Thursday, June 15, 2006

The King of Martyrs

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh

We celebrated the 400th anniversary of Guru Sahib's (physical) shaheedi on the 31st of May. I meant to do a post on our beloved Guru Ji then but some other things came in the way unfortunately.

Mian Mir, the Muslim saint of Lahore, also went and contributed his sympathetic tears. He found Guru Jis body all blistered and suppurated, and requested his permission to appeal to the Emperor for his release and the punishment of his torturers. Guru Ji requested him to cast his eyes towards the heavens.
On doing so, Mian Mir saw angels begging Guru Jis permission to destroy the wicked and the proud. Mian Mir on beholding this supernatural vision asked Guru Ji, why when he possessed supernatural power, he consented to endure suffering at the hands of such vile sinners.

Guru Ji replied, 'I bear all this torture to set an example to the teachers of the true name, that they may not lose patience or rail at God in affliction. The true test of faith is in the hour of misery. Without examples to guide them ordinary persons' minds quail in the midst of suffering. In the second place, if he who possesseth power within him defend not his religion by the open profession thereof, the man who possesses no such power when put to the torture abjure his faith. The sin will light on the head of him who has the power but does not show it; and god will deem him an enemy of religion. In the third place, the body is naturally subjected to woe and weal, but not the spirit. The body is perishable, the soul is imperishable. To set aside by the exercise of supernatural power the law of nature which applies to all things perishable. and thereby to, engender pride in the heart, would be supreme folly.'
Dhan Dhan Satguru Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji Maharaj

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Vahegurooo, DHAN SRI GUROO ARJAN DEV JI MAHRAAAJJ!!!
AKAAAAAAALLLLLL!!!!

Singh U & R Kaur said...

Dhan Guru Arjan Dev Ji
Dhan Guru Arjan Dev Ji
Dhan Guru Arjan Dev Ji
Dhan Guru Arjan Dev Ji
Dhan Guru Arjan Dev Ji, Satguru...

Anonymous said...

have you by chance got the account by the Christian missionary who witnessed Guru Arjen Dev Ji's torture...plz share if you do

Mr Singh said...

Extract from Fr. Jerome Xavier's letter dated Lahore
September 25, 1606, translated by John A. D'Silva

When the prince [Khusro, son of Emperor Jahangir] was fleeing from Agra, on that road1 there was a pagan,2 called the guru, who was considered among the pagans like our Pope. He was supposed to be a holy man and honoured as such. And on account of his dignity and reputation, the prince visited him desirous of hearing a good prophecy from him. The Guru congratulated him for assuming sovereignty3 and applied three marks on his forehead.4 Although the Guru was a heathen, and the prince a Mussulman, yet he was glad in putting on the prince's forehead that pagan sign as a mark of good success in his enterprise, taking the prince as the son of a pagan mother.5 The prince received this sign on account of the wide reputation of the sanctity of the guru. The King came to know of this. Keeping the prince as a prisoner, he ordered the Guru to be brought before him and imprisoned him also.

Some pagans begged the King to release him, as he was their saint. At last it was settled that he should pay a fine of 100,000 cruzados.6 This was done at the request of a rich pagan7 who remained as a surety for him. He thought that the King might remit the fine or the saint might pay, or that he might borrow that amount, but in this affair the rich man was disappointed. He brought what 'his Pope' had in his house, including the household furniture, also the clothes of his wife and children, and finding that all he had was not enough to cover up the fine, since the pagans have no respect to their Pope or their father, besides depriving him of all his money, he tormented the saint with new insults every day. The poor saint even received kicks on his face on many occasions and was prevented from eating till he had paid more money. The rich man did not believe that he had no money, though he had absolutely nothing and no one was even willing to give him. Thus having suffered so many injuries, pains and insults, given by the same that were adoring him, the poor Guru died.

The surety-giver wanted to escape but was made a prisoner and killed after all his possessions had been confiscated.


1 At Goindwal, on the bank of the river Beas, in the present district of Amritsar, Panjab.
2 Guru Arjun, the fifth Guru of the Sikhs.
3 This is apparently baaed on hearsay, as Fr. Xavier never saw or met the Guru either at Goindwal or at Lahore. That the Guru congratulated Khusru for assuming sovereignty is not borne out by any other authority. According to Macauliffe (Sikh Religion, ill. 85), Khusrau visited the Guru at Tarn Taran and tho the latter gave him five thousand rupees to defray his expenses to Kabul. On being questioned by the Emperor on this point, the Guru is said to have replied: 'I regard all people, whether Hindu or Musalman, rich or poor, friend or foe, without love or hate; and it is on this account that I gave thy son some money for his journey and not because he was in opposition to thee. If I had not assisted him in his forlorn condition, and so shown some regard for the kindness of thy father, the Emperor Akbar, to myself, all men would have despised me for my heartlessness and ingratitude, or they would say that I was afraid of thee. This would have been unworthy of a follower of Guru Nanak, the world's Guru'. (Ibid, iii. 91.)
4 This again is incorrect and based on wrong information. The Sikh Gurus never applied marks on the forehead of anyone except of those whom they nominated as their successors.
5 Khusro's mother, Man Bai, was the daughter of Raja Bhagwan Das of Amber (Jaipur). (Tod, Annals, ii. 286.)
6 As stated in the Introductory Note, there is no mention in Jahangir's Tuzk of any fine having been imposed by him on Guru Arjun. The fine was, in fact, imposed on one Amba from whom Rs 115,000 were received and ordered to be spent on artillery and for charity.
7 Who this rich 'pagan' was is not known to history. Sikh histories mention the name of one Chandu of Lahore having been responsible for the tortures inflicted upon the Guru. Whether he was the surety-giver mentioned by Fr. Xavier is not certain. This man. according to the Padre's letter, wanted to escape after the Guru's death, 'but was made a prisoner and killed.' This must have happened immediately after the Guru's death or within four months, at any rate before September 25, 1606, the date of Fr. Xavier's letter. Chandu, however, is said to have met almost a similar fate, but after the release of Guru Hargobind, son of Guru Arjun, from the fort of Gwalior where he was kept as a prisoner for at least twelve months. According to Muhsin Fani's Dabistan-i. Mazahib Guru Hargobind remained there for twelve years. This is, however. incorrect. The exact period has yet to be determined.

Source:Early European Accounts of the Sikhs, Dr Ganda Singh