THE GROWTH OF RESPONSIBILITY IN SIKHISM
GURU
ARJUN 1563-1606
SELF-SACRIFICE
Amritsar
and Tarntaran, were being founded. In
the search after purely religious matters,
we often forget how much the Punjab owes
to Guru Ram Dass and Guru Arjun, far Advancing
the trade and manufacture of the country.
They felt that there could be no hope
for the social and political regeneration
of our nation, as long as it was composed
mostly of unthinking laborers and cultivators
of the field. The creation of an intelligent
middle class was (as it still is) they
crying need of the time. The society in
India was so constituted as to give no
scope to the development of arts and industries.
The rigid caste rules had made it impossible
for the men of higher castes to take part
in the cultivation of arts and sciences.
They stood aloof and left the sweating
work to be done by the so-called lower
castes. The latter did carry on the work,
- and great honor them that they did so,
inspite of fact that it was considered
ignoble-but, being un-helped by the best
brains of the community they worked on
the old conservative lines established
by tradition, and had no aspirations,
no knowledge, no incentive to make any
improvements in the ways and means of
their crafts.
This
exclusion of our intelligensia from the
Industrial domain was ruinous, not only
the national industries, but to the national
character as well. The educated classes,
being out of touch with the working classes,
lost hold on the practical aspects of
human life, and gave themselves up to
the luxury of contemplation or idle living
at the expense of others. They many could
not afford to be idle, but their character
deteriorated on account of ignorance and
un enlightened drudgery, which was looked
upon by all as mean and wordly. All spiritually
minded persons would shun it, as it was
supposed that the way of salvation was
not the way of work. We cannot measure
how great was the damage done by this
pernicious belief to the character of
our nationut we are anticipating matters,
let us see what was the contribution of
Guru Angad to the formation of Sikh character.
In his life and in the lives of his disciples,
nothing strikes us so forcibly as their
obedience to the cause of Guru Nanak.
Let us take a few examples.
Our
Gurus recognized that the reform of a
nation means the reform of its masses.
A nation, as President Wilson says, is
a great, and only as great, as her rank
and file. It is the average man that counts;
and it was with him that the Sikh work
began. All classes were declared equal.
All occupations that were honest were
glorified as sacred. In the Holy Scripture,
complied by Guru Arjun, a most honored
place is given to the writings of several
saints, Hindu and Mohammedan, who were
noted as well for their keen interest
in the wordly affairs as for their high
fights in the spiritual domain. There
is Kabir a Mohammedan weaver, Nam Dev
a Calico-printer, Sain a barber, and Ravidas
a shoemaker. Beside these and others of
the same class are found Pipa a king,
Jaideva Brahmin, Bhikhan a learned Mohammedan
and Surdas a provincial potentate.
The purport of the teaching itself, which
was sung out daily before the congregations,
had a direct bearing on the practical
problems of life. The immediate effect
of the teaching that religion could be
best practiced within the secular concerns
of life was that all prejudices against
honest labor and trade were removed, and
the people begain to take an active part
in what were called the wordly affirms.
Possession of wealth was no longer to
be considered a Maya, but as a very salutary
and helpful thing in the conduct of Human
affairs: "For a religious man, it is not
unholy to get wealth, provided the spends
it in God's way, and gives and lives in
comfort." (Sarang kir Var
IV) The fourth Guru once said to
his Sikhs, "When a Sikh has got an important
business in hand, join him and pray for
him. If you see that it cannot be carried
on without funds, collect money for him
from every quarter, and at the same timer
give something yourselves. Henceforth
we often hear of horse-dealing, banking,
embroidery and carpentry among the Sikhs.
The Gurus patronized and encouraged them,
as this was also one of the noblest way
of doing service to the country.
The movement of service became most active
in the time of Guru Arjun. His was the
ideal of service by suffering which he
had learnt form Bibi Bhani, his mother.
His purpose was to show that whatever
suffering one has to meet in doing good
to others is not the outcome of one's
sins, but a necessary correlative of virtue.
The people had believed in a desperate
spirit that all pain was the reward of
previous sins, and that virtuous men would
never suffer. They said that Dasrath,
king Rama's father, suffered pain in the
exile of his son, because he had caused
the same kind of pain to the father of
Sarvan. Similarly, Rama, Draupadi, and
other famous heroes and heroines of ancient
history had to undergo troubles only because
they had previously done something wrong
corresponding to each item of their suffering.
As there could be no pain without sin,
all actions that involved pain began to
be shunned. There was, therefore, no idea
of Self-sacrifice or Patriotism left in
India, instead of that, the people had
evolved lazy systems of belief which were
calculated to make not the least demand
upon conscience or human sympathies.
But
we see that there can be no virtue without
suffering, or without sacrifice. Self-sacrifice
is the foundation of all goodness. The
mother has to sacrifice her beauty, in
order to see her first born. "The plant
blossoms for the sake of fruit; when the
fruit appears, the flower perishes." (Bhairo,
Ravidas) In another place, Ravidas
says: "How can a man feel for others'
pain, when the himself has tasted no troubles?"
(Suhi)
We often hear peace of mind being proclaimed
as the greatest thing to be desired in
life. For this purpose, different systems
of philosophy and asceticism have been
invented. Many intricate mental exercises
have been laid down for getting a mysterious
fluid, called nectar, which they say,
trickles down the brain and fills the
body with joy. Others have been mystifing
them-selves in the hope of hearing a celestial
harmony, produced by unbeaten strings
of music. The East has racked its brain
for centuries to devise some successful
plan for the trammeling up of conscience
or annihilation of desire-which is simply
impossible as long as man is man. We can
kill our desires only by killing ourselves.
A man, who enjoys a perfect peace of mind,
must be either a dead man or a beast.
He whose consecience is wide-awake, will
never feel easy as long as there is sin
and suffering in the world. Kabir says,
"Those who know nothing, enjoy their sleep
in comfort. But it goes hard indeed with
us, who have been given to understand
something." It was because Guru Arjun
suffered with those whom he saw suffering,
that he founded at Tarn Taran an asylum
for lepers, and in the time of a famine,
he moved Akbar to remit the land revenue
of the Punjab for a year. In the same
way, he invited suffering on himself by
refusing to pay the tax, unjustly imposed
by Raja Birbal on the Khatris of Amritsar.
If the Gurus had thought of the peace
of mind as the highest object of life,
they could surely have got it by a life
of retirement and unfeeling ease, as so
many sages had done in the past. There
would have been no need of leading men
risking lives in checking tyrannies. There
would have been no martyrs, no character,
no nation of the Sikhs. If, therefore,
the Sikh character has made a mark in
the history of the world, it is because
its foundation was laid on suffering for
the sake of truth. It is suffering that
has intensified the Sikh character; and
it is in this sense that in Sikh Scriptures
Pain has been called a medicine and Hunger
and Affliction a blessing. The first thing
needful for a follower of Guru Arjun was
to "accept death and renounce all hopes
of life." It was, however, in no ignominous
or cowardly spirit that the Sikh was to
offer himself for death, but he was to
welcome it cheerfully as the privilege
of a brave man living and dying for a
righteous cause.
Death is the privilege of brave man, provided
they die for an approved cause.
The Guru himself died a martyr, without
complaining singing in the midst of flames
: "The shell of superstition has burst;
the mind is illumined. The Master has
cut the fetter of the feed and freed the
captive." "Truth is my place, Truth my
seat, and Truth I have made my special
object." His cause was righteous, and
bravely he suffered for it. No martyr's
lot was harder than Guru Arjun's and yet
nobody has sung of life more cheerfully
than he : "Whatever Thou givest, I treat
as happiness. Wherever Thou placest me,
there shall be my heaven." Baba Farid
had written in some pessimistic moment,
"I had thought I alone was in trouble.
No, the whole world is suffering. From
my house-top I see that every house is
burning with the same fire." The Guru,
when incorporating the Baba's writings
in his Book, could not pass over this
sickening remark; so he added his note
to it : "Farid, the earth is beautiful,
and in it there is a thorny garden. Those
to whom the Master is kind, remain sound
even in the midst of troubles. There are
very few who love the Dear one; but those
who do find their lives beautiful and
their bodies fair." To a man complaining
of life-wearness, there is nothing so
cheering, so invigorating as Guru Arjun's
Sukhmani. It is a great consoler of the
mind.
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