He was like the pleasant winter sun –

so soothing so caring,

as if all our sorrows

it was He who was bearing;

In the hot deserts of life

He was thus like the coolest breeze,

bringing everyone under His divine pristineshadow,

making all of us at absolute peace and ease.

This great Guru of the yore –

so majestic and so pure,

was always in deep samadhi 

even when he was awake,

he was thus far beyond the awareness of his physical self;

hordes of devotees would come every day and say:

Oh! What divine presence and enlightening spell! 

But in the cruel darkness of  everynight

on the vast roof of his abode,

Guru Teg Bahadur would stand in deep thought -

thinking about the condition of his people

and brutally endangered Dharma

whose protection he had always sought;

He decided to sacrifice himself

as advised by his son Young Gobind,

to change the very direction of the wind -

to ignite in his people -

to fight the enemy in the spirit of holy sacrifice,

and like an unprecedented onslaught they should rise

to save Dharma at any price.

When this great son ofour motherland

was taken for the decapitation,

He voluntary placed his head on the slaughter stone,

as if he had put it on his holy pillow.

Oh, what a glow!What a halo!

on the face that had just fallen below!

There was now very widespread grief contagion,

The whole nation started boiling with anger and frustration!

But what was the way out?

O people, what was the way out?

***

Holding onhis one arm

his holy father’s blood-soaked head in a holy plate,

and raising his divine sword

up in the sky straight -

Young Gobind kept riding across the whole enslaved land,

inspiring the people who hitherto were always fearfuland timidity-clad,

to come out from their confines and join the holy war,

becausefor them the freedom from chains otherwise

had become too illusory and too far.

***

Mothersof the land now gave birth to children

not to raise families,

but to bring forth brave soldiers for the Guru

with godly aura and lusty sheen,

who would readily sacrifice their lives as the finest tribute to Him;

Farmers of this land stopped

ploughing their fields,

and bought mighty stallions from their big crop yields;

Households donated huge quantity of

metalware to the village blacksmiths,

to cast the sharpest swords

using their so well mastered moulds.

***

In the early morning,

as this mother made the garment for her god

with the flowers collected by her son,

she heard the thundering sounds of horses

and the rattling of weapons in unison,

the boy too saw a huge storm of dust,

marching forward and forward,

bringing for people

a new hope and unfaltering trust.

Soon the youngster saw mighty warriors on mighty horses

passing by in great pride and stride as if

the valour itself had raised its sword

high in the sky in its fist,

O readers, the boy too took the sharpest knife

and holding it in his solid grip -

he jumped on his pony with a loud war-cry sound,

The mother’s joy had no bound,

she immediately put the garland around her son

which she had made for her god,

Soon the youngster reached the first row of the holy warriors –

Guruji smiled

and touched his weapon with his holy sword.

***

The Guru’s eldest sons scarified their lives in the battlefield;

The two youngest aged 9-10 years were sentenced to death

because they refused to listen to their tormentors’ threats to yield,

When the last brick was about to be placed

on their four-walled grave

in which they were tied,

these two bravest children in Indian history

smiled as they looked outside -

Their dear land hasfinally won the holy war –

after millions of sacrifices

It was now indeed a free heaven with no bar.

Now no headsare rolled –

But held high

Nowhere there is nowany remorse, sobbing or blood-filled sigh.

The zeal for freedom and its spirit

created a big galaxy of smiles,

freed people’s so alluringhappiest expression -

that in unison these smiles became

a very wide smile on the face of this great nation,

after centuries of its utter suffering and deprivation.

***

But sadly, nowthe internal and external enemies of this freed nation

are busy dividingits people and itsso dear land,

destroying its foretold destiny and destination; 

So, readers, in the dead of the night,

even today we often hear -

the thundering sound of galloping of horses

coming from nearby and far-off distances -

holding on his one arm his holy father’s blood-soaked head in a plate,

and raising his divine sword up in the sky straight -

our great Guru Gobind Singhji followed by

his mighty men on mighty horses

still moves across this holy land,

in the company of tall fire torchers -

asking people to save the nation

from the new class of predators and vultures.