By Jasjeet Kaur Creaston Lowa
The fifth Guru, Guru Arjan Dev, whose martyrdom anniversary falls on 11th of June, made a distinct contribution to the social transformation in Punjab. He compiled the Guru Granth, the holy scriptures of Sikhs, founded Harmandir at Amritsar and through his martyrdom showed a way of hope and honor to mankind.
For compiling the Guru Granth, Guru Arjan Dey sorted out the works of all religious teachers belonging to the Bhagti movement. He then took the three main themes to be included in the Guru Granth. And these three were 1) works should preach oneness of God 2) one should neither advocate communal hatred nor incite religious fanaticism and 3) one should not deride women. He also popularized the Gurmukhi script so that the word of saints could be presented to people in their own language.
Guru Arjan Dev founded Harmandir at Amrit sar. It opens in all the four directions thereby welcoming the people belonging to all faiths and castes to visit in. The new religious shrine not only believes in the universal pervasion of God but also recognizes the oneness of human race. For laying the foundation stone of Harmandir, Guru Arjan Dev invited the Muslim divine, Mianmir. It was very sagacious step as it demonstrated that the new faith regards all human beings as equal and extends the same respect to all God loving people, irrespective of their religious beliefs. He also brought social equality among the people by continuing the tradition of langar (free kitchen) started by his maternal grandfather, Guru Amar Das.
The martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev took place in 1606. Because of his expanded mission of equality, liberty, fraternity and service of humanity through his preaching, writings and deeds, he inspired many to follow this path and people of diverse faith and cultural background started converting to Sikhism. The jealous Muslim ruler, Jahangir, wanted to stop the increasing popularity of Arjan and thus ordered his arrest. The Guru was made to sit on red hot plate of iron, and burning sand was poured over his bare body. He was also made to sit in the cauldron of boiling water, Then the most painful tor true that could be inflicted on a blistered body was to dip it in cold water. This is how an end was brought by the emperor Jahangir’s men to the Guru’s life.
Bhai Gurdas, Guruji’s maternal uncle has writ ten that the night before his death was very painful, but the Guru endured all this with smiling face in perfect calmness and resignation to “The Divine Will.” Thus, this was a supreme sacrifice for the cause of righteousness and truth. This was admittedly a unique martyrdom, which has absolutely no match in the Indian history.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 8, 1989
