Issue 34 - August 2014
Guru Fatha Singh Khalsa
When the agents of the SGPC found them, Yogi Bhajan and his students were at Gurdwara Alamgir, a few kilometers from the industrial city of Ludhiana. This Gurdwara was bigger than most of the Sikh temples they had seen. It had been enlarged just a couple of years before.
The story of this holy place, which Yogi Bhajan shared with his students, dated back to the terrible days when the Guru Gobind Singh was a fugitive from the Mughal Empire. After the Khalsa had been forced to evacuate the fort of Anandpur, a pair of Muslim brothers who used to sell the Guru fine horses, came to hear of his lonely plight. Ghani Khan and Nabi Khan set out and found Guru Gobind Singh. Meeting him, they offered the Master their help. Dying some cloth offered by a devotee a suitable blue, Ghani Khan and Nabi Khan dressed the Guru as a Muslim holy man. While the Mughal army scoured the countryside, the two carried the object of their manhunt on the road on a palanquin.
At the place of the Gurdwara, the tenth Master dismissed Ghani Khan and Nabi Khan after giving them a letter of commendation that would be treasured by their family for generations. Guru Gobind Singh proceeded from there on a horse provided by an old Sikh named Bhai Nauda who lived nearby.
As the agents from Amritsar approached, they found the Americans sitting outside the Gurdwara. Yogiji's students were chanting. The agents watched and listened from a respectful distance. They could make out the words: "Guru Guru Wahay Guru, Guru Ram Das Guru." The men had never heard this chant before.
As the sun passed overhead, the agents began to tire. The Americans, sitting or sprawling on the grass, continued to chant. Hours passed and the men from the SGPC grew in amazement. The devotion of these students of this Harbhajan Singh surpassed anything they had imagined. They telephoned Amritsar to tell of their humbling experience. So far as they could see, there was no threat from these western devotees of Guru Ram Das.
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Guru Amar DasThe tour continued on with Yogi Bhajan serving as teacher, story teller, and tour guide. One big pilgrimage place had a very large well with a decorative dome overhead. Guru Ram Das's spiritual guide, Guru Amar Das, the third Master, had arranged for the well to be built with 84 steps leading down to the water. He said that anyone who chanted Guru Nanak's cosmic poem, the Japji Sahib once on each of the steps, then took a dip in the water after each recitation, would be freed from the bondage of 8.4 million lifetimes. That sadhana would take hours and hours, but there would always be people there reciting on the marble steps and dipping in the chill waters below.
Nearby was a large marble hall dating back to the third Master's time. According to the history of the place, the Emperor of Mughal India, Akbar, came there once to meet with the Guru. The emperor was an open-minded ruler, sympathetic to the Sikhs. When Guru Amar Das heard of his arrival, he sent word that before meeting, Emperor Akbar must eat "langar" - the common meal – with everyone. This defied the universal tradition of that day, that kings were superior to common people, their subjects. It hinted bravely of a new tradition when all humanity would be known as one.
The good emperor seated himself among people of all ranks and religions, men and women, farmers and tradesmen. That day, the only food available was rice and a seasoning of salt. The ruler remarked at how delicious the langar tasted. "There must be some special ingredient," he said. The only special ingredient was the love of the Sikhs and the grace of the Creator.
Another Gurdwara marked a place where Guru Amar Das had secluded himself for several days in meditation. On the door of the brick building, he had written a notice that anyone who entered the door and disturbed his meditation would no longer be a disciple of his.
After looking far and wide for several days, Baba Budha, one of the Guru's eldest and most respectful devotees finally found the place with Guru Amar Das inside. But what could he do? Baba Budha's great longing to be reunited with his Master gave him but one choice. Brick by brick, he burrowed his way inside. After that, all was forgiven, and the Guru joined his Sikhs once more.
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AmritsarDay by day, as the entourage neared Amritsar, the excitement increased. It seemed to exude from Yogi Bhajan and everyone was feeling it.
Finally, their buses made their way through the sundry traffic of bicycle rickshaws and brightly-painted trucks, and cars and cows and dogs, bearing left, steering right, weaving right and left, honking regularly, toward the holy city.
There was no downtown of looming skyscrapers to look to ahead. Rather, Amritsar was manifestly humble and close to the Earth. Early in their century-long reign here, the British had erected an incongruous clock tower to overshadow the Harimander or "Golden Temple". The people of Amritsar had unceremoniously demolished the tower in 1945 and thereby restored the city's respectful modesty.
For nearly four hundred years, the gracious town of pilgrims had grown – under Mughal rajas and Afghan invaders. The Sikh maharaja, Ranjeet Singh had made his summer palace here. During the British period, it had been the site of large demonstrations and even a massacre of a thousand innocents, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. After independence, it had been at the centre of protests and demonstrations to gain the Sikhs their Punjabi-speaking state.
Parts of Amritsar remained much as they had been for centuries. The original buildings, noticeable by their smaller bricks, dated from the days when Guru Ram Das himself had held court on the banks of the fabulous pool excavated to hold the Harimander at its centre. It was here that Guru Ram Das disguised himself at night and set out for the last pilgrim station before the entrance into what was then the town of Amritsar. Incognito, he would wash and bandage the feet of the pilgrims, then return to his duties as Guru in the day.
This was the city of Guru Arjun, the fourth Guru's son, who completed the temple and compiled the priceless Shabad Guru to be installed as a jewel therein. It was from here that he left for Lahore to be tried and painfully put to death. And it was here that his son, the sixth Guru, Hargobind Sahib erected the Akal Takhat, the Immortal Throne, higher than even the imperious throne of the emperor, as a deliberate affront to his bigoted authority.
Twice, the Harimander was blown up, its holy pool filled with the corpses of innocent cattle. And twice it was restored. In the dark days when it was a crime to even say "Guru", intrepid Sikhs would take the chance of being painfully put to death just to take a quick dip in the waters of the holy Harimander. It was here the legendary Baba Deep Singh came with his volunteers to liberate the temple, continuing the fight though his head was severed from his neck. And in the peaceful days that followed, the Harimander was embellished with marble and filigree and a crown of precious gold by Maharaja Ranjeet Singh.
Harimandir Sahib was set like a precious jewel in the very centre of the city, amidst the confusing maze of alleys and laneways designed to hinder invading armies. Visitors' first sight of the famous temple came through the high archways of the entrance, the Darshan Deori. There it glistened majestic like a gilded vision in the sun.
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