Guru Arjan thus marked a central point in the evolution of the Sikh tradition. Guru Arjan remained in the central Punjab throughout his spiritual reign. His policy seems to have been one of consolidation and development. Despite the many forms of opposition which he had to face, Guru Arjan consolidated the community by his hymns, leadership and institutional reforms.
The first task that Guru Arjan undertook was the completion of the Amritsar pool. Sikhs came from distant places to join in the work of digging. The Guru also started extending the town. As against the generality of the temples in India with their single east facing entrance, the new shrine was given four doors, one in each direction, symbolizing the catholicity of outlook to be preached from within it.
Each door could also be taken to stand for one of the four castes which should be equally welcome to enter and receive spiritual sustenance. At the temple. Guru Arjan, in keeping with the tradition of his predecessors, maintained a community kitchen which was open to all castes and creeds.
Inside the temple, the chanting of hymns would go on for most hours of day and night. Around the temple developed markets to which the Guru invited traders from different regions to settle and open their business. Rest houses for pilgrims were also built and soon a city had grown up with the Harimandar as its focus. In addition Guru Arjan completed the construction of Santokhsar and Ramsar sarovars started by his predecessor.
The precincts of the peaceful and picturesque latter pool provided the quiet retreat where over a considerable period the Guru remained occupied in giving shape to the Sikh Scripture, the Granth Sahib. Guru Arjan undertook a tour of the Punjab to spread the holy word. From Amritsar, he proceeded on a journey through the Majha territory. Coming upon the site of the present shrine of Tarn Taran The Holy Raft across the Sinful Waters of Worldliness , 24 km south of Amritsar, he felt much attracted by the beauty of its natural surroundings.
He acquired the land from the owners, the residents of the village of Khara, and constructed a tank as well as a sanctuary which became pilgrim spots for Sikhs. Especially drawn towards Tarn Taran were the lepers who were treated here by the Guru with much loving care. As he moved from village to village. Guru Arjan helped people sink wells and undertake several other works of public weal, especially to alleviate the hardship caused by the famine which then gripped the Punjab.
The city of Lahore even today has a baoli, or well with steps going down to water level, built by Guru Arjan. This growing following was kept united by an efficient cadre of local leaders, called masands who looked after the sangats, Sikh centres, in far flung parts of the country. The Sikhs had coined a special title for him Sachcha Padshah, i. It was equated with the Guru himself.
By accumulating the canon, Guru Arjan wished to affix the seal on the sacred word and preserve it for posterity. It was also to be the perennial fountain of inspiration and the means of self perpetuation for the community.
He persuaded Baba Mohan. The making of the Granth involved sustained labour and rigorous intellectual discipline. Selections had to be made from a vast mass of material.
What was genuine had to be sifted from what was counterfeit. Then the selected material had to be assigned to appropriate musical measures, edited and recast where necessary, and transcribed in a minutely laid out order. Guru Arjan accomplished the task with extraordinary exactness. He arranged the hymns in thirty different ragas or musical patterns. A precise method was followed in setting down the compositions. First, came sabdas by the Gurus in the order of their succession.
Then came astpadis and other poetic forms in a set order and the vars. The compositions of the Gurus in each raga were followed by those of the bhaktas in the same format. Gurmukhi was the script used for transcription. A genius unique in spiritual insight and not unconcerned with methodological design had created a scripture with an exalted mystical tone and a high degree of organization.
Shaikh Farid, Ravidas, a shoemaker, and Sain, a barber. The completion of the Adi Granth was celebrated with much jubilation.
In thanksgiving, karah prasad was distributed in huge quantities among the Sikhs who had come in large numbers to see the Holy Book. The revered Bhai Buddha who was chosen to take charge of the Granth opened it with reverence to receive from it the divine command or lesson as Guru Arjan stood in attendance behind.
Amrit overflow the tank: He hath the task completed. The Granth Sahib, containing hymns of Gurus and of Hindu and Muslim saints, was a puzzle for people of orthodox views. Complaints were carried to the Mughal emperor that the book was derogatory to Islam and other religions. The book was opened at random and read from the spot pointed out by Akbar.
The hymn was in praise of God. So were the others, read out subsequently. Akbar was pleased and made an offering of fifty-one gold mohars to the Granth Sahib. Akbar had himself visited Guru Arjan earlier, at Goindval, in November and besought him for spiritual guidance.
Guru Arjan was an unusually gifted and prolific poet. Over one-third of the Adi Granth consists of his own utterances. They comprise more than two thousand verses. These are in part philosophical, enshrining his vision of the Absolute, the unattributed and the transcendental Brahman as also of God the Beloved. The deeper secrets of the self, the immortal divine spark lodged in the tenement of the flesh and of the immutable moral law regulating the individual life no less than the universe, find repeated expression in his compositions.
Alternating with these is his poetry of divine love, of the holy passion for the eternal which is the true yoga pursuit in joining the finite person to the infinite. Guru Arjan was the fifth Sikh Guru and the first Sikh martyr: he gave up his life for the Sikh people. He also designed the four doors in a Gurdwara, proclaiming that "My faith is for the people of all castes and all creeds from whichever direction they come and to whichever direction they bow.
The greatest contribution he made to the Sikh faith was to compile all of the past Gurus' writings into one book, now the holy scripture: the Guru Granth Sahib. It was this holy book that made him a martyr. Guru Arjan Dev included the compositions of both Hindu and Muslim saints which he considered consistent with the teachings of Sikhism and the Gurus. In , the Muslim Emperor Jahangir ordered that he be tortured and sentenced to death after he refused to remove all Islamic and Hindu references from the Holy book.
He was made to sit on a burning hot sheet while boiling hot sand was poured over his burnt body. After enduring five days of unrelenting torture Guru Arjan Dev was taken for a bath in the river. As thousands watched he entered the river never to be seen again. In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. Search term:. Read more.
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