Nanak Nirbhau Nirankar

Today is the day of one of the greatest men to have walked this planet, Guru Gobind Singh. For a man who sacrificed his father, his four sons and a lot else in his personal life, it must have been tempting to end his mission with a call to arms and conflict. Unbelievably, his final call to his followers and others was a strong plea for love which he described as the ONLY path to Godliness. (Jin prem kiyo TIN HI prabh paayo.) And this call did not exclude even his chief tormentors like Aurangzeb whom the Guru agreed to meet to resolve all their differences. That must have needed amazing moral courage from one whose followers wanted revenge for the wrongs done to him. My request to all my facebook friends and others is that at least for this day, let us rid ourselves of poison and bitterness in our souls and look at everything around us with eyes that radiate warmth, love , caring and compassion. We will have differences of opinion on issues and things, and there is nothing wrong with that. Guru Nanak preached the path of dialogue, symbolised by Sidh Goshat ( Jab lag duniya rahiye Nanak , Kichh suniye kichh kahiye) The emphasis on Suniye is remarkable.The tenth Guru, like his predecessors, will always remain relevant to our souls not because of the sword he wielded, even which was not a weapon of murder but a tool of surgery accompanied by the humanitarian compassion of Bhai Kanahya, but for his courage to love and forgive. Will our outer form, which the Guru himself described as mere 'temporal and local" be enough for us to be worthy of the warmth of his lap? Everything we do reflects on our Guru in whose name we swear. Everything we do brings credit or discredit to him. Our balance sheet reflects on him as a teacher. Will we fail our teacher ?