Guru Tegh Bahadur ( April 1, 1621-November 11, 1675 ) was the ninth of ten Gurus who is considered Hind De Chaadar ( shield of India ). He had a versatile personality, a warrior, a family man with social commitment, and a preacher of great understanding and vision. His martyrdom broke the myth of Aurangzeb’s religiosity. He initiated welfare projects in Punjab, inspired many Sikhs to lay down their lives for noble causes and moral values. He was a versatile poet and embodied a message of freedom, courage, and compassion. History is full of examples of those sacrificing for their faith, but Guru Tegh Bahadur sacrificed to protect someone else’s faith.
Guru Tegh Bahadur was born in Amritsar, Punjab in 1621 and was the youngest son of Guru Hargobind, the sixth Guru. Amritsar at that time was the centre of the Sikhs in far-flung areas of the country through the chains of Masands or missionaries, it had developed the characteristics of the state capital. Guru Tegh Bahadur was brought up in the Sikh culture and trained in archery and horsemanship. He was also taught the old classics such as Vedas, the Upanishads, and Puranas. He was married on February 3, 1632 to Mata Gujri. In the 1940s Guru Hargobind and her wife Mata Nanki moved to his ancestral village Bakala, Amritsar, together with Tegh Bahadur and Mata Gujri. In March 1664 Guru Har Krishan contracted smallpox. In August 1664 Sikh Sangat arrived at Batala and anointed Tegh Bahadur as the ninth Guru of Sikhs.
Guru Tegh Bahadur contributed many hymns to Granth Sahib including the shlokas. His work includes 116 shabads, 15 ragas, and his bhagats are credited with 782 compositions that are part of Bani in Sikhism. His works are included in the Guru Granth Sahib. He covers a wide range of topics, such as the nature of God, human attachments, body, mind, sorrow, dignity, service, death, and deliverance.
Guru Tegh Bahadur traveled extensively in different parts of the country, including, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Dhaka, and Assam, to preach the teachings of Nanak. He spread the Sikh ideas and message, as well as started community water wells and Langar ( community kitchen for the poor). He visited Rani Champa of Bilaspur who offered to give the Guru Tegh Bahadur a piece of land in her state. He bought the site for Rupees 500. There he founded the city Anandpur Sahib. In 1672 he traveled through Kashmir and North West Frontier, to meet the masses, as the persecution of non-Muslims reached a new height.
Guru Tegh Bahadur had provided refuse to all classes of rebels and command a huge nomadic army across Punjab. Aurangzeb being clever, decided if he could convert the leader of the Hindu religion then millions of followers would also convert. He started persecuting and harassing the Hindu Pandits of Kashmir. The Pandits overcome by panic came in a delegation ( 500 ) to Anandpur Sahib and requested Guru Tegh Bahadur’s help. Tegh Bahadur decided to stand up for the right of freedom of worship and told the delegation that he was ready to sacrifice his life to protect the Hindus from mass conversion. Guru Tegh Bahadur told the Pandits that you go and tell Aurangzeb that if Guru Tegh Bahadur has embraced Islam then we will also embrace Islam. From this Aurangzeb got angry and ordered Guru Tegh Bahadur to be arrested. Guru Nanak’s original ethos was that there’s no Hindu and no Muslim, all men and women are one, but this concept was changed due to the forced conversion of both Hindus and Sikhs by the Muslim rulers to Islam.
Guru Tegh Bahadur left his base at Makhowal to confront the persecution of Kashmiri Pandits ( Brahmins ) by Mughal officials but was arrested at Ropar and put to jail in Sirhind. Four months later, in November 1675, he was transferred to Delhi and asked to convert to Islam. Tegh Bahadur declined and three of his colleagues, who had been arrested with him, were tortured to death in front of him. Bhai Mati Das was sown into pieces, Bhai Dayal Das was thrown into a cauldron of boiling water, and Bhai Sati Das was burned alive. Thereafter Tegh Bahadur was publicly beheaded in Chandni Chowk, close to the Red Fort, Delhi. He has been remembered for giving up his life for the freedom of religion, reminding Sikhs and all Indians to follow and practice their beliefs. The execution hardened the resolve of Sikhs against Muslim rulers and persecution. Guru Tegh Bahadur's martyrdom helped to make the protection of human rights central to its Sikh identity and it also made an indelible impression on the martyr’s nine-year-old son, Gobind Rai who reacted slowly but deliberately by eventually organizing the Sikh group into a distinct, formal, symbol-patterned community. It inaugurated the Khalsa identity. Gurudwara Sish Ganj was built in Chandni Chowk by Sardar Baghel Singh where Guru Tegh Bahadur was publicly beheaded.
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