Critical Singh
SPNer
Martyrdom unique for universal brotherhood
Guru Arjan [)ev's martyrdom is perhaps the 1st supreme sacrifice for the cause and creation of nationhood in the annals of the Indian history. For a strong soulful and healthy society, surging spirit, and strident fervour for nationalism always, is of paramount importance. Sans selfless aims & humanitarian designs, nations can not be built by sham slogan-mongerings. For it, a device, diluting & disciplining, in the form of dependable chord of compassion of cohesive nature, for healthy social fabric is most essential, as a checkmate to the natural, yet excessively acquisitive human urges & intuitional, yet extraordinarily excessive cares for ones self-interest. But to our misfortune, in contrast to it, we Indians had all along been witnessing devastating religious wars, internecine ritualistic wrangling, ignoble social & economical inequities & cruel type of exploitations on the Indian soil from the times immemorial. It was being so, firstly between Rakashihes and Devas then amongst Buddhist & Hindu faiths & lastly between Islam & Hinduism. Since the beginning of eighth century when a foreign invader Abou-Bin-Qasim conquered Sindh province with the help of his few hundreds of horsemen the whole aftermath of Mahmud Gazanvi's numerous invasions in 10th century, including wave after wave of foreign invaders & rulers in the shape of Gouri's, Khilji's, Taimur's, Tuglak's, Lodhi's, Mugal's and Abdali's had been ravishing, ravaging, looting India demolishing our places of worship and roling us with utter barbarity, while metering out with negligible resistance. We Indian's had become so listless that we were rendered absolutely voiceless, even in our own country. It was in the beginning of 16th century that Saba Nanak had risen like a moon upon the spirtuo-social firmament of the country in order to enlighten our centuries-old darkened minds, with noble spiritual ideology & singleness of conviction declaring that single source of whole human race was one and the "only one" & that was the Almighty, all pervading & timeless power named the supreme power of God. The whole existence is on account of his will, order & benevolence. .Air, water, light & celestial bodies were his :- he withdraws them if, we are instantly no more." in the light of such stern belief he forcefully repudiated ritualism as a wild product of ignorance & blind faith, eclipsing subtlest realty of unity of god, the very source of the whole humanity. Upon such firm footing of thought he started the mission of harmony, humanity & humility to spirit up the people and that went or for about 200 years after him by later Gurus. It was thus, he explored the way to the real nationalism. The 5th Guru Arjan [)ev under his ministry (1581-1606) by virtue of his exceptional genius, rare liveliness and vitality made Nanak's mission grow with rapid strides throughout India and specially in Punjab. In its pursuits :-
1. He, in order to promote spirit of secularism & spiritualism compiled a big volume of Guru Granth sahib in which he added the Gurbani of many holy saints having faith in different religions too, like Farid & Kabir and of low-caste Bhagts like Ravidass, Sadana, Namdev, Sen etc. Thus Guru Granth had attained the unique status and symbol of "total humanity as the brothers of the same race".
2. He got the foundation stone of Sri Harmandir Sahib Amritsar laid by sufi saint Hazarat Mian Mir a muslim faqir. Also he opened the door of this temple for all high & low.
3. The institution of free Kitchen, for all was organized in big way in all parts of India where there was Sikh Sangat, without any discrimination towards poor classes, the so called untouchables.
4. He built big cities like Amritsar, Tarntarn, Kartarpur & Sri Hargobindpur.
5. He built a central rallying place in the form of Harminder in the middle of holy tank at Amritsar.
6. Built big reservoirs i.e. tanks at Ramsar, Tarn Tarn, Guru-ka-bagh for public convenience.
7. He got dug up hundreds of wells in Majha area of Punjab during famine time at herculian speed and thus relieved the pubic of their miseries by promoting agriculture.
8. He promoted commerce & agriculture in Punjab by inculcating voluntary services amongst the peoples even without any state power. 9. He brought people of various avocations & made them to settle at Amritsar. In consequence to that, Amritsar had been a very prominent commercial & trade centre of Asia during the region of Maharaja Ranjit singh.
10. He promoted horse trading with central Asia on big scale.
Institution of free kitchen (Pangat) and concept of religious congregations (Sangat) spreading on wider dimensions at various places got so popular that general masses started rallying around guru Arjan, irrespect of any cast, creed and religion. They also started addressing the Guru Sachha Patshah (the true king) out of reverence. According to the contemporary writer Mohsan Fani Sikhs had now become accustomed to forum of self government with in the empire." Thus Guru Arjun's high profile, active missionary preachings and pan- Hindustani aspirations started rankling in the mind of emperor Jahangir who under the influence of Naqooshbandi revivalist Khaja Mohd. Baqur-Baqui bill wanted to uphold Islamic puritansim, mistook. Guru Arjan's noble task of nation - building on the firm bed -rock of none other but one as danger to Islamic movement as well as to his own kingdom. He himself had written in his autobiography -Tuzak-i- Jahangiri which reads - there lived at Goindwal on the bank of river Beas a Hindu named Arjan in the garb of Pir and Sikh. So much so, that he had by his ways and means capitulated the hearts of many simpler minded Hindus, nay, even of foolish stupid Muslims and he had noised himself as religious and Wordly leader. They called him Guru and from all direction fools & fool worshippers were attracted towards him & expressed full faith in him, for three four generations they had kept this shop warm. For long time thought had been presenting itself to me that either I should put an end to this false traffic or he should be brought into the fold of Islam ………….
I ordered that he should be brought in to my presence and having handed over his houses, dwelling places and children to Murtza Kahn (Sheikh Farid Bukhari) & having confiscated all his property I ordered that he should be put to death by torture" It was how the supreme sacrifice of Guru Arjan enkindled the fire of nationalism into his followers which culminated into the tempestuous storm in the form of Khalsa. The Khalsa afterwards blasted the atrocious foreign Mughal & Afghan rulers forever and established its own.
Astonishingly, so charismatic was his reverence amongst the Muslim masses even, that the Guru Arjan had to cool down them during his execution to death by torture, because they were ready to rise in rebellion, against the then rulers under the banner of Hazart Mian Mir ji. Countrymen, let we all Indian's be proud of this unique sacrifice and collectively remember the martyrdom of Guru Arjan the first unique sacrifice at the alter of nationalism in India, every year and thus be a strong nation.
Guru Arjan [)ev's martyrdom is perhaps the 1st supreme sacrifice for the cause and creation of nationhood in the annals of the Indian history. For a strong soulful and healthy society, surging spirit, and strident fervour for nationalism always, is of paramount importance. Sans selfless aims & humanitarian designs, nations can not be built by sham slogan-mongerings. For it, a device, diluting & disciplining, in the form of dependable chord of compassion of cohesive nature, for healthy social fabric is most essential, as a checkmate to the natural, yet excessively acquisitive human urges & intuitional, yet extraordinarily excessive cares for ones self-interest. But to our misfortune, in contrast to it, we Indians had all along been witnessing devastating religious wars, internecine ritualistic wrangling, ignoble social & economical inequities & cruel type of exploitations on the Indian soil from the times immemorial. It was being so, firstly between Rakashihes and Devas then amongst Buddhist & Hindu faiths & lastly between Islam & Hinduism. Since the beginning of eighth century when a foreign invader Abou-Bin-Qasim conquered Sindh province with the help of his few hundreds of horsemen the whole aftermath of Mahmud Gazanvi's numerous invasions in 10th century, including wave after wave of foreign invaders & rulers in the shape of Gouri's, Khilji's, Taimur's, Tuglak's, Lodhi's, Mugal's and Abdali's had been ravishing, ravaging, looting India demolishing our places of worship and roling us with utter barbarity, while metering out with negligible resistance. We Indian's had become so listless that we were rendered absolutely voiceless, even in our own country. It was in the beginning of 16th century that Saba Nanak had risen like a moon upon the spirtuo-social firmament of the country in order to enlighten our centuries-old darkened minds, with noble spiritual ideology & singleness of conviction declaring that single source of whole human race was one and the "only one" & that was the Almighty, all pervading & timeless power named the supreme power of God. The whole existence is on account of his will, order & benevolence. .Air, water, light & celestial bodies were his :- he withdraws them if, we are instantly no more." in the light of such stern belief he forcefully repudiated ritualism as a wild product of ignorance & blind faith, eclipsing subtlest realty of unity of god, the very source of the whole humanity. Upon such firm footing of thought he started the mission of harmony, humanity & humility to spirit up the people and that went or for about 200 years after him by later Gurus. It was thus, he explored the way to the real nationalism. The 5th Guru Arjan [)ev under his ministry (1581-1606) by virtue of his exceptional genius, rare liveliness and vitality made Nanak's mission grow with rapid strides throughout India and specially in Punjab. In its pursuits :-
1. He, in order to promote spirit of secularism & spiritualism compiled a big volume of Guru Granth sahib in which he added the Gurbani of many holy saints having faith in different religions too, like Farid & Kabir and of low-caste Bhagts like Ravidass, Sadana, Namdev, Sen etc. Thus Guru Granth had attained the unique status and symbol of "total humanity as the brothers of the same race".
2. He got the foundation stone of Sri Harmandir Sahib Amritsar laid by sufi saint Hazarat Mian Mir a muslim faqir. Also he opened the door of this temple for all high & low.
3. The institution of free Kitchen, for all was organized in big way in all parts of India where there was Sikh Sangat, without any discrimination towards poor classes, the so called untouchables.
4. He built big cities like Amritsar, Tarntarn, Kartarpur & Sri Hargobindpur.
5. He built a central rallying place in the form of Harminder in the middle of holy tank at Amritsar.
6. Built big reservoirs i.e. tanks at Ramsar, Tarn Tarn, Guru-ka-bagh for public convenience.
7. He got dug up hundreds of wells in Majha area of Punjab during famine time at herculian speed and thus relieved the pubic of their miseries by promoting agriculture.
8. He promoted commerce & agriculture in Punjab by inculcating voluntary services amongst the peoples even without any state power. 9. He brought people of various avocations & made them to settle at Amritsar. In consequence to that, Amritsar had been a very prominent commercial & trade centre of Asia during the region of Maharaja Ranjit singh.
10. He promoted horse trading with central Asia on big scale.
Institution of free kitchen (Pangat) and concept of religious congregations (Sangat) spreading on wider dimensions at various places got so popular that general masses started rallying around guru Arjan, irrespect of any cast, creed and religion. They also started addressing the Guru Sachha Patshah (the true king) out of reverence. According to the contemporary writer Mohsan Fani Sikhs had now become accustomed to forum of self government with in the empire." Thus Guru Arjun's high profile, active missionary preachings and pan- Hindustani aspirations started rankling in the mind of emperor Jahangir who under the influence of Naqooshbandi revivalist Khaja Mohd. Baqur-Baqui bill wanted to uphold Islamic puritansim, mistook. Guru Arjan's noble task of nation - building on the firm bed -rock of none other but one as danger to Islamic movement as well as to his own kingdom. He himself had written in his autobiography -Tuzak-i- Jahangiri which reads - there lived at Goindwal on the bank of river Beas a Hindu named Arjan in the garb of Pir and Sikh. So much so, that he had by his ways and means capitulated the hearts of many simpler minded Hindus, nay, even of foolish stupid Muslims and he had noised himself as religious and Wordly leader. They called him Guru and from all direction fools & fool worshippers were attracted towards him & expressed full faith in him, for three four generations they had kept this shop warm. For long time thought had been presenting itself to me that either I should put an end to this false traffic or he should be brought into the fold of Islam ………….
I ordered that he should be brought in to my presence and having handed over his houses, dwelling places and children to Murtza Kahn (Sheikh Farid Bukhari) & having confiscated all his property I ordered that he should be put to death by torture" It was how the supreme sacrifice of Guru Arjan enkindled the fire of nationalism into his followers which culminated into the tempestuous storm in the form of Khalsa. The Khalsa afterwards blasted the atrocious foreign Mughal & Afghan rulers forever and established its own.
Astonishingly, so charismatic was his reverence amongst the Muslim masses even, that the Guru Arjan had to cool down them during his execution to death by torture, because they were ready to rise in rebellion, against the then rulers under the banner of Hazart Mian Mir ji. Countrymen, let we all Indian's be proud of this unique sacrifice and collectively remember the martyrdom of Guru Arjan the first unique sacrifice at the alter of nationalism in India, every year and thus be a strong nation.
