Guru Teghbahadar Sahib: The Benevolent Warrior

The Sikh historical narratives live in the psyche of the Guru Khalsa Panth, the flag-bearers of the Sikh collective. They were told and retold from generation to generation. Two of them recorded their impressions of Guru Teghbahadar Sahib in the texts, which are contemporary or near-contemporary sources. Bhai Nand Lal Goya’s and Chandra Sain Sainpati’s writings informed the Sikh psyche from the late 1600s to the early 1700s. We will attempt to see the grandeur and legacy of the Ninth Sovereign from Goya’s Ganjnama and Sainpati’s Sri Gur Sobha.

Transcendence lies not in the wishful disappearance of opposition from without but in the resolution within to disregard and rise above it. How do we rise from the fragmented universe of our fears? How do we rejuvenate from within to attain the fullest human stature? Journey with me as I share my learnings from the three Sabads of Guru Teghbahadar Sahib in Rag Devgandhari through Bhai Vir Singh’s expositions.

With Guru Teghbahadar’s ideology and martyrdom, an entirely new set of discourse appears on the forefront of Sikh philosophical thought that needs to be read as a turning point in Indian history altogether. The open assertion of human rights and a call for justice, depicted through a practical example of Guru’s martyrdom, became influential for the entire human race and not just for the citizens of Hindustan alone. In this light, this presentation focuses on the circumstances that led to Guru Sahib’s martyrdom, significance, and impact. This will be substantiated with four distinct saloks revered by Guru Sahib that stand out in the poetic tradition in the Indian discourse of those times.

Death is a thing we all must do. But we are deeply afraid of it. In classically religious Sikh and non-Sikh understandings, and even in non-religious understandings, death is personified as an aggressive thing that snatches us away, drags us by our hair, beats us over the head. It is merciless. It is violent. We dread it. Where does this understanding come from? And how do we overcome it? How do we form a relationship with death? How do we form a new understanding of how it functions in our journeys? What does Guru Teghbahadar Sahib tell us about confronting our own fears in order to understand the lessons death has to teach us here and now?

While serving as the Guru, Guru Teghbahadar Sahib visited far-off places and interacted with many individuals and communities. The Guru faced opposition not only on the external front but also on the home front. The Guru navigated through scheming and aggressions, many times violent, with grace and wisdom. This presentation explores the Guru’s interactions with people and communities and the underlying principles that governed the Guru’s politics of alliances.