This is a rar­ity in Guru Granth Sahib that you must know. Guru Amar Das breathed his last at 95 years, in Goind­wal Sahib, on 1 Sep­tem­ber 1574 and the Bani of Ramkali Sadd in Guru Granth Sahib pro­vides vi­tal his­tor­i­cal de­tails. The Shabad of Ramkali Sadd, giv­ing a graphic de­scrip­tion of the pass­ing away of the Third Mas­ter -Guru Amar Das, was re­vealed nei­ther by the Gu­rus or Bha­gats, but by Baba Sun­dar Ji, the great-grand­son of Guru Amar Das, who was the son of Guru Sahib’s grand­son, Anand. This is a rar­ity in Guru Granth Sahib ex­plains the spir­i­tu­ally in­clined au­thor Bhupin­der Singh Hous­ton. Read­ing and im­bib­ing this over and over again will help us craft our prepa­ra­tion for the end of our life’s jour­ney, says the au­thor.

THE FIFTH MAS­TER GURU AR­JAN DEV COM­MIS­SIONED BABA SUN­DAR JI, a great-grand­son of the Third Mas­ter -Guru Amar Das, who was pre­sent at Goind­wal Sahib at the time of de­par­ture of Guru Amar Das, to pen the eye-wit­ness ac­count. This writ­ing is ti­tled Sadd – Pun­jabi word for a call or sum­mon. Baba Sun­dar Ji re­cap­tures it in this six stanza verse -the in­struc­tions Guru Sahib gave to mem­bers of his fam­ily and his fol­low­ers, along with the plan­ning of Gu­ru­ship.

These di­rec­tives were given by Guru Sahib at the ripe old age of 95 years, just be­fore he passed away. Guru Amar Das tells them not to weep and wail for him, nor to per­form the cus­tom­ary mourn­ing rites. Since death is an op­por­tu­nity for the in­di­vid­ual soul to get united with the Supreme Soul, it is not a mo­ment for lament. The Bani of Guru Granth Sahib lays down clear guide­lines on how to take care of our re­spon­si­bil­i­ties and du­ties be­fore de­par­ture from this world as well as how to con­duct ser­vices in ho­n­our of the de­ceased.

Sig­nif­i­cantly, this Bani is an eye wit­ness ac­count of the time of death of the Third Mas­ter Guru Amar Das and anoint­ing of Guru Ram Das as the suc­ces­sor Guru.

In­ter­est­ingly, this com­po­si­tion is posited in Guru Granth Sahib fol­low­ing the com­po­si­tion of Anand Sahib by Guru Amar Das, thus un­der­scor­ing their close re­la­tion­ship. Leg­end has it that Anand Sahib -The Song of Eter­nal Bliss was re­vealed at the time of the birth of Guru Sahib’s son -Anand. This is sung dur­ing sad and happy times, life and death, ex­tolling the con­cept of liv­ing as en­shrined by Akalpu­rakh -God Almighty.

The ti­tle Sadd of this com­po­si­tion is an in­di­ca­tor of the sum­mons to Guru Amar Das from the Almighty. So, the ti­tle can be trans­lated as “The Call of Death”. Orig­i­nally, the term Sadd was used to de­note songs ad­dressed by a lover to his beloved, ex­press­ing his heart`s an­guish. Now let us look at the un­fold­ing of the event.
Guru Sahib called the gath­er­ing of fam­ily and the San­gat -fol­low­ers. Af­ter every­one was seated, Guru Amar Das got down from his seat and placed Bhai Jetha Ji there.

This is a sig­nif­i­cant piece of au­then­tic his­tory, and well pre­served for pos­ter­ity, un­al­tered. It de­fines the Dos and Don’ts for the fam­ily of the de­parted soul. It is a com­po­si­tion that should be read, stud­ied and an­a­lyzed over and over as it will help us craft our own prepa­ra­tion for the end of life jour­ney as well.

On Guru Sahib’s di­rec­tion, Bhai Budha ap­plied the cus­tom­ary tilak on the fore­head of Bhai Jetha Ji. Then the spir­i­tual sov­er­eignty was passed on to Bhai Jetha Ji, whom Guru Amar Das re­named as Guru Ram Das. Every­one joined in the re­joic­ing ex­cept Mo­han the el­dest son of Guru; who re­sented it feel­ing that be­ing the bi­o­log­i­cal heir –son, he was be­ing de­prived of his right­ful suc­ces­sion.

 

The stanza-wise com­men­taries of the com­po­si­tion with ex­tracts are as un­der:
Stanza 1- The con­clud­ing lines are:

“ਆਇਆ ਹਕਾਰਾ ਚਲਣਵਾਰਾ ਹਰਿ ਰਾਮ ਨਾਮਿ ਸਮਾਇਆ ॥
ਜਗਿ ਅਮਰੁ ਅਟਲੁ ਅਤੋਲੁ ਠਾਕੁਰੁ ਭਗਤਿ ਤੇ ਹਰਿ ਪਾਇਆ ॥੧॥”

Trans­la­tion: And when the call came for Him to de­part, He merged in the Name of the Lord. Through de­vo­tional wor­ship in this world, the im­per­ish­able, im­mov­able, im­mea­sur­able Lord had been found (by Guru Amar­das). ||1||

Com­men­tary: The sce­nario of the call to re­turn or the sum­mons is de­scribed. Guru Ji will­ingly ac­cepted the call and pre­pared the ex­e­cu­tion plan with­out any de­lay. In the ear­lier lines, Sun­dar Ji has said that by the Grace of Guru Nanak and Guru An­gad, Guru Amar Das had ob­tained the supreme sta­tus.

Stanza 2- The first lines are:

“ਹਰਿ ਭਾਣਾ ਗੁਰ ਭਾਇਆ ਗੁਰੁ ਜਾਵੈ ਹਰਿ ਪ੍ਰਭ ਪਾਸਿ ਜੀਉ ॥
ਸਤਿਗੁਰੁ ਕਰੇ ਹਰਿ ਪਹਿ ਬੇਨਤੀ ਮੇਰੀ ਪੈਜ ਰਖਹੁ ਅਰਦਾਸਿ ਜੀਉ ॥”

Trans­la­tion: The Guru gladly ac­cepted the Lord’s Will, and so Guru eas­ily reached the Lord God’s Pres­ence. The True Guru prays to the Lord, “Please, save my ho­n­our. This is my prayer”. In the sub­se­quent lines, there are de­tails of the sup­pli­ca­tion by the True Guru. In the con­clud­ing line, Sun­dar Ji says the Lord God heard the prayer of the True Guru and granted His re­quest. The Lord show­ered His Mercy, and blended the True Guru with Him­self; He said, “Blessed! Blessed! Won­der­ful!”

Com­men­tary: Not only did Guru Ji will­ingly ac­cept the call, but it was pleas­ing to him and he prayed to God only for grace by ask­ing “save my ho­n­our”. In con­trast, such a call will scare us and we will ask why me? We will plead for a longer life. The achieve­ment of the merger of Guru Amar Das with Almighty while alive is also be­ing shared with us. Guru Ji ad­vised that every­one should ac­cept the di­vine will grace­fully. Many times we do not be­lieve about fate af­ter death, but here it has been clearly de­fined for our ben­e­fit.

Stanza 3- The first lines are:

“ਮੇਰੇ ਸਿਖ ਸੁਣਹੁ ਪੁਤ ਭਾਈਹੋ ਮੇਰੈ ਹਰਿ ਭਾਣਾ ਆਉ ਮੈ ਪਾਸਿ ਜੀਉ ॥
ਹਰਿ ਭਾਣਾ ਗੁਰ ਭਾਇਆ ਮੇਰਾ ਹਰਿ ਪ੍ਰਭੁ ਕਰੇ ਸਾਬਾਸਿ ਜੀਉ ॥”

Trans­la­tion: Lis­ten! O my Sikhs, my chil­dren and Sib­lings of Des­tiny; it is my Lord’s Will that I must now go to Him. The Guru gladly ac­cepted the Lord’s Will, and my Lord God ap­plauded him.

Com­men­tary: Guru Ji ad­dressed the fam­ily and fol­low­ers, break­ing the news of the sum­mons and his ac­cep­tance of the call. Guru Ji also shared the fact that sum­mons can­not be dis­obeyed and Guru Ji is leav­ing this world to be with Almighty Mas­ter.

Stanza 4- The start­ing lines are:

“ਸਤਿਗੁਰਿ ਭਾਣੈ ਆਪਣੈ ਬਹਿ ਪਰਵਾਰੁ ਸਦਾਇਆ ॥
ਮਤ ਮੈ ਪਿਛੈ ਕੋਈ ਰੋਵਸੀ ਸੋ ਮੈ ਮੂਲਿ ਨ ਭਾਇਆ ॥”

Trans­la­tion: The True Guru, in His Own Sweet Will, sat up and sum­moned His fam­ily. Let no one weep for me af­ter I am gone. That would not please me at all. Guru Ji queried every­one with a ques­tion. When a friend re­ceives a robe of ho­n­our, then his friends are pleased with his ho­n­our or not?

Com­men­tary: Guru Ji gave clear in­struc­tions that there should not be any wail­ing or cry­ing upon his de­par­ture, as that will not be pleas­ing to him. He com­mended that it should be an oc­ca­sion of the cel­e­bra­tion of his life. The stanza con­cludes by de­scrib­ing the han­dling of suc­ces­sion is­sues. In the con­clud­ing line, Sun­dar Ji has painted the suc­ces­sion pic­ture by say­ing that the True Guru Him­self sat up, and anointed the suc­ces­sor to the Throne of Raj Yoga, the Yoga of Med­i­ta­tion and Suc­cess. All the Sikhs, rel­a­tives, chil­dren and sib­lings have fallen at the feet of Guru Ram Das.

ਬਾਬਾਣੀਆ ਕਹਾਣੀਆ ਪੁਤ ਸਪੁਤ ਕਰੇਨਿ ॥

The sto­ries of one’s an­ces­tors make the chil­dren good chil­dren.

Stanza 5- The stanza starts with in­struc­tions on what to do af­ter his de­par­ture in these words:

“ਅੰਤੇ ਸਤਿਗੁਰੁ ਬੋਲਿਆ ਮੈ ਪਿਛੈ ਕੀਰਤਨੁ ਕਰਿਅਹੁ ਨਿਰਬਾਣੁ ਜੀਉ ॥
ਕੇਸੋ ਗੋਪਾਲ ਪੰਡਿਤ ਸਦਿਅਹੁ ਹਰਿ ਹਰਿ ਕਥਾ ਪੜਹਿ ਪੁਰਾਣੁ ਜੀਉ ॥
ਹਰਿ ਕਥਾ ਪੜੀਐ ਹਰਿ ਨਾਮੁ ਸੁਣੀਐ ਬੇਬਾਣੁ ਹਰਿ ਰੰਗੁ ਗੁਰ ਭਾਵਏ ॥”

Trans­la­tion: Fi­nally, the True Guru said, “When I am gone, sing only Kir­tan in Praise of the Lord.” Call in the long-haired schol­arly Saints of the Lord, to read the ser­mon of the Lord, Har, Har. Read the ser­mon of the Lord, and lis­ten to the Lord’s Name; the Guru is pleased with love for the Lord.

Com­men­tary: Here Guru Ji is shar­ing what should be done af­ter his de­par­ture. He said the oc­ca­sion should be used to cel­e­brate his life by singing the praise of im­mac­u­late God. In ad­di­tion have dis­courses on God from the learned schol­ars. He strictly ad­vised against the preva­lently prac­tised rit­u­als af­ter death. The con­clud­ing line de­scribes the anoint­ing of Guru Ram Das and be­stow­ing on him the true stamp of Gu­ru’s Word.

In other lines of the stanza, Guru Ji shared the don’ts – by ad­vis­ing against the of­fer­ing of rice cakes on leaves, the light­ing of lamps, or float­ing the body out on the river Ganges. In­stead, Guru Ji sug­gested let my re­mains be given up to the Lord’s Pool. In the last line of the stanza, Guru Ji blessed Sodhi Ram Das with the cer­e­mo­nial tilak mark, the in­signia of the True Word of the “Shabad.”

Stanza 6- The mid-stanza lines are:

“ਮੋਹਰੀ ਪੁਤੁ ਸਨਮੁਖੁ ਹੋਇਆ ਰਾਮਦਾਸੈ ਪੈਰੀ ਪਾਇ ਜੀਉ ॥
ਸਭ ਪਵੈ ਪੈਰੀ ਸਤਿਗੁਰੂ ਕੇਰੀ ਜਿਥੈ ਗੁਰੂ ਆਪੁ ਰਖਿਆ ॥
ਕੋਈ ਕਰਿ ਬਖੀਲੀ ਨਿਵੈ ਨਾਹੀ ਫਿਰਿ ਸਤਿਗੁਰੂ ਆਣਿ ਨਿਵਾਇਆ ॥”

Trans­la­tion: His (younger) son Mohri turned sun­mukh, and be­come obe­di­ent to Him; he bowed and touched Ram Das’ feet. Then, every­one bowed and touched the feet of Ram Das, into whom the Guru in­fused His soul. Any­one that did not bow be­cause of envy was brought by the True Guru to bow in hu­mil­ity. (Here, the ob­vi­ous ref­er­ence is Guru Ji’s el­dest son Mo­han, who had his own as­pi­ra­tions to be the heir).

Com­men­tary: Here we have a brief de­scrip­tion of re­ac­tion from the fam­ily mem­bers, dis­ci­ples, and con­gre­gants. All the Gur­sikhs obeyed the in­struc­tions of Guru Sahib. We also saw how Guru Ji ul­ti­mately con­vinced those who were ini­tially re­luc­tant in ac­cept­ing his last will. The sig­nif­i­cant as­pect is that Guru re­solved any po­ten­tial of con­flict on the suc­ces­sion is­sue and en­sured that no un­re­solved bick­er­ing was left fes­ter­ing.

This is a sig­nif­i­cant piece of au­then­tic his­tory, and well pre­served for pos­ter­ity, un­al­tered. It de­fines the Dos and Don’ts for the fam­ily of the de­parted soul. It is a com­po­si­tion that should be read, stud­ied and an­a­lyzed over and over as it will help us craft our own prepa­ra­tion for the end of life jour­ney as well.

Dos: Sing praises of Almighty in con­gre­ga­tions. Lis­ten to dis­course about God from learned and spir­i­tu­ally el­e­vated souls.

Don’ts: Don’t per­form the preva­lent cer­e­monies as – Pind, Patal, Deeva, Phul etc. No dis­course of “Garud Pran”. No weep­ing, cry­ing or wail­ing.

This por­trayal of the death scene is a prac­ti­cal demon­stra­tion on how to get rid of the fear of death. Guru Sahib had shared that when one’s aware­ness is merged in the Shabad, one has died while alive. Then the fear of death van­ishes and death will be easy as the aware­ness has al­ready im­mersed in Almighty. Af­ter death, the for­ever life awaits in these words:

“ਕਿਆ ਜਾਣਾ ਕਿਵ ਮਰਹਗੇ ਕੈਸਾ ਮਰਣਾ ਹੋਇ ॥
ਜੇ ਕਰਿ ਸਾਹਿਬੁ ਮਨਹੁ ਨ ਵੀਸਰੈ ਤਾ ਸਹਿਲਾ ਮਰਣਾ ਹੋਇ ॥
ਮਰਣੈ ਤੇ ਜਗਤੁ ਡਰੈ ਜੀਵਿਆ ਲੋੜੈ ਸਭੁ ਕੋਇ ॥
ਗੁਰ ਪਰਸਾਦੀ ਜੀਵਤੁ ਮਰੈ ਹੁਕਮੈ ਬੂਝੈ ਸੋਇ ॥
ਨਾਨਕ ਐਸੀ ਮਰਨੀ ਜੋ ਮਰੈ ਤਾ ਸਦ ਜੀਵਣੁ ਹੋਇ ॥੨॥”          Guru Granth Sahib, Page 555

Trans­la­tion: What do I know? How will I die? What sort of death will it be? (A) If I do not for­get the Lord Mas­ter from my mind, then my death will be easy. The world is ter­ri­fied of death; every­one longs to live. By Gu­ru’s Grace, one who dies while yet alive un­der­stands the Lord’s Will. O Nanak, one who dies such a death, lives for­ever. 2.

Guru Amar Das says that the sto­ries of one’s an­ces­tors make good chil­dren, so let us re­fresh the story of his de­par­ture from this world, to in­spire us to be­come wor­thy chil­dren.

Ref­er­ences:

1. www.Sikhi­tothe­max.org
2. Singh, Prof. Sahib. Sri Guru Granth Sahib Darpan. Vol­ume 4 and 6. Raj Pub­lish­ers.
3. Khosla, Anju. The life and Teach­ings of Guru Amar­das. Singh Broth­ers.
   Singh, Bhai Vir. San­thiya Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Vol­ume 7. Bhi Vir Singh Sahit Sadan.

Ti­tle Photo Cour­tesy: Soulscape Art -Sikh­Pho­tos.com
Other pho­tos: Au­thor

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. The books he has writ­ten in­clude, Con­nect­ing with the Mas­ter – A col­lec­tion of es­says on top­ics re­lated to Sikhism, Gur­mat Quo­tient (GQ) – Book on de­vel­op­ment of Spir­i­tu­al­ity, Rehraas – With mean­ing and com­men­tary in Eng­lish, Why are We Here? – Be­come ex­plor­ing the pur­pose of hu­man life, Fish Eat Fish World – An Il­lus­trated Chil­dren’s book, Hu­mil­ity – A Spir­i­tual Jour­ney, In Bul­ly’s Eyes – An Il­lus­trated Chil­dren’s book on Bul­ly­ing.