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Rejuvenating The Khalsa
Nanak Singh Nishter
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In this Baisakhi special, regular contributor to WSN, Nanak
Singh Nishter traces the growth of the Khalsa and exhorts
present day Sikhs to rededicate to the discipline of Guru Gobind
Singh. |
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 Baisakhi is significant not only for the dispensation of Amrit to
his disciples but the manner in which sovereign power of Guruship
was bestowed upon the Khalsa through the Panj Piyaras to admit
Gobind Rai into the fold of the Khalsa, conferring upon him the
title of Singh and reinventing him as Guru Gobind Singh. These Punj
Piyare prepared and administered the Amrit in the same way as Guru
Sahib did it and made him repeat “Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru
Ji Ki Fateh”. In this way, Guru Sahib assimilated himself into the
Khalsa and bestowed Guruship for all practical purposes with he
himself becoming the disciple of the Guru Panth represented by the
Panj Piyare.
Khalsa – the advanced and complete form of Sikh is the result of the
genius of Ten Gurus over a period of 239 years including
revelations, observation, preaching, practising and preparing for
facing the challenges of life. The Khalsa is undoubtedly a modified
and updated transformed shape of Sikh.
Though the term Sikh continues to be generally used for
Khalsa, the assigned separate identity of sovereign person is
maintained. To become Amritdhari, Keshadahri and
Kirpandhari is an essential criterion of identity for becoming a
Sikh in its modern and latest form. Moreover the definition of the
Sikh according to the Sikh Rehat Maryada (The Code of Sikh Conduct
and Conventions) is crystal clear. “ In the opening of Chapter 1,
The Definition of Sikh, Article 1, Any human being who faithfully
believes in (i) One Immortal Being, (ii) Ten Gurus, from Guru Nanak
Dev to Guru Gobind Singh, (iii) The Guru Granth Sahib, (iv) The
utterances and teachings of the ten Gurus and (v) The baptism
bequeathed by the Tenth Guru, and who does not owe allegiance to any
other religion, is a Sikh ”. Thus a Sikh can never be the sailor of
two boats.
The
Sikhs do not require any introduction or any other identification
except their unique appearance. The Sikhs have to understand,
appreciate, practice and preach the Khalsa traditions in toto
with complete submission and faith. To increase awareness about
Sikhs and Sikhs by clearing misunderstandings between the Hindu,
Muslim and other communities it is the right to practically
demonstrate themselves as the peacekeeping force of the wondrous God
enthused with the large motive of welfare of all living beings.
Followers of Bhagat Kabir are called Kabir Panthis.
Followers of Bhagat Ravi Das are called Ravi Das Panthis.
Followers of Goutham Buddha are called Buddhists. Followers
of Jesus Christ are called Christians. Followers of Hazrat
Mohammad were initially called Mohammadans and later on named
as Muslims. Till the Baisakhi of 1699, the Sikhs were
understood as Nanak Panthies, Nanak Parasth or an offshoot of
Hinduism. This was against the basic tenets of the spirit of
Sikhism. The non-believers were equally claiming to be the Sikhs on
par with the believers. Guru Gobind Singh set up the Khalsa to save
believers from encroachers and infiltrators. Guru Sahib used the
terminology of Khalsa which is part of the lexicology of Guru Granth
Sahib. The sixth and ninth Gurus have also addressed the Sikh Sangat
as Khalsa in their Hukumnamas.
Khalsa is an Arabic word.
The
word Khalsa does not mean pure and no where it is used for this
sense in any language. It stands for the land that belongs to the
king and not to any individual person. Till recently this term was
commonly used in the maintenance of revenue records in various
Indian languages for lands owned by the government. The word Khalsa
was also commonly used for fearless worshippers of God. On page 655
of Guru Granth Sahib, Bhagat Kabir says, “Those slaves of God
who love to worship have become Khalsa (fearless-sovereign)”.
( Ang
– 655 )
Kaho Kabir jan bhaiye Khalsa prem bhagat jih jaani.
“Wahguru Ji Ka Khalsa -Wahguru Ji Ki Fateh ” is a multi lingual
slogan. Wah is Persian word for wonderful; highly exclamatory
appreciation. Guru is the Sanskrit word for great and also means
dispeller of ignorance, -a world teacher. It is one of a
qualitative names attributed to God. In Gurmat vocabulary Guru, Gur
and Satguru are often used for the one absolute God. Ji and Ka is
Hindi-Urdu word. Fateh is Arabic word for victory. Thus this slogan
denotes that Khalsa is a sovereign man of Wondrous God and victory
is of the Wondrous God. This is also the Sikh greeting coined by
the Tenth Master.
Out
of ignorance, some people say that Guru Gobind Singh deviated from
the teachings of Guru Nanak Sahib. They forget that the first Guru
while laying the foundation of this monumental castle of humanity,
introduced a system of successi on of Guruship to strengthen and
continue the mission declaring that they are one Jyot
(soul). He ordained that nobody should think them as different
personalities as their mission and spirit is one and the same as
part of a continuum. The successors Gurus are also called as 2nd
Guru Nanak, 3rd Guru Nanak and so on to dispel talk of
disunity of thought and ideology between the Gurus.
The
first Guru Sahib revolted through his preaching and prepared the
masses to awake against tyranny. The second Guru, Guru Angad Sahib
concentrated on the physical well being of the Sikhs and started the
tradition of wrestling grounds. When the masses came out of their
centuries-old cowardliness and were made competent enough to hold
the sword, the sixth Guru, Guru Hargobind Sahib gave the sword in
their hands. Lending finality to the mission, the tenth Guru made
it obligatory for every Sikh to be armed with Kirpan (sword
of any size) as a religious fundamental duty and transformed the
Sikhs into the present separate identity of the Khalsa.
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The Sikhs have to understand, appreciate, practice and preach
the Khalsa traditions in toto with complete submission and
faith. |
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The
exterior identity of the Sikhs has faced one challenge after
another. This war of nerves started in the shape of non-believer
devotees injecting the Hindu religious practices into the Gurdwaras.
Such Non-Sikh persons visiting the Gurdwaras and congregations have
coined a category of Sehajdhari Sikh for themselves. In the
religious history of the world, this is for the first time; such
division has been created for the non-believers of the faith to be
accepted as a part of the believers’ of original faith. There is a
profusion of literature, to describe the Sikhs as Hindus and
anti-Muslims by non-Sikh writers and confusing statements about the
authenticity of Sikh literature and our belief system. Unprepared
and fickle-minded Sikhs have fallen prey to these tendencies.
 Every person who appears to be a Sikh should be a Kirpandhari. It
is a very wrong notion that, only Amritdharis need to wear the
Kirpan. And that it is not necessary for you to carry Kirpan unless
you take Amrit. We should not forget that keeping of hair is not
sufficient to be called a Sikh. This trend has drastically damaged
the values of our faith and also endangered our status in the
society, lives and properties.
If
majority of the Sikhs do not carry Kirpan, it gives wrong signals
about it being an essential part of the religion. Every Sikh should
realise and develop general consensus to wear Kirpan. In recent
past, we have observed that the religious Sikhs with open beard and
wearing Kirpan were singled out. They were labelled as
fundamentalists or Khalistani terrorists and were hunted throughout
the country and even world over. The Sikhs who do not follow the
religion were called as Moderates. In other words the more you are
disloyal towards your faith; you are more acceptable to the society
and the Government. Our Foreign Mission Offices have played a vital
role in creating these two factions of fundamentalists and Moderates
among the Sikh community throughout the world.
This is one of the reasons of growing apostasy among Sikh youth. To
avoid the persecution of the religious Sikhs, every Sikh
irrespective of the fact whether he has taken Amrit or not, should
start wearing Kirpan. This will boost the morale of the religious
Sikhs and discourage those elements that oppose this privilege
granted to the Sikhs.
To
understand this situation more clearly, I would like to quote the
example of the Muslim community. A Muslim is supposed to keep beard.
Except few religious and devout ones, Muslims rarely keep the
beard. Stereotyping in the media results in most bearded Muslims
presumed to be fundamentalists and suspected terrorists by the
authorities. The Muslims have created this situation themselves by
not following their religious code of keeping the beard. Are the
Sikhs not repeating the same mistake by not adhering to the code of
wearing the Kirpan?
The
gradual relinquishing of the symbols of faith has created a new
class of Sikhs who arrogantly question the integrity of the
Amritdhari Sikh and create a wicked sense of seclusion for them.
This Baisakhi let us rededicate to the Spirit of the Khalsa and
rejuvenate our Sardari by submitting to the Lord of the White Hawk
in the same way as the Panj Piyare did in 1699. Our individual
salvation and the destiny of the Sikh people lies in this
dedication.
 A regular columnist for World Sikh News,
Nanak Singh “Nishter” is a Hyderabad
based orator, writer and Urdu poet. He is an activist-academician
making immense contribution to the social and cultural welfare of
Sikh society. He has presented papers at national and international
seminars on Sikhism and social problems. He is director of
International Sikh Centre for Interfaith Relations. He may be
contacted at
nanaknishter@gmail.com
9
April
2008
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