S. Vivekananda: "Mark me, every one of you will have to be a Govind Singh."
From: "jagbir singh"
Date: Tue Jan 24, 2006 2:33 pm
Subject: Swami Vivekananda: "Mark me, every one of you will have to be a Govind Singh"
--- In adishakti_sahaja_yoga@yahoogroups.com, "jagbir singh"
>
> Ancient Hindu civilisation and mathematics
> By Dr R.N. Das
>
> Therefore, the lowest was 34,000th of a second known as krati and
> the highest of the measurement of the Time was known as kalpa,
> which equalled to 4.32 billion years. Is it not amazing? Are you
> not feeling proud to be a Hindu descendent? Swami Vivekananda, the
> modern sage of Bharat, stated in his famous sermons compiled in his
> Rousing Call to the Hindu Nation, "Take pride in Hinduism;
> pronounce yourselves as a descendant of a Hindu. Boast to be a
> Hindu and give a clarion call to rouse the Hindu nation from its
> lethargy and slumber." ...
>
> We should take a vow to work together to search those hidden
> treasures out, propagate the notion that Sanskrit is not a dead
> language. Sanskrit is the elite of the elitist, classic of the
> classics and it should be revived once again. We will again sit in
> the seat of the world assembly with our head held high and with
> pride. I would like to draw the final touch with the quotation from
> Swami Vivekananda, "I do not see into the future nor do I care to
> see. But one vision I see clear as life before me, that the ancient
> Mother has awakened once more sitting on her throne rejuvenated,
> more glorious than ever. Proclaim her to all the world with the
> voice of peace and benediction."
>
Guru Gobind Singh Ji
Guru Govind Rai (Singh) in Line Of Shri Rama And Shri Krishna by V.
Wadher
Punjab, rightly claimed as the traditional sword-arm of
Bharatvarsha, has valiantly borne the first brunt of all the pre-
European aggressors upon her. And one of the most luminous stars
which rose in that northwestern horizon and shed its luster over the
entire length and breadth of the country is undoubtedly Guru Govind
Singh (born at Patna on Maargashtra Shukla Saptami -the 7th Day of
bright half of Maargashira, i.e. 24 December 1666) the tenth and the
final Guru in the holy tradition initiated by the great saint Guru
Nanak. In fact, his life of pain and fortitude is a saga without
many parallels in he world.
Rightly, Guru Govind Singh inherited the legacy of the fearless
martyrdom of his father, Guru Tegh Bahadur. Guru Tegh Bahadur, with
a view to instilling courage and confidence among the Kashmiri
Hindus to withstand Aurangzeb's fanatical tyranny and threats to
Islamize them, challenged the Moghal emperor to convert him first.
And the great Guru preferred to have his head roll down in Chandni
Chowk of Delhi rather than sacrifice his faith. Govind was just a
boy of nine years at that time. On coming to know of his father's
terrible end he exclaimed: "He saved with his blood the honor of
Hindu Dharma. Oh, what a remarkable act in this Kaliyuga! He
preferred to give up his life, but not his faith!"
It is with such a fiery note of idealism that the young Govind Rai
embarked upon his life-mission even from his infancy. As a child he
had drunk deep at the fount of Ramayana, Mahabharata, and the
Puranas. He was inspired with the heroic examples of Sri Rama, Sri
Krishna, Bheema and Arjuna. He felt convinced that he too like those
great forbears was born to vanquish the wicked and to protect
Dharma. He began preparing himself in a thorough fashion to play
that historic role.
Though engaged with a very busy life, Guru Govind was a great patron
of literature. The Guru himself wrote in all genres of poetry,
though his forte was martial poetry. His great passion was to get
the entire Hindu mythology translated into Braj Bhasa, the lingua
franca of those times. Where necessary he also made innovations.
His 'Ramavtar` and 'Krishnavtar` are examples. He assimilated the
spiritual truths enshrined in the Vedas, Upanishads and the Bhagavad
Geeta. He became adept in the Persian, Arabic, and Punjabi
languages, just as in Sanskrit and Hindi, and was a peerless poet as
well.
As an archer he was unequalled in the whole of Hindusthan. No
wonder, equipped as he was with such a rare combination of
brahmateja and kshaatrateja, he wrote in his auto-biographical poem
Bichitra Natak that he was commanded by God to take birth to uphold
the true path of Dharma.
The clues to what Guru Govind Singh achieved are to be found in his
autobiographical poem Bichitra Natak (the Resplendent Drama). The
most interesting formulation in the Bichitra Natak is that the Guru
Panth is an extension of the great Raghu dynasty to which Rama
belonged. According to Guru Govind Singh, Guru Nanak is a direct
descendant of Kush, the elder son of Rama, and Guru Govind Singh
himself is a direct descendant of Lava, the younger son of Rama.
On what basis was the Guru to fight the Mughals? If he were just a
rebel, he could not arouse Punjab. Besides, he was a Guru who had no
business to fight the king. But if the kingdoms of Lahore and Kasur
(it is believed that Kasur was founded by Kush and Lahore by Lava)
were in fact the legacy of the Gurus themselves, then to fight for
regaining the throne of Punjab would become the legitimate right of
Guru Govind Singh. Even in his person the Guru had started wearing a
bow and a quiver of arrows which were the two distinguishing marks
of Lord Rama.
According to ancient Punjabi tradition, Lava and Kush were born in
Punjab. Ram Tirath, a place some miles away from Amritsar, is known
to have been the hermitage of Valmiki where Sita took refuge when
Rama banished her. The sage is known to have brought up Lava and
Kush.
Govind Singh wrote that in his past life, he was a Rishi who
performed great penances at Hemkunt. He has given a graphic
description of a place in the Himalayas ensconced by twelve mountain
peaks. It was here that he was ordained by the Param Purukh to take
another birth for the specific purpose of uprooting adharma. This
story went well with the kind of life he led and the things he
achieved. He was born to Guru Tegh Bahadur because the latter too
was propitiating God to bless him with a great son. The whole stance
of this story is the same as of Dasaratha who also performed
penances in his earlier birth and was blessed by the Lord that He
himself would be born to him.
In the tradition of Lord Rama, Guru Govind Singh performed a year-
long Chandi Yagna at Naina Devi (the shrine of the Goddess of
beautiful eyes) overlooking Anandpur Sahib before launching upon his
mission. Lord Rama had done the same before marching into Lanka. The
Goddess, pleased with his austerities, had blessed Rama with victory.
Lord Krishna had taken Arjuna to the temple of the Goddess for
seeking her blessings before the battle with the Kauravas.
RULING DEITY
According to tradition, Chandi is the ruling deity of the Jalander
Peeth, the triangle pervaded by the Goddess of which Jalander, Kulu
and Vaishno Devi form the three angles. In Punjab when the Shaktas
(the worshippers of Shakti) ruled the roost, the Mother was known to
be residing in every nook and corner of the triangle, alternatively
known as the Trigarth Peeth. The important shrines of the Goddess in
this region bear testimony to this point. There are Ambala
(Ambalaya - the home of the Goddess), Chandigarh (the fortress of
the Goddess), Kalka (abode of Kali), Naina Devi (in the Shivaliks),
Asa Devi (in the Dhaulaladhars), Hidimba (in the Kulu hills),
Vajreshwari (the Mother of Thunderbolt) at Kangra, Jwala Devi (the
Mother of the Flaming Mouth) at Jwala Mukhi, Chintpuri in Hosiarpur
and finally Vaishno Devi (the Vaishnavi Mother) in the Jammu Hills.
No catastrophe to his personal self or to his family members,
however tragic, could shake his rocklike resolve to pursue his
chosen mission. When his two elderly sons, Ajit and Jujhar whom he
had sent to lead the battle laid down their lives before his very
eyes, thus did the Guru offer prayers to God: "O Lord, I have
surrendered to Thee what belonged to Thee." Later, when his two
younger sons Jorawar and Phatte were bricked alive by the Mughals
for refusing to succumb to Islam, and the heartrending news reached
the Guru, he simply lifted his hands in prayer and uttered the
words: "These two, Thy trust, I have rendered unto Thee." The Guru's
mother, Gujri Devi, from whom the two boys had been snatched away,
broke her heart and died.
The tone of the historic epistle which the Guru wrote some time
later to Aurangzeb is evidence of the majestic equanimity and the
supremely high moral posture he maintained even in the wake of such
dire calamities. "I know you believe neither in God nor in your
Prophet, nor do you know the worth of an oath on Koran. Did your God
ask you to tyrannize over others? Fie on your sovereignty and on
your regard for God and religion! Fear God, Who is the Master of
earth and heaven and Whose vengeance is terrible. What if you have
killed my four sons? By putting out a few sparks, you cannot quench
the blazing fire. My protection is God than Whom there is no one
higher."
The Guru bore all the cruel blows of fate with an invincible will
and fortitude and pressed forward in rousing and organising his
countrymen in the cause of Swadeshi and Swadharma. He moved from the
north to the southern parts of the country contacting and trying to
string together the various patriotic forces. Finally, in the south
he found a great warrior turned into a yogi, Maadhav Daas by name,
and charged him with the task of proceeding to Punjab to lead the
struggle there. Maadhav Daas, known in history as Banda Bairaagi,
abided by the Guru's command and carried out the war of liberation
with such remarkable ability and was crowned with such rare success -
finally falling a martyr to the cause in the true tradition of the
Gurus - that even to this day he stands as a glowing testimony to
the magic touch of Guru Govind Singh.
KHALSA
The spirit of oneness and harmony which the Guru infused in society
has also made him a social reformer of the highest order. His vision
encompassed the whole of Bharat, and his love embraced within itself
the lowliest in the society. The Panch Pyaare, the five self-
sacrificing heros of the Khalsa whom he chose through a fiery ordeal
on Baisakhi in 1699 at Anandpur Sahib were those drawn from distant
parts of the country, from Bidar in Karnataka, Jagannaath Puri in
Orissa, Dwarka in Gujarat to Delhi and Lahore.
In baptising his followers into Khalsahood, the Guru once again
followed the example of Lord Rama. Rama had created warriors out of
the common people of the lower Vindhyas known as the Kishkinda where
Bali and Sugriva, the twin brothers, lorded over the aboriginal
clans. To make them invincible in battle, Rama had given them his
name and a uniform which gave them a martial identity. The Khalsa
was also created on the same pattern. The Guru gave them the Name to
mutter and a martial identity to fight Mughals to protect Hindu
Dharma.
Four things in the main need to be explained in this context. They
are the concepts of the Sant-Sepahi, the Khalsa uniform, the
ultimate authority of the Panch Pyare, and the aphorism "Raj Karega
Khalsa."
The first is the concept of Sant-Sepahi (saint soldier). In the
Hindu tradition, the first model Sant-Sepahi was created by Lord
Rama in the person of the monkey god Hanuman. He knew only two
things- remembering the Name of Rama all the time and keeping
himself ready for the greatest sacrifice at the bidding of his
mentor.
The second is the creation of the Khalsa uniform in the image
of "Narsinh Avtar," which is the half-man, half-lion incarnation of
Lord Vishnu. The Guru's Khalsa had to modify the image a little.
They had to keep their hair unshorn and make Singh as part of their
proper names. This made them look as ferocious and brave like lions.
The third concept is the ultimate authority now vested in the will
of the five beloved ones. Even the Guru had to bow before them. Lord
Rama had also vested the final authority in his chosen five while
sending out the "monkey" warriors to find out where Sita was. His
beloved five were Hanuman, Angad, Nala, Neel and Jambvant.
The fourth and last concept is the amulet of victory contained in
the aphorism "Raj Karega Khalsa." Modern Psychologists tell us that
success comes to those who don't think of failures. Guru Govind
Singh understood the human psychology only too well. However, the
slogan is as good as the translation of "Satyameva Jayate" which
means that the truth alone prevails. The Khalsa clearly stands for
the one who stands for truth and never compromises with untruth.
Guru Govind Rai gave the war cry of "Sat Sri Akal." It is probably
the shortest capsule of Vedanta and it means that the Timeless has
two manifestations viz Shiva and Shakti which reside in Him. When we
read it together with its first part which is "Jo Bole So Nihal,"
then it means that anyone who speaks of such a Timeless becomes
eternally blessed. He also does not fear death. Such thoughts, ideas
and statements could not have been formulated by the Guru without
deep roots in Hindu tradition.
Finally the Guru himself, while in the south at Nanded, fell a
martyr to the treacherous designs of the Moghals and embraced
Mahaasamaadhi (on 7 October 1708 in the true tradition of yogis.)
Rarely do we come across in the annals of human history a life of
such all-round greatness as that of Guru Govind Singh, who was a
yogi and a warrior - a martyr, a poet and a social reformer, a
national emancipator and a dharmic rejuvenator - all rolled into one
supremely majestic personality commanding the reverence of his
countrymen and even of his enemies.
No better appreciation could be there of the inspiring legacy left
behind to the entire nation by that Guru than what Swami Vivekananda
observed :
"Mark me, every one of you will have to be a Govind Singh, if you
want to do good to your country. You may see thousands of defects in
your countrymen, but mark their Hindu blood. They are the first gods
you will have to worship, even if they do everything to hurt you;
even if every one of them sends out a curse to you, you send out to
them words of love. If they drive you out, retire to die in silence
like that mighty lion, Govind Singh. Such a man is worthy of the
name Hindu; such an ideal ought to be before us always."
"Akhil vishwame Khalsa panth gaje,
Jagai dharma hindu sakala bandha bhajai,
Nah chodu kahin doost asura nishani,
Firee sab jagatme dharma ki kahani!"
Guru Gobind Singh Ji
Guru Govind Rai (Singh)in Line Of Shri Rama And Shri Krishna by V. Wadher
Archives of FAQs and Articles on Shakti/Last Judgment/Qiyamah
Homepage
