1 GURU GOVIND SINGH. 267
2 :
3 pilgrimage, become eminent for his learning, that all his undertakings in
4 this world would be crowned with success, and that blessings would be
5 abundantly showered upon him in the world to come. Many of the credulous
6 Sikhs, in the hope of becoming admirable crichtons, make annual excursions
7 to the place, and such is the force of imagination, that these simpletons are
8 looked upon by their fellow ignoramuses as scholars and philosophers, and
9 their opinions are solicited:on all occasions, and their decisions accepted
10 with the greatest deference. The place is inhabited by sédhs and faqirs, who,
11 after travelling about the country, settle there, and it is not to be wondered
12 at if a man attains some wisdom by a visit to Damdamé, after journeying
13 from his own country, and mixing in the society of the aged sddhs of that
14 place. Gurmukhi in its best style is written there.
15 The Guru then came to Sirhind, the place where his two youngest sons
16 had been brutally killed under the orders of the Mahomedan governor. The
17 Sikhs cherished a hatred of the most bitter kind for this town, and with
18 joined: hands submitted. to the Guru, “O true king! give us your orders to
19 burn this town to ashes, for we cannot bear the sight of it. It was here that
20 your two beloved sons were assassinated!” The Guru observed that the city
21 itself had done no harm, and that the death of his sons would not be avenged
22 if it were destroyed. The Sikhs, who were greatly exasperated, made re-
23 peated representations, but the Guru declined to accede to their request, and
24 prudently so, for‘he knew very well that a rash attempt like that suggested
25 to him, would entail on him the wrath of the emperor and entangle him in
26 fresh difficulties. He, however, compromised the matter with his agitated
27 followers by saying to them in a loud voice: “ Whoever is my Sikh, let him
28 do one thing when he happens to pass by this way to the Ganges. He must
29 pull down two bricks from the city and throw them into the river Sutlej in
30 detestation of the crime committed here on innocent children. My Sikhs
31 will not call it by the name of Sirhind, but by that of Guru Madr, or the
32 place where Gurus were killed.” The ceremony is still observed, and the
33 pilgrims to the Ganges, when they pass through Sirhind, either going or
34 returning, take out two bricks and throw them into the river. The mention
35 of the name of Sirhind in the morning is considered as unpropitious. The
36 Sikhs built there a great shrine, which is still visited by crowds of pilgrims.
37 Towards the close of the reign of Aurangzeb, the Guru lived in peace at
38 Anandapur. But the king, who was then in the Dekkan, always felt anxious
39 about him. He, therefore, issued a mandate summoning the Guru to his pre-
40 ence, When the messenger reached Govind and delivered the royal firman to
41 him, he kissed it and placed it on his head in token of respect. He treated
42 the messenger with the greatest honour, and told him that he regarded him-
43 self as a dependent and vassal of the “king of kings,” and that to obey his
44 majesty’s command would be an honour to him, but that, before accompany-
45 ing the messenger, he would like to submit his grievances to the emperor
46 in writing. He, therefore, composed a poem in the Persian language, com-
47 prising fourteen hundred stanzas, in which he gave a vivid picture of the
48 reverses of his own fortune and the calamities to which he had been sub-
49 jected at the hands of the Imperial Government. He said he had been
50 rendered childless, motherless and homeless; he had lost all his family, and
51 his dearest friends had been torn from him; the day of reckoning would at
52 last come, when the oppressor would have to account before the Creator for the
53 wrongs done by him to the helpless and oppressed; that for himself he
54 despised death and was weary of his life; that he feared no one, and was
55 willing to die, but that, if he died, his death would be revenged.
56 The letter, having been sealed, was delivered to the messenger, who was
57 And gives the place
58 his blessings.
59 Proceeds to Sirhind.
60 Detestation of the
61 Sikhs for this place,
62 The Guru is sammon-
63 ed by Aurangzeb to
64 the Dekkan.
65 He replies to the
66 emperor in a denuncin-
67 tory poem, composed
68 by himself, in Persfan.
69 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com