Introduction: The year 2000 is around the corner. A new century is dawning. This century’s last year – 1999- is a milestone for the Sikhs. It is 300 years since Guru Gobind Singh created the Khalsa. How shall we plan for it? We raise the issue now several years ahead of time because good planning takes years. The suggestions made here are not offered to push a particular agenda but to foster an extensive discussion of long and short term goals. We recognize that not all that we submit is possible or relevant everywhere and some Sikh organizations may cull only a part of the suggested agenda, modifying what they select to suit their particular circumstances. Do what is doable but do it well; the key word is elegance.
Baisakhi of 1699: History tells us that on Baisakhi (around mid-April) 1699 the tenth Guru, Gobind, appeared before a congregation of 80,000 at Anandpur in Punjab. He flashed a naked sword and demanded a head. Some followers slipped away, many looked away. What kind of a Guru asks his followers for such a sacrifice? This Guru did, not once but five times. Each time, one Sikh stepped forward. History also records that from this modest beginning, Guru Gobind Singh created the mighty Khalsa nation. He dubbed them “lions,” each equivalent to 125,000 ordinary men; each a king among men or a princess. His Sikhs were to have the valor of a lion and the grace of a princess.
After he created this new order, the Guru knelt and his first five converts in turn converted him from Gobind Rai to Gobind Singh. By this act, he sent himself, not as a ruler of a nation or the General of an army, but another soldier of the Khalsa. In this unique gesture, the leader acknowledged his debt to his own people. Every leader is so indebted but few remember. It was a rare process and technique to teach a downtrodden and powerless people the idiom of empowerment and it turned India’s feudal society on its head.
Khalsa was designed to be an army of winners, fearless and pure, in ser- vice to God and Man, in pursuit of righteousness. This “pride of lions” of Sikh was to have no professional clergy, nor were there to be any sheep or shepherds. In this nation of soldiers of God, there were to be none who were more equal than others. Hence- forth, every Sikh who was a Singh or Kaur was to be in uniform as a soldier. The code of conduct applied equally to all, including the Guru and he him- self remained answerable to the directives of his Khalsa.
Guru Gobind Singh created the Khalsa but the foundation stone was laid by the iconoclast Nanak who challenged authority most boldly and by his followers who were martyred for the right to live with dignity. Guru Nanak found a demoralized nation but by his teaching and by the examples of his followers, the spark of self-respect was lit; the process of transformation into a lion had begun. Two hundred years later, by the time.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 1, 1995
