Guru Gob­ind Singh’s de­scribes the spir­i­tual bliss ob­tained in the re­mem­brance of the Ninth Mas­ter Guru Tegh Ba­hadur Sahib. Nine trea­sures which will be show­ered on the per­son. In our Ar­das -sup­pli­ca­tion to God and Guru, every morn­ing and evening and when­ever, we say a line: “ਤੇਗ ਬਹਾਦਰ ਸਿਮਰਿਐ ਘਰ ਨਉ ਨਿਧਿ ਆਵੈ ਧਾਇ॥ ਸਭ ਥਾਂਈ ਹੋਇ ਸਹਾਇ॥” Let’s re­mem­ber Tegh Ba­hadur, the nine trea­sures shall come to our homes, and Guru Sahib will help us every­where.  As the Sikh world read­ies to ob­serve and cel­e­brate the fourth cen­ten­nial birth­day of Guru Tegh Ba­hadur, WSN colum­nist Bhupin­der Singh goes through Guru Sahib’s life, mes­sage, con­tri­bu­tion and mar­tyr­dom.

ON 1 APRIL 1621, IN THE HOUSE OF THE SIXTH MAS­TER GURU HAR­GOB­IND SAHIB, A GREAT SOUL WAS BORN. The child of Mata Nanaki was born in the early hours of fra­grant dawn. The new­born child was the sixth child. Guru Har­gob­ind Sahib saw the brave and heroic spirit of his own late fa­ther -the Fifth Mas­ter -Guru Ar­jan Dev in him. Guru Har­gob­ind Sahib blessed the new­born child with these words, “May the Im­mor­tal Lord be­stow on you all the di­vine bless­ings.”

When the child Tegh Ba­hadur was 4 years old, Guru Har­gob­ind Sahib per­son­ally took him to Bhai Bud­dha Ji -a renowned ex­po­nent of Sikhism and re­quested him to ac­cept the child as a pupil. He said, “You were kind enough to be my teacher. O En­light­ened One, ac­cept Tegh Ba­hadur as your pupil.”

The child Tegh Ba­hadur bowed be­fore the wise sage Baba Bud­dha, who blessed him in ac­cep­tance as his stu­dent. The ed­u­ca­tion started with the recita­tion of Mool Mantra. Baba Bud­dha Ji shared his own spir­i­tual life ex­pe­ri­ences with the new stu­dent. In ad­di­tion, Baba Bud­dha Ji, who had spent time with all the six Gu­rus, from Guru Nanak Dev Ji to Guru Har­gob­ind Sahib Ji, shared his­tor­i­cal anec­dotes from Gu­rus’ lives with him. Ad­di­tion­ally, Tegh Ba­hadur also learned po­etry, phi­los­o­phy and his­tory from Bhai Gur­das Ji, horse rid­ing and swords­man­ship from Bhai Bidhi Chand and war­fare skills from Jati Mal. Still, his main source of in­spi­ra­tion was fa­ther Guru Har­gob­ind Sahib.

Tegh Ba­hadur as a child would spend long hours in deep med­i­ta­tion, and his po­etic out­pour­ings of­fered glimpses of a bud­ding poet. When Tegh Ba­hadur’s el­der brother -9-year-old Baba Atal passed away at a very young age, it made a last­ing im­pres­sion on him re­gard­ing the sig­nif­i­cance of abid­ing by the Will of God.

Dur­ing the fam­ily visit to Tarn Taran with fa­ther Guru Har­gob­ind Sahib, Tegh Ba­hadur heard eye­wit­ness ac­counts of the supreme sac­ri­fice of grand­fa­ther Guru Ar­jan Sahib. At Khadur Sahib, sa­cred to the mem­ory of Guru An­gad Dev, Tegh Ba­hadur wit­nessed and ab­sorbed his­tory. 

Dur­ing the fam­ily visit to Tarn Taran with fa­ther Guru Har­gob­ind Sahib, Tegh Ba­hadur heard eye­wit­ness ac­counts of the supreme sac­ri­fice of grand­fa­ther Guru Ar­jan Sahib. At Khadur Sahib, sa­cred to the mem­ory of Guru An­gad Dev, Tegh Ba­hadur wit­nessed and ab­sorbed his­tory. From there their fam­ily vis­ited Goind­wal, their an­ces­tral home. Here he heard about the life story of Guru Amar Das and their great-grand­fa­ther Guru Ram Das. From there, they all re­turned back to Am­rit­sar. The tour was highly in­spi­ra­tional as it con­nected child Tegh Ba­hadur deeply to the spir­i­tual as­pects of the faith. Tegh Ba­hadur was blos­som­ing -in­spired by his­tory, with the ten­der­ness of a poet, re­solve and the courage of a war­rior, and mys­ti­cism of a spir­i­tual mas­ter.

Ac­com­pa­nied by his fa­ther, while barely 10 years old, Tegh Ba­hadur wit­nessed the peace­ful, calm de­tach­ment and sup­pressed sor­row at the pass­ing away of his teacher and guide Baba Bud­dha Ji in 1631.

In 1634 at the age of 14, Baba Tegh Ba­hadur got per­mis­sion from his fa­ther Guru Har­gob­ind Sahib to join the bat­tle in Kar­tarpur. The fifty thou­sand men of Mughal army were led by Kale Khan, the brother of Mukhlis Khan, who had died in the first bat­tle. Kale Khan was as­sisted by Qutab Din, Painde Khan, An­war Khan and Us­man Khan. The Sikhs were led by Bidhi Chand and Baba Gur­ditta, the el­dest son of Guru Har­gob­ind Sahib. Baba Tegh Ba­hadur dis­played ex­em­plary courage and hero­ism and his ex­quis­ite swords­man­ship be­came the talk of the town.

Guru Har­gob­ind Sahib was very pleased that his son was not just a saint at heart but also a brave war­rior. 

Guru Har­gob­ind Sahib was very pleased that his son was not just a saint at heart but also a brave war­rior. In that bat­tle, Guru Har Gob­ind Sahib had a one-to-one fight with his es­tranged pro­tégé Painde Khan who had joined the Mughal army with in­sider in­for­ma­tion and treach­er­ous de­signs. In this fight, he was killed by Guru Ji. Af­ter the death of Kale Khan and Qutub Din, the royal army re­treated. This vic­tory against heavy odds de­stroyed the myth of Mughal in­vin­ci­bil­ity.

In 1636, Guru Har­gob­ind Ji made a sud­den visit to Goind­wal Sahib to be with Bhai Gur­das Ji -the key ex­po­nent of Guru Granth Sahib, whose end was ap­proach­ing. Baba Tegh Ba­hadur again wit­nessed the pass­ing away of an­other great soul whose life and teach­ings had made a last­ing im­pres­sion on his ten­der mind. Baba Tegh Ba­hadur was de­prived of the per­sonal guid­ance, the ex­pe­ri­ence of a great saint, scholar, poet and philoso­pher. In 1638, Baba Tegh Ba­hadur lost his el­dest brother Baba Gur­ditta.

Baba Tegh Ba­hadur was nearly 20 years when he mar­ried Gu­jri, daugh­ter of Bhai Lal Chand and Bibi Bis­han Kaur in Kar­tarpur. It was an arranged mar­riage ini­ti­ated by Holy Mother Nanaki. Guru Har­gob­ind Ji had re­tired to Keer­at­pur af­ter the Kar­tarpur bat­tle and spent the last ten years of his life there with fam­ily in­clud­ing Baba Tegh Ba­hadur and his bride. He breathed his last on March 3, 1644. Guru Har Rai, his grand­son suc­ceeded him as the Guru. Guru Har­gob­ind had asked every­one to bow to the newly anointed Guru and Baba Tegh Ba­hadur was the first one to bow to his nephew.

A month later Baba Tegh Ba­hadur left Keer­at­pur with his mother, wife, and brother-in-law Kir­pal for Bakala. At the time of de­par­ture, Baba Tegh Ba­hadur was 23 and de­voted his time in deep med­i­ta­tion. He, how­ever, did not re­nounce the world but only world­li­ness. Mata Gu­jri -his wife fol­lowed his foot-steps and also med­i­tated.

It was mid­night of 30 March 1664 when the call came to carry the ‘Torch of Light’ of Guru Nanak Dev Ji to spread its light all across and to save Dharma and up­hold right­eous­ness in the for­mi­da­ble times ahead. 

It was mid­night of 30 March 1664 when the call came to carry the ‘Torch of Light’ of Guru Nanak Dev Ji to spread its light all across and to save Dharma and up­hold right­eous­ness in the for­mi­da­ble times ahead. A day be­fore his demise, Guru Har Kr­is­han con­se­crated his Baba who lived in the vil­lage Bakala as the next Guru. The dis­cov­ery of the Guru is an­other leg­endary tale.

An in­ter­est­ing anec­dote hap­pened when Guru Har­gob­ind had anointed his grand­son Har Rai as his spir­i­tual heir. He, in turn, had anointed his younger son Har Kr­is­han as the heir. Now, 20 years later Guru Har Kr­is­han had anointed his grand­fa­ther’s youngest brother as his heir and the ninth Guru.

Guru Ji pur­chased land seven miles away from Keer­at­pur and laid the foun­da­tion of the city of Anand­pur in June 1665. Shortly af­ter­wards in No­vem­ber 1665, he started on his long jour­ney of the east, vis­it­ing places vis­ited by Guru Nanak Sahib dur­ing his first Udassi. To­wards the end of May 1666, Guru Ji reached Patna and stayed there till Au­gust. Stop­ping on the way at var­i­ous places, Guru Sahib reached Dacca in Oc­to­ber 1666.

At the time of the birth of Tenth Mas­ter Guru Gob­ind Singh on 26 De­cem­ber 1666 in Patna, Guru Tegh Ba­hadur Ji was in Dacca. From there Guru Sahib pro­ceeded to Dhubri, Kam­rup in Feb­ru­ary 1668, at the re­quest of Raja Ram Singh, who was lead­ing an ex­pe­di­tion against Ahoms, who, on the or­ders of Em­peror Au­rangzeb. were an­nex­ing Guwa­hati. Guru Sahib helped the be­lea­guered King and was able to iron out a res­o­lu­tion of the dis­pute with the Ahoms.

Pan­dit Kirpa Ram, the head of a San­skrit in­sti­tu­tion in Kash­mir, as leader of a del­e­ga­tion of 500 Kash­miri Pan­dits vis­ited Anand­pur and pleaded for Guru Sahib’s in­ter­ven­tion to stop forced con­ver­sions. Guru Sahib was con­sid­er­ing all as­pects when child Gob­ind Rai sug­gested his fa­ther’s supreme sac­ri­fice to halt the tide of forcible con­ver­sion to Is­lam.

In a de­vel­op­ment, un­par­al­leled in the an­nals of his­tory, on 11 No­vem­ber 1675, at Chandni Chowk, Delhi, Guru Tegh Ba­hadur laid down his life for the pro­tec­tion of Dharma -free­dom of faith, though some tend to parochially see it only as a pro­tec­tion of the Hindu faith.

Guru Gob­ind Singh Ji de­scribed Guru Tegh Ba­hadur’s sac­ri­fice thus:

“ਤਿਲਕ ਜੰਞੂ ਰਾਖਾ ਪ੍ਰਭ ਤਾ ਕਾ ॥ ਕੀਨੋ ਬਡੋ ਕਲੂ ਮਹਿ ਸਾਕਾ ॥
ਸਾਧਨ ਹੇਤਿ ਇਤੀ ਜਿਨਿ ਕਰੀ ॥ ਸੀਸੁ ਦੀਆ ਪਰੁ ਸੀ ਨ ਉਚਰੀ ॥੧੩॥”

He pro­tected (with his life) the fore­head mark and sa­cred thread (of the                          Hin­dus), which marked an un­par­al­leled heroic event in the Kal (Iron) Age.                    For the sake of men of other faith, he laid down his head with­out a groan.

Hav­ing ex­pe­ri­enced life from close quar­ters, Guru Tegh Ba­hadur Sahib has dwelt on many as­pects of lead­ing life in the re­vealed Word of the Almighty as en­shrined in Guru Granth Sahib. The fol­low­ing Shabad cap­tures the essence of his teach­ings:

ਸੋਰਠਿ ਮਹਲਾ ੯ ॥

“ਮਨ ਰੇ ਕਉਨੁ ਕੁਮਤਿ ਤੈ ਲੀਨੀ ॥
ਪਰ ਦਾਰਾ ਨਿੰਦਿਆ ਰਸ ਰਚਿਓ ਰਾਮ ਭਗਤਿ ਨਹਿ ਕੀਨੀ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥
ਮੁਕਤਿ ਪੰਥੁ ਜਾਨਿਓ ਤੈ ਨਾਹਨਿ ਧਨ ਜੋਰਨ ਕਉ ਧਾਇਆ ॥
ਅੰਤਿ ਸੰਗ ਕਾਹੂ ਨਹੀ ਦੀਨਾ ਬਿਰਥਾ ਆਪੁ ਬੰਧਾਇਆ ॥੧॥
ਨਾ ਹਰਿ ਭਜਿਓ ਨ ਗੁਰ ਜਨੁ ਸੇਵਿਓ ਨਹ ਉਪਜਿਓ ਕਛੁ ਗਿਆਨਾ ॥
ਘਟ ਹੀ ਮਾਹਿ ਨਿਰੰਜਨੁ ਤੇਰੈ ਤੈ ਖੋਜਤ ਉਦਿਆਨਾ ॥੨॥
ਬਹੁਤੁ ਜਨਮ ਭਰਮਤ ਤੈ ਹਾਰਿਓ ਅਸਥਿਰ ਮਤਿ ਨਹੀ ਪਾਈ ॥
ਮਾਨਸ ਦੇਹ ਪਾਇ ਪਦ ਹਰਿ ਭਜੁ ਨਾਨਕ ਬਾਤ ਬਤਾਈ ॥੩॥੩॥ ”

Guru Sahib says that we are miss­ing a lot in life by not see­ing life in to­tal­ity, but keep en­gaged only in scratch­ing the sur­face. Guru Sahib ques­tions, “From where have you taken this wrong and se­lec­tive wis­dom? You are cov­et­ing other women and rel­ish­ing slan­der and putting oth­ers down. The ex­tra-mar­i­tal re­la­tions are tit­il­lat­ing and the slan­der is rav­ish­ing to us, en­gross­ing us in com­pletely for­get­ting our­selves while our worldly time is breez­ing by. What are we not do­ing? Guru Ji says that our ac­tions do not re­flect any wis­dom or our deeper un­der­stand­ing. The path of eman­ci­pa­tion has not been ex­plored by us; in­stead all our full ef­forts have been on bet­ter­ing our fi­nan­cial needs and re­sources.

He rhetor­i­cally asks, “What was to be done and replies –med­i­tate on God, serve Guru by im­bib­ing his teach­ings, knowl­edge to at­tain eman­ci­pa­tion and sal­va­tion.” The re­sult is that in delu­sion you are look­ing for God out­side in the wilder­ness, while He is within you. What­ever is within you will only be re­flected out­wards like a mir­ror. So, if you were in a state of bliss, you would have en­coun­tered it all around you. Guru Sahib con­cludes that you have been wan­der­ing through many lives in il­lu­sion, still do not know the wis­dom to get out of the cy­cles of rein­car­na­tions.

Guru Tegh Ba­hadur’s ad­vice is to med­i­tate on God Almighty and merge into Him. If this mes­sage of Guru Sahib be­comes our mis­sion in life then that will be a true homage to his great legacy.

Ref­er­ences:
Singh, Ran­bir. Guru Tegh Ba­hadur; Di­vine Poet, Sav­ior and Mar­tyr. Chief Khalsa Di­wan. 1975.
Singh, Dr Trilochan. Guru Tegh Ba­hadur: Prophet and Mar­tyr. Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee, Delhi. 1967.
Kohli, Dr Surindar Singh. The Sword and the Spirit. Na­tional Book Shop. Delhi
Dil, Dr Bal­bir Singh. Guru Tegh Ba­hadur: Jee­wan Te Rachna (Pun­jabi). Pun­jabi Uni­ver­sity. 1975.
Singh, Fauja & Talib, Gur­bachan Singh. Guru Tegh Ba­hadur: Mar­tyr and Teacher. Pun­jabi Uni­ver­sity. 1996.
https://​www.bbc.co.uk/​re­li­gion/​re­li­gions/​sikhism/​peo­ple/​tegh­ba­hadur.shtml

An en­gi­neer by pro­fes­sion, hail­ing from Myan­mar, ed­u­cated in In­dia, Bhupin­der Singh is a Hous­ton-based busi­ness­man, with a keen in­ter­est in writ­ing books and ar­ti­cles on Sikh his­tory, mo­ti­va­tion and spir­i­tu­al­ity.