1. Sikhs themselves are their own worst enemies. They are so full of themselves, that they mostly are unable to take, even positive criticism in good spirit, and are ready to argue over issues and facts, they either don't know, or know but the half truths, believing them to be absolute truths. As a result, at times, half educated amongst them, have taken to arms in the most foolish ways, behaving almost like a simpleton brigand with a few automatics, feeling so much in control, that he decides to challenge the might of one of the biggest and most modern armies of a modern state. To add to chaos, there always have been amongst sikhs, their own community members, opportunistic cops and double speak politicians, who got ready to kill innocent sikhs by dozens, just for some cash awards or a little more brass on their shoulders, or a political seat of profit. After all, why is it so ?
2. Well the answer is that deep down, the human animal refuses to evolve spiritually, and continues to operate as a lower being, controlled by basic instincts, designed by nature for survival alone, but used by humans for gratification.
3. Inspite of this or that religion, this or that book, this or that school of philosophy, or this or that community, one has to be a BUDHA, Socrates, or a Nanak to rise above the mundane, and crossover to being a 'soul being', from being a mere 'body being', only busy surviving.
4. No religion on earth can said to be a perfect answer to address the quest for ultimate human evolution. May it be Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, or any other religion, although claiming to be perfect paths of spiritual evolution, they all failed to take care, even of muck within. Christ, Ram, Krishna, and even Shiva, some time or the other, they all became victims of jealousy and treachery of their own people.
5. All awakened ones, who tried telling the Truth, were persecuted when alive, and deitified when dead. The human jungle continues to be ruled by reptilians, as any attempts of taking a flight in awakened realms, meets with contempt, slander, prejudice and even murder. No religion is absolutely perfect, although they all claim to be so, and shy away from showing their dirty linen.
6. Sikhs too, like muslims get easily annoyed, when shown the mirror, as many of them don't even know that their story of faith has as many dents and kinks, as any other religion, although I shall still rate them quite better than the ordinary, so I believe that this religion holds the best chance for introspection and evolvement.
7. Let's look at the origin of negatives, which remained vibrant, even during the life time of sikh gurus jn sikhism. When members of the families of GURUS themselves have been treacherous towards their families, that too when the Gurus were still alive, I mean in their presence the treacherous one's remained active, well, what hope we can have from majority of followers, who have in any case belittled their Gurus by dubbing them as prophets, deitified them and turned the Eleventh Guru, in to an object of worship, rather than a guide book of study. So, it is amply clear that being human is more important than being religious.
8. Let us have a brief look at, jealous and treacherous conduct within the immediate families of Sikh GURUS.
9. Returning to points in history, as per historian H.R. Gupta, Shri Chand, the son of Guru Nanak Dev was not happy at Bhai Lehna, aka Guru Angad Dev, the second Guru appointed by Guru Nanak Dev. The new Guru did not want to give any offence to Nanak’s family, so he shut himself up in the house of an old woman named Bhirari at village Sanghar, and told her not to disclose his identity. The Guru spent his time in meditation, and for a year and six months Sikhs could not trace him. They approached Bhai Budha who led them first to Khandur and then to Sanghar. He prevailed upon the Guru to give up seclusion and resume his duties. Thus Khandur became the seat of Guru Angad, and Khandur Sahib became the new center of Sikhism..
10. Similar power struggle plagued the household of 2nd Guru Angad Dev, via his sons, Datu and Dasu. As per historian Surjit Hans, Datu and Dasu motivated by success of Sri Chand and his flourishing camp at Kartarpur, established their own centres in Khandur Sahib. Datu declared himself Guru, but failed to attract any decently sizeable following.
11. Then, comes Guru Amar Das, whose first problem was to keep Sikh flock together, as due to increasing power and influence of Sri Chand’s centre at Kartarpur, many followers of Nanak were more attracted to Nanak's son and flocking Shri Chand's centre at Kartarpur. Secondly his own children's arrogance was causing problems to Guru Sahib.
12. Guru Amar Dass’s decision to hand over the charge of Gurudom to his son-in-law, Ram Dass, angered both of his sons, Mohan and Mohri. Namely Baba Mohan, more popular as Mohna, to establish his position, kept most of the volumes of Guru Pothis, and other books in his personal custody. The books kept by Mohan later came to be known as Baba Mohan Pothis, better known as the Goindwal Pothis, which are said to be early codices containing the utterances of the first three Gurus along with those of some Bhagats.
13. Also, it is worth mentioning here that Sikh Gurus had by now established themselves as trader kings, aswellas lifestyle and spiritual guides. Baba Mohan and his close relatives could not reconcile to part with Goindwal, a vibrant trading town. As a result, Mohan established a parallel line of guruship at Goindwal. Rather than contesting Mohan's claims, Guru Ramdas moved on and established Ramsar, a bigger and more vibrant town, famous today as Amritsar.
14. Now let us see, what happened with 5th Guru. The 4th Guru Ram Das, had three sons, Prithi Mal, Maha Dev and Arjan Mal. 4th Guru wanted his youngest son, Arjan to be the next Guru, but Prithi Mal considered himself as next Guru. Gurudom now became the bone of contention, and Pirthi became a lifelong enemy of his own brother, the 5th Guru Arjan Dev.
15. Historian Dhillon has noted Pirthi's quest to usurp the guruship, and how he schemed to outwit his younger brother Guru Arjan Dev, by manipulating the position in his favour.
16. He stooped to such low levels that Guru Ram Das declared him a 'Mina/Crook, a term that would, henceforth, be applied indefinitely as a derogative title for his sect.
17. In other words, if it wasn’t bad enough that the son of a Guru was pursuing the murder of his own real brother, he, that is Prithi Chand also sought to commit infanticide of his nephew and soon-to-be sixth Guru, Har Gobind.
18. He and his wife Karmo, sent a nurse with poisoned nipples to suckle the new born, aswellas they tried killing the kid Hargobind via a cobra, released in infants play space. It all seems like the Putnaa and Kalia story associated with Krishna's childhood. Incidentally the child survived. In those days it was common to plant stories, as there were no check back mechanisms.
19. As per Historian Gandhi, Pirthi, also entered into collusive arrangement with masands, to establish that he was the real Guru. Baba Budha was one of those few disciples, who with resoluteness denounced Pirthi Chand, and foiled his cunning attempts to usurp the gurgaddi.
20. As per Historian Dhillon, “Prithi Chand conspired with the Mughal officials, to promote his interest. As per Sikh historian Fauja Singh Prithi indulged in all sorts of intrigues to damage the position of Guru Arjan Dev. Through his machinations he induced government official, Sulhi Khan, to attempt an attack upon the Guru Arjan, which could not be carried out following the Khan’s untimely death. In all, Pirthi and his minions started a vicious campaign of poisoning the Mughal governor of Lahore,and Delhi Sultan's mind against the 5th Guru, to the extent of this campaign culminating in a vicious and brutal execution of Guru Arjan Dev.
21. Before death, Arjan Mal / Dev had announced that his son, HarGobind would be the next Guru. He instructed Hargobind to always maintain a guard of armed Sikhs for personal protection. After Guru Arjan's torturous execution, Hargobind was made the 6th Guru. At an early age, he found an independent Sikh nation, by
i). Announcing that the Sikhs shall now carry weapons, as he him self wore two swords, one symbolic of spiritual power, the other symbolic of temporal power. He asked Sikhs to bring gifts of weapons and horses, which resulted to begin with, a formation of 200 cavaliers and 700 wellbred horses in Guru's stables. It ultimately resulted in the first ever Risaldari of Sikhs, having a 1000 plus warriors on horses, and about 200 musketeers.
ii). He found the first ever Sikh temporal throne, namely Akaal Takht and asked sikhs to seek justice from their, rather than the government courts.
iii). He literally established the first sikh army, which fought battles with Mughal forces, at different places, including Rohilla near Amritsar and later Kiratpur, winning almost all his battles. Just few words on Rohilla, An early campaign against the growing influence of the Sikhs saw 4,000 Mughal troops sent to northern Punjab to support local Governor Abdul Khan against Guru Hargobind. Although Sikh General Jattu died in heavy fighting northeast of Amritsar at Rohilla, Abdul Khan was defeated and killed, along with his sons Nabi Bakhsh and Karim Bakhsh. This battle greatly enhanced the Sikh prestige.
22. Other battles fought by Guru Hargobind's cavalliers were, Battle of Kartarpur, Battle of Amritsar, Battle of Lahira, Battle of Gurusar, and Battle of Kiratpur.
23. In between he was imprisoned at Gwalior by Jahangir, and stayed imprisoned for almost 2 years, and some say for 12 years. Then Jahangir came out of the influence of Naqshbandi and Sunni Mullas, and like Akbar, decided to be more tolerant of non-islamic citizens, and also his prejudices against the Guru were cleared. Guru Hargobind, along with 52 other small kings and chiefs was released, as a gesture of change in state policy.
24. Then Jahangir and Hargobind had a friendly relationship, but battles were regularly fought with muslim nawabs, in which Rajput kings allied with Shri Guru Sahib.
25. Due to his unhappiness with the priesthood trying desperately to controll Amritsar via breakaway sections of martial sikhs, although created himself by the Guru, he decided to leave. He brought a huge estate of Kiratpur from the King of Kehloor/Bilaspur, and established base there. It became a happening little town, and the Guru stayed there, and even died at Kiratpur, but he never went back to Amritsar. None of the later Gurus too, ever went to Amritsar, even for a mere visit. This itself speaks volumes on state of affairs.
26. Later Gurus too have had highly threatened lives. The ninth Guru was again murdered by State, at behest of Mullahs, and by stratagem applied by enemies of house. The 10th Guru was letdown a number of times by his own people. Baba Banda singh bahadur was also murdered, inspite of having crushed the Mughals more than once, only to be letdown by treacherous and foolish members of Guru's family, and close associates like Vinod Singh, Miri Singh and other letdowns. Ajit Singh, the adopted son of Mata Sundari was assassinated by state for stupidity of behaviour.
27. The story of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, and how his Khalsa Raj, and his royal family was brought to ruins by his own loyal dogs, in collision with conniving British foxes, is a story for another day, which I shall narrate, as candidly as I always do. The fact remains that, some extremely greedy, jealous and opportunistic members of Sikh community have been the reason of destruction of sikh cause, then aswellas now. Sikhs being the most treacherous enemies of the Sikhs, still continues to this day.
๐ฉSatt Shri Akaal.๐ฉ
✒ Corporate Guru Balwant Gurunay.⚔
