Guru Amar Das was born at Basarke in Amritsar Dist. on May 5, 1479. He was about 10 yrs. younger to Guru Nanak, but somehow had not come in contact with Guru Nanak. His father’s name was Tej Bhan Bhalla and mother’s Lakhami, He was married to Ramo. He had four children, two sons Mohan & Mohani and two daughters Dani & Bhani.

He lived a very simple life of a devout Hindu, He went to all pilgrimages but found no peace. He was 69 yrs. old when one day, he heard in the early morning hours, hymn of Guru Nanak being sung by Bibi Amro (Guru Angad’s daughter who was married to his nephew). He was so impressed by those hymns, that he came to Khadur and became a follower of Guru Angad. He started serving him with full dedication. At this ‘old age he would go every morning to the river to fetch water for Guru’s morning bath. Then he go to the forest for collecting wood for kitchen and will work whole day doing one thing or another. He did this for 12 yrs. One morning, while he was bringing water for the Guru, he stumbled against the peg of a spindle, near a weaver’s hut. On hearing the sound the weaver woke up and when he asked his wife about the noise she said, “It must be Amu, the homeless.”

When Guru Angad heard about it he said, “Amar Dass is not homeless, he is a home for the homeless.” Finding him worthy to carry on Guru Nanak’s mission, he appointed him his successor, He assumed Guruship on March 26, 1552 at Khadur. He was about 73 yrs at that time. To avoid the jealousy of Guru Angad’s sons he left Khadur and settled in Goindwal. Once Datu (Guru Angad’s Son) came there and kicked him off from his seat. Even this did not anger Guru Amar Das. He said, “Sir pardon me, my old bones must have hurt your tender foot”. He preached to his disciples to use the same patience and Humility. He used to say, “if one ill-treats you, bear it, If you bear it three times, God himself will fight for you for the fourth time.”

Though he was old when he took over but he did a lot in the short period of his Guruship to reorganise Sikhism which was falling back into the folds of Hinduism,

  1. He did a lot for the women. He Prohibited Purdah (veil) and opposed the Practice of SATI (Burning alive with the dead husband). He said true Sati is one who suffers the torture of separation which is worse than death. He promoted remarriage of the widows, thus he gave equal status to woman with man.
  2. He builds Bowli (a well with staircase) and said that Sikhs will find all the benefits of pilgrimage by taking a bath in it,
  3. He continued the practice of free Kitchen and whosoever came to see him, first he had to eat in the kitchen with everybody else. When Akbar came to see him even he had to eat with commoners in the kitchen, only then Guru Amar Dass met him.
  4. He organized missionary work and established twenty-two seats (manjis) and appointed 146 well trained missionaries out of whom 52 were women. Never in the history of India women were given such position and power.
  5. He spoke against the priestly class He preached that one could reach God without any mediator.
  6. He started writing at the age ‘of 73 and composed Anand Sahib. His 907 hymns are included in Guru Granth Sahib (Holy Book). Thus he gave the Sikhs a well-organized institution and set the ball rolling which put Sikhism on the way to gradual dissociation from Hinduism.

Article extracted from this publication >> April 11, 1986