Even as Punjab Government is working on plans to celebrate the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh in January 2017 in a big way, people of Himachal Pradesh fondly remember his association with the hill State.
As part of the 350th birth anniversary, the main celebrations next year will be in Bihar's capital Patna, the birth place of Guru Gobind Singh. Special celebrations will also be held in Anandpur Sahib and Harmandar Sahib.
Guru Gobind Singh had declared that Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of Sikhs, will be the eternal guru and no person will be appointed guru after him.
In December, the birth anniversary of the Guru Gobind Singh was celebrated across the country from Kanya Kumari to Himachal Pradesh with great enthusiasm and religious fervour.
He was born in Patna on December 22, 1666. His childhood name was Gobind Rai. He was son of the great martyr and the 8th Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur and Mata Gujri. He lived in Patna up to the age of 5 years with his mother, grand-mother and maternal uncle.
Even during the childhood, he had created an impression that he was destined to become a great man. He had been blessed with a unique physique of a warrior and a fighter. His enormous spiritual powers were conspicuous even during the childhood. A great responsibility of 10th Guru had been vested on him at the tender age of just 9 years when he ascended to the highest and sacred seat brave Sikhs.
Aurangzeb had unleashed an era of terror, barbarity and horror. Persons of other religions including Hindus, Christians and other non-Muslims were being converted to Islam by force. People were given two options either to accept Islam or face death. Guru Tegh Bahadur had already made the supreme sacrifice. Over 500 Kashmiri pandits had sought the protection of the Guru.
A spiritual man had made a forecast that the sacrifice of some holiest man with long arms can bring an end to the atrocities of Aurangzeb. Upon this, the young Gobind Rai told his father that he alone was the holiest man for the supreme sacrifice. It pleased his father and he decided to lay down his life for saving Hinduism.
A noted Sikh author, Narain Singh, writes in his book “Guru Gobind Singh Re-told” that by that time over 50 percent Kashmiri Hindus under the fear of imminent death had already been converted to Islam. Guru Gobid Singh took a 5-member delegation of Hindus to Aurangzeb. Guru advised Aurangzeb to refrain from killing the innocent persons mercilessly as God abides in all living beings. It did not impress the king. On the contrary, he offered governorship of a province to the Guru for helping him direct his followers to accept Islam. Guru flatly turned down the offer and said he would better embrace death than to accept Islam.
The cruel king slain all the five Kashmiri Pandits in the most heinous manner. One was boiled to death. Guru Tegh Bahadur was also publicly executed in the imperial capital Delhi and his head was hanged on a long bamboo at a point where Gurudwara Sheesh Ganj stands as a living monument witnessing the barbarity of Aurangzeb perpetrated in the name of Islam.
later a mammoth gathering of Sikhs assembled at the foothills of the Himalayas at Anandpur Sahib on the pious day of Baisakhi in 1699 and set up Khalsa Panth where young Sikhs blessed with divine innate and inborn fire offered to sacrifice their lives for the sake of motherland and Hinduism by fighting relentlessly against the barbarous tyrannies of the Muslim invaders. It is here he selected Panj Payaras, his dearest five devotees who had offered their heads to the brave Guru. He fought many wars against the Muslim invaders and got on the nerves of the brutish Aurangzeb.
The reputation of the Guruji as a great warier and fighter, who had challenged the mighty Mogul empire had spread across the country. His words, “ I will make sparrows to take on the falcon” were quoted with pride in every house-hold.
The emergence of the brave Guru had come like a ray of hope to the rulers of the independent small northern hill states of the country which were reeling under panic of the brutish Turkish terror. A delegation of the Rajas of the hill states sought the help of Guru Gobind Singh against Aurangzeb. He accepted the request.
The Guru was given a rousing reception when he came to Rewalsar, a part of Mandi State at that time where a mammoth and historic conference of 22 hill rulers was held. Rajas with their families and mounted security personnel pitched their tents on the hill top.
Addressing them, Guruji made a passionate appeal to the hill rulers to get united and stop fighting with each other for the greater cause of saving the country from the foreign aggressors. An elegant Gurdwara has been constructed at the flat top where Guruji had addressed the Rajas.
Guru Gobind Singh had also visited Mandi during the rule of Raja Sidh Sen at the end of the 17th century. He was a guest of the king for a few months. He had given “Abhayadan” to the Raja. “Mandi ko jo lutega Asmani gola chutega” meaning that heavenly bombs woul fall on those who would try to plunder Mandi. Gurudwaras wherever stayed and meditated. At Naina Devi, he worshiped Kali ( Durga ) and presented Tamara Patra to the temple, which has been preserved. He bade farewell to the mundane world at young age of 41 on October 7, 1708.