Acting on the dictates of his conscience Guru Teg Bahadur volunteered to interview in the dangerous situation, No one coerced him to do so, When he asked the Kashmiri Brahmins to convey to the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb that they would embrace Islam en mass if the Sikh Guru first did so, he was fully aware of the fact that he was extending an invitation to sure death.
‘Once he found himself in the mid of the deep stream there was no turning back for him. He stuck fast to his determination, no physical fortune, no threat to his existence, nor even the gruesome drama of the murder of three of his beloved Sikhs enacted before his eyes, could weaken his faith or waver him in his determination. It is rightly said about him, ‘sis dia pursirar na dia’. The Guru gave up his head but not his determination.
The valiant Guru demonstrated by his conduct that for man his religious faith, his soul’s love for the Lord, is much more valuable than any worldly good or even one’s life on this earth, Whereas life on the earth is evanescent and liable to termination sooner or later, human soul and its relationship with God are of enduring nature.
The history of almost every great religion is full of sacrifices made by its adherents for the sake of their faith. No religion, however, could provide us a single example of a supreme sacrifice made by its adherents for the preservation of the faith of the people belonging to a religion other than their own. The Sikh Guru exemplifies a unique event of human history by his sacrifice for those who did not belong to his religion. Guru Gobind Singh observes in ‘Vachitra Natak’ that the ninth Guru, at the cost of his own life, preserved the “tilak’ and ‘janjoo’ the saffron mark and the sacred thread, which form the essential symbols of the Hindu religion. The Sikhs wear neither the sacred’ thread nor do they apply the saffron mark on their foreheads. In fact, the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, was the first to discard these Hindu marks two centuries before the time of Guru Teg Bahadur’s martyrdom. A question may be asked as to why did the Guru sacrificed himself for the preservation of a religion he did not believe in, Almost an identical question was raised by Aurangzeb when he asked the Guru, “Why, you being a monotheist, are espousing the cause of the heretic people who believe in multiplicity of gods?” The answer to the question lay in the fact that by his supreme act the Guru was defending the fundamental rights of human existence, human dignity above all human freedom of ‘worship.
Beginning with Guru Nanak the: Sikh Gurus had expressed their strong and unequivocal disapproval for the practice of polytheism and idolatory, the two concepts held so dear by most sects of Hindu religion, But acknowledging the basic right of the individual to practice his faith in a way he likes best, they never resorted to physical force to change other people’s views. To get their views across they rather preferred a method of gentle persuasion. In ministers of religion, love and toleration had been the key notes of their approach.
From time to time, since the day Of great Guru’s martyrdom, a serious misconception had arisen that had tended to create a gulf between the Sikhs and the followers of Mohammed on the one hand, and erosion of the identity of Sikhism a5 an independent religion on the other. The act of sacrifice on the part of the Guru has been so interpreted in some quarters 45 to mean that Sikhism as a religion is at best a sect of Hinduism and anti-Islamic in nature, An important corollary to the above is the often repeated proposition that Sikhs were created for the sole Purpose of protection of the weak and helpless Hindus and apart from that obligation, they as individuals, had no serious aim of their ‘own existence. Such an errone0us view in respect of Sikhism and Guru Teg Bahadur’s martyrdom is supported neither by the facts of history nor by the scriptural authority.
Beginning form Mardana to Pir Budhu Shah of Guru Gobind Singh’s time the members of the Mohammedan community had been one of the best personal friends and devotees of Sikh Gur us, During his missionary tour of the Malwa tract of Punjab, even Guru Teg Bahadur along with his mother, wife, and Sikh disciples enjoyed for a number of weeks the generous hospitality of his Mohammedan friend Sharafuddin at Saiff abad, a town presently known as Bahadur Gath and situated in the district of Patiala,
‘The historians have rightly called the Guru ‘Hind di chaddar or the protector of the faith of India and not of the Hindus alone, The fact that the Hindus of his times were the chief beneficiaries of Guru’s act was a mere accident of history which should not obscure the true import of the supreme sacrifice made by him, True, the Guru came into open conflict with the Mughal Emperor in order to defend the rights of the weak and helpless Hindus of his times. This temporal fact, however, need not blind us to the values of eternal nature the Guru stood and died for. It was a matter of fight for the values of human life, human dignity and human freedom; In this particular situation the Hindus as a class happened to be the victims and the Mohammadans rulers the tyrants. Naturally, the Guru had to side with the oppressed party, Apart from this there was nothing special in the Hindus as their being Hindus that prompted the Guru to do what he did. If at that time any Hindu had been the wrong doer the Guru would have stood against him as he did against the Muslim ruler. That this would have been the case was amply demonstrated only a few years later, by his successor son, who as the tenth Guru of the Sikhs, stood against the haughty Hindu chiefs of the Shivalik Bills. His armed conflict with the combined forces of the hill chiefs resulted in heavy flow of the blood of hundreds of Hindus in the famous battle of Bhangani that took place in April 1689 A.D.
Here it should not be forgotten that this battle was fought to victory by the Guru with the active support of over seven hundred Mohammadans devotees of Pir Budhu Shab of Sadhaura — who in tum was a great devotee and friend of Guna Gobind Singh. This should serve as an eye opener to those who still harbour the delusion that Sikhs were created for the sole end of protecting the Hindus from the Mohammedans. The tenth Guru had made it clear in ‘Vachitra Natak’ that the sole aim of his coming into this world; lay in the promotion of righteousness and destruction of evil — irrespective of the source of its origination. The aim of the Khalsa Order that the Guru created and on whom he best owed Guru ship could not beat variance with his own life aim.
In this vital issue that concerns their separate identity and very ‘existence the Sikhs ought not to rely upon the biased interpreters of the facts of history. They should rather take counsel of Guru Granth Sahib who declares, “None is our enemy. None is alien to us. We are friends of the whole mankind”.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 12, 1986
