In the year 1613 A.D., Guru Hargobind entered the rural areas of present district of Amritsar, with the aim of propagation of Sikh faith. He visited village after village for this purpose, In the village Chabba lived a lady named Sulakhni, who had no male issue. In her desire to get a son she had seen many saints and hermits. Wherever she went she got the same reply “O lady, your writ is void of a male child”.
‘Sitting on the horse back, Guru Hargobind was passing by the side of Chabba. Sulakhni, holding a pen and an inkpot in her hand, addressed him thus:
You of handsome beard,
And of turban white,
I beg you, O Guru!
Just one word, here you write of the Chabba village.
Fruitless woman am I,
I yearn for fruit of son,
O my lord, do not deny!
Guru Hargobind, who was hardly eighteen years old then, smilingly replied : “O mother, the fruit you seek is not in your writ,” Demonstrating the extremes of the profoundness of her faith and extending her hand toward the Guru, in which she held the inkpot and the pen, she begged
O Master, it’s you alone,
Who writes there, and writes here,
If you didn’t do it then,
Can’t you do it now, my dear?
The Guru was touched by the depth of lady’s devotion. He was left with no choice. While he was in the process of writing number ‘I’ on the piece of paper, the horse moved forward, causing the number to be written ‘7’ instead of one. Sulakhnithe lady of good writ bore seven male children, all of whom enrolling in the army of saint soldiers; tater served the Guru in his battles against the ‘Moghul forces during the reign of Emperor Shah Jahan.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 9, 1990
