Sangrad of Chet will be observed on March 14, Besides Kirtan by Bhai Didar Singh and Party, Bhai Kirpal Singh will enlighten the Sangat through his Katha.

Guru Har Rai’s birth anniversary was celebrated with great enthusiasm from February 28 to ‘March 2nd. Kirtan was performed by Bhai Didar Singh and Party and Bhai Gurmel Singh and Party, Katha was done by Bhai Kirpal Singh,

GURU HAR RAI JI

Har Rai became the seventh Guru of the Sikhs at the tender age of fourteen,

‘Guru Hargobind chose Gurditta’s second son, Har Rai, to succeed him as the seventh Guru.

Guru Har Rai’s seventeen years of ministry was not marked by any spectacular events. Although he had inherited a military tradition and a small army, he was man of peace. He loved to hunt, but only to bring back wild animals for his private zoo at Kiratpur. He hated to hurt any living thing. He adhered strictly to the routine of life ‘of prayer exhorted by Guru Nanak. One of his disciples asked him. whether there was any point in reciting the Guru’s Hymns without understanding them, “Yes” replied ‘Guru Har Rai, “as the grease sticks to the pot when it is emptied, so does the Guru’s word stick to the heart. Whether you comprehend it or not, the word bears the seed of salvation, Perfume persists in the broken pieces even after the vase that contained it has been shattered.”

Sikh records maintain that the Guru cured Dara Shikoh, the eldest’s on of Emperor Shah Jahan, of poison. When asked why he had saved the life of a son of Shah Jahan who had tormented his father and grandfather, the Guru replied, “The man breaks flowers with one hand and offers them with the other, but the flowers perfume both hands alike, The axe cuts the sandalwood tree, yet the sandalwood perfumes the axe.”

During his tenure of Guru ship some notable conversions were made among the landed families of the Punjab. The ancestors of the princely families of Patiala, Nabha and Jind became closely associated with the Sikh Community. So did the ancestors of two other notable families, Kaithal and Bagarian, whose descendants played a distinguished role in the building of Sikh power.

Morning and evening, Guru Har Rai would listen to devotional music in the company of his followers and then on the Guru’s word, He would never miss the ‘opportunity to inculcate in his disciples the noble sentiments of humility and disinterested service ‘without which, he said, mere knowledge of the Divine or belief Were of little avail. Once he saw a snake in the forest whose skin sparkled in the sunshine, Pointing to it, the Guru said, “This snake might as well have been a pundit in his previous life — beautiful to behold in his dress, but the only knowledge he has is, to bite. Men also bite others through jealousy, but through the sharp wits and the poisonous fangs of controversy and argument.”

Emperor Aurangzeb had sum manners and spiritual attainments Was able to pacify the emperor and was accorded much honor by the court. But, once in his sycophancy, he went so far as to misinterpret a verse of Guru Nanak, on hearing the reports Guru Har Rai was very upset and said, “Guru ship is like the milk of a tigress which can be contained only in a cup of gold. Now Ram Rai shall never see my face again,

‘And so, it happened, The Guru breathed his last in 1616 A.D. and before he passed away, he proclaimed the succession of his five-year-old son, Har Kishan, as the eighth Guru.

Article extracted from this publication >> March 7, 1986