GUR­PURAB SPE­CIAL:  Do you won­der at the Sikh farm­ers of Guru Gob­ind Singh on the bor­ders en­cir­cling Delhi and who are de­ter­mined to do a pa­rade of truth­ful­ness in­side the City of Djinns which they had con­quered and then re­turned back in hu­mil­ity?  In his trans­for­ma­tive cam­paign, Guru Gob­ind Singh was seized of the fact that re­li­gious free­dom was the most im­por­tant mile­stone in in­di­vid­ual evo­lu­tion, hence there was a cry­ing need to trans­form the or­di­nary, mun­dane farmer and trader of Pun­jab into a piece of ex­cel­lence, one that im­bibed steel and grit –one who could re­de­fine what liv­ing is, what ex­is­tence is. On Gur­purab Day, we will all be cel­e­brat­ing Sahibe Ka­maal -the Won­drous Lord, Dasam Pita- the Tenth Fa­ther, Chit­t­ian Baazan­wala Pathshah -the True Sov­er­eign of the White Hawks and much more. Ace men­tor-ac­tivist and writer Ka­mal Jit Singh Ahluwalia pre­sents a glimpse into the ac­tion-packed 42 years of Guru Sahib in de­vo­tion, ded­i­ca­tion and awe.

TODAY THE KHALSA in ac­tion is vis­i­ble on the pe­riph­ery of Delhi. Gur­purab Greet­ings to the Khalsa on the streets of Delhi and around the world. Hap­pier Gur­purab to those in awe of the Sikhs of Guru Gob­ind Singh and Hap­pi­est Gur­purab to those who con­sider it their mis­sion to fight the Khalsa of Guru Gob­ind Singh and his ide­ol­ogy. Let us live through the amaz­ing trans­for­ma­tion of Man by the Tenth Mas­ter Guru Gob­ind Singh.

IT IS A BIG LIFE, a path-break­ing life, an ex­tra­or­di­nary life, a life that had mean­ing, joy, sun­shine, sad­ness, tragedies, con­flicts, strug­gle. A life that has filled the pages of his­tory changed our world and filled our hearts.

A life of im­mense tragedy, a life where tragedy ceased to ex­ists, a life where cel­e­bra­tions were the key, a life where liv­ing was re­de­fined. Guru Gob­ind Singh’s ap­proach to his ex­pe­ri­ences was awe­some -a life where tragedy and strug­gle were con­stant com­pan­ions. In­ter­est­ingly stark was the way he ap­proached them -how he over­came them.

Com­mon­ers say that he was­n’t a nor­mal man -for me he was nor­mal but his think­ing, ac­tion and be­ing were ex­tra­or­di­nary. His re­sponses were firm and straight. He looked into the eyes of the prob­lem and en­sured that it sim­ply dis­ap­peared. Amus­ingly he gave prob­lems to his prob­lems.

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Let’s re­visit a sit­u­a­tion -af­ter the bat­tle of Chamkaur, where the losses were im­mense -one of the Sikhs asked him that is­n’t he sad at the blood­shed and the loss that has hap­pened. In­ter­est­ingly Gu­ru’s re­sponse was, No I am not sad -it was the Will of the Lord. My sons came for a def­i­nite pur­pose and left af­ter ac­com­plish­ing it. So were the many Sikhs. This is all or­dained. Sikhs said that the loss is in thou­sands and the Guru sim­ply smiled and said -the gain is in mil­lions.

Be­gin­ning:

Guru Gob­ind Singh’s life is a story of a birth of a spir­ited na­tion sans ge­o­graph­i­cal bound­aries cre­ated with love and com­prised of strong and right­eous war­riors who were will­ing to stand against tyranny and op­pres­sion.

As a Sikh, I need to hold on con­fi­dently to the mes­sage of the Guru and fol­low it. From that mirac­u­lous un­fore­seen will fol­low.

Guru Gob­ind Singh beams through his­tory with ra­di­ance and of a spir­ited light, who brought the ex­pe­ri­ence of God to the com­mon man while restor­ing his dig­nity and ho­n­our.

Guru Sahib helped his fa­ther to choose rather than de­cide. For him, re­spon­si­bil­ity, ac­count­abil­ity and its apt­ness were the pri­mor­dial things that mat­tered the most. For him, the mantra was pick­ing up the gun, aim­ing with amaz­ing ac­cu­racy and then shoot­ing. At the age of 10 when he was anointed to Gu­ru­ship -the as­sem­bled San­gat roared with a thun­der­ous call of de­vo­tion, vic­tory and love.

In a few months, Guru Sahib trans­formed Anand­pur -from a sad­dened town to one that breathed cre­ativ­ity, op­ti­mism, joy, light and com­merce.

At Paonta Sahib, Guru Sahib penned Jaap Sahib -the song of the war­rior saint –weav­ing dif­fer­ent lan­guages into 199 verses. Jaap de­scribes God from every side -from the nir­gun and the sar­gun, his tran­scen­den­tal and phe­nom­e­nal as­pects. In the mangla cha­ran he tells us that in nam­ing God we come to know about him. Suc­ced­ing at­trib­utes and names roar one af­ter the other through the en­tire com­po­si­tion which is be­yond the ra­tio­nal fac­ulty of man -deep into the realm of ex­pe­ri­ence.

In a few months, Guru Sahib trans­formed Anand­pur -from a sad­dened town to one that breathed cre­ativ­ity, op­ti­mism, joy, light and com­merce.

Yet in spite of get­ting im­mersed in po­etry and phi­los­o­phy, he for­got not what he had learnt at Anand­pur Sahib –the daily punc­tu­al­ity of the art of war­fare.

Guru Gob­ind Singh was seized of the fact that re­li­gious free­dom was the most im­por­tant mile­stone in in­di­vid­ual evo­lu­tion, hence there was a cry­ing need to trans­form the or­di­nary, mun­dane farmer and trader of Pun­jab into a piece of ex­cel­lence, one that im­bibed steel and grit –one who could re­de­fine what liv­ing is, what ex­is­tence is.

Guru Gob­ind Singh re­al­ized that in the com­ing press­ing times -where the Mughals in­tox­i­cated by their power and fa­nati­cism would pose a grave chal­lenge to the re­li­gious and eco­nomic free­dom of the Sikhs. Farm­ers and mer­chants of Pun­jab needed to be re­born as Saint-Sol­diers –one who had a dis­tinct ca­pa­bil­ity and ca­pac­ity to fight the tyranny and op­pres­sion while be­ing a non-doer.

And so in 1699, he cre­ated an ex­pe­ri­ence –an ever­last­ing one -a brand that was dis­tinct, dif­fer­ent yet in­te­grated and one who was to­tal and lived in to­tal­ity. He cre­ated a com­plete be­ing –a be­ing that ex­isted be­yond one­self.

He had re­al­ized from his child­hood that war has ceased to be a pur­suit of reg­u­lar pro­fes­sional armies. He knew that one can­not re­al­ize one­self if one is with­out strength and for­ti­tude, hence there was a def­i­nite need of rais­ing the whole com­mu­nity fit for com­bat where each in­di­vid­ual, in ad­di­tion to lead­ing him­self or a body of troops into bat­tle, has also to func­tion as a leader of the com­mu­nity.

And so in 1699, he cre­ated an ex­pe­ri­ence –an ever­last­ing one -a brand that was dis­tinct, dif­fer­ent yet in­te­grated and one who was to­tal and lived in to­tal­ity. He cre­ated a com­plete be­ing –a be­ing that ex­isted be­yond one­self.

There­fore, in ad­di­tion to mil­i­tary virtues of sol­diers based upon very sound moral, eth­i­cal code, each in­di­vid­ual was to be trained to un­der­stand the so­ci­ety in which he lived in, na­tion­al­ism, the flex­i­bil­ity of mind and spir­i­tual ad­vance­ment.

Pan Pyairay were from the cross-sec­tions con­sid­ered low and un­touch­able classes of so­ci­ety. Guru slashed down the age-old tra­di­tions of the so­ci­ety that war was the pre­rog­a­tive of the Ka­ha­tris alone. Any­one, who was sin­cere, pu­ri­tan by heart, could be a sol­dier in the Gu­ru’s army. To Guru Gob­ind Singh all races could fight equally well if and when pro­vided with a just cause and good lead­er­ship.

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The leader and the led were like a hand in a glove. Both fight a com­mon en­emy with a sin­gle mis­sion – ei­ther vic­tory or mar­tyr­dom. Ir­re­spec­tive of their ranks and sta­tus -both leader and led, in the Gu­rus army sat and ate to­gether.

At this oc­ca­sion, Guru blessed the Khalsa with the bat­tle cry of “Bole so Ni­hal Sat Sri Akaal” – The one who be­lieves in the truth of God is im­mor­tal; whichever has been shouted has un­nerved and non­plussed the en­emy in the bat­tle­field.

In the eyes of Gen­eral Wavell “Never met a de­spon­dent Sikh in the front line, in a hos­pi­tal, in the rear, he may moan over a small wound but in a fight, he will go on to his last breath and die laugh­ing at the thought of par­adise with the bat­tle cry of “Bole so Ni­hal Sat Sri Akaal” as he falls.”

In the eyes of Gen­eral Wavell “Never met a de­spon­dent Sikh in the front line, in a hos­pi­tal, in the rear, he may moan over a small wound but in a fight, he will go on to his last breath and die laugh­ing at the thought of par­adise with the bat­tle cry of “Bole so Ni­hal Sat Sri Akaal” as he falls.”

Old scrip­tures con­firm that strength and vigour re­ceived by the hu­man body from food gives im­pe­tus to the same thought process which the per­son had while eat­ing his food and con­se­quently moulds the ac­tions of the man con­sciously and un­con­sciously. There­fore, Guru Gob­ind Singh’s war drum, known as Ran­jit Na­gara, was sounded un­abated while his sol­diers had their food in the lan­gar.

Sym­bol­ized vic­tory through every salu­ta­tion -Wa­he­guru Ji Ka Khalsa Wa­he­guru Ji Ki Fateh -to that the con­cept of im­per­sonal vic­tory grows deep in the psy­che of every in­di­vid­ual at all lev­els of so­ci­ety.

It was a rev­o­lu­tion­ary so­cio-po­lit­i­cal-re­li­gious thought given to the masses for the first time in the his­tory of In­dia. The con­cept of im­per­sonal vic­tory ba­si­cally en­sured that his Khalsa never be­came com­pla­cent about his suc­cess and re­mained away from the deadly clutches of van­ity and pride.

Re­cap­ping
Gob­ind Singh is a mod­ern prophet who does not care about his­tory. He kills the tyrant by the sword alone, never felt sick or sorry in per­for­mance of his duty, or shy of war if he had to wade through in it cham­pi­oning the cause of the op­pressed. If you got to go, you have to go. Ac­tion is the de­ci­sive dis­tinc­tion.

He brought out char­ac­ter in its nat­ural sim­plic­ity and beauty and in­sisted that all men shall act for the pure love of man and God.

The spirit of Gob­ind as the leader of men is in­no­va­tion like the Bud­dha’s spir­i­tual democ­racy. Yet his democ­racy is more mod­ern, more nat­ural and ab­solutely spon­ta­neous. No co­er­cion of vows ex­ists in its con­sti­tu­tion.

On the sad­dle, he is an un­bro­ken union with Akal – the Time­less.  The brah­mini­cal I that Kr­ishna uses to hyp­no­tize Ar­juna is ab­sent in the ar­che­type of mod­ern man, the prophet and poet Guru Gob­ind Singh.

On the sad­dle, he is an un­bro­ken union with Akal – the Time­less.  The brah­mini­cal I that Kr­ishna uses to hyp­no­tize Ar­juna is ab­sent in the ar­che­type of mod­ern man, the prophet and poet Guru Gob­ind Singh. He min­gles with peo­ple as one of them; he lifts them to the nat­ural love of com­rade’s right in In­dia. He puts in their hands the plough and the sword and lifts their minds to the high stars where the peo­ple pass eter­nally singing the song of the Lord.

Guru Gob­ind Singh’s holy chant, whose note of duty has that uni­ver­sal ap­peal and com­pre­hends so well the spirit of hu­man strug­gle that char­ac­ter­izes the na­tions of the West. And yet the full ori­en­tal ce­les­tial­ity of life in in­tact; af­ter all, the life here is a pil­grim on foot to God. Such is the hu­mil­ity of the Gu­ru’s knowl­edge.

Guru Gob­ind Singh is full of no other thought but the hymns of the praise of love and that beauty of love which glis­tens em­bed­ded in mat­ter. It’s all spirit and it’s all feel­ing there. He end­lessly re­peats glory –tuhi tuhi as he has noth­ing more to say. He has not to phi­los­o­phize when face to face with God. It’s a feel­ing which ends in no­ble ac­tion, not metal con­cepts, or in dis­mal in­tel­lec­tual fer­men­ta­tions.

When they are called upon, they seek death as moths seek the light.  Their in­her­i­tance from the Guru of the spon­ta­neous prac­tice of good­ness, self-sac­ri­fice re­sult­ing from love and not dis­ci­plined by vows and penances are the es­sen­tial hu­man­i­ties of Khalsa.

When­ever Guru Nanak and other Mas­ters stum­bled against enor­mi­ties, tyran­nies, and op­pres­sors of man and na­ture, they viewed it as not as ugly, but soon saw through it as the beauty of the cre­ator – thus their eyes were lifted above all their dark­ness.  They were rav­ished by love and beauty and the lyri­cal pres­ence of the Lord. The mat­ter is ab­sent – it’s all spirit per­vad­ing all across. They all be­lieved and lead a life of pure plas­tic­ity –Chardikala -up and above al­ways, all times and at all places.

Con­se­quently the Sikh Peo­ple, un­like other peo­ple, are a race of straight for­ward men of ac­tion, whose sim­ple minds in­formed of the eter­nal by the Guru, shrinks from the idle spec­u­la­tion of the brah­mini­cal mind and also shrinks from the too the­o­log­i­cal law of the Mus­lim, at least of the em­pire-build­ing Is­lam.

When they are called upon, they seek death as moths seek the light.  Their in­her­i­tance from the Guru of the spon­ta­neous prac­tice of good­ness, self-sac­ri­fice re­sult­ing from love and not dis­ci­plined by vows and penances are the es­sen­tial hu­man­i­ties of Khalsa.

The very thought of the mor­row that who will sup­port us when we are ill and un­able to earn is ir­re­li­gious. For a true Sikh, death is bet­ter than se­cu­rity earned with dis­hon­esty. For a Sikh in­ward el­e­va­tion is all: both in­tel­lect and will be the agen­cies to con­tinue that state of el­e­va­tion from the spir­i­tual to the phys­i­cal.  A Sikh has no faith in those who pass off a drunken stu­por of mind as a true re­li­gion.

Af­ter Bud­dha, the Gu­rus cham­pi­oned the cause of a com­mon man in a caste-rid­den In­dia.  The Ten Gu­rus are suns around which many earths re­volve. See­ing the Guru, it be­comes im­pos­si­ble to dis­tin­guish man from man.

The very thought of the mor­row that who will sup­port us when we are ill and un­able to earn is ir­re­li­gious. For a true Sikh, death is bet­ter than se­cu­rity earned with dis­hon­esty. For a Sikh in­ward el­e­va­tion is all: both in­tel­lect and will be the agen­cies to con­tinue that state of el­e­va­tion from the spir­i­tual to the phys­i­cal.  A Sikh has no faith in those who pass off a drunken stu­por of mind as a true re­li­gion.

Guru Gob­ind Singh’s life is love, He is the world of souls. He is a man of no caste and is bod­i­less. And he ex­alts me to be­lieve, prac­tice with in­tegrity –-that I am the soul, my re­li­gion is the per­son of the guru. My ten­dency is God-ward. And in my Guru, the power ra­di­ates with unique ef­ful­gence.

Guru Sahib lib­er­ated a com­mon man from the slav­ery of Devas, the Vedas and put him to work. A Sikh has noth­ing to give but his life. He sim­ply is rus­tic, but sin­cere. In­tel­lect he does not value, nor its ex­cit­ing flashes. He is ig­no­rant, yet gives away fear­lessly his body for a cause that is be­yond him­self.

As a Sikh, I need to hold on con­fi­dently to the mes­sage of the Guru and fol­low it. From that mirac­u­lous un­fore­seen will fol­low.

I am a trans­muted man in whom the spir­i­tual life be­gins. I am born out of hu­man­ity- one born out of spon­tane­ity – ob­serv­ing the truth, sin­cer­ity, sim­plic­ity of life, re­nun­ci­a­tion of false pride, false re­li­gions, false hyp­o­crit­i­cal ac­tions of life and on sim­ply be­ing men- good men- in think­ing, act­ing and be­ing. This is our nat­ural state. Our only state.

If any an­i­mal has to be sac­ri­ficed on the al­tar of the Lord then I need to sac­ri­fice the an­i­mal in me. My re­li­gion is love. Thus first I need to love and then shall all be added to me. The eter­nal world is no longer an ob­ject for me –it’s lost in me.

Na milia main ishq na chahno – jeda kadi maila na ho
Milia sanu husn ikaki jadi kadhi fana na hoe
Milia sanu mehbooob pyara, jada kadi juda na hoe
Adam ishq na­maz main keete, jede kadi kada na hoe
Raba mereon aisa ilm sikha de jide in­tiha na hoe
Koe aiyo je naz­maz pada de jade kidhi kaza na hoe.

Kuch kehnde hi duniya te kehnde rahe, par chaat sa­jan de painde rahe
Na main nachda raha, na main takda ra­han
Akale baaith ke yaar da deedar vohe
Ek banda te banda na­maaz hoe
Eho zikar te aiho na­maaz hoi
Tu biatha rahe te main nachda ra­han

Chal bul­l­liya chal uthe cha­lye, jithe saare akaal de ane
Na koi saadi jaat pachane, te naa koi saanu mane

End­ing with

Main nee­van meri mur­shad ooche, main uchan de sang layee
Main sadke jaawan un uchiyan de
Jina ne eh ni­van naal nib­hayee
Ishq wale vade sajna buta pyaar wala laya hai
Main pate pate upar tera naam likhvya hai
Unu saambh saambh ke rakhna ki sauda iko jiya
Dil dena dil lena ki sauda iko jaya,

Ka­mal Jit Singh Ahluwalia, pop­u­larly known as K S Ahluwalia de­scribes him­self as a stu­dent of Sikhism, en­deav­our­ing to un­cover, un­der­stand bet­ter the Sikh ethos. For the past two decades and more, he has been shar­ing in­sight­ful thoughts in print, per­sonal in­ter­ac­tions, work­shops and talk shows on Sikh Inc. -man­age­ment prin­ci­ples from the House of Nanak and life-trans­form­ing lead­er­ship skills.  He is a reg­u­lar con­trib­u­tor to em­i­nent jour­nals and he has im­pacted the lives of thou­sands of youth with over 5.6 mil­lion man-hours across di­ver­si­fied au­di­ences at more than a hun­dred plus global lo­ca­tions.