Introduction To The Book 'Guru Gobind Singh - Life and Achievements (Vol. I)' By Max Arthur Macauliffe

300th birth anniversary of the Khalsa (1999 A.D.) is not only a joyous occasion for celebration but is also a great opportunity to refresh our minds with the purpose and philosophy behind the advent of the Khalsa as also to refill our hearts with the light that brought it forth and galvanised it. Guru Gobind Singh's object of creating the Khalsa was to widen the scope of religion and religious experience so that it could become an instrument of social change, such as, in fact, was the need of the time.

An ideal religious man, according to the scriptures, was humble, full of piety, righteous, upright, contemplative and devout. But in the social and political milieu of the times, such an ideally religious man was unfit to flourish, nay, even survive, as he was incapable of redressing the wrongs of the society which were too many and too formidable.

Guru Gobind Singh, standing on the firm ground, clutched at the man nearly sunk in the morass of superstition, taboo, castecism, fatalism, despondency and helplessness and pulled him out, cleaned him of filth he had been covered in, gave him new dress, new accoutrements, new resolve and new mantra and rechristened him as 'Singh', the lion--God's own Khalsa.

Guru Gobind Singh was only nine years old when his father Guru Teg Bahadur fell to Aurangzeb's bigotry. His martyrdom was a watershed in the history of the Sikh movement set rolling by Guru Nanak some two centuries previously. Guru Nanak himself was a witness to-and a victim of-Mughal barbarity and bigotry when Babur had ravaged the peace-loving nation. Yet Guru Nanak confined his activity to emancipating the minds of the people from superstition, hypocrisy and false pride. He gave them a simple formula of religious life-service of others with love and humility and one-pointed love of the Supreme God to the exclusion of thousands of deities, gods and goddesses.

Guru Angad, the second guru, consolidated the Sikh following and gave them an individuality of their own. Guru Amar Das prevented the Sikhs from drifting into ascetism which traditionally had held charm for every religious aspirant. Guru Ram Das expanded the influence of the new religion far and wide and gave it an organisation. Guru Arjan gave the Sikhs a code, a treasury and a capital (Amritsar) making it a theocratic community. After the martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev, Guru Hargobind, the sixth guru, organised a small army for self-defence and it did well too in several encounters with the imperial forces, though it could not have been expected to take on the full might of the Delhi rulers. Guru Hargobind established-Akal Takht which signified that worldly pursuits were quite compatible with religious spirit and bearing of arms for the defence of homes and hearths and faith was a paramount duty. Guru Har Rai, though in no way subservient to the Mughal authorities, managed to have a peaceful tenor. After the persecution of Guru Teg Bahadur, Guru Gobind Singh faced the same situation-and the challenge-that Guru Hargobind had after his father's martyrdom.

Guru Gobind Singh spent long many years of his early life in seclusion in the hills giving himself the best of education in letters and arms. He acquired a mastery in riding and shooting. He was unbeatable in archery and it became his forte. He brooded long and hard and decided his would be the same mission in life as was of Lord Krishna i.e. "extirpating the tyrant in the defence of righteousness" and "spreading the truth." He had learnt several languages, including Sanskrit and Persian, and had developed a war-like poetry to rouse the sleeping, fatalist Hindus to pick up arms in defence of dharma. He aimed at infusing a new life into his countrymen, making them shed their differences of every kind, so as to present a united front against the unholy and inimical forces. He is believed to have participated in a Hom to propitiate Goddess Durga. He held aloft his naked sword and declared that that was the true face of the goddess which he had seen after a year-long Hom. That was the real Shakti, the sword, that had killed the demons and sucked their blood. He glorified the sword as goddess of power, and death on the battlefield as moksha (deliverence).

It was on Baisakhi day of 1699 A.D. that Guru Gobind Singh began his missionary work in earnest. He brandished his sword before a huge congregation who had gathered to pay yearly homage to the Guru, and asked if there was anyone who could offer his head to his sword that had a mission to undertake. Most of them cared, but there were five most devoted and undaunted followers of the Guru who were pleased to make a gift of their heads to the guru. These five devotees (called panj piaras) were soon  baptised by a new procedure specially devised for the occasion and called the baptism of the doubled-edged dagger. The baptised Sikhs were given the titles of 'Singh' (lion) to be used after their names--a title which was hitherto associated with the al races of the Rajputs. After having baptised the panj piaras, the guru stood with folded hands before them begging to be baptized by them in the same way he had baptized them. They were astonished at such a proposal and represented their unworthiness. But the Guru assured them that he had made them Guru much the same way as Guru Nanak had seated Guru Angad on the throne and cowed before him. "Wherefore administer the baptismal nectar to me without any hesitation." (Great is Gobind Singh who's the Guru and disciple rolled into one--Bhai Gurdas). He thus invested his sect with the dignity of gurudom, something quite unique in itself and in history. Thereby he established equality and mutual love and reverence between the disciple and the guru, indeed among all the Khalsa panth.