Guru Gobind Singh defend Dharma as the force-spiritual religious moral and physical which protects the saints and exerpates the evil doers dushtas He declared that he had been commissioned to instal Dharma to protect the saints and to wipe act the evil-doers-dharam chalavan sant ubaran dusset sabhan ko mul uparan. He declared a war on the forces of adharam-tyranny injustice inequality etc to win a victory for the Supreme Light Waheguru ki Fateh For this campaign for Dharma he set a path the way in the form of a Panth and transformed the Sikhs who were bhaktas into the Khalsa army of the Supreme one and directly commanded by him. They who joined the band of the Khalsa by surrendering their heads to the Guru pledged to acknowledge the Supreme Light alone as their Master and pledged their heads to win a victory for the Supreme Light-Wahe-guru ji ka Khalsa Wahegur ji ki Fateh. Sikhism is basically and fundamentally a path of bhakti but the spirit of Waheguru ki Fateh victory to the Lord has to be accommodated in that bhak ti. That distinguishes the Sikh way of bhakti from any other way of bhakti that flourished in India.
Now what precisely in this Waheguru ki Fateh or Victory to the Lord? The implication again is of the social commitment of the movement as an integral part of the spiritual and religious regeneration of India. The victory referred to win Waheguru ki Fateh is the Spiritual regeneration of India in relevance to the divine attributes counted and recounted in the Mul Mantra. The spirit of Waheguru ki Fateh is to pave a way for that society which is unified ekoankar which accepts the challenge of life which is a reality satinamu which is free from all types of fear and rancor nirbhau nirvair which is devoted to that beauty in man which is eternal akal murt which is free and sovereign ajuni saibhan For the Dharma gurmat was commissioned.
Guru Gobind Singh added the militant dimension to the bhakti but all the same bhakti remained basic and predominant The constitution of the sant soldier Khalsa aims at strict discipline-physical ethical religious social and spiritual The discipline i to be possible only if the Khalsa remains wedded to the Supreme Light Waheguru ka Khaka that is if the Khalsa first of all inculcates the virtues of the Mul Mantra and Mundavni into its own body or the Panth. Thus as per injunction proclaimed by Guru Gobind Singh bhakti and rehat code of conduct became identical and eternally coexist. To the Khalsa wearing of the five K’s called kakars or five symbols of the uniform of the Khalsa is bhakti or Guru and God. To the Khalsa performing of the nitnam viz. saying prayer thrice a day morning evening and bed time of the prescribed texts for each time is bhakti. To the Khalsa observance of rehat a detailed code of conduct and to avoid kurehat misconduct is bhakti. To the Khalsa waging war for the sake of Dharma and for gur fateh Victory to the Guru is the noblest form of bhakti. For war-the discipline as laid by the Guru is very exacting and strict (1) Firstly a war is to be waged only when all other reasonable and dignified methods of redress of injustice or adharma have been tried and exhausted and have failed. His couplet as found in his Zafarnama Epistle of Victory goes as this; chun kar az hama hilitai dar gnzasht halal ast burdan ba shamsher dast. This is sword is to be taken up only when all other methods have failed. (2) Secondly the Gurx laid down the qualification of the Khalsa who could be per. mitted to carry the sword. Here is a chhand verse from his Jaf Sahib a composition with which the Dasam Granth opens. The Gurusalutes the Timeless Being as namo shastar pane name astar manne namo param giata namo lokmata viz. [salute Thee the wielder of weapons I salute Thee the wielder of missiles I salute Thee the all-knowing. 1 salute Thee the Mother of humanity. That is he who is all knowing and has the tender heart of a mother who loves all can take up the sword after having exhausted all other means of redress of an evil or mischief Here bhakti is made compatible with shakti and it is adding a new dimension to the Indian concept of bhgati. Submission to tyranny or injustice or evil-force is kurehat misconduct for the Khalsa. Besides kurehat includes sacrilege t to her hair tobacco-smoking and intoxication adultery and eating the kosher meat. Respectively these imply that a Sikh (1) would follow the path of paryitri the way of the householder (2) would ever abide in sahaja (3) would respect the laws of society even in war and (3) would not submit to political social or religious intolerance or subjugation. So the Sikh idea of bhakti is to conform this aspect also.
(SIKH REVIEW)
Article extracted from this publication >> May 17, 1991
