We offer our felicitations to all our readers on this day of the birth of the Khalsa.
Vaisakhi the occasion the Tenth Guru created Khalsa Panth is probably the most important day in the Sikh calendar. While bestowing his Roop upon the Khalsa the Guru gave a significant message to the world. What is the essence of the message?
The Guruimbibed a unique spirit of ‘saint soldier’ among the Sikhs, that is spiritual dedication to the Almighty on the one hand, and an attitude of ever readiness to resist injustice, inequality and oppression until such time a just and righteous order is restarted on the other hand. Evil is to be removed from society and the true faith of devotion to the Almighty is to be extended in the world by peaceful proclamation.
While confronting the state oppression the Guru wrote to Aurangzeb: “On a principle of self-preservation, which is superior of all laws … I will teach the sparrow to strike the eagle to the ground” a fine allusion to his design of inspiring the humblest those suffering oppression and injustice with that valor and ambition which would lead them to perform the greatest actions. His teachings and personal actions inculcated among the Sikhs in ample measure the qualities of patience, forgiveness, kindness, devotion physical hardiness, courage, confidence and martial siprit which were to make them famed warriors known all over the world.
Joseph D. Cunningham in the mid19th century observed: “The last apostle of the Sikhs … actually roused the dormant energies of a vanquished people and he filled them with a lofty although fitful longing for social freedom and national ascendancy, the proper adjuncts of that purity of worship which had been preached by Guru Nanak. A living spirit possessed the whole Sikh people, and the impress of Guru Gobind Singh has not only elevated and altered the constitution of their minds, but has operated materially and given amplitude to their physical frames.”
Universal brotherhood and equality of mankind is the other component of the Guru’s Vaisakhi message. In his compositions he prays for the entire mankind and points out that human beings are created by One Light. Furthermore, that entire world seeks and prays to same God and mentions specially “the people of Arabia, of France; the kandhari, the Qureshi, the Westerner, the Marathas, the Biharis, the Oriyas, the Bengalis, the English; the residents of Delhi, the Gurkhas the Chinese, Manchurians, Tibetans the easterners of Kamrup and Kumaon all these were blessed as they sing the praise of One God.”
The founder of the Khalsa preached truthfulness, sincerity and humility and fought against religious fanaticism, caste distinctions, and superstitious beliefs. He awakened people to a new life in which he exhorted them to uphold the right and condemn evil and injustice and his whole life was spent in the practice of these precepts. Today, more than ever, we have a need to follow his example.
“Raj karega Khalsa aqi rahe na koe, Khwar hoe sab milenge, bachhe sharan jo hoe”.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 14, 1989
