The history of Baisakhi.

While the Sikhs celebrate Baisakhi across India, the rest of India wonders if it is all about doing bhangra and dancing. No, it is not. Baisakhi holds a lesson for all Indians.....especially in this day and age....

On this day in 1699, in a congregation of people from all across India....standing there listening to their Guru, Sree Gobind Rai. Gobind Rai ji asked for human sacrifice of five men one after the other. Five men from different castes from different parts of India stood up from the crowd of thousands:-

       

     * A shopkeeper, baniya called Daya Ram from Lahore.         

     * A farmer, jat called Dharam Das from Meerut.

     * A so called low-caste water carrier, called Himmat Rai from Puri, Orissa.

     * A tailor, of Cheemba caste called Mukham Chand from Dwarka, Gujarat

     * A barber, of naai caste called Sahib Chand from Bidar, Karnataka.

With his choice of disciples from five different corners of India, Gobind Rai ji visualised the national dream....from the coast of Gujarat along eastern Arabian Sea to coasts of Orissa along the Bay of Bengal; from the great plains of Punjab to the Ganjetic Plain and then onto the Deccan peninsula covering Karnataka.

Do not forget that at that time, all those were separate states; it was Guru Gobind Singh ji that thought of all of them as one....this Baisakhi day of 1699.

With the choicest of disciples from five different caste-groups, he visualised an integrated, classless society. The five were christened as the First Five Khalsa Sikhs and the five in turn christened their Guru as the sixth. Gobind Rai was now Gobind Singh ji. All caste names and surnames were dropped and a common surname was proposed for all Indians across India; a surname that denoted a caste-less, class-less creed of men willing to sacrifice themselves for the nation and against injustice.

And the Swaroop he chose for the class-less people was an amalgamation of the ancient Indian thought of Rishis (as mentioned bt Guru Gobind Singh in the Sarbloh Granth) and the Kshatriya tradition of Warriors, hence the jooda, the hair and the talwar. The concept of Miri-Piri was coded in the dress-system of this new society envisioned by him. A group of people who were strong in Miri (physical strength and material possessions) and Piri (spiritual strength and humility).

So, the five so called lower castes were given the temporal  strength of a Rishi (a Brahmin citadel till then) and the Physical responsibilities of a Kshatriya ( a duty till then limited to the Rajputs). This motley group of people uprooted Afghan and Mughal rule from the entire north India from the Yamuna to the Khyber pass, such was the power of this vision.

And this was the Indian that he envisioned, from the five corners of this nation. Guru Gobind Singh ji was a visionary par excellence. His vision has been diluted and limited to Sikhism, that is a travesty.

Tailpiece.

Got up at my usual time, the chores and saw Ammu going through the paces of the bali tharpanam. Today, too, the crows didn't fetch up and hence, the offering was passed into the flowing brook, close by.

Recited my prayers, exercised and was ready by a half past 11. To Ayoor to fetch sundries.

In the evening, dropped Mini's friend Prasanna and her granddaughter, Vismaya at their house, met her daughter, Soorya and her mother, the 94-year-old Devaki Amma, who was truly excited when I touched her feet while taking leave!

A comparatively early night.