GURU HARGOBIND SAHIB JI--A SAINT-SOLDIER
Guru HargobInd was born on June 14, 1595 AD in village Wadali in Distt Amritsar in Punjab in India. Guru Arjan Dev ji had realized earlier that violent intervention in His mission would not subside as Sikhism, despite it’s emphasis on peace and tolerance, was perceived by the Muslim rulers as a threat to their supremacy as the rest of the population of Indian subcontinent, except Rajputs, had submitted to Muslim rulers. Therefore, to ensure that Sikhism could withstand such onslaughts, Guru Arjan Dev ji instructed Baba Buddha Ji to train His son Hargobind in martial arts. Accordingly Baba Budha Ji instructed Young Hargobind in the sacred lore, taught use of offensive and defensive weapons, hunting, riding & wrestling etc. He grew to be an all-rounder, healthy, strong, as well as saintly and enlightened. As it was revealed to Guru Arjan Dev Ji, while in captivity, that the nascent religion can be guarded from annihilation only with the help of arms, He sent instructions to young Hargobind through a Sikh that he should be fully armed and maintain an army of Sikhs to the best of his ability, and transmigrated the light to him.
At the time of martyrdom of his father on May 30, 1606 AD, Guru Hargobind Sahib ji was only 11 years old. On the occasion of His succession ceremony to Guru-ship, He asked Baba Buddha Ji to adore him with two swords, one symbolising ‘Meeri’( shakti ) i.e. worldy leadership and the other symbolising ‘Peeri’ ( Bhakti ) i.e. the Divinity, as per advice of His father. He thus carried the torch lit by Guru Nanak and added to it the lustre of the sword, to complete the mission of Guru Nanak. For this purpose, He laid the foundation of God's throne in front of Hari Mandar sahib on july 2, 1609 AD and raised it to 12 feet height( keeping it above thrones of worldly kings ) and called it ‘Akaal Bunga', which lately came to be known as AKAAL TAKHT i.e. the throne of Almighty. Hari Mandar was the seat of spiritual authority and Akaal Takht became the seat of temporal authority.
He gave a call to young men to come to Him at Amritsar with horses and arms and gave them training in martial arts to protect human rights and faith of the people. The Guru also gave sermons and held morning and evening congregations from here and encouraged the people to have their disputes decided among themselves at this place. He enrolled a guard of 52 stout Sikhs, who formed the nucleus of His future Army. In due course, He formed an infantry of about 500 dedicated Sikhs, 60 gunners, 300 horsemen and 700 horses. These young men offered their services, to do and die for The Guru, with the wages of only two daily meals from Guru’s ‘Langar’ and one uniform after six months. The Guru gave them horses, arms and trained them in martial arts.
He also started the practice of singing of heroic poems/‘vaars’ by poets/ bards (Dhaadis) at the ‘Akaal Takhat’ to arouse in the people the spirit of self-respect and kindle in them the desire of self rule. He built a fort at Amritsar, named Lohgarh. He had His own flag and a nagaara (drum), which was beaten at sunrise and sunset. He watched wrestling matches, shooting exercises with arrows and matchlocks. Thus, with meditation and preaching, He included riding, wrestling and hunting. He administered justice like a king in the court, accepted presents of arms and horses and conferred honours and awarded punishments. He created a Govt of His own like that of Mughals and all His disciples formed a separate and independent entity, thus Sikhs occupying a kind of a separate state within the Mughal state. This was the beginning of militarism or transformation of Sikhism.
Evidently, the emperor Jahangir was alarmed at these preparations and activities of The Guru. Jahangir was also instigated by Guru's uncle Prithvi Chand, Chandu, Shaikh Ahmad sarhindi, a deadly foe of Sikh Gurus and shaikh Farid Bukhari, viceroy of Punjab, who was Guru's enemy, that The Guru Hargobind intended to raise a revolt. Jahangir ordered The Guru to pay the balance of fine of Rs two lakhs imposed upon His father. On being summoned to Delhi, The Guru went to the emperor and gave the same reply as given by His father that as He has not committed any crime, He would not pay any fine. As regards hunting and wearing arms, He replied that it was not banned by his Govt. About His holding courts, The Guru submitted that it related to religious matters and there was no politics behind it and He did not preach anything against his govt. Jahangir invited Him to join him in a hunting expeditions and on the way enquired from Him that why He called himself a true king, which implied that emperor was a false king. He replied that He did not tell any one to call Him true king, but it is out of His love with the people that they call him so.
After emperor fell ill at Agra, the astrologers told emperor to imprison Guru Hargobind to avert serious consequence of evil stars, on chandu's instigation. The Guru was arrested and sent as a prisoner to the fort of Gawalior in Madhya Pardesh, away from Punjab, where some other ruling chiefs were also serving their terms of imprisonment. The Guru’s followers started going to Gwalior fort and after kissing the walls of fort from outside, returned to their homes. Even good Muslims raised their voice in sympathy of The Guru and on intervention of Mian Mir, the emperor was moved to release The Guru. The Guru however did not accept the offer until 52 princes jailed with Him were released from jail along with Him on October 30, 1620 AD, each holding part of his garment for which He is known as “Bandi Chhorh” or deliverer.
Guru Hargobind Ji again met Jahangir on bank of river Beas and the emperor was very pleased to meet Him and persuaded The Guru to accompany him to Kashmir. The Guru travelled to Kashmir along with Jahangir. The royal camp halted enroute at Gujarat, where a Muslim saint Shah Daulah met The Guru and enquired why He being a religious man has a family, worldly wealth and horses. To this Guru replied “a wife is man’s conscious, his children are descendants, wealth gives sustenance and horses stand for status. Then another saint Goswami Ram Das, guru of Shivaji, met Him in Kashmir and asked The Guru that He being successor of Guru Nanak, why He was keeping sword, horses and army. The Guru replied that sword is to protect the poor and destroy the tyrant. Ram Das was pleased to hear the reply and he later trained Shivaji in the same manner.
Having developed cordial relations with Jahangir, He utilized the opportunity for preaching of Sikhism and travelled to Nanak Mataa etc. and eastern Punjab and many Hindus and Muslims became Sikhs. He utilized the opportunity for giving military training to his own followers and take possession of chandu for dully punishing him for his misdeeds.
However, after Jahangir died in 1627 AD, Shah Jahan succeeded him and he destroyed many Hindu temples and built mosques in their places. He also started repression of Hindus. While returning from Kashmir, he noticed that many Hindus of Rajauri, Bhimbar and Gujarat have married Muslim girls and converted them to Hinduism. He recovered about 4500 such women and fined their husbands and even executed some of them. He only allowed only those to retain these girls who braced Islam. Such Hindus looked up to Guru Hargobind for support and He came to their rescue. Consequently, The Guru was involved in a number of engagements with imperial forces. He had to fight four battles with Mughal rulers i.e. Hargobindpur, Amritsar, Mehraj(Lehra Gaga) and Kartarpur. The Guru won all these battles, although He had only about 5000 soldiers, but all His battles were for defensive purposes.
This gave rise to a new heroism among the Sikhs and the people of the land, which aroused in them the will to resist Mughal rulers. After these battles, The Guru settled down at Kiratpur in 1635 AD and devoted the remaining seven years to preaching of Sikhism. He did not neglect the work spreading the light of Guru Nanak. He turned His attention to Bihar, Bengal, U.P and hilly regions ruled by Rajput princes, where there was no Mughal domination. He sent Masands / Udasis to hills, even up to borders of Tibet and Khotan etc., to spread message of Sikhism.
Knowing that His end was near, He appointed His grandson, younger son of Baba Gurdita, namely Har Rae as His successor. Consequently Dhir Mal, elder son of Baba Gurdita got antagonised and took the original copy of Adi Granth to Kartarpur. On refusal of His grandson Dhir Mal, to give the copy of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, He excommunicated him from SIKH PANTH as he was misusing it for vested interests.
Thus the fruits of martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev ji were borne. He awakened His countrymen to rise against cruel Mughal rulers to get their wrongs redressed. He created a revolution in Sikhism by arming the sikhs and gave them military training and advancement, although He had clear conception that militarily he had little chances against mighty Mughal rulers. Thus He showed the true path of deliverance from political bondage to the people.
