When the Guru with his five Sikhs arrived in Dihli the Emperor sent for him and thus addressed him, “It is my pleasure that there should be but one religion. Hinduism is false and worthless, and those who profess it will suffer punishment in hell. I pity them and therefore wish to do them a favour. If they of their own accord keep the Jd, and fast, and repeat the Muhammadan creed and prayers, I will reward them with wealth, appointments, landrevenue grants, and lands with irrigating wells. In this case thou, too, shalt have many disciples, and thou shalt become a great priest of Islam. Therefore accept my religion, and thou shalt receive from me whatever thy heart desireth.’ The Guru replied, ‘OQ Emperor, thou and I and all people must walk according to God’s will. If it were the will of God that there should be only one religion, He would not have allowed the Muhammadan and Hindu religions to exist at the same time. He hath no partner and can do as He pleaseth. Neither thou nor I can oppose Him.’
The Emperor seized on the Guru’s expression that all men must walk according to God’s will and said, ‘God the most high appeared to me in a vision, and [ p. 379 ] told me to convert the whole world to Islam. I am therefore obeying God’s order.’ The Guru replied, ‘I know not whether thou or thy God speaketh falsely. However, since thou wilt not believe, I will give thee ocular proof of what I say.’ The Guru then requested the Emperor to send for five mans of pepper, and he did so. The Guru had it made into a heap which he caused to be ignited. It burned for twenty-four hours and was apparently reduced to ashes. The Guru then desired that the heap of ashes should be pounded and sifted. When this was done three pepper pods came out whole. The Guru then said, ‘ O king, thou hast now got thine answer. Thou wishest to make one religion out of two, but God wisheth to make three religions out of two. Him whom the Creator desireth to preserve not even firecan touch. On that account, O king, be satisfied with what He hath done. As these three pepper pods have been saved from the fire, so shall three religions, Hinduism, Islam, and Sikhism survive to future ages.’
Upon this the Emperor ordered that the Guru should be closely imprisoned, and sufficient guards placed over him to prevent his escape. The Guru then wrote as follows to his wife:—‘ The Turks have imprisoned me in Dihli. Paying due regard to the words of Guru Nanak to the Emperor Babar, I have come here to deprive them of their sovereignty.[1] Wherefore have no anxiety for me. Cherish our son and recognize him as the Guru’s image.’ Both Mata Gujari and her mother-in-law received this letter as if their hearts had been pierced with arrows. The messenger essayed to console them. He pointed out that the Guru had brought his fate on himself as the result of a prayer of certain Kashmiri pandits. His family ought not therefore to take the matter to heart, but accept his fate with resignation.
[ p. 380 ]
After a conference with his Muhammadan doctors and ministers the Emperor again sent for the Guru, and said he would perform for him every service 1n his power if he embraced Islam, otherwise he would have him severely tortured. The Guru replied, ‘Hear, O Aurangzeb, I will never embrace Islam. Thou and I and all creatures are the servants, not the equals of God. The world is subject to Him. The prophet of Makka who originated the religion thou professest, was unable to impose one faith on the world, so how canst thou do so? He was not able to convert even his own uncle to Islam. Of what account art thou? The aswad stone which the Muhammadans set up in memory of Adam, and which they call celestial, but which the Hindus call the lingam, is worshipped by Musalman pilgrims. Is it anything more than an idol ?[2] When Muhammad drove idolatry out of Makka, the inhabitants formed a design to assassinate him. When he became aware of this, he made his escape at night to Madina, leaving all his property behind, and never returned. Canst thou justly say that he enjoyed God’s special favour ? Nay, we are all God’s people. God alone is master ; He can do what He pleaseth. O Aurangzeb, who art thou and what power hast thou to convert the whole world to Islam ? The Guru hath said, “Death laugheth over man’s head, but the brute knoweth it not.” O king, through pride thou thinkest not that thou too shalt assuredly die. He who practiseth pride shall be utterly extirpated.’
On hearing this the Emperor became enraged and remanded the Guru to prison, giving orders that he should be tortured until he accepted Islam. The more, however, he was tortured, the more isis he appeared.
[ p. 381 ]
Notwithstanding the Guru’s repeated refusals, the Emperor still entertained hopes that he might be converted. Messengers continued to be sent at intervals to renew the Emperor’s promises, and ask the Guru to perform a miracle or embrace Islam. The Guru replied that a miracle was the wrath of God ; and to undo what God had done, that is, to circumcise himself would be a crime against heaven. He would not consent to the Emperor’s proposals. He did not want office or power ; he felt no greed in his heart, and he would not embrace Islam, but the Emperor might act as he pleased.
In the Gurumukhi chronicles there is frequent mention of the Guru having gone outside his prison walls to meet and dine with his Sikhs. This is attributed to his thaumaturgic power. One day as he was on the top story of his prison, the Emperor thought he saw him looking towards the south in the direction of the imperial zanana. He was sent for next day and charged with this grave breach of Oriental etiquette and propriety. The Guru replied, ‘Emperor Aurangzeb, I was on the top story of my prison, but I was not looking at thy private apartments or at thy queens. I was looking in the direction of the Europeans who are coming from beyond the seas to tear down thy pardas and destroy thine empire.’ A Sikh writer states that these words became the battle-cry of the Sikhs in the assault on Dihli in 1857 under General John Nicholson, and that thus the prophecy of the ninth Guru was gloriously fulfilled.[3]
Mati Das, the Guru’s faithful Sikh, charged his master with practising too much humility, and talked of destroying the whole sect of Muhammadans and putting an end to the Mughal rule. The Guru remonstrated with him, and said that man must accept and obey the will of God. Mati Das replied that the [ p. 382 ] Guru’s sufferings were intolerable. A conversation ensued in which the Guru referred to Guru Nanak’s promise to Babar that his empire should abide for a time. Guru Teg Bahadur said, ‘ The gift the Holy Guru Nanak gave may not, it is true, be easily recalled. But I will offer my life and in doing so prove the Turks to be false and deprive them of sovereignty. If I lay not down my life here, the great Turkish Empire in India will long survive ; but since its monarchs have committed great enormities, I will now extirpate them and their line.’
This conversation was overheard by a priest who reported it to the Emperor. Mati Das was in consequence bound between two pillars and his body cut in twain with a saw. When the executioners began to apply the saw to his body, he began to repeat the Japji. Itis said that, even when his body was divided in two, he continued to repeat the great morning prayer of the Sikhs, and only became silent when its repetition was complete.
On witnessing the martyrdom of Mati Das, the Guru’s other Sikhs became sore afraid. They went to him at night and represented their danger. He told them that they were frée to leave him. They pointed to the chains on their feet, and asked how their release could be effected ? Through the Guru’s miraculous interposition their fetters fell off, the prison doors all stood open, and the guards snored in the sleep of neglect.[4]: One of the Sikhs, Bhai Gurditta, repented at last and remained with the Guru to suffer his fate. When the Guru was questioned by the jailor as to how his three Sikhs had escaped, he replied in the words of Guru Arjan :—
‘God playeth in everything Himself ;
One man He rescueth, another He envelopeth in the wave ;
As He causeth men to dance, so they dance according to the past acts of each.[5]
[ p. 383 ]
‘The great God who created them hath rescued them from prison. What hast thou to do with them now ? Thy business is with me. It is I who have been imprisoned. Those Sikhs only remained through their regard for me.’
The Guru sent a message by the departing Sikhs to his son to abide fearlessly in Anandpur. The time for him to leave his own body had arrived, and he would leave it in Dihli. He would have to leave it all the same had he remained in Anandpur. He enjoined his son to grieve not for him as he had brought his troubles on himself. He would turn to ashes the fruit of the meritorious acts which the emperor had performed in former births, and by which he had obtained sovereignty.
Gobind Rai on hearing his father’s message, received it with equanimity, but his grandmother and mother began to weep. He tried to console them, and said, ‘ We will abide in Anandpur and destroy the Turks.’ His mother upon this cautioned silence lest some agent of the Emperor should hear his words. Gobind replied that that was not a time for silence or concealment.
The Emperor Babar’s descendants were Humaytin, Akbar, Jahangir, Shahjahan, Aurangzeb, and Bahadur Shah. ↩︎
The Hindus believe that the aswad or black stone of Makka was a lingam in pre-Islamic times. ‘The Muhammadans when rejecting idolatry preserved the stone on account of old associations, and inserted it in the wall of their great temple. ↩︎
Life of Guru Teg Bahadur, by Nardin Singh. The statement is also recorded in a work called the Gur Bans Prakash. ↩︎
Siraj Parkash, Ras XI, Chap. 55. ↩︎
Maru. ↩︎