Guru Gobind Singh not only carried further Govind Krishna’s mission of the Bhagavad Gita, but was also his counterpart in the fulfillment of his extended mission of building a prosperous Indian nation, writes Dr Asha Goswami
The point of discovering the analogy between two people of world history mainly centres around the similarity they share in name or epithet, as well as their personality traits and teachings. Govinda Krishna’s grand persona seems resounding to that of Guru Gobind Singh, as both were equally eloquent personalities in world history and India’s rich religious tradition.
One being the perennial source of Hindu thought and the other proving to be a staunch aspiration for Sikh religion — both retain a cherished position in the religious history of India. Moreover, great similarity is traceable between their names, epithets; strong fascination for peculiar things (Govind Krishna had strong fascination for the flute and Guru Gobind Singh had a strong liking for the hawk); and many of the life traits, as both have provided grand imagery of a prince, of history-maker, of warrior and a prophet. Generally there are three categories of time-tested great men in world history — that of a teacher, of a religious prophet, and of a history or time maker.
History makes it evident that none of the great men in the world, such as Shri Ram, Gautam Buddha, Jesus Christ and Mohammed, have wholly played the triple roles but discharged one of these at a time. On the other hand, these two Govindas — not falling among such general category of the great men, and combining in themselves all the three functions — have proved themselves to be in a distinct category of great men who are sublime in action; in inspiring religious innovations and in the field of wisdom and knowledge. Besides, both Govindas had analogical life traits since both lived a life which was eventful in all aspects. Both were spiritual teachers; both were the greatest warriors of their times, superior to all contemporary warriors. Both had fought many wars and proved as if they were born warriors; history-makers and leaders.
The part which Krishna played in the Mahabharata war amply reveals that without his guidance and help, the Pandavas could never have won that war. Similarly, Gobind Singh, who single-handedly faced the mighty Mughal armies, was a great warrior of unmatched prowess and courage. Both proved great religious inspirers and initiators of new faith. For, Govind Krishna not only ranks as one of the most matured teachers as being the preacher who taught new religion in the form of most non-sectarian, non-dogmatic, and most fantastic system of moral and spiritual discipline in the name ofGita religion, but also an initiator of new faith, even as a boy who preached worship of cows and Mount Govardhan in lieu of the old customary sectarian practice of worshipping the vedic rain God Indra, which was appealing to the masses both ways as a religion of God and religion of man.
likewise, Guru Gobind Singh proved to be the initiator of new faith when he turned Guru Nanak’s sect into a martial faith and community of Sikhs termed as Khalsa. Thereby preaching full faith in the entity of God and the devi cult, which was imbibed by him as “a symbol of the might of the divine weapon (shakti)”, he proclaimed a new faith Khalsa, the liberated one, by inculcating five Ks — Kara, Kesh, Kirpan, Kacheras, and Kanga — as the fundamental tenets of this new faith, besides making a clarion call to his followers to add the suffix ‘Singh’ to their names. In the name of this new religion, the Guru prepared a disciplined army out of the dedicated country men, which shows that his preachings were not confined to one community only, as the same proved to be a mode for reviving the martial spirit of the entire nation.
Over and above all the other life traits of these two Govindas, their death event also echoes the same, as both are said to have been attacked with fatal weapons while asleep, and as a result, both met with unnatural death. As per the chronicle, after the destruction of his clan, Govind Krishna went to the forest for rest and as he lay down, he was struck on the sole of the foot by a fowler named Jaraa, who had mistaken him for an animal and as a result he died.
Similarly, about the end of Guru Gobind Singh, legend has it that when he was on his way to his march to the Deccan, he fell asleep on the bank of Godavari, and was stabbed near the heart by a Pathan who had an old enmity with him. Although this injury was healed for some time, he met with his end when his wound broke out while stretching a bow.
Thus finally it may be reiterated that both Govindas through their life traits and great personaes not only serve as the living instance of the maxim ‘that the right man at the right moment; the need of the hour produces the right person’ but bring to light another fact that Guru Gobind Singh not only carried further Govind Krishna’s mission of Gita, but also proved to be his counterpart in the fulfillment of his extended mission of building a prosperous Indian nation.
The writer is a noted Indologist and authority on Krishnaite Studies