I J. Singh New York University, New York, N.Y. and Neena I. Singh Sikh Educational & Charitable Foundation, Bellmore, New York

Baisakhi of 1699 History tells us that on Baisakhi (around ‘mid April) 1699 the tenth Guru, Gobind, before a congregation of 80,000 at Anandpur in jab. He flashed a naked sword and demanded a head, some followers sipped away, many looked away. It kind of a Guru asks his followers for such 4 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 Sit created the mighty Khalsa nation. 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 tum converted him from Gobind: Rai to Gobind Singh. By this act, he set 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 pope. 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 service to God and Man, in pursuit of righteousness, “This “pride of lions” of Sikhs 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. Henceforth; 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 himself remained answerable to the detectives of his Khalsa.

Guru Gobind Singh created the Khalsa but the foundation stone was laid by the iconoclast Nanak who alee authority most boldly and by his followers who ego 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 Stoner the spark of self-respect was lit; the process of transformation into a lion had begun. Two hundred years later, by the time of Guru Gobind Singh, it was time to awaken the sleeping lion. Only then did Guru Gobind Singh give his Sikhs a new uniform and a code of conduct.

Article extracted from this publication >>  April 10, 1996