I D Soni
One rarely comes across divinely enlightened and blessed individuals who perceive and present a prophetic picture of the future. They are capable of envisioning the past, the present, and the future in continuity. Their ideas survive the boundaries of time and space. Guru Arjan Dev Ji Maharaj was one such gift of God to humanity. He dedicated himself to the welfare of the entire humanity, and also spread the message of the essential unity of all faiths and religions, and the need of the spiritual pursuits for achieving higher goals of human life. Guru Arjan Dev was the fifth Guru of the Sikhs who occupied the spiritual throne after the demise of his father, the fourth Guru Ram Dass Ji in 1581 at the age of 18 years. He was the youngest son of the fourth Guru. He was born at Goindwal on 15 April, 1563 and his mother was Bibi Bhani, the daughter of third Guru Shri Amar Dass Ji. Guru Arjan Dev Ji devoted his time and energy to complete the unfinished projects of his father and paid no heed to the intriguing nature and conspiring habits of his covetous brother Prithi Chand and his callous wife Karmo who aggravated difficulties of the Guru. GURU ARJAN DEV’S IMMORTAL AND MEMORIAL WORKS : Guru Arjan Dev took up a sacred job of completing the tank of Amritsar in AD 1589. A Hari Mandir was built in the midst of the tank and Guru ji invited his great contemporary mystic and Muslim Sofi Hazrat Sain Mian Mir to lay the foundation stone of the temple in January, 1589 and its whole infrastructure came to completion in AD 1601. It is truly a monument and symbol of spiritualism and secularism, divinity and devotion where people of all faiths throng daily to pay their obeisance. The other holy task, Guru Arjan Dev ji did was the conpilation of Adi Granth that contains more than six thousand hymns of six Gurus and 29 other Hindu saints and Muslim Sofis. It was the most tremendous and titanic job Guru ji performed for the sake of humanity to bring her out from the jade of ignorance and darkness to the sunshine of knowledge and illumination. Bhai Gur Das who was the nephew of Guru Amar Das Ji was a great scholar of Persian and Arabic, Hindi and Gurmukhi acted as the amanuensis and took dictatian from Guruji and completed this universally ‘acknowledged “Bible of mankind” in AD 1604. It has only one theme i.e man’s insatiable longing for God, his yearning for Divine love for Almighty, the creator, the sustainer and destroyer and to feel his presence everywhere all time to lead a pure, divine life. GURU ARJAN DEV’S PURPOSE OF LIFE :- His purpose of “life” was to “Serve” and to “Sacrifice”. Life in its basis is a mystery, a river flowing from an unseen source; and in its development an infinite subtlely too complex for thought, much less for utterance. But for Guru Arjan Dev Ji the Spirit or Soul in each is all one all the time, and in good cause it shows itself as one’; when men gladly die together, in spite of the barriers of matter which seem to separate them in life. While on earth the soul does not feel pain, the body feels pain and the brain conceives the pain as suffering; but even at the worst time of suffering, the Life force works on for the best in us. Life Force does not inflict pain itself. It may cause passing pain to the bodies which it temporariy animates; but even on the bodily level the value of life always greatly outweighs the pain. Guru Ji thus pleaded always, the living is that we live for others. Serve others at all cost was his slogan. “Those who eat of the immortal food of sacrifice, they pass into the Eternal Brahman!” (Bhagavad Gita). Guru Arjan Dev Ji believed that sacrifce is giving up something for the sake of a Higher Good, Sacrifice, as it seemed to Guru Ji, was essential to the development of social personality. He always remained ready to give up everything in the service of Love, this was the mark of his that he became a living-sacrifice to the ideal. GURU ARJAN DEV’S MARTYRDOM : Guru’s saintly influence and love of mankind spread like fragrance and it generated hatred and hostility of his enemies who planned and plotted to harm him. His inimical brother Prithi Chand poisoned the ears of the Emperor Akbar that the Guru had blasphemed both the Muslims and Hindus with disparaging remarks in the Holy Granth. Akbar, being liberal king, showed his farsightedness and summoned the Guru Arjan DevJi in his court. Guru Ji deputed Bhai Gurdas Ji and Bhai Budha Ji along with the sacred scripture and the hymns of the Holy Granth inspirited Akbar very much.Akbar showed his longing to meet the Guru in person and to touch the feet of the Guru out of reverence. After Akbar died on 12th Oct, 1605, his son Salim (Jahangir) occupied the throne as a Mughal King. In 1606, Jahangir’s son Khusro revolted against his father and came to Lahore where Guru Arjan Dev Ji blessed him and provided him financial assistance on his request. There was a rich Hindu Dewan and business-man named Chandu at Lahore who was against Guru Ji because Guru ji had not accepted the hand of his daughter in marriage for his son Har Govind. Chandu, being highly annoyed with Guru Ji on this account, started provoking Jahangir against Guru Ji. Jahangir fined Guru Ji for helping his son Khusro. Guru Ji boldly refused to pay the fine as the money was the property of Sikh Community. Jahangir handed over Guru Ji to Chandu, the blood thirsty tyrant who tortured Guru Ji in a very cruel manner. Guru Ji was brought to Lahore and put into prison. He was forced to sit on the hot iron plate and hot sand was poured on his head and body in the sweltering heat of June. Guru’s body got blistered and he could hardly walk. Main Mir, the Muslim Divine of Lahore came and begged Guru Ji to allow him to use his mystic powers to undo those who had inflicted untold tortures upon him. Guru Ji counselled him to keep patience and look to the heaven wards where he found all the angels showering praises and flowers upon the Guru Ji. The Guru was tortured for five long days. Guru Ji bore all the misery with all poise and stoic resignation. It is said that a cow’s hide was brought to sew the Guru alive in it. At this Guru asked for a bath in the river Ravi by the side of the Mughal Fort in which he was imprisoned. Thousands of his followers watched the Guru walk to the river. His bare body glistened wih blisters. Guru ji said repeatedly ,”Sweet is your will, O God, the gift of your name alone I seek.” The tide of the river bore him in her longing lap and he vanished forever. Guru Arjan Dev was barely only 43 years old at the time of his martyrdom on 30 May 1606. What a colossal figure, Guru Arjan Dev Ji was. He lived in the 16th century. We of the 20th boast our “Science” and “Civilisation”. We feel like pygmies in his presence. He organised the Sikhs into a community. And this organiser was a poet and scholar. To him came a perception of the truth that there is one Religion in religions as in the various forces of nature there is really but one Force. Guru Arjan Dev saw the higher harmony of Hindu bhakti and Muslim mysticism. And he had the courage, rare in these days, to bring together in the Granth Sahib the saying of Hindu saints and Muslim fakirs. He suffered for it. But he would not, for a moment, falter in his vision. He would not,he said to his king,change even an iota in the Granth Sahib. It could not be, if he would change it, a scripture of synthesis, of human brotherhood. He preferred death to disloyalty or to the faith of his Soul, and he had the courage to say to the sovereign”If in following the truth, this perishable body departs, I shall rejoice, deeming it great good fortune.” In this saint dwelt a poet’s soul. His hymns are a poet’s offering to the spirit of Nature, the Spirit of Humanity. Out of his heart-the heart of saint-came that wonderful scripture, the Sukhmani Sahib. It is a song from the Pilgrimage of Life. Superior to rites and ceremonies is the utterance of the Name. The Sukhmani is a song of Eternal World. He whose lips uttered the song dies as a martyr. He lives in a million hearts. His message, the message of the Sukhmani is for the nations. It is a message which has given consolation to many wounded hearts. At this very hour thousands find in the Sukhmani scripture, the solace of their broken lives, the strength of their broken hearts. And at this hour I would say to the young; So work and suffer for India that a sceptical world may know that India is not dead, but that the Mother still bears witness to the wisdom of the Rishis, Sufis and the song of the Guru. (The author is President Home for Aged & Infirm, Ambphalla, Jamm
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