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Martyrdom
of Guru Arjun Saheb Ji - Part 2
While Baba Prithi Chand
Ji had built up jealousy with the fifth master, others were
also not happy with the Guru. Guru Arjun Saheb Ji completed
many tasks for the Sikh religion. He expanded the city of
Amritsar and Kartarpur, built the city of
Tarn Taran. He dug up the wells of Santokhsar, Ramsar,
Boali, Bibi Bhani's well, a well near Vadalee, and some
medicine houses near Amritsar.
Then came
the construction of the Harmandir Saheb (Golden Temple). The
Muslim saint Mia Mir (mIAW
mIr) was
called in to lay the foundation stones:
mIAW
mIr qY nIauN rKweI[kwrIgr plit kir lweI[
(pMQ pRkwS)
After 3 years
the construction was finished.
The Hindus and Muslims saw this Harminder as a threat.
It was a great achievement for the Sikhs because now they had
their own shrine where Sikhs from all over could meet and
hold religious ceremonies.
While this was happening, Baba Prithi Chand was trying
to claim that he was the true Guru. He tried to build his own
temple in the village of Haheri and his son, Meharbaan
started to write a granth (Scripture) which had some of the
first four Guru's bani, but it also had some of Meharbaan's
own writings mixed in. They also mixed in many things from
the Hindu religion.
Bhai Gopi
(gopI
mihqw), Tirath
(qIrQ),
Natha (n`Qw),
Bhao (Bwau
mokl), Dilli
(iFlI)
came up to Guru Arjun
Saheb Ji and told him that Baba Meharbaan Ji was writing his
own granth and was mixing in false bani (hymns).
Guru
Arjun Saheb Ji then started the writing of the Holy
Scriptures of Aad Granth. Along with Bhai Gurdas Ji, it took
them about three years to complete. This was also a big step
for the Sikh religion. However, many people were not happy.
There was a man by the name of Kaanha (kwnHw)
who wanted to have his
own hymns included into the Aad Granth Saheb Ji, but the Guru
refused. Bhai Kaanha was so upset that he decided to go to
King Akbar and complain that this new Granth was
against Islam. Bhai Kaanha never made it, he died on
the way.
Many
Hindu priests were also not happy because the Aad Granth
Saheb Ji spoke out against false rituals that the Hindu
Priests performed. They went up to King Akbar and said that
the Guru had killed Kaanha and that he had written a Granth
that openly criticized the Hindu and Muslim religions. At the
beginning of the next year, King Akbar came to the Punjab and
asked to see the new Granth. The new Granth was brought to
the village of Batala and hymns were randomly read out loud
from the Aad Granth Saheb Ji. King Akbar said that there is
nothing wrong with this Granth, it does not say anything bad
about other religions.
Chandu
(cMdU),
One of King Akbar's
ministers wanted to find a husband for his daughter Sada
Kaur. As was the custom, he called some Hindu priests
together and asked them to find a match for his daughter.
They all told him that she should be married to Guru Arjun
Saheb Ji's son (Guru Hargobind Saheb Ji). Chandu did not wish
to marry his daughter to the Guru's son because he looked
down at Sikhs. He begged the Hindu Priests to pick a
different husband, but the priests told him that they have
made their choice according to the stars. Chandu then had to
accept the Priests' choice. He sent the priests to Amritsar
to make the marriage proposal to Guru Arjun Saheb Ji.
At the
same time, Sikhs in Delhi saw that Chandu did not really
respect the Guru and the Sikhs. So they sent a letter to Guru
Arjun Saheb Ji asking him not to accept the marriage
proposal. When the Hindu priests finally came, there was
already a large congregation sitting. The Guru refused the
marriage proposal in front of the congregation.
At the
same time, Bhai Narayan Das (nrwiex
dws) stood up
and offered his daughter, Damodri (dmodrI)
for marriage with the
Guru's son. Guru Arjun Saheb Ji accepted the proposal and
performed the engagement ceremony in front of the Hindu
Priests that Chandu had sent. The priests went back to Delhi
and told Chandu what happened. Chandu then tried to bribe the
Guru, he sent him 1,000,000 rupees, but the Guru still
refused the marriage proposal.
This
upset Chandu very much. He felt embarressed and vowed to take
revenge on the Guru. He tried to complain to King Akbar who
just ignored him, but when Akbar died he tried to complain to
his successor Jahangir. Sulhi Khan, a general was on his way
to the Punjab to collect taxes when Chandu told him to go to
Amritsar and evict Guru Arjun Saheb ji from the Harmandir
Saheb and appoint Baba Prithi Chand in his place.
Sulhi
Khan first decided to visit Baba Prithi Chand in the village
of Haheri and make a plan on how to evict the Guru. Baba
Prithi Chand gave Sulhi Khan a tour of his new brick oven.
Sulhi Khan's horse for some reason got startled and started
to run and then jumped into the hot fire of the oven. Both
Sulhi Khan and the horse were burnt alive.
Chandu
then convinced Sulhi Khan's nephew, Sulbi Khan that Guru
Arjun had somehow used black magic to kill his uncle. He told
Sulbi Khan that he should take revenge on his uncle's death.
Sulbi Khan took an army with him and decided to go attack the
Guru. They had only been travelling one day when Hussain Ali,
one of the generals in the army got in an argument over pay
with Sulbi Khan. Hussain Ali got so upset that he pulled his
sword and beheaded Sulbi Khan. So in this way Chandu's wish
to take revenge on the Guru remained unfulfilled.
King
Akbar had passed away on October 17, 1605 and his son Salim (slIm)
became the king. Salim
had renamed himself Jahangir meaning Conqueror of the world.
Chandu started to complain to Janhangir that the Sikhs are a
threat to his kingdom. Jahangir started to converto Hindus to
Islam. He wanted to create a Muslim State.
Jahangir was a
very evil-minded man. He kept many wives and if he ever found
out one of his wives was cheating on him, he would torture
them by having their body buried under sand and only the head
sticking out. They would eventually die from heat exposure
and dehydration.
Even
though he married many Hindu girls while being a Muslim, he
did not let Hindu men marry Muslim girls. On page 107 of
Jahangir's own personal diary, Tuzuk-I-Jahangiri, he writes
that he arrested King Bikramjit's son (a Hindu).Then he goes
on to say that he ordered his tongue be cut for this crime.
Another
example of Jangir's hatred for the Hindu religion is found on
page 185 of his diary. He writes that he went inside a Hindu
temple and ordered his troops to destroy two statues inside
the temple.
On March
6, 1606, Jahangir's son, Khushro started a rebellion against
his father. Khushro was eventually defeated and taken
prisoner to Lahore. Jahangir ordered that his own son,
Khushro's eyes be permanently sown shut and he be put in
prison for the rest of his life. Khushro's two main
companions, Hasan Beg (hsn
byg) and Abdul
Rahim (Abdur-rhIm)
were also arrested. The
skin of an ox was peeled off and wrapped around Hasan Beg and
then sown shut while Abdul Rahim's body was sown shut in the
skin of an ass. They were then paraded around the city. Hasan
Beg died from suffocation, but Abdul Rahim somehow survived
and was then tortured to death.
From
these examples we can see just how evil Jahangir really was.
When we read Jahangir's diary we see that Jahangir mentions
that he was not happy to see Guru Arjun Saheb Ji's growing
influence on the people. Jahangir tried to say that he
arrested the Guru because Khushro had visited him during his
rebellion. However, if that was the reason then why did he
not do anything to Sheik Nazaam Thaanesri (SyK
njwm QwnysrI)?
According to
Jahangir's diary, Khushro visited Sheik Nazaam during his
rebellion. Jahangir knew this, but did not do anything even
though his diary says that the sheik came to visit Jahangir
after the rebellion was over. This shows that the visit was
just an excuse to arrest the Guru. The real reason Jahangir
wanted the Guru killed is because of the threat the Sikh
religion was becoming. The building of the Harmandir Saheb
and the compiling of the Aad Granth Saheb had added to that
threat.
Guru Arjun Saheb Ji knew what was about to happen so
on May 15, 1606 he appointed Guru Hargobind Saheb Ji as the
sixth Guru and told the Sikhs to leave Amritsar. On May 20th,
Jahangir ordered Murtaza Khan (murqjw
Kwn) to go and
arrest Guru Arjun Saheb Ji. Two days later, on May 22,
Murtaza Khan reached Amritsar and arrested the Guru.
Guru Ji
was brought to Chandu's house where he was given no food or
water all night. In the morning, Chandu told Guru Arjun Saheb
Ji that if he would accept his marriage proposal he would
convince Jahangir to let him live. The Guru refused the
offer.
Guru
Arjun Saheb Ji was brought to the court where he was given
three choices:
1)
Accept Islam (Convert to Islam)
2)
Add some of Muhammed's hymns to the Aad Granth Saheb
Ji
3)
Be killed
The
Guru refused the first two options and chose to die. Guru
Arjun Saheb Ji was then tortured. On the first day he was
made to stand barefoot all day on hot sand with the sun
shining on him. The next day a huge pot was filled with water
and put over a fire. The Guru was then told to sit in the hot
water.
Mian Mir, a muslim saint heard what was happening and
came running to see the Guru. When he arrived, he saw Guru
Arjun Saheb Ji sitting in the pot with boiling hot water, but
the Guru was not in any pain. Instead he was sitting calmly
in the water. Mian Mir could not bear to see the Guru being
tortured. He had received many special powers through
meditation and asked the Guru, "If you give me
permission, I can destroy all of these evil people."
Guru
Arjun Saheb Ji responded, "Mian Mir, you do not need to
do anything. This is the will of God, one should accept the
command of God."
The next
day the Guru was made to sit on a hot Iron plate all day
while having hot sand poured over his head. Even going
through this gruelling torture, Guru Arjun Saheb Ji remained
calm and continued on with his meditation. To increase the
level of torture, the Guru was taken right from the super hot
Iron plate to the cold water of the river where he was made
to stand. Eventually, this is the place where Guru Arjun
Saheb Ji left his body and became the first martyr of the
Sikh religion.
Guru Ji
showed his Sikhs how to accept the will of God. This is a
great lesson the Guru has taught and all Sikhs should look at
this event from Sikh history as an example as to how we
should live in our lives.
Article
from Gurmat Studies Newsletter
July
2003
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