Professional Documents
Culture Documents
S o oo
;
VASWANI
CD
o O
CD
CO
tOLOCN TEMPLE
AMRITSAB
GANESH &
CO.,
MADRAS
,*By the
Same
KRISHNA KRISHNA S FLUTE THE GOSPEL OF FREEDOM THE SPIRIT AND STRUGGLE
SRI
of
ISLAM
IN
VASWANI
Re, 1-8
GANESH &
CO.,
1922
MADRAS
RIGHT
IS
MIGHT
The daggar, knife* the sword We wield! To us protection thou hast given, The
timeless, deathless
Lord of Heaven
;
To To
But
All
us all, steel
unvanquished might
;
wilt,
thine
own
servants save.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Indroducn on
.
.
..13
..15
..
The Message
of the
Gurus
29
29
Prophet of Freedom
..
Sukhmani or Piece-chant
..
36 47
53
The Meaning
The Seed
that
of
Knowledge
..
Grows
..
The Secret
of National
Greatness
..
57
Who
..
62
..67
..73
..81
IN
What
Message
one
;
right
I
have
to
am
their
I
am
a disciple of the Gurus. The spirit of all Religions is one the Inspiration of all scriptures, and one the
adorable Mystery
made
world
great ones.
And
monopoly of Sikhism. They belong to all to East and Westeven as the truth and light and love of God belong to the whole universe. They have a worldmessage.
Years ago on my way to Europe, I halted and I saw in that far-off place a quiet little at Aden temple where people met reverently to open and read
;
the
wondrous words
I
of the
Wisdom sung
in the Sikh
Scriptures.
have addressed
spoken
seen
of
Guru Nanak
Christian churches in
of the Gurus. I have and the Sikh scriptures in England and Wales. I have
The visibly moved by the Sikh message. comes from the great World-Heart there message fore, as it seems to me, it moves men and women of
many
different faiths.
England a copy
of
my
address en the
"
Gospel
of
IN
She wrote to me that she felt much Guru Nanak drawn to the Guru and she asked for a copy of his
I had a letter from another English lady her help in spreading the message of the offering
portrait.
Gurus.
Yet
my
countrymen
great Gurus. One evening I stood on the deck of the vessel which was bringing me back to India.
courteous, educated young Indian greeted me. In the course of a conversation I happened to refer to the
thought James Allen s books were superior to the Sikh scriptures I must not blame this young man.
!
in
Indian boys study English books. Let them. I believe the value of Western science and literature. But
the tragedy of the situation is that young men remain ignorant of the wealth of wisdom in the scriptures of the East. It is this educated ignorance which makes
me
"
sad.
One
is
little
book named
of
in
Sukhmani
days.
It
have loved
I
it
my
It
is,
think, about
its
verse.
is
worth
weight in gold.
"
The word
Sukhmani rendered
Consoler
".
MindPeace-Chant As a child chanted by my mother and grandmother. I heard it As a boy I learned to chant it myself, and portions of sometimes the whole of it I recited almost every it
in
May
call
it
INTRODUCTION
"
day before attending my morning school. I meditated Gita the With the upon it in my college days. "Vedanta Sutras" and the Upanishads", the
",
"
"Bible"
carried
it
with
years ago. I spoke of its message to Christian audien I sat I chanted it as ces. up night after night by the
death-bed of
my
mother.
as
a
which
regard
message
by the
Sikh gurus and martyrs is, to my mind, enshrined in the I write Sukhmani little scripture, the very briefly,
".
Singh.
The
first
was
life
and teachings, were so simple, He saw life, he saw the Indian We talk to-day people s problem, from such a height of Hindu-Muslim unity, and with most of us this unity is only a political necessity. To him Hindu-Muslim
;
unity
was
Trump,
to understand
many
of
talk to-day of religious toleration. the great truth of the brotherhood of religions.
He
of
came
at
time
when
there
was
to
conflict
between
gospel
of this
He
proclaimed a
Dear
me
is
the
name
His blessed
4
of Sind.
IN
During
Asia
Turkey and Arabia, Baghdad and Siam, Kabul and Kandhar, the Deccan and Ceylon, Bengal and Burmah) the Guru halted in Sind. According to a tradition he even went to Russia. And wherever
(travels to
he went, he preached a profoundly practical religion ,a religion of peace, purity and service. One of his
hymns
is
a beautiful
summary
of his teachings
Love the
Put away thy pride; Remember the essence of religion Is meeknncss and sympathy,
fine
clothes,
the
yogy
long prayers,
recitations
and
torturings,
But a
Amid
Guru Nanak was the founder. Guru Arjan, who succeeded Guru Ram Das in 1581, was the great
organiser.
disciples
He
I
spread the
faith
far
and wide.
His
were
Even
in
to-day,
Kabul
&
in
Kandahar.
He
passed away in
1606,
tortured
ring
by
the
Government
remembe
a
God
sufferings,
disciple singing
"
hymns
to
him
"
It
was
to
this
Guru who
He,
too,
composed
rate
the
is
Sukhmani
Poem
which a sepa
essay
devoted in
this
Volume.
INTRODUCTION
" "
compiled the
believe
to
Granth Sahib,
world
the
The
Synthesis. In the
of
"Granth"
saints.
(1666-1708) became the Builder of a Sikh Nation. Of these three only the founder, the orgainser and the
Nation-builder do
I speak in this Volume limits of speaking of the other Gurus. Our political problem, as I conceive it, is not one
;
space forbid
my
which party politics can solve. It is essentially a problem, not of reforms and of freedom, but, there And its solution must come fore, a problem of life. from our own life. Any other solution* will be
patch- work, a compromise with the
full rights
of our
nationhood.
free nation,
believe that
There
I
is
no clock or calender
India
in a struggle for
freedom.
believe Swa-rajya,
realised in
stronger
fice.
the
life
The value of the Sikh scriptures, the value of Gurus message, lies in their potency to enrich our and help it to prepare for the day of freedom.
of to-day
The unrest
cannot press to freedom if it lacks a hidden reliance on the Spiritual Values of life. These
helped Guru Gobind Singh to build up a Sikh Nation
day of India s peril in the past. These helped the Sikh heroes in their struggle for freedom.
in the
We
may speed on
and eternal
to
freedom
in the
India.
6
in the
IN
and eternal India. And brave in the Rajput songs which sing of the deeds of Rana Pratap one may still catch some
his
vision
inner
echoes of the
Rajput
faith in
the Race-soul.
The
Gurus developed a sense of the Race- soul among the Sikhs and the story of the Sikh deeds is one of the most stirring chapters in the world s history of heroism. Sikh heroism was an expression of the Sikh life. And that life was nourished on certain
;
but
it
was
was discipline and service and spiritual emotion. Boys became martyrs, and simple, rough peasants became patriots in answer to a spiritual message. Even women fought in Guru Gobind Singh s battles. They fought and were wounded they rejoiced in
basis
;
their sufferings
religion.
had the true ring of Mai Bhago was a Sikh woman. So deeply
;
their "patriotism
spiritual
was she
And
she, helped
javelin,
heavy
night.
by ten other Sikhs and wearing a guarded the Guru s camp and bed at
To
her, as to
many
danger came from the spiritual message of the Gurus and the scriptures. In one of his hymns Guru Nanak
sings
:
Go
to
God
in thy troubles,
And He
will
save thee,
INTRODUCTION
This teaching of
"going
to
GD:!"
It
Athenians fought against Persian imperialism they fought for freedom and on a famous occasion the Greek orator referred to them
s
world
history.
The
;
in rousing
that
field at
those at
swear by your forefathers, those Marathon, those that took the Platea, those in the sea-fight at Salamis and Artimesim and many other brave men who
"I
at
all
of
whom
alike,
same honour, the country being worthy buried/ I underline that word honour It indicates For honour the dominant motive of the Greek heroes.
the
*.
peril.
They went
Thy Nanak Das SaJa Kurbani". Nanak stands ready as a sacrifice." As servants of the Race they were moved by a sentiment of Sacrifice. They offered themselves in glad sacrifice In In sacrifice was the Sikh Nation built. to God.
their
hearts
Servant O.
sacrifice,
it
am
And
by a
is
my
spiritual ideal.
And
great,
and the Sikh Scripture for those who would India to be a free Nation in the coming days. help Reading of the recent sufferings of the Sikhs in the "Gurudwara" Struggle, my thoughts went out again
IN
and again to the great days of the Gurus when the Sikhs died in their thousands in defence of freedom.
What, I asked myself, was the power which sustained them in their sufferings ? And I looked into their history and their Scriptures and I read therein the answer to my question The Power of a Spiritual
"
Ideal."
strong,
How
how
it
How
yet
courageous, yet
fearless,
faith
how
simple
Is
What
days
!
we would
carry the
Message
of
will not
Swaraj to be achieved
we must combine village movement), and courage with sweetness and humility in strength our character. And we must be worshippers of the Ideal. Ideal-worship this is what I mean by religion.
without a
:
And, unless
For
for
at
am much
is
mistaken,
nationalism
too
weak
to achieve
freedom.
once the discipline and dynamic of a struggle freedom come from the heart. Nothing can save
new
Once
is
to-day
for the
work
Nation with a
which no
failures or dis
modern
civilization.
Since
visited
Europe twelve
years ago, the thought has grown upon me that the dominating civilization of the world has lost its way.
INTRODUCTION
Civilization to-day
It
seems threatened with a new Dark light of the inner Values to lead it Age. out of the night. Democracy, too, must find the inner values else would Swaraj mean not self-realization; but demagogic domination. Democracy must fail if
needs the
it
sufficient
number
of leaders
life.
who
For
may
of
ill-regulated
power is not freedom. The activism Guru Gobind Singh was not a creed of aggression or exploitation, but of service and sacrifice. It has, I believe, a message for the modern world. It has a message, too, for India s young men. What they want to-day is a religion of service and sacrifice. Let them
study Sikh history and the teachings of the Sikh Gurus; they will
know
lives of Sikh saints and martyrs sound the one great To me that message is a message of "activism".
re-affirmation of
the
!
ancient
word
!
uttered
by
Sri
".
Krishna
I
"
Stand up
is
Parantapa
heard a suggestive
not
if it
little
Do
know
one day invited by a poor man to dine at his house. The Teacher of mercy accepted the invitation. On the appointed day he knocked at the door it was
;
When
"
Guru
me
:
that
did not
"
in
Teacher asked
*
?"
replied
Master
was
into the
man
with
10
IN
Brother,
what are
you doing ? Driving nails into the wall ? Follow me." The poor man answered Master 1 follow thee." He left his all he followed the Teacher he became
:
new man.
have talked
to poor, simple
men who
I
rejoiced in the
that in their
I
hymns
of the
I
Gurus
and
have
felt
companionship sanctuary. have listened with tear-touched eyes to songs of bhakti sung from the Granth Sahib" by Sikh
"
minstrels
and
have
I
felt that
in the
;
Sikh sanctuary.
have spoken to in Sikh temples I have chanted to myself, in some quiet hours, the and in such moments I have felt that I Sukhmani
;
"
in Sikh temples
;"
who am
memory
"
not a Sikh
In such
was
sanctuary.
moments,
has come to
me
:
Guru and
his disciple
Brother
the walls
What
?"
And
s
who
love India
"
pass on to them the affectionate exhortation of the What are you doing ? Driving nails into the Guru at this hour wall ? What are you doing young men
:
!
of
India s agony ? What are you doing ? Still im mersed in the maya of ease and a comfort-civilization Mewhich induces forgetfulness of India s claims Brothers, thinks the Gurus say to us at this hour
?"
"
What
And
are you doing ? Driving nails into the wall as I send out this little volume, I breathe an
?"
aspiration that
some
of India s
INTRODUCTION
"
1 1
read these pages may hare the strength to say in the Master the world spirit of the Sikh disciple of old
:
calls
But our
faith is strong.
Our
:"
We,
Such young men will, I am convinced, keep the Guru s Such young men will be the soldiers of swaraj. faith.
Karachi,
March, 1922
T. L.
VASWANI
Once
the story
moved
the multitudes
And
Once its message spread from village to village And down the fields and down the streets
In shouts of faith.
of sages
Keep
And
not.
Of the little gains of silver and gold Not of them, democracy s early prophets, The Gurus who taught and lived the truth
That
life is sacrifice,
That Victory is to him who builds For the kingdom of dharma, That martyrs
live
not dead.
the veil
14
IN
!
Alas
we
We drift
from India s dreams And, in quest of riches which make men poor, We wander in weakness and fear
Refusing to raise ourselves to the freedom of the
free.
IV
Sons
It is
time to
come home
And
It is
scripture of Truth,
s
V
time to
commune
It is
And
Out
new freedom
!
your past and the struggle of to-day. a new age knocks at your door Awake and offer it the worship of sacrifice
Behold
And of the faith your fathers kept Awake and let the God in you grow
:
HIS
GOSPEL
how
a prophecy had gone forth that a star announcing the advent of a mighty one was to illuminate the world.
And
the
prophecy.
people and their kings believed in the Twelve learned men, well-versed in
astronomy, were chosen by the kings and asked to go up a mountain than which there was no higher in the
world.
the heights and watched by day and by night for the coming of the star. Years passed one by one. One by one the twelve men died. Their places were taken by others.
the twelve
And
men went up
The
and the people in soulLord show us the star agony prayed to God which is to announce the advent of a mighty one who
star did not
appear
:
is
to
raise
and
redeem the
race
".
And
star
a star brighter than the sun. The appeared people rejoiced, and kings with riches and royal garments, with silver and gold, with horses and
at last,
homage
to the
mighty
one who had appeared. They found the new-born child clad in simple garment but covered with celestial And when the kings returned from their beauty.
16
IN
only a story, a legend of the past ? Or is it an allegory, a pictorial representation of a truth of history ? Such a star brighter than the sun has
appeared, I believe, not once, not twice, not thrice, but over and over again. When agony and unrighte
ousness spread over the earthplane, and the world s star need is piteous, a appears, announcing the advent of a mighty one. So you read in the Gita that
dharma
of of
So Guru Amar Das wrote When in agony the Earth prays And the True One listens And in His mercy grants consolation, He gives orders to the cloud, And the Rain falls in torrents."
is
human The Guru is form. As a Sikh scripture declares one, though the garbs are many." And the Guru came in the long ago when India s need was urgent.
rain
The
whom
Luther.
regard as very
much
He came
India was slipping fast into the hands of the mighty Moghul. Hindus and Musalmans were bitterly opposed The mild Hindu despised the to one another.
HIS
GOSPEL
;
17
and the sturdy Musalman despised the Hindu as a k afi r n infidel. and the Religion had degenerated into formalism
an untouchable
>
spirit of
worship was
stifled
by
ecclesiasticism.
The
Teacher described India s state in the following words:Kings are butchers cruelty is their weapon. The sense of duty has taken wings and vanished. Falsehood is over the land as a veil of the darkness of the darkest
;
14
night.
The moon
in
of
Truth shines no
ancestral
more."
In this
s history
religious consciousness
the
long ago Vedic hymns were sung and verses of the the land where in later times Upani shads recited Buddhism built some of its great temples and libraries
;
and universities. In this land where, in Nanak s days, were drawn together the diverse types of thought and life represented by Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and the Sufi mysticism of Iram, did the Teacher take his birth. Not many in his day realised the significance of the Guru s coming. Not many understood that he was to give a message mightier than the princes and principa lities of the earth. Many, indeed, thought him to be a madcap In one of the hymns the Guru calls himself,
!
in a
deep
become mad on
the true
stood.
the Lord
".
Such
**
supermen
of history.
And
Nanak
that
mother became
him once
many regarded him as mad he was To her he answered always repeating the Name
!
18
IN
They who forget the Name Are the falsest of the false. Without the Name how shall
O
Some
Mother
>
some time
know
that
:
he was no
longer
mad
And Nanak
answered
to live.
It,
My
Mother
They who
in to
:
Physician! go
home
pain;
He
it,
Asked by his father to attend to his lands, he said he Asked to keep a was already a God s farmer shop he said that to take home profits one must be a dealer of the true Name. Is it a wonder that many,
"
".
including his
"
madman
the Guru came to give to India and the world there was a breath of the Spirit, and therefore, a power superior to that of the rulers of the earth. The faith of Nanak became, as the student of history knows, the foundation of a new nationality. The faith of Nanak
lifting
power
in India.
It
has
HIS GOSPEL
19
up the community of the Sikhs who can, like the Japanese, show a wondrous record of courage and sacrifice. The kingdom which Baber built has passed away the kingdom of faith which we associate with Nanak s name stands. His dear disciples called him
;
by many names, Lord, Prince, Saviour, Father but. he spoke of himself as a servant of the Beloved One*. This consciousness of being a servant of the Beloved
;
One was
His parents gave him money he spent it in the service He met a sadhn and gave away his brass of others. and gold finger-ring to him. His father was jug Give up these ways he said to Nanak, annoyed. and walk after the manner of other people He
"
"
"
".
did not
of the
know
Nanak, was a
"
servant
Beloved
One
".
This consciousness
of
Beloved
There occured that incident in his life which the books have described so well. Nanak goes to a river he
:
begins to bathe.
tells
ansels of the Lord, the story take him to the court of the Highest. The us,
The
servant waits long and at last goes to the Khan (the Chief) to inform him that Nanak entered the river but
is
not
come
out again.
to
Nanak
invisible.
He
has been
threshold of the Lord. The Lord holds a cup amrlti (the water of Immortal Life) and offers it to of Drink thou this. I am with thee. Nanak, saying I have made thee exalted. Be thou uncontaminated
"
20
IN
my
name.
it
Be thou
as the
dedicated to
it
".
Trumpp
calls this
incident a
mere accident/
May we
not
regard
Teacher s consciousness of the Call which comes to him to go upon his mission ? In obedience to the Call the Guru resolves to go on his missionary expedi His parents persuade him tions to preach the Name. to remain at home. They ask him to mount a horse, and see the new house built at some distance. His
Father horses are of no use to me.* only answer is Is he not a servant of the Beloved One ? He visits
:
!
"
Mohammadan
worship to speak
l
whom
to tell
He
them
of the true
He
He is
And
and
he comes to
sanctifies
its
He
He
visits
Kashrnere
in the North,
alla
nistan,
ple.
He
visits
Constantino
He
He
travels to
He goes from place to place bearing witness message of the Beloved One. What creden He tials does he give concerning his message ? He makes no show of his spiritual claims nothing.
Rome.
to the
powers. He speaks with holy humility of himself. am Over and over again he calls himself a sinner.
"I
HIS
GOSPEL
and stupid
water, so
!
"
21
1
foolish
was
a large ocean
is full of
am
Thou Be thou gracious, Beloved One So speaks the who enabled sunken stones to float Teacher concerning himself. Yet those who listen to
full of sin.
!
him
joy.
power.
words are charged with a strange him and experience peace and
his disciples
inform Arjan,
hearing the
after the
"by
word
of
Guru Nanak
tranquility
came
to the
mind, and
his
increased."
When
he opened
something seemed to go out of him a a mystic influence. So he overcomes opposi power, tion. So disciples are drawn to him from the ranks of Hindus and Musalmans. Muja Mitha, a Muslim Dunichand, a rich Hindu saint, becomes his disciple.
of Benares, follows
him and
is
asked to distribute
his
the friend
and companionship of the Muslim Pir, Sheikh He is greeted by the Hindus as a messenger Farid. of Ishwara, and the Mohammadans exclaim Here is one favoured of Allah. Khuda is speaking to us in
"
Nanak
people.
!"
And
for
the
ask
for
some
Here,
Baber the Moghul Emperor, tells Nanak to favour. Boldly answers the Guru :-
Baber Meer
the Fakir
;
Foolish
is
Who
For
begs of kings
is
God
22
IN
On
Nanak Nanak
I
else.
Love
courage.
in
of
God
expresses
itself
Their
gives
them
the
God becomes
service of
God-in-man.
Baber sacked Saiydpur, a town the Punjabthe Guru has the courage to rebuke the
:
When
rules over
terrifies
Thurasan,
Hindusthan.
touch.
The Teacher,
When
Didst
there
Thou
feel
pain?
by the
to tyranny.
They must meet the challenge of wrong with power of a manly soul. The Guru says
If
the moral
One
Its
a tyrant slay a tyrant is not angry. But when a lion falls on a herd
its
manliness.
On
before
another occasion,
him,
his
seeing
some
out
prisoners
to
whole
heart
falls
goes
into
them.
He
sings
hymn.
he
He
.
samadhi.
He
the
becomes
captives
unconscious
asks
On
the
consciousness
free.
king
to
set
all
HIS
GOSPEL
23
message ? The test Only so may it message simplicity. Guru Nanak to the universal heart of man. appeal delivers a message which is simple yet profound, in the
the character of his
is
its
of a true
folk.
In
men back
to
worship of the
the
named
"At
the Japji
Yug
the
(the
Age)
is
the
True
One.",
And
thus
is
fountain-head of cosmic
his
religious
is
life.
and again,
not a
Hence
Worship
It is
"I
is
of the heart.
when
Truth that the Guru asks his disciples to worship. is strung know", he says, "that the whole creation
(Law)."
He
distinguish
from formalism.
Tired and
spent in strength,
mosque
at
Mecca
The keeper of the Imam- kicks him and says:- "Wha,t have mosque-the you done ? You are sleeping with your feet turned Is not this the to the Kabba ? place of God What answer does the Guru give ?~"Be not angry, turn my feet where the tired where shall I request So at Benares he enters into House of God is not a discussion with Pandit Chattar Das, saying to him
with his feet turned to the Kabba.
?"
?"
i4
IN
go
ceremony he in a number of verses, asks the priest to remember that there is another thread which the soul may put on the thread of Love, whereof the cotton is compassion and the knots are abstinence and truth. Such a thread he says, is not snapped, nor soiled nor burnt, nor lost. The solidarity of mankind is another
great truth he sings in his Songs.
Precious to the
Sikhs
The is the word Bhai. It means brother*. Guru has taught the sacred truth of Brotherhood. Hence it is that every member of the Sikh community
a bhai
"
is
all
warriors or preachers or students of science and liter claim brotherhood with all says the Guru. "Nor caste nor birth is asked at the holy house
ature.
We
",
of the
Lord."
"Be
The whole
He He
mingles
accepts
men who,
he knows, invite him for self-glorification. He dines There is, I have at the house of Lalu, a poor man. It is the sin of separate ness. often said, but one sin. It is the sin against the solidarity of life and the bro
therhood of man.
This prophet of Hindu-Muslim Unity sees the
higher
harmony
of the
is
faiths in the
One
God and
;
service
He
loves the
Muslim
he loves
HIS
GOSPEL
25
with a carpet for prayers, he proceeds to Mecca. Asked at Mecca if he was a Hindu or a Muslim he
says he
is
neither
he discerns
God
in
both.
:
Asked
"With which is superior, Hinduism or Islam, he says out good acts, the professors of both will perish." "There is no Hindu and In one of his hymns we read
:
no
Mussalman."
:
In
words gone, Hindu and Mussalman are the same." At Baghdad they ask him to which Sect he belongs. have renounced all sects. I only know He replies the one God who is in the earth, the heavens and all He accepts a Muslim as his beloved directions." and to him the disciple for Mardana was a Muslim, Guru has dedicated three slokas to be found in the Qranlh Sahib. Again and again he warns his disciples
significant
is
heart
"I
against
the
sin
:
of
separateness.
In
beautiful
"Numberless Thy worshippers and passage he sings numberless Thy lovers. Numberless Thy heroes, who
face the
silent
steel
of
their
enemies.
Numberless
Thy
worshippers who lovingly fix their thoughts on Thee. Thy musical instruments and sounds arc many,
and innumerable are thy musicians." And is not each one of the world-religions His musical Gita ? Such is the great message the Teacher delivers to his
disciples.
He also asks them to accept a spiritual a sadhan, without which there is no freedom. discipline,
is,
This discipline
the
first
word
Nam,
is
Name
of the
Eternal Verity
In the
Name
26
rooted the
IN
life
the
Name,"
says the
Guru,
"Sow
the
Name.
Now
"
is
away
the
all
doubt and
if
and velvet
Lord."
they
Burn to ashes your silk draw you away from the Name of
fear."
"May
O Giver
of the
instrument sounding notes of Love for the help and The sadhan of which the Teacher healing of man"
:
speaks
is,
in the
man.
In
second place tahal seva, the service of many ways does the Guru speak of the
supreme value of tahal Service. Is not his life a luminous commentary on the meaning of service ? How many KaudaRakshas and SajjanThugs did he not redeem during his missionary expeditions. Imprisoned in 1526, the Teacher spends his time in jail in reform ing the thieves and singing to them the name of the
Lord.
Service
is
Guru
enjoins
not a
"moralising*
how
in
the dark
days
of India
the Sikhs
were prepared to give up their very lives but not to renounce their loyalty to the Faith. The
Guru
repeated
prayer
was
!"
"May
unto the
beautiful
One
his
of the
is
books
the story of
dana with a copper coin to buy a piece of paper and Mardana returns with the paper on which are written
the
words
true
it
"Death
the Truth
and
life
the
falsehood."
So
is
that they
it
who
seek
life shall
lose
it,
but
life.
they
who
lose
in the service of
man
will enrich
HIS
GOSPEL
27
emotions.
Yet another Sadhan is bhafyi, the culture of the Teach me how to live immersed in Thy that I meditation day and night Grant, O Lord never think of aught save Thee and that I may may
"
"
sing of
ever."
Again
its
O my heart
it
love
God
The more
love
is
is
;
excited
having received its life in water, it dies without water". my heart love God as the chala^ loves the rain
"
fountains are
it
full
Again
Whichever
side
cast
I
Thou
some
art.
there
As we
life,
we
the
Oh
that
we had
had
of hearing his
wondrous
blessed feet
We forget that
Beauty and kissing his he has passed into the come nearer to us in spirit. He has
his sacred
to enter into us, into the life of
that the
Gurus.
And may
be permitted
the
vanished
is in
each one of
Only
let
passion and prejudice, of sfperateness, sectarianism and strife. Only let us remove the obstacles, so that the
Light
may
;
Civilization needs it. the Light But the Light shines through those who develop the perceptive power of
28
Love.
IN
Guru Nanak
Love.
The
kings in the story of which I spoke went upon a and returning to India pilgrimage to the Holy Child
;
each one
If
a beautiful temple in honour of the Child. in our hearts we build such temples of love He will
built
enter them, and with His hands will He Light the lamps of worship and on His Flute will He play the Sacred Song to bless and beautify our lives. Then
charged with the power of humility and with love and longing in our eyes we may go forth to join the ranks of India s silent sadhafys. Then may this Iron Age
hearken
Song of Ages-the song that trembles on leaf and flower and fruit, and floats from stream to stream and star to starthe Song of the Spirit, re-sung,
to the
who
called himself
"a
servant
A PROPHET OF FREEDOM
Two
centuries
and a
half
Sikhs alone.
He
belongs to India.
He And
is
not of the
his
message
him
to
Napoleon.
great
was a
a warrior-saint.
He was
or self-consciousness of Napoleon.
to
this
moral causes.
built a
Napoleon was an
egoist.
Guru
Gobind Singh
moral.
He
God. Napoleon and Guru Gobind Singh belong to different classes. There is a pretty belief among the Polish peasants.
strength by taking refuge at the feet of
They say
on Christmas night there appears between heaven and earth a ladder on which angels descend to bless the earth. Such a ladder in a sense, appears again and again, not on Christmas and mighty souls come from time to time night alone
that every year
;
30
believe,
was Guru
actual
life.
Gobind Singh.
a mystic and loved to have quiet communion with God. Then as he advanced in years there came to him a knowledge of India s sad state. The sin of
He He was
stood for
fanaticism,
as the sin of
fanati
A policy of
India
guard
against the
"That man is reckoned the wisest who gives no cause Guru of fear to others and is himself without fear". Gobind Singh saw that his country had become a
His
own
father
was
without fear Guru who taught that man should be The iron entered into the soul of Guru Gobind Singh. The mystic became a practical man. I have related
".
life.
shall not
Let
:
me
he lived
for her
He
loved India:
regard
him as one
To
line is
of our early prophets of Freedom. convert every Sikh into a Singh, in that one
summed up
It is
to
my
Guru.
a message
we need
As
have
situation,
A PROPHET OF FREEDOM
31
brought news of the struggle and sufferings of my Sikh brothren in the Punjab, as I have thought of India s patriots behind prison -bars, I have felt, again
and again,
that
much
lion.
at this
*
anxious hour:
a Singh
of
I
Sikh
messags will help us Let evsry 5i(ftb82Ome means a disciple. Singh means a
the
s
Guru
Every one who would be a Si^h, a disciple the Ideal, must become a man of manhood. This
message
of
Guru
Gobind
Singh
Three
qualities, as
it
seems
self-respect.
have often thought of Guru Gobind Singh as a prophet of democracy. The Guru developed among his disciples
a democratic-consciousness, a characteristic
to Sikhism
common
and Islam. The peasants showed wonderful was he not to them a symbol of he respected the Highest ? He could command them them. And over and over again he taught them to have respect for themselves and others. this is, to my mind, one of Respect for the poor
devotion to the Guru
;
; :
In the
day we lost
day we recover that respect, India s voice will be heard again in the counsels of the nations. The true Sikh is democratic he respects the poor he
;
Ranjit Singh
offended Sikhs by falling into some evil ways. Baba Phula Singh pointed out to him his faults. And in
32
humility
laid
IN
and repentance the great king of the Punjab bare his body to be flogged! Ranjit Singh respected
And
society
is
helped by
every one
who
speak of as self-respect is not without its responsibilities. The man who has self-respect will not he will consider it beneath his dignity to take bribes
I
;
What
take advantage of another in trouble remembering that he calls himself a 5/^/j, a disciple of the Master, he will
;
dignity.
The
;
teacher
who has
self-
he will not call them respect will respect his pupils liars* or fools He will see in every pupil a seedling
.
of Divinity.
Of a German professor
;
it
is
said that he
when he
entered
Indian
he respected
his pupils.
An
merchant, I am told, sold to a European a carpet for a few thousand rupees, telling the latter that
the carpet
for a
was an Indian carpet of a fine The carpet was not Indian! It could be bought
his self-respect, in that act of dishonesty,
pattern.
in Paris
few hundreds; That Indian merchant trampled he be upon s honour. And every one of us who prac trayed India
tises dishonesty, or takes bribes, or
dishonours India and so tramples upon self-respect. To be a Singh a man must respect
for the
stranger,
Yet another quality which a man must have if he would be a Singh. a man of Manhood. is courage. The man of courage stands for what he believes to be
A PROPHET OF FREEDOM
true
33
regardless of consequences.
And
he has the
To
written by
lessly the
day.
It
Guru Gobind Singh is to know how fear Sikh Guru opposed the Government of his was a power-intoxicated government.
"Thou,"
kmg
in
one
of his
verses,
"with
keep
ing
on puffing up thy
His
The Guru
inspired the
Sikhs with a
those days.
to
new courage
worship of the Steel and his prayer were a symbolic representation of his cult of Durga courage. Durga is, in the books, the Goddess of Valour. But we should not confound the Guru s cult of courage with what some German writers have called the gion of valour" which really means the religion of hate The German "religion of valour" was not and blood inspired, as Guru Gobind Singh s was, by a sense of
"reli
!
"
the Internal.
It
believes in
"
Might
is
Right."
Guru
Gobind Singh believed in Right is Might." He and his disciples combined courage with humility. In a in the Cranth Sahib, Guru Gobind Singh sings: hymn
Eternal God, thou art our shield,
The
Sword we wield
To
The
Lord
of
Heaven
;
To To
us us
all, all,
own
Servants save.
34
IN
What the Guru called Steel, the Hindu scriptures have named Shafti. The Guru and his disciples worshipped
Sha^ti
India s need.
again
worship
faith,
of
weakness.
un-
heights
happier days.
India has
cult of cult of
worshipped weakness, and is yet unfree. A courage is our need to-day. The fashionable
the gentleman
means so
"
often
elaborate
duplicity."
We are not
in freedom.
we do
by Guru Gobind
Singh was sacrifice. Often, indeed, the man of courage has to suffer for the truth he would serve. Sikh history is a wonderful record of sufferings endured for
faith
and freedom.
Singh.
Once, according
to a Sikh story,
Gobind
sure,
He
that
he wanted
forehead.
ers
He
paused
would offer himself for the Quick came up a number of Sikhs, each one regarding it a privilege His disciples were to meet death at his Guru s hands.
trained in a school of hardship, and his love impressed
on
their
minds the
but poured out as a sacrifice. What makes the Sikh records almost unique in the
world
annals
is
the
number
of
A PROPHET OF FREEDOM
men and boys who
for freedom.
35
cheerfully they suffered privations, The four sons of the Guru persecutions, even death were arrested, but were promised release on condition
!
How
tii
"
at
We
they would leave their father. What did they say ? shall stand by our father and resist adharma."
was a painful death they were subjected to. They were bricked up alive. But to the last they stood with
It
We O
are
happy;"
was breathed
Thy
Will be done,
taught by the
thy
heart."
God
"
They
"
Guru who
said
Meditate on him in
for faith,
so they found the strength to suffer and glorify God in the midst of isolation and
of
And
agony.
tender age.
Several
others suffered cruel deaths in the mighty struggle for freedom led by Guru Gobind Singh. And, as I have
said,
there
were women,
too,
in the
struggle.
We
who,
said
women
of Sparta
missing their sons and husbands and brothers their countrymen returned from the battle,
among
:
They died
republic."
for
their
country.
They
These mothers had in them the spirit of the Sikh women and sons and husbands who went out
singingto
die.
And
to
at this
hour
with
fain
would ask
my countrymen
commune
of
Sikh history. Let the mighty Spirit that worked in them be our Leader in the struggle of to-day, and the Nation will not be left in the night.
SUKHMANI OR PEACE-CHANT
The Sukhmani is one of the books in the collec known as the Qranth Sahib. It is a wonderful
the
tion
scripture,
Sikh Qranih.
regard
it
a world-
The Rishis composed the Upanishads in scripture. And the Sikh Guru quiet communion with Nature.
Arjun sat in a tent pitched in a beautiful spot of Nature to compile hymns. He brought together in one book the hymns of Hindu saints and Muslim Fakirs. Qranth is a scripture of synthesis. There were many Hindus and Muslims who persecuted the
the
sis.
Guru
for having
compiled
?
this
scripture of synthe
of Allah in
Who
was
the
There were Kazis and Pandits who complained that the Qranth had hymns in which Muslim saints and Hindu gods were spoken of
with contempt.
Akbar.
The complaints reached the ears That Muslim king was himself in search
; :
of
of
and on listening to some message of synthesis is a volume from the Granth he said hymns worthy of reverence." This scripture was completed
"It
in
604.
it
still
has a message
of the
for us, a
message
Out
World-
SUKHMANI OR PEACE-CHANT
Soul
it
37
rolled.
Sukhmani
is
world-scripture.
6/ia^/as
Guru Arjun but the Sukhmani is a song Sukhmani is an composed by the Guru himself. of the Guru s soul. have in my medi outpouring tations viewed the Guru in four aspects as an organi
I
ser, a poet,
a seer of a
to
synthesis,
a martyr of
faith.
!
And
have said
He
We of
the twentieth
.
may
into a
sar.
boast of
science
and
;
civilization
We
feel
as pigmies in his
presence He organised the Sikhs community. He completed the tanks of AmritHe extended the city of Ramdaspur. He planned
the
Harmandir.
He
founded
Taran
Taran.
He
!
purchased land to build another city and named it To Kartarpur. And this organiser was a poet-seer him came a perception of the truth that there is one
Religion in
religions,
is really
as
in
the
various
forces of
nature there
Hindu books has been rightly named Sha^U. Guru Arjun saw the higher harmony of Hindu bhakti and Muslim mysticism. And he had the courage, rare in
those days, to bring together in the Granth Sahib, the
He sayings of Hindu saints and Muslim fakirs. He was tortured to death by the suffered for it.
Government of his day. But he would not, for a moment, falter in his vision. He would not, he said
to his king,
change even an
iota in the
Qranth Sahib
38
It
IN
if
he would change
"
it,
a scripture of
"
synthesis, of
human
brotherhood,
a scripture of that
one
Spirit
whom
the
sages
call
by many names.
:
He
soul.
"
And he had
If
I
body depart,
!
shall rejoice
deeming
offerings
it
His hymns
the
are a poet s
Spirit of
prayer
Mak F
Thy body is the temple, Thy conscience is the priest, And the very pure God thy
Every heart Every thing
is
is
creed
His casket,
an extension
of
God
The Guru
at
hymns
in
"
such passages
once tender
suggestiveness.
"
of the
saints."
And
in the
Guru Arjun dwelt the Sukhmani. In his heart was the peace which comes of communion with the Ideal. Sukhmani means The peace (or joy) of the heart." May I not speak of Sukhmani as "PeaceChant ? And this peace in the Guru s heart was
"
"
Not many
a cruel
those days
when
Government
It is
inflicted
body indescribable
tortures.
the spirit
on his which to
SUKHMANI OR PEACE-CHANT
him was
of
39
the
in
which
words :~ Truth, The Guru was loyal to the Guru the Guru was patient in suffering truth met the cruel torture of his body with the weapon of Blood corpuscles, we are told, swim meditation. Our blood about in a fluid which contains iron. has iron. Our blood needs iron. Without iron in the
he expressed
patience and meditation.
;
life.
This
into
is
The
iron entered
the
Guru Arjun and the flame of his life did It seems to be will of God that spiritual not flicker.
of India s destiny.
Let
me
refer to
I
some
of the characteristics of
the
Sukhmani.
with
its
dogmatism or speculative theology. its outlook upon When was the world created? the problems of life. How many spirits can dance on the point of a needle?
lack of
is
Sukhmani
pre-eminently practical in
many
theologians in Christian Europe during the pre-scientific era. Questions such as these are ignored by the
Guru
life
of religion.
Such questions,
lopment
may
measure
in
which they
Sukhmani
with
its
is a gospel of life. I am impressed, too, note of devotion to the Ideal. Yet a third
I
understand
it,
is its
40
IN
atmosphere of companionship with the Guru. Every hymn ends on the note: Nanak says." Guru Arjun merges himself in the first Guru. And as I read hymn
after
hymn
that the
voice of
of this book, the feeling grows upon me Sukhmani is, in a deep spiritual sense, the Guru Nanak himself. There is a beautiful pic
I
ture, painted
believe
by a devout
Sikh.
It
represents
Guru Nanak
On
side is Bala
Master is Mardana, on the other and the Master is meditating on the my stery of the ages. Under such a tree was the Sukh mani sung by Guru Arjun and written under his dicta tion by a disciple for the Qranth. And as I have recited the verses of the Sukhmani I have sometimes
;
one side
felt
was
calling the
soul to
come and
sit,
Hindu
is
of Life. of the
It
The message
Sukhmani, as
sings of peace.
is
It
said,
It
pre
eminently practical.
of the path to peace.
also sings
The path
Through
text in
this
we
are
is
world to get
It
merchandise."
" "
Vakhar
the
come to word
It
used.
means
meaning
goods,"
merchandise."
sug
gests the
is
of
life.
Life,
we
a pilgrimage.
Life, too, is
world, the tam.ar, being represented as a great sea. Life is a voyage. But there is Life is a pilgrimage.
SUKHMANI OR PEACE-CHANT
yet another, to
41
my mind
more
*
positive conception.
We
merchandise.
Not
to
get away from the world, not to spurn it with the as cetic s scorn, but to have commerce, to carry on cer
tain transactions with the infinite Ideal that calls us to
Itself
We
to
are in
rich.
Our business
Life
is is
be
We
enrichment.
From when
World-Heart we came
to this earth-plane to
to join a college.
native town.
if
I
There was no college then in my must leave my mother and the town
would
go.
join a college.
My mother s eyes were For some time she would not let
"
me
said:
Go,
and return
ledge."
me
know
lets
us
be here that
plane ment.
the earth-
enrich
We
This vafyhar comes with discipline. The soul is enriched when she fulfils the obligations of life. One
recalls the great teaching of Sri
Krishna
"
Do
thy
the Gurus, as to the Rishls of the Upanishads, duty." the world had a meaning. Over and over again we read
in the Sikh scriptures
"
To
"
His name
"
He
watcheth his
Yes,
manifest."
space.
In
42
IN
another text
we
read
He who
"
made men
by
is
in order that men s coming and going might have the discipline of life, and, cut and polished
It shine in the temple of His servants. in life s school of a three-fold lesson we learn
pain,
may
discipline.
There
is.
first,
A
is
boy
is
if
sent to the
school.
He
must learn
self-
control
Concentration
a form of self-control.
The
his
student grows to be
wife.
man.
lesson
He
is
must think
of
meant
Gradually the to be a
romance, but a Sadhan selfish impulses are aroused only to be subdued. The great lesson is learn that to
The husband becomes the father of A child falls ill. The father and mother must keep awake night after night to nurse the child. They must suffer for the sake of their darling. The child grown into manhood must forego many things for the sake of his aged parents. The great lesson is thus
live is to serve.
a family.
learnt that
life s gifts
Sadhan:- this
Sadh-Sang, the method of fellowship with the Sadhu. Who are the Sadhus ? The question is answered in a number of
of
of
man s
education
too, is indicated in
They
are the
sleep in forgetfulness.
We
often
the Ideal.
SUKHMANI OR PEACE-CHANT
"The
43
beloved of
my Lord
are
awake
"The
sadhu
is
the lotus
read,
is
untouched by the water." His nature, we like that of fire which purifies everything.
"
He
is
humble,
the dust of
is
all
men
!
",
"
feet."
*
He
full of
"
tender
love."
Nectar
glance."
gracious to
of the Sadhus*
"
feet."
God says the Guru me that my heart may become the dust In another passage we read:
SaJhus"
There are young men to-day who argue that thought and religion Think, by are in conflict. To them the Guru says
Reflect in association with the
:
all
means
Religion
is
but in association with the good. not irrational and in the Sukhmani there
reflect
: ;
of
knowledge
tive
Reflect
Guru, not
in isolation.
Reflect
in fellowship with
some
the SaJhus
who
the
You need
vibrations of
good
to help
stimulus of
thought.
And
you are
environ
ment
ing.
of a SaJhu-svul
you
be helped
in
your think
the
often staying below waking consciousness, will be In the society stimulated, and you will think better. as we read In the Sukhmani, of the SaJhus, the light higher consciousness,
of
The
threshold
"
of
wisdom
There
shines in a
is
man
heart."
44
to in the
IN
Sukhmani.
inwardness.
of meditation.
is
If
we
is
It not, it is because we sleep on while the Beloved awake. And even when some awakening comes, we do but wander like Arthur s knights, wander here and there in quest of the Ineffable Presence that is
see
already in the
House
within.
We
Him
abroad when
He
has
entered
temple-niche of the heart and Himself lamp to teach us how to worship Him.
the unused
Concerning
this
method
of meditation,
are emphasised in the Sukhmani. tate on the Name of God. Ever ever repeat the Name,
To
utter the
Name
Gods
Name
is
the sum-total of
all faith.
Nanak hath meditated on Thy Name The true Name hath saved him Men recite the Yedas and sastras to
But superior to
Is
secure
muk
rites
and cere.nonies
Name
been saved
sinners have
Name
To
utter the
Name
evoke an Idea and secure a harmony. But the name must be Meditation on the Name cannot
is
to
us nearer the great Centre of Life if the heart lacks love. Meditation without love is empty. In a
draw
SUKHMANI OR PEACE-CHANT
deeper sense, indeed, meditation without love a
tual impossibility.
"
45
spiri
Who
Name
is
"
there
in
who
Treasure of His
his
stirred to the
Who
in
behold the
?
lotus-feet of the
Lord not
fall
down
reverent love
In most
moving
strains
of
love for the living Ideal: With clasped hands Nanak hath entered Thy sanctuary beloved Lord Grant him salvation?
I
A fish out
How can
The deer
Alas:
it
1
of
water dies being separated from water live without the Beloved
>
sacrifices
While absorbed in the joy of listening to the hunter Mine eye-lids close not 1 am absorbed in the love of the Dear one My mind anxiously looketh for Him night and day Nightl grow long as I love the Dear One
;
s call
O Sleep!
grow
short that
may
cannot abide for a moment without the lord. cry for Him as the chata^ cries for water. 1 wander searching for the fascinating One, Mine eyes are dyed in the colour of the Beloved They rest not even for a moment. Separate from my Spouse One moment apppears to me as a day
I
I
;
Wandering and wandering I weep and wring my hands. Such love had the Gurus. Such love
after
is
sung in
book.
hymn
hymn
of
since
my
heart
1
was
As
lisping child
listened to
simple verse.
As
a boy
46
IN
was
strangely
moved
growing melody. my manhood, by have felt again and again that the Bhagvadgita and the Sukhmani are two of the books which India s
In the
years of
young men should study. They may well be read as text-books in Higher Nationalism. Indeed, some
years ago
when
was asked
to
recommend
Sind,
a text
I
book
re
ferred to the
India s
Sukhmani as one of the great books for young men. The message of this book is, I
the Nations.
believe, for
glorified
imperialism and narrow nation-cults. Counsels of hate and strife are growing. The law of blood and death has been openly declared in Europe as the law we have been life. national of "Altruism",
unblushingly told,
"is
demned
lised
Spirit.
"
as
chandala (slave)
The
civi
is in piteous need of a message of the Such a message is sung in the Sukhmani. It speaks of the law of peace, not efficiency* and
world
blood:
and enslaves. Great is the Nation s agony to-day. And so work and suffer I would have India s young men for the cause of Indian freedom that a sceptic West
may know
still
dead but
that the
the Scriptures,
who sees the Sthula in the Su^hmani. And the Sukhmani was a seer.
in his
is
great artist
has in his mind a synthesis, a vision of the world-whole which philosophy seeks to interpret. Guru Arjun had
Different aspects of the Syn are sung by him in different poems. I have been thesis
particularly struck with
of
extracts:
And
"In
There
When
In these
as
before".
words we have a
Sikh
Religion"
Macauliffe s volumes
on
"The
48
of
is
"
IN
the Gurus suffers from his anti-Hindu bias. It an interpretation vitiated by [his cult of loyalty/ I have only quite recently met in Lahore young men," he writes, claiming to be descendants of the Gurus
"
who
was
told
me
that
they were
Hindus."
He
adds:
"Whether
was or
not to
make them
The
is
East,"
he
writes,
what
practically an unknown
religion."
But
antagonistic to Hinduism.
The
in
teachings of the
Gurus
move
which the higher Hindu with the Sufi spirit. As I have already thought mingles observed, there are poems in the Sikh scriptures which
in
an atmosphere
express the doctrine of maya. This group may be call ed moLra-poems. There are poems, again, which ex press the doctrine of knowledge. This group may be
called gnan-poems.
Two
misconception that the Way of Knowledge is not indi cated in the Sikh scriptures. In Guru Arjun s hymns
alone
In
may be found passages glorifying knowledge. one passage the devotee is asked to make know
"
In another God himself is ledge his daily worship. The Saviour of Knowledge." And given the epithet:
some
of the
in the
Sukhmani are
Knower
of
^arma,
all
49
They
margas.
The marga,
the Path,
one.
These
three are but three sadhans, three disciplines for the man who would tread the path. Gnan is often inter
preted to
is
mean
?
knowledge.
The ques^on
arises
What
organise interests, only to cut the throats of others. They may be clever men, efficient men, successful
men
again,
is
scholar, they are not men of Knowledge. not necessarily a man of Knowledge/ In
Sikh history
a
we
would
call
him
man
uneducated.
He
lived
the days of
Guru Arjun.
He
He lived in a quiet little cottage. This poor, simple old man had love in his heart. He was not a man of books. He read the scripture of his soul and he daily
Nanak.
recited the
Guru
song.
the
day
in
prayer and
place
is
anxious
teacher.
to
his
more competent than Bhai Buddha ? thought Guru Arjun. The Guru asked this simple old man to educate the boy. Bhai Buddha said: But I uneducated." Then answered the Guru am myself The Guru But thou hast eloquence in thy heart announced to the Sikhs that he rejoiced to have Bhai Buddha as his son s teacher. And we read in the Sikh books that Bhai Buddha taught the Guru s son the The Guru s hymns and several practical arts. uneducated Bhai Buddha was a man of knowledge
"
Who
".
50
for
IN
he had
" "
"
eloquence
in his
heart
*.
".
ledge
is
It
eloquence
is
of the heart
It is
not
mation.
a power of the spirit. Emerson once criticised Eng before lishmen on the ground that they grovelled
facts
!
Mere
facts
True
knowledge is a synthesis. And it is not estranged from the Ideal. Science which strangles the moral or
spiritual
may make
a nation
efficient*
it
is
not
know
it
ledge.
fulfil its
purpose unless
is
used
in the service of
Humanity. And
great searchers
of science,
cer,
men
like
Kelvin,
Pasteur,
Sankara,
Ideal,
difficult to
is
were
What
?
the
mark
:
An
answer to this question is given us in the text of the He knows the essence of the Vedas, Sukhmani Sastras and Smritis, who sees the sthula in the
sukshama
stand,
sthula
;
".
How
can
you
say, that
reverse of
but here the Teacher says something quite the it he asks us to see the sthula in the
; !
sukshama
The
saying
is
pardoxical
Rejoice
the saying
"
is
it
a profound
*
truth.
He
that
would gain his life must lose it says again the words are a paradox, and
Christ.
Once
half
reveal,
51
"
half
is
conceal,
precious
truth.
Die
to
live
German
sukshama
To know
*
sukshama
is
small
sthula
is
great
and knowledge is vision of the great in the small. What an immense store of energy there is in radium What a small thing is an ounce of matter But, as Sir Oliver Lodge pointed out in an address on Sources if you take the energy contained in an of Energy
!
"
",
ounce of
matter and
reckon
the
number
of
foot
tons thereby obtained, you will find enough energy to raise the German navy and pile it on the top of a Scot
tish
mountain
Your body is so small yet it is the battlefield of innumerable germs of life. Sankara or Shakespeare was only a few feet high in the body but what power of the mind, what wisdom, was in each A sadhu speaks a few words you see him smile you see him shed tears at the sad state of India but what power is in those words and smiles and tears The world as
;
revealed by science and psychology is not a The gods are not dead. There of prose."
great in what seems to be small.
"
world
is
the
Buddha had, we read, but Buddha spo^e nothing he stood up, holding in his hands an apple, and showed it to his audience Buddha s presence was a sermon, more powerful than volumes of words. But we are not as Buddha was the world s great ones have been you will say. "How
people
; ;
The
"
"
52
are
we,"
IN
you
?"
Two
may
suggest in this
Great One in the poor and weak. Every one of them is an image of the Mas ter every one a form of the infinite Life and to serve
connection.
; ;
them
is
You
widow, a
man
what do you do
to
Ignoring the teaching of her prophets, India became blind to the value of the indi
human
;
claims
vidual
India trampled
;
upon the
sanctity of
human
personality
pride,
and our
became
inefficient,
and none
is
so poor and
Shall
weak among
we
not recognise the rights of India s women and children, the rights of all the classes called the depressed ?
Shall
we
not pay
homage
to the infinite
God
in
them
Great in yourself. Secondly, are not the weak, poor creature you imagine your In you are mighty powers for the Eternal self to be.
see the infinitely
You
has set Himself in your heart. Every one of us has hidden forces, has a hidden fire. I ask young men to kindle the fire in their hearts. It is the agni- sacrament
of
Fire.
With the
fire
of
faith
in
ourselves, let us
stand up, unafraid, to do our duties, to rebuke the wrong, to publish not our poor selfish programmes but and conscious of our the purpose of the Master let us enter into the service of our spiritual right,
;
God.
homa>
to
Knowers of
the
Suf^hmani.
Between this teaching and history there is, apparently, a conflict. The Sikh Teacher says that Knowers of the Eternal are honoured by the whole
world.
Yet history shows that the world s prophets, reformers and patriots have been often persecuted.
the patriots suffer. Demagogues enjoy popularity Guru Nanak himself was regarded as little better than a lunatic by his father. The applause of the crowd was not desired by him. Under a tree, or by the side of a brook, or sitting on a slab of stone, the great Guru
;
gave his message, a world-message, to little groups, and passed on. I have seen a little spot in Sind where
stands
still
according to a
blessed
he once
sat.
my
a
Often
of help
lonely
man,
accompanied
two dear
Not many realised his greatness. Teacher of Bengal moved among So also Chaitanya.the
and healing.
men
not
many
of
whom
Once
54
IN
a number of
professor.
gion,
of
when
When he
intellectuals. God, he was laughed at by the Some drawn from the lower ranks clung to him. But how many understood him ? Where ought a man to live asked him. And he said Brindaban, They the land of Braja where the Rasa Play was perform And over and over again he exclaimed Let me go to Brindaban and serve Krishna in solitude." So Jesus had but twelve disciples, though at one time multitudes followed him. And not many
"
"
?"
ed."
"
of the disciples,
as
it
seems
to
me
ness.
silver.
till
One
them betrayed him for thirty pieces of Most of them fell away from him one by one,
of
when he was
his
beloved John, to stand by him and receive the blessings of the Master in agony. Yet the Sukhmani
*
says
to
Knowers
more
faith
of the Eternal*.
1
made by
individuals
than by environment.
in the future of
my
my country would suffer defeat. For India s environment the modern environment built by India must look the bureaucracy is most depressing.
Let each province, by its collective farma, throw up a few mighty-souled men, and India will stand erect, a Nation of the free. 1 believe with Edward Meyer that history begins
for her
salvation to individuals.
"
when
as an active factor in
55
life
of
people."
mechanical
cal problem.
problem."
fc
terms of
character
mind
and character.
history.
Men
men
!
of
mind and
make
Great
:
Emerson regarded
This
is
true,
It
and
statesmen.
men
as
prophets and
their people.
patriots.
They are
often in advance of
They
aspirations of
contemporary superficial order. They work to build a new order of things and society often tries to keep
;
them down
their
environment
fails
;
tries to
suppress them.
a
The environment
for they
its
efforts
Power
is
in
these mighty men. Dishonoured and rejected they but their shaft i, their atmic force, does not pass away,
pass away.
grows into a mighty tree where-of the shade is life and the leaves a healing to the multitudes. They do work not for immediate results. They do not ask for honor. They come to be honoured by the world some day after they have passed away. So it is that Nanak and Chaitanya and Jesus are honoured by the
nations to-day.
Knowers of the Eternal are honoured by the whole world. Kingdoms and dynasties come and go but the kingdom of these mighty Teachers endures. We, too, are meant to be citizens of that
;
56
IN
kingdom. Political or economic progress must not be divorced from the spiritual. And in us, too, lie mighty Powers unexpressed in us too is the Divinity, but
;
and Buddhas and imprisoned. Nanaks and Chaitanyas are we. Let us stand up in our manhood to claim our rights as citizens of the
it
is
Potential Christs
kingdom
hidden
of
souls.
Let Let
us
call
from
our
within
hearts
our
Powers.
us cleanse
and
co-operate with the Atman. The patriot is not the man who seeks titled greatness and contemporary praise.
The patriot is a silent servant of his Nation. And the work of such a man becomes fruitful for he co-operates with the Gods who work in silence for the healing of
;
the Nations.
is
to
attain to
true
greatmss".
Su^hmani.
That man, you say, is rich, has servants and houses does he impress you with being beautiful ? Does he carry a vision of Beauty in his There is the heart ? If not, he is not truly great. speaker addressing large crowds. You say he is great.
beautiful is the great.
;
The
But there
is
He
they
is
not great.
You
God
have attained
This
to greatness.
In the
a
is
man communes
It is grow city, you say, is great. commerce, industry, the externals of civilization. But is it becoming more and more beautiful ? Has it parks and museums, shrines of art and culture, temples of faith, and singers and seers of the Beautiful ? If
He
great.
ing in
What
nations.
is
is
true of
Nation
s true
ed
of
in
terms not of its commerce but of its appreciation those imponderables, those inner values, one of
58
IN
is
glory of Greece was its vision That vision and the Christ-ideal have fought against the materialism and baptised barbarism of the West. Beauty has been the inspiration of s art and literature and worship. Mrs. Brown Europe
which
beauty.
of the beautiful.
ing
when
in
answer to a tender inquiry from her husband she said on her death bed with her head on his cheek and a smile on her lips Beautiful One of the condi
"
!"
is
Beauty.
Are we
measure
that
we
freedom
too.
How may
Through
we,
Nation
beauty?
Harinama"
the Sukhmani.
What
?
is
com
Hari
Nama means
Things have
believe every
every
a note of his own, a note expressive of his character. So many send out notes of discord and hate only a
and love and purify others by In the measure that a their presence and words. Nation in the different spheres of its life sounds vibra
of truth
may it become beautiful, become The science of a Nation, is it used for selfish ends ? Then it becomes, as the World-War showed, a terrible power of destruction. Does it sound vibra Is it inspired by the Ideal ? Then tion of the good? The poliit becomes a building-power of civilization.
tions of the Ideal
great.
59
tics of a nation, do they move on a moral plane or are Nation that does not they opportunist, aggressive ? subordinate its politics to moral laws may be efficient
it
is
not beautiful
and
efficiency*
is
not greatness.
Efficient
To
find
Harinama
It
is
the
power
That
Atman,
of
is
atma-shafti.
in
is
soul-force.
there
something
is
gy
that
the Soul
modern
civilization lacks.
is modern life with all its paraphernalia of a poor, shrunken thing. Progress ? Efficien progress cy ? Big motor cars ? Fast trains ? Many luxuries ?
Therefore
Mills, manufacturers, in
machinery
?
But where
we
ask
not
agony
where
is
the Soul
an
efficient but
a beautiful civilization.
And
a civiba-
measure
its
that
it
reflects the
Soul
it
of the people.
is
If
ancient India
was
its
a great Nation,
because
its
economics,
art
politics, its
education,
its
social
life, its
and worship,
culture
and
civiliza
beauty of
India s Soul.
Anci
civiliza
modern
she
It was a But simpler civilization she evolved. was as great then as she is fallen to-day. Her civilization was simple but rich in treasures of the Soul-
external civilization to be happy or great. Denmark has not many large trains Denmark has not many fine
;
built in India
but
Denmark
60
is
IN
struggling
yet to be free.
If
is
to
be sustained outwards
;
to
Victory,
we
within
we must
purify our
we must keep
to those
our souls
beautiful
through
communion
to
May
who would catch the higher and grow in the beauty of the speak of, inner life ? That method is the practice of silence. Most of us live in a world of noises, excitements, sen
young men,
I
vibrations
sations.
Most
of us
bustle
for progress.
be
for a
Form
leagues, associations,
zanti-samaj,
you need a
a league of Silence.
;
At these silence-groups meet for a few minutes sit at the feet of the Lord and think of some beai tiful saying
or act of any one of the world s prophets, patriots, sages, seers, poets think of a dol^a of the L panishads, a text of the Gita or Sukhmani, a passage in Emerson
;
sit
;
say to yourself
nity."
am
a child of
tion
Then wait and you will catch the higher vibra the wisdom of the Spirit will touch you in silence
;
a story of a musician who played upon his instrument at a bridge note after note did the
There
is
You,
too,
may break
61
you will cast out fear, and have faith in yourselves, and sound note Stand up in the dignity after note of the great Ideal.
if
many
of
your manhood
say to young
men
make
declare the
divinity in
of
ful
fill
And you
will
India beauti
and
great.
PATRIOTS
Qod has
who
become m\)
shelter,
practise remembrance"
Indian politics were long dominated by Western methods and mentality. Indian politics moved in
an atmosphere, not irreligious but a-religious. And I that many young men even to-day think there is no connection between Nation- service and Religion. A politician who opposed Nonrco-operation and at the
know
in violence
once attacked
me
for
into
many And have heard a number of my country men quote with approval the view of some western writers that private vices matter little if man has public virtues/ Some, indeed, point to public men whose private lives are immoral but who are, not
say
:
withstanding, reckoned
patriots
It
Nation-service and Religion have little in common one with the other! But what is the witness of history ? I see the spirit of religion in every one who is a
worshipper of an
ideal of
ideal.
A
is
patriot
worships some
which
his country
to him, in
some measure,
PATRIOTS
heart
his
63
is
Therefore in his
country
idealised, immortalised.
That ideal he adores, and so has faith in his country s future. That ideal he sees insulted by the conqueror of his country and there A patriot is an ideal- worshipper, is agony in his heart. and is therein distinguished from an opportunist
politician.
makes
him
fearless.
reverence for
spirit is
His resistance to government is born of His disobedience to the the moral law.
obedience
to a higher
due
to
law.
Such
civil
disobedience was practised by Guru Arjun when Raja Birbal of Akbar s days imposed a tax on his temple.
to
Raja Birbal sent soldiers ordering him pay the tax. The Guru said he would not pay the tax, and he sent the following reply The Govern ment must not impose forced labour or taxes on the Guru s house. I keep an open kitchen I keep it
"
None
by
is
refused
access to
it.
Take
food you
live
may
need.
God."
But
faith in
The
to
II
Raja Birbal and reporting to him the Raja thou comest to meet me, well else
;
s order:
I
shall
sack
"
Amritsar."
friends
Calmly the Guru sent his reply. My fear no one. The Creator will protect
me
".
Such fearlessness.
"
mark
of
the patriot
me."
grows out
of the faith
The Creator
will protect
With
went
forth to
boys and young men and women bear witness to the Gurus, in the face of
64
sufferings
IN
and
many
a time
in
:
the
"A
face of
soldier s
death.
To
a soldier,
merit
is,
never to
enemy."
And
who
freedom
their
"
not
show
in those
enemy
I
The Creator
safe to say
will protect
but
think
it
is
that the
world
men imbued
with the
spirit
worshippers.
of religion. They have been idealSolon and Socrates and the heroes of
Thermopylae were among the patriots of Greece. They were religious. Mazzini, the Italian patriot,
repeatedly urged his people to develop a
sense of the
the
Unseen
if
Washington,
man who made America free, was religious. Lincoln, who brought America safe out of the struggle against
Negro
slavery,
of
religion.
Asked
:
"I
why he
The builders of Indian have promised my God. Asoka and Akbar civilization have been religious.
and
Sivaji,
political
history,
religion.
It is
Eternal.
my faith He is
of
is
true patriot
never
Builder
office
!
thinks
a nation-builder.
is
The
the Master.
patriot
like
the post-
He
and he, as
PATRIOTS
he,
65
patriot,
letters,
the
passes on to
God
Him
help
and asking
Him
to
Nation.
The
patriot
"poetises
remembrance",
in the daily
life.
has the conviction that the World-Spirit is Therefore he believes that the Leader of the people.
He
his
country will win the fight for freedom. To be a patriot, then, is not to seek personal greatness, to hunt after honours to desire to be pus
,
hed
chair of a political
conference.
To be
a patriot
is to
be a sadha^, a ser
ideal
;
vant of the
to
breathe out thoughts and prayers remember the Nation before God.
the people, to
When
Hernert, a
the
Frenchman,
waived aside
his claims to
Nobel
he gave was that he acknowledged Bourguet as his And why ? Hernert had been taught by a superior
:
study of Bourguet
from passion
as
is
I
to thought.
think of him, repudiates the politics of passion. His His is the realisation that a
greatly served by those
Nation
to thought
brance",
and
love.
And
this is
to rise
from passion
to thought
and
love.
Such a
patriot, the
man who
rises
from passion to
he
for
narrow Nation-cult.
will also
He
to
will
pay homage
Humanity.
His struggle
66
IN
Hu
manity demands the freedom of his Nation. For only a free Nation may be a servant of Humanity. In the theology of the Negro, we are told, Nsame, the Creator
God, taught the Negroes that within the tribe. The negro s
to
it
was wicked
to steal
tribalism*
has grown
day
into
nationalism.
;
into
Humanism
"it
nations that
is
and the thought must grow upon the wicked to steal" within Humanity.
remembrance" is loyal to his
A patriot who
"practises
Nation, not by being unjust to other Nations, but because he would be a servant of Humanity, His To resist the Nation is to him a limb of Humanity. wrong done to his Nation is, he understands, to guard the health and happiness of Humanity. The remembrance* referred to in the Sukhmani
and therefore, also, of oneself. Most do not remember ourselves and that kingdom of Souls whence we come. We think we are poor and weak and can do nothing. We have forgotten
is
of the ideal,
of us
ourselves,
Our deepest
have but to
We
in order to realise
responsibilities at this
We
are inheritors
If we be true to the an ancient culture. Indian and trust the leading of the star of our own ideal,
destiny,
not
;
favours
Spirit of
if
we
stand as beggars craving for foreign but look for help and strength to the
our history,
we
shall,
feel sure,
make
India
great again
among the
Nations.
THE
VISION UNIVERSAL
Qod
Sukhmani.
if it
I believe profoundly that a cult of hate or violence, dominates the country s counsels, will become the
movement. Freedom
;
and the will not perish, but the present struggle will hope of India will be postponed, if counsels of hate
and passion
It is
prevail.
easy for
many
of
my
countrymen
to hate the
Englishman when
the Indian
Government believes
in
violence and pursues a policy of repression. Nothing sounds simpler to the average man than this, violence must be met with counter-violence. A policy of repres
sion incites violence of thought,
word and
Sinn Fein
s
action.
We
programme
force
of
;
of passive resistance.
passive resistance
"activism"
Government suggested physical was abandoned in favour of the "Irish rebels". The
rebel
organisation," writes a recent interpreter of Irish Nat had a considerable measure of moral sup ionalism,
"
Govern
".
objects of universal
detestation
Under
68
IN
in
ed
riots were to riots and there were hangings of Egyptians in Alexandria. According to one report seven Egyptians were selected at random from a crowd to be
suppressed
by
force,
condemned
to the gallows
are to-day in
Sedition
jail, undergoing rigorous imprisonments Their sin ? varying from three to fifteen years.
!
call
it
patriotism.
Brilliant
college
students have been sentenced to long terms of penal servitude, and have gone to jail with bold, firm steps cheering their beloved country. A similar situation is
Young men
Muslims,
in different
Hindus,
gone
to jail
"
amid
cries
have Mala
Ki
}ai,
Allaho-Akbar
Bande
Mataram"
"Hindu-
Musalman Ki Jai"
ssion.
resolute
Government, believing
weapon
of repre
my countrymen be tempted to give up self-control and meet with hate and physical force the
Will
challenge of the present situation
?
The
even
situation
is,
think,
more
serious than
It
it
was
in the
days
of the Mutiny.
was
largely a
Sepoys protest in 1857. To-day we are face to face with a people s protest, a mighty Protest of India s millions belonging to different communities, classes and
creeds.
classes,
raj.
the English-educated
litan of Calcutta.
He
is
69 which
was
the British
Government
of India
gave India the best chance of development", If he would visit India to-day and ask the people their opinion
of British
Government, the majority of them would tell him they regard it as standing in the way of India s development. I have tried to study the matter as I feel that while at impartially as I an Indian can one period in our history an efficient bureaucracy was a necessary evil to bring India out of chaos and
;
,
Nation
may
is
without any
The bureaucracy has overstayed It has weighed heavily upon the Nation s its time. masculine personality. The bureaucracy must go. And
justification to-day.
"
it
In his book,
Short
Commonwealth,"
Professor
see in India
race,"
much
to
rerrnnd
me
of
the
little
to suggest
"fellowship!"
"
And
dis
when
Professor
"
Ramsay Muir
says,
is
"to
The most
:
tinctive note
of the
"Empire"
cultivate unity
without sacrificing freedom," I ask myself What did his visit to India do to the learned professor ? good
In
India
"distinctive
notes"
of the
"Empire"
are
easy to un derstand the empire-patriotism of the Dominions. The Prince of Wales rightly interpreted it as loyalty to
these two, insolence and exploitation.
It is
"
their British
institutions"
But India
"
is
not a Dominion.
"
India
is
British institutions
do
70
IN
by blood, by a common culture expressed in language, a common religion and common customs. India s natural loyalty can only be to her
to Britain
common
own institutions, her own culture, her own interests, her own ideals. The National movement in the East
is
an
effort of
Asian Life
to return to itself.
There
Therefore does
Islam claim her heritage and protest against the Treaty of Sevres. Therefore does India demand Swaraj. And
a wonder
to-day,
hate the British and think of violence as the only way to liberate India ? Yet hatred means atheism, violence
means
confusion.
Europe threw
fusion in the
world-war. Europe
exhausted to-day.
The Nations of the West have from time to time gone with what result ? European the way of violence civilization lies bleeding. Captain Edward Gill said
:
44
result of
this
War.
is
War
this
:
The
lesson for us
could
other
we have failed to win the ideal that we thought be won by the use of force. We have to turn to
weapons." At a time when some in Europe and America have begun to see the folly of physical force, should the young men of India a Nation strong in the power of immaterialism make use of the weapons of hatred and violence ? Yet, as I have said more than once, we want a re-volution, re. evolution, in India. A
that to
my
71
India s need.
It
may
a prolonged struggle.
No
Karma. The pace may be should be, quickened it must not be forced. To force it may beget egotism and produce confusion when we need For the Master-Builder humility and self-discipline.
of
;
Law
of Swaraj
is
"
been, not
next,"
"
but
believe, will
prayer has have Swaraj this month or the And His Will, I Thy will be done be done in the day that world-forces co
Ishwara Himself.
shall
And my
"
We
operate with India to make Her free, Who shapes the world-forces ? Ishwara, the Logos. And if not a sparrow falleth without His Will, am I wrong in
thinking that the Nation will be free in the day
"
He
may
says
Let India be
free,"
To
produce reaction.
Which
to hatred
is
to
surrender herself
spiritual
and passion, or
be true to her
?
Great
I
is
but
see
its
cure, as
see
The
truth the
Guru
taught needs to be re-affirmed to day when narrow nationalisms are fiercer than, perhaps, even
"
before.
God."
You
will
freedom
strength which
comes
may mean growth in commerce and industry they al so mean decay in art and culture and civilization, and National life languishes when not reinforced by love
of humanity.
72
IN
But
this idealism,
am
told, will
not
work unless
race.
human
This
plead,
is practical
for
hatred of a people
or race
may
something foreign to the human heart. conceive hatred in thought, but the heart refuses
is
it.
We
to receive
It
is
we must
the
touch in
there
A propaganda,
which
masses or
to India s
propaganda
not yet
non>
many
of us
The world does India the masses do not know Her not know Her yet. To know Her is to under
of knowledge will help us.
;
;
stand the great ideal that she has adored through the
struggles
is to
and sufferings of centuries. To know Her be an idealist. If we would but know what She
economy
learn to be self-reliant
of the nations, we would and reverent, manly and and strong in the only power
For idealism
builds,
power of co-operation with the world-will. It is the power which disciplines men in the service of Humanity. When this power comes to birth in Indian
the
politics,
folk,
we
then
when it is recovered in the life of the village may hope to make a real history of India
and
later
in the
struggle
sufferings of
to-day.
And
western sage of
imperialism that
days then may ponder how rose on the ruins of an ancient nation
crumbled to
its fall
when
India to her
own
self
was true.
and
efficiency
are
two
of
the
qualities which the modern type of life has emphasised; but with many these are only an excuse for a cult of egoism and exploitation. The Sikh type of character
was conspicuous
great
for qualities
which have,
believe, a
The Sikhs formed a us to-day. community whose nationalism grew out of Religion. Most of the Sikhs were drawn, I believe, from the
value
for
day
of the
earlier
the
of
Sikh
life
in the
the poetry
of the
peasant.
They recognised Devotion to the Guru was no class distinctions. their strong point. That devotion became the parent of a mighty national movement much more fruitful than has, so far, be^n the national movement of to-day. The Sikhs had a true democratic consciousness. The Guruwas a servant of the community. And how spon taneously the Sikhs obeyed their Gurus Tocqueville s
They
life.
!
lived a simple
generalisation
that
was
Above
the Guru,
they recognised,
74
rising
IN
was a
I
body and gives a tone to the good, mind. AsaJiwar was recited at dawn. Not men only, but also women and children, had to get up early and
believe, to the
work with
exercises
These
spiritual
the
munity and were continued even in the days when the community became, under the inspired leadership of
the tenth Guru, a
commonwealth.
spiritual values.
Sikh character
was
formed by certain
humility.
One
name
of
made many
:
efforts
Nanak
In a
1
But the pride of my heart was not broken by hard-heartedness ! was fettered
Save me,
Lord
read
am
of demerits
;
That humility
another beautiful
is
strength
:
is
an idea indicated
in
hymn
Humility is my mace, And being the dust of all men Is my two-edged sword.
s feet
"By
So when, at Mecca, Guru Nanak was asked by a Muslim Kazi how man was to please Allah, he said Humility and prayer," And over and over again the
:
"
Guru
feet of
am
75
Gurus showed
humility in a
it
programme
life.When
was resolved to build the temple, Har Mandir. the Sikhs said to Guru Arjun with a feeling of natural
pride
the
:
"The
other
:
buildings.
But
the
Guru calmly
an
swered
temple
!
Lower than
all
And
to-day,
this
th-j
temple has, indeed, been exalted. It is famous Golden Temple of Amritsar Guru
!
Amar
Das, too, was pattern of humility. was kicked off his seat by a young man.
:
"
One day he
The Guru
s
calm reply was "Forgive me, sir! My old bones must Neither Greece nor have hurt your tender foot Rome, it seems to me, realised the value of humility And humility is not a virtue for moral progress. in his list. The modern that Aristotle mentions revival of naturalism in ethics does not recognise
!
humility as a virtue.
ego.
Modern life
The dominating
God.
his in
civilization of
to-day worships
efficiency as its
had humility
profound
truth
when he
book
"
Novum
of
is
Oragnum,"
little child.
Kingdom What
is
true,
also, of the
Moral kingdom.
And
if
we would
76
IN
movement
to-day,
deep
Let courage join hands with humility in the humility. present struggle for freedom, In the measure in which
our
"nationalism"
looks
misses
its
destiny, in the
we weaken
the
movement.
For freedom
work
feeling of
strength
God with-us will purify us, will we need to sustain the struggle
:
was
built
God
He
On He
Humility is the parent of tenderness. And the Sikh books record several stories of the tender regard
the
"Tenderness"
Gurus and their dear disciples had was the motto of Guru Har
is
:
for others.
Rai.
One
of his sayings
flowers".
"Be
tender to
all things,
even to
Seeing a flower crushed at his feet, his were touched with tears eyes Humility and tenderness seek a spontaneous
!
expression in service. And the Sikh community deve loped a wonderful spirit of service tahal, seva. To a big
"
official,
Guru Arjun
In
said
Be
poor
travellers."
one
of his
77
shall pull the punkha and I Ram Das says draw water, and shall eat what Thou wilt give was me." The Sikh books give the story of a thief who
I
served so well by a Sikh family that he repented of his crimes and sought Sikh rites at the Guru s hands.
Sikh
of
girls
and women,
too,
grew
into
an atmosphere
of
service.
We
read in the
books
Guru
money by a Sikh disciple to get dresses and ornaments. The girl did not accept the money. The best use of money, she said, was to
serve the poor
the
!
The
spirit of
service rises
;
above the
in
limit-lines of caste
and creed
School of Service
Human
Brother-hood.
was accused
answer was
"
of helping
and beautiful 1 give water to all, he said, for the one Spirit is in The Guru was so pleased that he embraced him and blessed hint. The one Spirit is in And therefore to give any
"
all."
of
service
is
really to
give
The man who has glimpsed the it to the Lord beauty of this truth concerning the One-in-all may well exclaim with Guru Nanak There is no Hindu there
!
"
is
no
Mussulman."
Of
Golden
for the
meant
specially
Mohammedan,
for
Hindus, Sikhs and Christians, respectively. Why cannot the world s religions unite in the one service of
Humanity
78
IN
slave vir Humility, tenderness, seva, were no tues" with the Sikh community. The Sikhs did not
become
The Sikhs
Humility, tender ness, seva, are really virtues not of the weak but of the The Sikh code of courage and honour was a strong.
natural expression of these virtues of the strong,
"
"
In a
sanctuary of the Golden Temple. the Akal Bhunga or the Lodge Immortal may be seen the arms of
Guru Gobind
preserve
warrior-saint
Singh.
V/ell
may
a grateful nation
in the
arms with which the temple, fought freedom s battles over two
the
centuries ago.
humility
in
his
heart
and, therefore, had the strength to fight for India s honour and faith. The Sikhs of the days of which I slavespeak moved in an atmosphere not of a
morality
but of
"
freedom,
the
in the noblest
s
sense of that
word,"
were
in
Guru
temples.
girls
moved
purifying atmosphere.
To-day most
better
of
our children
materialists;
-
are trained to be
little
than
job-seekers, honour-hunters.
of the Nation.
The
Change
ths character of
the
children
and you change the character of the Nation. Sikh children had to go to the temple, and their plastic minds received impressions which deepened into habits and character. I read with tears in my eyes the stories of Sikh boys and young men and women who
suffered for the faith in them.
The
stories
move me
much they do
:
79
girls,
were brought up in homes or temples pervaded by an atmosphere of humility and service. Guru Gobind Singh s four sons were bricked up alive but they did not for a moment, falter in their faith. About three hundred Sikh women of Lahore were arrested by the Government of those days* The women were kept on starvation diet but they would not renounce their faith. God will shield us they said, and as went on grinding corn in the prison-house, they they sang the songs of the Gurus Their children were killed in their presence they themselves were threat ened with execution but they would not renounce When a famous Sikh temple was attacked, their faith about three hundred Sikh women formed a band of volunteers and marched in faith to save the temple
persons who, as boys or
: ;
"
"
One
most moving stories I have read is that Bibi Saran Kaur, a brave Sikh woman She goes
of the
!
of to
is
has been fought and covered with dead bodies. The Sikh lady
battle
My
brothers
Guru
"
And
her
she says as she looks at the Sikh dead. brothers in the Guru though dead must
",
"
not be dishonoured.
rites befitting
last
the
men who
She
makes a
at the
and twigs and wood. She looks She invokes the blessings of the Sikh martyrs and the Gurus, She prays to God, She sets the pile on fire. On the battlefield the Sikhs had
pile of leaves
dead,
80
IN
of the soldiers
Government see the blaze come to the place where the pile
of the
at a distance.
They
receive
on
fire
to
the dead.
silent.
Bibi
Kaur.
She
is
is silent.
silent
service to the dead, though she perish in the flames Nietzsche started a theory that humility, tender
ness, service
slave virtues.
The theory
is
Humility and
kindred virtues gave a new strength to the Sikhs, made the Sikhs brave, and educated them for that
crowning glory of the Sikhs who fought and died for freedom under the slave leadership of their last Guru. It could be no which inspired deeds of sacrifice "the morality
is
the
"
"
"
dead which give a deathless value to Sikh history. Sikh morality was the morality of men and women who could be disciples of liberty. Its inspiration was
the Ideal incarnated in the great
sung
of
in
that noble
nobler, to
my
hymn which expresses a spirit mind, than that of the noblest stories
Greece and am a
I
Rome
;
Sacrifice to
Thee
Eternal Verity
SIKH ISM
AND SWARAJ
is,
Each generation has its task. That of the present India s believe, to win freedom for this country.
to
history
in
understand the
spirit
task to-day.
Three
of
which
of
how
Sikh carried on the struggle for freedom and won. I am here concerned with the Sikh and I wish to
;
indicate
what
to
message
us
who
Freedom
To
to
succession going through a period of preparation. the Guru s for almost a century helped the Sikh to organise themselves into a strong commu
nity able to win victory against a great power. period of preparation is essential to the winning of must not hope for a sudden miraculous freedom.
We
coming
of
of swaraj.
stream of history.
82
IN
appears again and again but it can only help us in the measure in which we can put ourselves in right
relations with
history
torical
it
; ;
it.
The
incalculable
is
of the spirit of
it
will hardly
it
and
co-operates with it. India will, I believe, achieve freedom not in defiance of, not in isolation from, but in
co-operation with world-forces. break in upon us sooner than
The
world-forces
anticipate
;
may
if
we
but
freedom will still be far from us. We have spent thirty years and more in* agitation/ We have followed methods of impressionism. I believe the imperative need of the Nation is self-organisation. This demands arduous and austere preparation.
they find us unprepared,
Gurus.
And
I
in
the story of
Government
to time,
dies took place, but their author of the day, not the Sikhs.
It
Government
privilege of the
Sikhs to suffer.
in the formation of
But the Sikh movement was not merely a movement of feeling. It was, as it seems to me, a
movement essentially of discipline. And common men and women were moulded into a community of martyrs. The Sikhs won not by force of numbers but by force of character And it is my faith that India
;
will
achieve
her
freedom by the
same
force.
SIKHISM
AND SWARAJ
83
Swaraj asrams in each village, little groups of earnest men filled with the swaraj -ideal, will achieve much,
when
big
Committees
of
men moved by
ambition and
hatred will only throw the village life into confusion. The Sikhs fought in the faith that only the upright can
win.
If
that faith
grew upon us
to-day,
we would
know that the unrest will not be removed by some Round Table Conference or some concessions or re
forms snatched from the ruling power in the Councils. The cause of this unrest is the creative spirit of free
dom.
There is a God in this great struggle and your reforms and compromises will not satisfy Him The Sikh movement, the Gurus understood, must
;
become sectarian. They believed profoundly that Hindus and Muslims were meant not to be enemies comrades in the one service of but common We are neither Hindus nor Mussulmans," Man. The Gurus indeed wished to said Guru Arjun. The Muslim word Allah was to both. belong introduced by them in the scriptures. We have,
not
"
"
"
said
Guru Arjun,
"
"
Allah.
Some
dedicated our bodies and souls to of the Gurus even dressed themselves
as
In some old pictures the Gurus are fakirs. represented as having rosaries in their hands. Guru Gobind Singh took into his service five hundred
Muslim
Muslim horsemen dismissed by the Moghuls. Dr. Trumpp combats the view that Guru Nanak wished to unite Hindus and Muslims. regard Guru Nanak as our earliest prophet of Hindu-Muslim unity. To me
I
Dr,
Trumpp
84
IN
other one set forth by an English apologist of Islam, according to whom the religion of Guru Nanak might
almost be spoken of
"
as the religion of a
Mahommaas
I
dan
"
sect
it,
The
religion of
Guru Nanak,
under
harmony. And he saw, as not many Hindus have seen, the true
stand
was
essentially a religion of
greatness of Islam. He was in tune with the spirit of the Sufi. And, in one of the hymns in the Granth
Sahib
we have
fast
Mian Mitha, is the to a story, Nanak met Great Name/ one According Farid. The Muslim saint greeted Nanak with the Allah O Darvesh; To this Nanak word." Allah
said
Guru Nanak
to
"
replied
!
"Allah
is
the object
!
of
my
efforts,
is
O Farid!
object"
my
of
the spirit of
Nanak
to a
The
to
Heaven";
is
regrettable
that
many
Hindus
did
not
appreciate the
Guru
spirit of Islam.
According to a story, Hindus of one place applied cow-dung to every spot on which the Guru had stood during his visit to that place The Hindus of that
!
become
polluted.
SIKHISM
The Gurus were
Fakirs.
AND SWARAJ
Nanak
85
Muslim
for
.
ten years and taught the people of the way The Gurus were prophets of universal brotherhood.
"
of Allah
They
did
not observe
caste",
rules of caste.
said
Do
"
not be
all
proud of your
Guru Nanak,
men
:
But the whole creation germinated On another occasion he said out of one Brahma
talk of four varnas.
".
To him whose delusion of the heart is gone, Hindu and Mussulman are the same." And as long as this delusion persists we may not hope to win freedom. India s freedom will be won and retained when we Hindus and are filled with the faith that we all, Muslims, twice-born and sudras men and women are children of the one of diverse castes and creeds.
"
Worship
if
of the
Mother (Bandt
Mataram Mother s
In the
:)
is
meaningless
we
children.
democratic.
Gurus India found leaders who regarded them selves as servants of God and the people. The very first Guru s successor was not the Guru s son but a devout disciple, Angad And Guru Angad organised Sikh sangats whose collective wisdom gradually shaped the community. It was Guru Tegh Bahadur who said The Guru and the sangat are like the warp and woof in cloth there is no difference between them.
;
"
Chandu, the Finance Minister, offered his daughter to Guru Arjun s son. The Guru s Sikhs were not for a match between the two, for Chandu had abused the
86
IN
was anxious to see her daughter Guru s son. Chandu sent a man to the Guru later he sent a letter pressing the Guru to give consent. The Guru respected the wishes of the Sikhs and rejected Chandu s offer. In reply to Chandu s letter, the Guru wrote: They whom the
Guru. Chandu
wife betrothed to the
;
"
Creator hath joined are united. They whom man hath joined are not. It is the Guru s rule to comply with the wishes of his Sikhs. What they once reject,
it
is
tion
tic.
not proper again to accept." The political constitu developed by the Sikhs was essentially democra
Maha
foolish
It
to say that
India.
was
the
the
first
government.
cratic.
Sangat was a spiritual democracy. Some Gurus maintained a public refectory at which of the persons dined, as they do at Puri to-day, without the
The Sikh
least distinction
of caste.
The
were
the Gurus,
and
their lives
were
simple.
Guru
by twisting twine into Angad and Guru Gobind Singh received his baptism rope at the hands of the five disciples whom he called the
earned his livelihood
;
Guru Gobind Singh taught that where five Singhs were assembled, there the Guru was present also. The Sikh Sangat combined was a spiritual It spiritual culture with labour. The Sikhs recognised absolute I said. democracy,
Panch Pyaras.
Indeed,
SIKHISM
loyalty
to
AND SWARAJ
;
87
their loyalty was no earthly sovereign Mr. conditional for above the sovereign was God.
;
Macauliffe does
"
injustice
to
*
the essential
spirit
of
,
without State support Sikhism when he says that Sikhism will be lost in the general chaos of Indian bureaucratic State, such as we religious systems
"
have
in India is alien to
the Sikh
ideal of
a spiritual
villages.
It
became a mass
and wide and
in the
movement.
carried his
Guru Nanak
message
it
travelled far
National
movement
is
of to-day
has a future
The mea
by a lofty moral ideal and becomes, in a larger measure than it is to-day, a Massmovement. The spiritual message of freedom has not
sure in whicli
inspired
yet touched
many
message
to the villages,
real love for the peasant and a genuine desire to educate the village-folk. National movement, to be It fruitful, must not exhaust itself in mere agitation.
must spread
message through national institutions, a national press and national literature. Guru Nanak
its
understood the value of educating the group-mind, the mass -mind, through education and sadhsang. He asked
the Sikhs to
classes
<
open schools in villages and the sadhsang grew into what now are named the Khalsa
I
Diwans.
is
largely
88
IN
environment and education. The villager must have full meals a day. He must also, have the educa tion which will enrich his mind and train his emotions
two
and will for the service of India. The bureaucratic Government spends huge amounts for the army in order to keep power in its hands. The masses have been cruelly neglected. It is for lovers of freedom to come to the help of the villager, the peasant, the The National movement outcaste labourer, the must become a mass-movement a new love for the
.
;
masses must be born in the heart of Young India. The Sikh Gurus had great love for the peasant and the so-called lower classes. In the Granth Sahib were brought together hymns of Kabir, a poor weaver;
Nam
Dev, a calico-printer
Sain, a barber
Ravidas,
a shoe-maker.
the poor said
:
low
the
classes.
a great lover of shall go with the lowest among the What have I to do with the great?
"I
God s Eye
lowly."
of
mercy
rests
The swaraj movement of draw its strength more and masses. Therefore I plead with Young
believe,
svraraj
from the
open
ashramas in the
villages
and take
to
peasants
spiritual
The
Sikh
movment was
and therefore, in a deeper sense, National. Mr. H. His A. Rose, referring to Guru Nanak says teaching had no political aims." That is true. But it is equally true that the Guru s teaching had a message for the Nation; and out of it developed, under pressure
"
SIKHISM
of the Sikhs,
AND SWARAJ
89
of circumstances, a political
struggle
of guru Gobind Singh, was politicoand grew out of that love for the people religious and freedom which made it profoundly National. The to those
Dev
Jamnasakhi
in
tells
state of India,
sorrow
us how Guru Nanak, surveying the I weep exclaimed in agony of heart how shall deliverance be obtained ?
"
mystic,
In a
says
Let But
If
let
some
to
me
He
listened to the
them
Silent
Songs of the Beloved only to re-sing have settled in the man. he said. But he moved out much to give
"I
to others
"the
Silent
Religion
is
like tea,
erroneously
religion
To
the
Gurus
was
the very salt of life. And I have often urged that the Swaraj movement will not achieve freedom if it be not
spiritual motive.
do not see
;
yet
dawn
politics
in this
country
for
our
spiritualised.
Spiritual
movement
of free
dom.
What
India needs
is
not only a
new mind
but
also, primarily, a
new
heart.
90
IN
man may be
of the Nation.
frame of even a feeble man. The development of the sense of religion made the Sikhs a most vital community. The history of the Sikh faith from the sixteenth to the
eighteenth century is full of illustrations of the vitality of religious idealism. Suffering weakens a man without
faith
;
The sense
suffering
strengthens a
all
man who
worships an
ideal.
and character, for their training in a school of danger and sacrifice. The hearts and minds of Sikh men and women were revolutionised by the
richer in faith
power
of faith.
And
as
I
after story
have marvelled that the frail little bodies of boys and women could suffer so much. The Sikh faith of the sword was faith in sacrifice. It shaped the mind and heart of the community. There
of the Sikh martyrs,
*
was
a time
Sikh,
man
or
when a price was set on the head of every woman. It was in this school of danger
up his moral strength. He met the challenge of the government of his day with moral idealism. Guru Arjun had taught the Sikhs the great attitude Accept death and renounce hope of
that the Sikh built
"
life."
Guru Gobind Singh gave them pahul, He taught them that every dagger."
"
"
the
"
baptism of
son of Gobind
must be a true fahatrya. In the eighteenth century Sikh heads were supplied to Government in abundance, the price on each head varying from five rupees to twentyfive,
Singh
all
as his sons
SIKH1SM
AND SWARAJ
91
Sikhs.
The persecutions only added to the strength of the The disciples asked Guru Amerdas what they should do in the face of persecution and the Guru
said
:
"Endure
the wrong.
is the
It
is
to
resent."
This
trial.
it
teaching
"
we
also
need
at this
hour of our
the Sikhs
submit,"
One Guru
was
"
after another
showed
"
to
what
to
not to
resent."
wrong,"
to
after
another
a
What
"
mov
of
told us in Sikh
books
martyrdom
Guru Arjun.
He was
the author of
Sukhmani."
he had the poet s optimism. He did not forget Yet he believed that the that life had its shadows.
And
his
hymns, he says:
And it has thorny garden. There comes a time when he is called upon to enter_a in this beautiful Earth he is called thorny garden upon to suffer and he suffers with a beautiful optim
" "
He
"
is
having compiled a blasphemous book," the Granth Sahib! He is ordered to pay a fine of two lakhs of rupees
and
cancel
some hymns from the book. He will not hymns from a book meant essentially to be a To the Government of his day scripture of synthesis. he says is for the poor and friendless* My money Take what you will but if you ask for it as a fine I
to omit
"
For a fine
I
As
for the
is
There
My one
object
is
to spread
92
IN
body per
;
should
;
deem
his
a privilege.
is
;
a prisoner
body
chained
for
God
he sings
hymns
ing
as they continue to torture him. For five days He sends a message to his son ask
to
him not
mourn
the
"
Guru
to
death or
indulge in
s
praises."
nigh, he asks a minstrel to come with a two-stringed instrument and sing to him the songs he has loved. So passes away this poet-
"sing
God
martyr, a witness to the religion of sacrifice. How heroically Guru Tegh Bahadur met his death at the
hands of Government
history.
is
well-known
to students of
And
Guru
Gobind Singh, his sons and followers, are, to my mind, one of the richest treasures of world-history. When the Guru s sons fall on the battlefield, the Guru does
"
not
"
indulge in
to
lamentation."
:
He
that
rather exclaims
Glory
my
Thy
truth
and
religion."
number, die as witnesses to truth and The Guru s wife meets him and asks where religion. I have and how her sons are the Guru says to her lost them all, but gained for thee the whole of the Khalsarace!" Henceforth all Sikhs were to be her
"
sons.
example of the Gurus inspired the disciples too ? In what beautiful spirit did Bhai Mani Singh accept the suffering inflicted on him
Is
it
wonder
that the
SIKHISM
by Government
?
AND SWARAJ
asked
to
93
his
faith
He was
renounce
or suffer disjoinment of his body. He stood firm in his faith and with his dying breath continued to praise
;
God and
"
"
"
recite the
"
Japji
of
Sukhmani
of
Guru Arjun.
In a French
we
expresses his joy at the victory won by France. Asked why he thinks it a victory he says "A Victory, be
:
cause
came out
of
it
living."
different.
his death.
To
In sacrifice
was
his victory.
embrace one another, to offer the prayer (ardas) and then go out to meet the challenge of Death. Not alone the grown up men but boys and girls of tender
to
vital
years poured out their lives as offering to the ideal so become the Guru s religion of sacrifice. Recall
Singh, feeling thirsty and asked for water but receiving from his father, the Guru, the reply Go forth, my
"
boy
of the
Lord hold
for
Go
Or
Guru
s
faith. The Angels you the cup of amrita (water of forth and receive it in the company of
story of
chandu
daughter-in-law, a Sikh
s
and,
later, giving
prison and offering him food and up her own body on hearing
of the
Nietzche must have thought of some perversions of religion when he said that "religion
Guru
death.
94
IN
was
The
religion
an immortal,
glory of humanity.
wrong in thinking that it has a message for the modern age ? Western civilization has moved away from the spiritual ideal. It has moved fast to India,
I
Am
challenging in Europe the Christ-ideal, it has challenged in India the banner of the Guru. Is India ready to
and put
world
I
in
Then must young men understand practice the religion of sacrifice. The
?
,
speak or write have behind them the aspira tion that they may be of some help, some service to For in Young India is my hope India s young men. India is, I believe, the promise of freedom in Young Therefore I ask Young India for an ancient people. to study the lives of the Sikh Gurus and martyrs. The
;
coming
It
is
the
religion that
India needs.
;
let
the swaraj
movement be sus
let
4
the hangers-on of an
the sacred rights of an ancient Nation, train themselves and we shall have the stren ;
gth to re-build the
this
There is a little story told of Guru country. Nanak. One day he asked his Muslim disciple Mardana to sing a hymn accompanied on his musical
instrument.
Mardana
"
is
he
is
the
Guru
asked to play upon the instrument. He says to 1 cannot sing and play the instrument
:
SIKHISM
I
AND SWARAJ.
hand."
95
the
And
Guru
says to
And
1,
let go the horse." him "Repeat the Name of the Great Ones, would a humble disciple
;
:
"You cannot serve fain say to every young man both freedom and ambition. Let go the honours and
titles of
Name.
It
Sing India
and her
freedom."
go
(he
horse"\
may be
the will of
God
to-day
must pass through a stage of yet greater suffering. But a swarajist, be he a Sikh or Hindu or Muslim or Christian, can have no nobler creed than the religion And 1 know of no better summing up of of sacrifice.
the Creed than this
let
*
go the
horse."
MY MOTHERLAND SERIES
In this Series the author,
T. L. Vaswani, will
India as reflected in
of her history,
"The
The
The
volume,
is
named
Aryan
Ideal".
Some
of the
Aryan* includes the Hindu* and Buddhist. volumes to follow will include Essays
Islam, the author says,
*
introduced an element of
culture of his native land
romance
in
our culture.
which
*
owes much to Islam and is, essentially, of a romantic The author believes that without the deeper type. values to which Islam is a witness, the scheme of our
evolution would be incomplete. Back of the Series is the aspiration that in the
?,
young men may be helped, in howsoever humble a measure, to recover lost memory of India and the Indian;, ideal. What is wrong with us in India ? Loss olf memory. We have forgotten ourselves. The author believes that in the day we remember ourselves, remember the real self of India we shall have the; strength to win Freedom s Battle.
GANESH &
CO.
::
Publishers
::
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