[ p. 388 ]
The Emperor on hearing of the Guru’s execution became sad and repentant. His mind is said to have been agitated like leaves moved by the wind. He reflected: ‘As the Guru by his death hath fixed a stain on me, so I think that my own life will now be my guest for only a few days.’ His courtiers on hearing this endeavoured to console him: ‘O mighty monarch, the Guru disobeyed thine orders, so what sin was there in killing him ? Thou didst flay and put to death such a great man as Sarmad, so why be distressed in the Guru’s case ? Why trouble regarding an accomplished fact ? ’ On hearing this the Emperor outwardly appeared consoled, but could never really regain his peace of mind.
A Sikh of the Labana tribe, on happening to see the Guru’s dead body was greatly grieved, and said to himself: ‘A curse on the Sikhs who look on and allow this dishonour to the corpse of their Guru!’ The Labana went home, and reproached his tribesmen on the subject. They collected oxen on which they loaded sacks, and carts on which they loaded cotton, and drove them in the direction of the Guru’s corpse. In this way they hoped that their removing it for the performance of the last sad rites would not be noticed. They also hoped to elude pursuit in the dust-storm which arose after the Guru’s death. The city guards were greatly troubled by the storm, and dispersed in different directions. Five Sikhs then took up the Guru’s body, put it on a cart, and succeeded in taking it unobserved through the crowd. When they had taken it outside the city the dust-storm subsided.
The Sikhs’ houses were all thatched, so when the pyre was lighted in them, they would take fire, and in this way the Guru’s body would not be discovered. When it was duly reduced to ashes, they cried out that their houses had caught fire, and called on their [ p. 389 ] neighbours to assist them in extinguishing it. The houses, however, were soon burnt to ashes, and the call to their neighbours to help them was futile as it had been intended. Next day they collected the Guru’s remains and buried them in a copper vessel in the earth immediately under his funeral pyre. Over his remains, at a spot now known as Rakab Gunj, a shrine was subsequently erected.
The Emperor censured his staff for allowing the Guru’s head and body to disappear, and deemed his own object frustrated in having put the Guru to death. In his general distress at what had occurred he was not able to take his dinner, and retired hungry. He dreamt that Bhai Mati Das appeared to him, upturned his bed, and ordered him to leave Dihli. The Emperor was unable to sleep for the remainder of the night, and endeavoured to lull his conscience by a repetition of the creed and the prayers of his religion.
While all this was taking place, the Guru’s family heard of his death, the efforts made to convert him, and his noble replies to all the overtures made. The messenger told how the Guru had sent for five paise and a coco-nut, bowed to his son Gobind, made him his successor, and infused his light into him. His message to his son was to extend the true religion, and destroy the wicked. The whole assembly began to weep, but the young Guru endeavoured to console them. He said that there should be no mourning for true men like his father, who on seeing the decline of religion had assumed human birth, and having placed religion on a firm basis returned to his heavenly home. ‘ According to the words of Guru Arjan :—
Philanthropic men have come who are beyond birth and death ;
They give their lives, turn men to devotion, and cause them to meet God.
[ p. 390 ]
Consequently, my brethren, your mourning’ is vain.’
The young Guru who knew that his father’s head was being brought to Anandpur by the last messenger sent to Dihli, dispatched two Sikhs to meet and escort it. The Sikhs fell in with its bearer about a mile from Anandpur. He told them to return and ask Guru Gobind Rai if his father’s head was to be cremated at Anandpur or Kiratpur where were the shrines of the sixth and seventh Gurus and relations of theirs. The young Guru decided that Guru Teg Bahadur’s head should be taken to Anandpur for the last rites.
A pyre of sandal wood was constructed and attar of roses sprinkled on the head which the young Guru took and solemnly placed on the pyre. He then repeated the preamble of the Japji and ignited the pyre with his own hands. While the head was being cremated, the Sikh congregation sang hymns of the Guru. They called to memory and spoke of Guru Teg Bahadur’s philanthropic and_ self-sacrificing deeds. .The Sohila was then read with a concluding benediction and sacred food distributed. When Guru Gobind Rai reached home, he caused the reading of the Gurus’ hymns to be begun, and this was continued for ten days, when alms were freely distributed. Guru Gobind Rai was in due time proclaimed the tenth Guru. There were great rejoicings on the occasion. Bards and poets assembled to sing the new Guru’s praises while certain Sikhs were sad at heart as they thought of the late Guru Teg Bahadur. The memory of their kind friend and spiritual leader ever occurred to them.
After the death of Guru Teg Bahadur the Muhammadans set at liberty his faithful attendant Gurditta, a lineal descendant of Bhat Budha. He then went to where Bhai Budha used to graze the sixth Guru’s horses, and there after seeing the seat of his ancestors gave up his spirit. His son Ram [ p. 391 ] Kaur, who was then only thirteen years of age, became a very learned Gurumukhi scholar. It was he who gave the tenth Guru the tilak, or patch of spiritual sovereignty, in the presence of the descendants of all the Gurus. The enthronement of Guru Gobind Rai was performed on the fifth day of the first half of Phagan (February), A.D. 1676, with great state in a lofty building erected for the occasion.
One day the Labana who had cremated Guru Teg Bahadur’s body paid Guru Gobind Rai a visit, and detailed all the circumstances subsequent to Guru Teg Bahadur’s death. When the Labana said that the Sikhs were afraid to touch the body, Guru Gobind Rai vowed that he would make Sikhs such that one of them could hold his ground against one hundred thousand others. When the Labana told the Guru that he had buried the ashes of his father, the Guru ordered him to leave them where they were for the present. He would go there himself one day, and erect a temple on the spot.
The Labana continued to describe the mental state of Aurangzeb after the execution of the Guru. When Aurangzeb imprisoned his own father the latter gave him three counsels—not to try to convert the Hindus, to pay his State servants well, and not to engage in war in the Dakhan. All these counsels Aurangzeb disregarded, the first two through bigotry and greed, and the third through the advice of a wandering fagir who told him it would now be impossible for him to remain in Dihli. Aurangzeb therefore decided to make an expedition against King Tana Shah in the Dakhan. From that moment Aurangzeb’s power declined, and now no trace is left of his imperial line.
Such is the account of the death of Guru Teg Bahadur given by the Sikh historians. The Muhammadan author of the Siyar-ul-Mutaakharin states that Aurangzeb had the Guru’s body cut up into pieces and suspended in different parts of the imperial [ p. 392 ] capital. Whether this be true or not, it is certain that the other circumstances related by the Muhammadan writer are utterly incompatible with the whole tenor of Guru Teg Bahadur’s life and writings, and cannot be accepted as even an approach to history.[1]
Guru Gobind Rai thus writes of his father :—
He protected the frontal marks and sacrificial threads of the Hindus
And displayed great bravery in this Kal age.
When he put an end to his life for the sake of holy men,
He gave his head, but uttered not a groan.
He suffered martyrdom for the sake of his religion ;
He gave his head but swerved not from his determination.
God’s people would be ashamed
To perform the tricks of mountebanks and cheats.[2]
Having broken his potsherd on the head of the King of Dihli he departed to paradise.
No one else coming into the world acted like Teg Bahadur.
The world was in mourning for the demise of Teg Bahadur ;
There was weeping for him in the whole world, but rejoicing in paradise.[3]
The following hymn of Guru Teg Bahadur is frequently sung in assemblies of Sikhs :—
Put the support of God’s lotus feet into thy heart, and unite it with them.
The mind desireth evil, but it should be restrained by the Gurw’s instruction.
Give thy head rather than forsake those whom thou hast undertaken to protect.
Guru Teg Bahadur said, give thy life, but aaa not thy faith.