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by Parmjit Singh

Baisakhi is a symbol of a birth, martyrdom and celebration. A Harvest festival, Baisakhi, mainly celebrated in the northern part of India is around the corner, which falls on the 13th of April. The word Baisakhi is derived from the word Vaisakh which is the Indian name of the month in which it falls, as per the Hindu calendar (mid April-mid May).

The winter crop, mainly consisting of wheat is ripe for harvest and gazing at the gold spread across the fields, that a farmer’s hard work has bequeathed, his heart swells with pride. With the first cut, families burst with jubilation dancing Bhangra (a folk dance) to folksy tunes.

In the states of Punjab and Haryana Baisakhi is not only celebrated in the farming families but the general community in various forms with organizing Fairs and holding wrestling bouts. No festival is complete without delicacies and needless to say sweets and savories are relished.

But Baisakhi has more to it. It is especially significant to the Sikhs of Punjab and in a way to the Hindus of Kashmir. History has it that the Mughal Muslim Emperor Aurangzeb who came to reign in India in the year 1657, was forcing all the non-Muslims to follow Islam. For the purpose he was mainly attacking Brahmins (the highest in the hierarchy of the castes of the Hindus) incurring religious taxes on them. Even their places of worship and learning were shut. Brahmins, especially the Kashmiri were dejected and looking for some leader who could help them counter his atrocities and exploitation.

Anointing his son Gobind Rai, who was only nine at that time, the Ninth Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur offered his life in exchange for the religious freedom for Hindu community. Mughal Emperor had him beheaded in public and his body was left in open unclaimed. Nobody dared to claim his body fearing the wrath of the Mogul Emperor. However, as per history, around the same time a storm swept the execution ground and capitalizing on the natural cover, two of Sikh Guru’s disciples whisked away his body for dignified cremation. This lack of courage and grand expression of diffidence shown by the population because of the Emperor’s tyrannical rule, sowed the seed of the future formalization of ‘Khalsa Panth’—a religio-spiritual tradition called Sikhism which was based on courage, righteousness and warrior-spirit.

Not only did the birth of Sikhism typify a break from fear and cowardice, but also a mutiny against the discriminatory nature of erstwhile caste system peddled by Hindus and Mughals wherein people were slotted into categories of variable power and dignity. It is the legacy of a Hindu saint Manu that India and Indians have witnessed a deplorable caste system. Though this caste categorization was originally designed as a convenient method to know people by their trade yet as time flew this formulation took a monstrous proportion. Sikhism was formed in a bid to break this institutional structure of bigotry and racism.

The formal birth of Sikhism is traced back to a congregation in 1699 wherein Guru Gobind Rai tried to instill the qualities of courage, sacrifice and righteousness through the enactment of a ceremony. After giving a stirring speech about the value of courage and sacrifice in maintenance of religious values and doctrines, Guru Gobind Rai, unsheathed his sword and asked for a volunteer who would willingly pay with his life for the greater purpose of courage and sacrifice. As the congregation (so the story goes) fell into an uncomfortable hush, a man stood up and offered himself. The Guru took him into a tent and after a while came back to the stage with his sword covered with blood. Now he asked for another volunteer…and repeated the act five times. Each time, as the crowd sat in horror, the new volunteer was taken in the tent and the Guru came back with a fresh blood on his sword, symbolizing the execution of the new volunteer.

But it was not be a real execution, only symbolic—some historical accounts decree that the Guru executed one lamb symbolizing each new volunteer. Nevertheless, it should be understood that the execution was just symbolic, a metaphor for the new life for the devotees. It was a new beginning, a break from the old way of living, a willful embrace of death, symbolizing courage and a way of the warrior.

As the ceremony came to a close, all the five volunteers appeared from the tent, dressed in white robes, an emblem of purity and courage. Courage comes from the purity of purpose without which it degenerates into arrogance and cockiness.

That was the beginning of Sikhism—five rechristened people were called Panj Pyare (the five beloved ones), all dressed in white, humble and courageous. These two concepts might sound contradictory to an ordinary mortal for how could courage and humility go together? One notable similarity can be seen in the life of a Samurai. He is a warrior too but not an ordinary one—he fights for a larger purpose, without a vested interest and only when it is absolutely necessary.

These five rechristened volunteers were baptized in a unique ceremony called Pahul; it came to be called as Amrit (elixir) later. They were decreed not to cut their hair and observe five ‘Ks’—Kesh (unshorn hair), Kangha (wooden comb), Karra (iron bracelet), Kirpan (the sword) and Kachera (a special underwear).

Apart from inculcating a sense of courage and purity, this ceremonial inception of Sikhism was also meant to install a distinct personality on the future genre of Sikhism. It was meant to stand Sikhs apart from the motley crowd to represent that they can die when necessary, in a just cause.

Rightly so, Baisakhi is a symbol of a birth, martyrdom and celebration. Guru Nanak, the first Sikh Guru had sown the seed of Sikhism by departing from ritual-ridden Hinduism in order to practice spiritual freedom. What he sowed came to its flowering on the day of Baisakhi in 1699.

What can be more profound occasion for celebration? Each season when farmers harvest their wheat crops, it is a reminder from their first Guru about the seed he sowed and from their tenth Guru about the value of courage and willingness to die (may be not in a physical sense only, but in a spiritual sense when you surrender yourself to the care of universe).

Happy Baisakhi Folks!