqamat
(M.S. 1827, Khuda Bakhsh Library, Patna).
28. Rauzatul Qayyumiyyah is, in
original; an Arabic work by Khwaja Kamaluldin Mohammed Ehsan, who was a
descendent of the Regenerator.
29. Manuci Niccolao, Storia do Mogor
(1653-1708). trans. William Irwin. 4. Volume
London
30. tilak janju rakha prabha taka, kino bado kalu main saka,
dharam
hetu saka jini kia, sis dia par sirr na dia
sadhan
hetu iti jini kari, sis dia par si na ucarii.
31. Akhbarati-Darbari-Mu‘alla. Royal Asiatic Society, London
32. Ganda Singh, Life of Banda
Singh Bahadur. Amritsar
33. “tab samadh satguru lagai, yogagni turan upjai
Gurpratap suryodey
III. (ii). 24. 18.
34. Waheguruji ki fateh kahi ant ki bar — Gurpratap-suryodey.
35. “turkan ke nij levan bair pathio guru ne mujhka kar bandeh,
main kar
khuar, Bajide ko mar,Sirhindujad, karehon suchhanda. — Gyani Gyan Singh, Panthprakash, (kavita). 1896-1900.
Vol. III published, Amritsar
36. Abridgment. VoIs. VII-X.
Oxford
37. Khalsa so jis apna tanman dhan
guru nu saunpia.
-Rahitnameh Bhai Caupa Singh
38. raj karhain ikke lar mar hain. — Pracin Panth Prakash
39. Gifford Lectures (1952-1953). Oxford
40. kis hun ki ih kan
41. tab singhan ko bakhsh kar bahu sukh dikhlai,
phir sabh prithvi ke upare hakam thaihrai,
tin jagat sambhal kari anand racai,
tab bhaio jagat sabh khalsa
manamukh bharmai.
-Var, Bhai Gurdas II.
42. Sikkeh zad bar har du-alam, teghi-nanak vahibast, fatth shahinshahan,
fadli saccasahib ast. — Gobind Singh
43. Kamvar Khan, Tazkirat-Chughtaiya. Ms. 1723. f. 180. Also, Mirza Mohammed Harisi, Ibratnameh. Ms. f. 62.
44. Akbarnameh, Bevaridge, III. 225, 224, Badauni, Lowe. II. 237.
45. II. p. 269.
46. agiya bhai Akal ki tabhi chalaio panth.....
raj karega Khalsa aki rahai no koi.
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