SIKH DHARAM
Guru
Revered Teacher - Enlightener
Guru broken down means, darkness (“gu“) to light (“ru“). Therefore, Guru is usually translated as ‘enlightener’ or ‘teacher’.
The title was bestowed upon the founder of the Sikh faith, Guru Nanak. It was subsequently used for all 9 successive human Gurus, and then bestowed on the Sacred Scripture, Guru Granth Sahib Ji – the Eternal ‘living’ Guru of the Sikhs.
Learn about the Sikh Gurus
The Global Context
For centuries before the period of the ten Sikh Gurus (1469 to 1708), as the gateway to India by land, the Punjab had experienced brutal invasions and rule by external powers, alongside localised forms of injustice and oppression. This had left a mood of powerlessness and apathy, an accepted culture of deceit and exploitation and questions of what really defines a person’s identity. It was against this backdrop that the Gurus carried forward the jyot or ‘Divine light’ of Guru Nanak (the first Guru) to shape the distinctive dharam or faith.
The First Guru
Guru Nanak Dev Ji
Guru Nanak was born in 1469, in a province of the Punjab now in present-day Pakistan. The town of his birth, Talwandi, was later named after him as Nankana Sahib. Watered by the tributaries of the Indus River, the Punjab was once home to the Indus Valley civilisation and a prominent centre for Hindu and Buddhist culture. A gateway by land to India for invaders and conquerors from the west, it had also seen Islamic as well as earlier Greek influence. By the time of Guru Nanak’s birth, northern India was part of an Afghan empire ruled by the Lodhi dynasty. Guru Nanak later witnessed the invasions of Babur, a descendant of the Mongol emperors, who then established the Mughal dynasty in India. Further afield, Europe was emerging from the medieval period, with its feudal system and related forms of religious and political dominance. Similarly, in India, both Hindu and Muslim saintly figures (whom Sikhs refer to as bhagats) had been questioning prejudices and injustices caused by entrenched religious and social divisions. By the time of Guru Nanak’s arrival, change was in the air.
The Second Guru
Guru Angad Dev Ji
As well as establishing the Gurmukhi script, Guru Angad Dev Ji, the second Guru – together with his wife, Mata Khivi Ji – strengthened the institution of langar, to serve food in an egalitarian way to all people. From his base in Khadur Sahib, he also established many centres for physical exercise, wrestling, and martial arts. The third Guru, Guru Amardas Ji, had been deeply inspired to hear his nephew’s wife, Bibi Amro (the daughter of Guru Angad), singing gurbani. He served prolifically in the Guru’s community and the image of him as an elderly yet resilient disciple – fetching water, in all weathers, from the River Beas, for Guru Angad’s early morning bath – epitomises for Sikhs his tireless dedication.
The Third Guru
Guru Amardas Ji
It was by this familiar river, near a landing bank for ferries, that Guru Amardas helped found the town of Goindwal. Blessed as Guru at the age of 73 years, he then made this his home. Over the next two decades, he expanded and administered regional congregations, appointing male and female educators to guide them. He lifted practices such as the veiling of women, or purdāh, which repeated invasions and rounds of female abduction had exacerbated. Where widows from respectable Indian households had to burn themselves on their husband’s funeral pyre (a practice known as satī) or become social outcastes, Guru Amardas enabled them to live, or remarry, in dignity. His memorable verses, including the Anand Sahib or ‘Song of Bliss’, inspired people to vibrantly embody the teachings.
The Fourth Guru
Guru Ramdas Ji
The fourth Sikh Guru was Guru Ramdas Ji. He had been orphaned in childhood and it was to him that Guru Amardas had given his daughter, Bibi Bhani’s, hand in marriage. His devotional compositions include the Sikh wedding rounds or Lāvān and he also founded the town of Ramdaspur. It was here that he contributed physically to the construction efforts, in a form of hands-on selfless service that became known as ‘kār sevā’. Developing the town as a spiritual and economic centre, he strengthened in people the spirit of self-sufficiency and community participation. The sarovar or sacred pool he excavated became the site of the famous Harmandir Sahib (known by the British as the ‘Golden Temple’) and the growing city was later renamed ‘Amritsar’ (‘site of the amrit sarovar’).
The Fifth Guru
Guru Arjan Dev Ji
The construction of the sacred Sri Harmandir Sahib shrine, in Amritsar was completed by the fifth Guru who was Guru Ramdas’ youngest son. Known as Guru Arjan Dev Ji, he was the first Guru to be born in a Sikh Guru’s household. In Amritsar, he compiled the teachings of the Sikh Gurus and associated Hindu and Muslim saints into a single body of scripture, Sri Ād(i) Granth Sahib. Incorporating the values of humility and openness in Harmandir Sahib’s design, he invited the great Sufi saint, Hazrat Mian Mir, to lay its foundation stone. Under him, then Guru Nanak’s vision of social transformation based on a spirit of oneness became more sharply visible. On the order of a new and hostile Mughal emperor, Guru Arjan was arrested and fatally sentenced to state torture. He is remembered for maintaining an inner equilibrium, emanating peace and acceptance of the Divine will to the end. With his last breath, the buds of the Sikh saintly-warrior tradition unfurled, coupling the goodness, purity, and wisdom of a saint with the grit, power, and courage of a soldier.
Martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev Ji
By the time of Guru Arjan Dev Ji, Sikhs were a significant force in Mughal India, with institutions and partnerships guided by a distinctive ethos, a clear source of teachings and a steady, ongoing leadership. Whilst early Mughal emperors had supported the peaceful growth of Sikh communities, the new emperor, Jehangir, was more susceptible to complaints from religiously zealous or politically disgruntled advisors. Despite coersion by the emperor to change elements of Sikh scripture, Guru Arjan Dev Ji stood his ground to preserve its integrity.
Eventually, the peace-builder, Guru Arjan Dev Ji, was sentenced to a fatal form of state torture in the imperial city of Lahore in 1606. His dear friend, the great Sufi mystic, Hazrat Mīān Mīr, entreated the Guru to allow him to approach the emperor, or to use his spiritual powers to affect his release. Requesting him not to interfere with the bhānā or Divine will, Guru Ji epitomised the power of acceptance. He also forgave and bore no animosity to his tormentors.
Guru Arjan Dev Ji is remembered for maintaining an inner equilibrium, emanating peace and acceptance of the Divine will to the end. Although his departure from the world is described as martyrdom, he did not take issue with the authorities around any cause, but remained unwavering in his principles. This has inspired a strong Sikh tradition of peaceful struggle, peaceful defence and peaceful endurance, in later eras of political oppression.
Many traditional Sikh paintings depict the external details of Guru Arjan Dev Ji’s torture, showing him seated on a hot iron plate, or in a cauldron of boiling water, as hot sand is poured over his head. With his last breath, the buds of the Sikh saintly-warrior tradition unfurled. Scriptural images of the gian kharag – inner sword of wisdom – were combined with the memory of Guru Arjan Dev Ji’s example of transcending fear and hate and embodying resilience and acceptance.
The Sixth Guru
Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji
Guru Arjan appointed his only son, the young Hargobind Ji, to serve bravely as the sixth Guru in this climate of political foreboding. His first gesture was to don two swords, naming them using two Persian terms mirī and pirī (signifying responsible leadership in worldly life, guided by spiritual wisdom and virtues). By twinning these concepts, he asserted that a commitment to serving the world must be regulated by wisdom, courage and virtue to curb any misuse or abuse of power. Similarly, the two swords were described using the Sanskrit terms shakti (energy and power) and bhaktī (meditative devotion). Guru Hargobind went on to construct the Akāl Takhat (‘Throne of the Timeless One’) next to the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, to attend to matters of social and political concern. By building the ‘Iron Fort’ of Lohghar and by forming a defensive force of soldiers, he communicated Sikh resilience in the face of looming political threat. For the revered Sikh poet, Bhai Gurdas, these were moves to safeguard, with ‘thorny bushes’, the flourishing ‘orchard’ of Guru Nanak’s legacy.
The Seventh Guru
Guru Har Rai Ji
Whilst maintaining this fortified presence, Guru Har Rai Ji, the seventh Guru, strengthened our sense of connection to the flora and fauna of the natural world. Specialising in plant medicine, he established a botanical garden and animal sanctuary in the town of Kīratpur.
The Eighth Guru
Guru Harkrishan Ji
The eight Guru, Guru Harkrishan Ji did not live beyond his childhood. He is also referred to as ‘Bāl Guru’ – the child Guru. He is remembered for his power to cure the suffering in a smallpox epidemic in Delhi, when he had been invited to come and stay there at the royal banglā (‘bungalow’) of Raja Jai Singh. As people then flocked here to be blessed and healed, the young Guru directed them to bathe in the waters of its well. This residence later became the famous Gurudwara known as Banglā Sahib. As Sikhs understand, Guru Harkrishan took the illness of the masses upon himself and, in 1664, he himself succumbed to smallpox at a tender age.
Like the elder Guru Amardas, the child Guru, Guru Harkrishan, reminded Sikhs that, in the process of selecting a disciple for Guruship, wisdom was not measured by age. After him, through the example and initiative of the ninth and tenth Gurus, the ethos of courage and compassion to serve and protect the welfare of all would be sealed in the identity of the saintly warrior or sant-sipahī.
The Ninth Guru
Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji
Highly respected across India, Guru Tegh Bahadur was renowned for brokering peace to prevent war. Establishing langars to provide and serve food in an egalitarian manner in many places, he also spearheaded the digging of wells in arid regions to regenerate the land and people’s livelihoods.
When a delegation of Hindu priests from Kashmir approached him for help, in the face of Aurangzeb’s oppressive policies towards non-Muslims, it was his young son (then Gobind Rai) who remarked that there was no leader more capable than him who could make a stand before the emperor. As Guru Tegh Bahadur set off towards the imperial capital of Delhi, the events that followed led to the culmination of the ten Guru period under Guru Gobind Singh.
The Tenth Guru
Guru Gobind Singh Ji
Born in the eastern Indian city of Patna, Gobind Rai spent his later childhood in Anandpur, a town first founded by his father near the Himalayan foothills. Richly trained in religious, martial, multilingual, and literary knowledge, the tenth Guru then established a base in nearby Paonta Sahib, on the banks of the river Yamuna. In this inspired location, he composed major scriptural works and held a regular court gathering of poets, whom he had tasked with translating Persian and ancient Sanskrit classics to inspire people with timeless spiritual and heroic values. Training disciples in the martial arts, the Guru also maintained a skilled military force. Agitated by his presence, some rulers of neighbouring territories launched attacks which led the Guru to engage in defensive battles.
The Eternal Guru
Guru Granth Sahib Ji
The perpetual authority of the ‘Guru Granth’, as a source of Divine wisdom relayed and revealed by the Gurus, was formally recognised in 1708. This was when Guru Gobind Singh bowed to confer the Guruship upon the body of scripture, not long before his departure from the world.