Talk:Guru Tegh Bahādur: Sacrificing one’s life for the sake of Dharm
By Vishal Agarwal
Emperor Aurangzeb, who ruled India from 1658 – 1707 CE, was a very fanatical Muslim ruler. He destroyed several temples of Hindus, dismissed his Hindu employees from their jobs or underpaid them, and even denied them promotion. He imposed several special taxes on the non‐Muslims, and also banned the celebration of Hindu festivals and other religious ceremonies. In the year 1765, he also issued orders to burn Śāstra in several cities to stop all types of traditional education.
The Emperor decided that in order to convert all Hindus to Islam, it was very important to first convert the Brāhmaṇas, who were their religious leaders. Therefore, he ordered his governors to capture the Brāhmaṇas, snap the sacred thread that they wore around their right shoulders, and coerce them to convert. The persecution of Hindus was especially very severe in Kashmir. A group of Kashmiri Hindus went to the Amarnātha cave shrine of Śiva and prayed to protect their religion. Śiva appeared in a dream to Paṇḍit Kripārām Dutt, their leader, and asked him to seek the help of Guru Tegh Bahādur, the 9th Guru of the Sikh community.
The Paṇḍits of Kashmir appealed to Guru Tegh Bahādur to help them. He asked them to convey the following message to Aurangzeb: “If you succeed in converting me to Islam, then all the Hindus of Kashmir will also do so. But if you fail to make me a Muslim, then you will not force Kashmir’s Hindus to convert either.” Aurangzeb accepted. Guru Tegh Bahādur left for Delhi to see the Emperor with his three disciples, who were willing to risk their lives as well.
At Delhi, the Guru and his disciples were immediately imprisoned. The Muslim Qāzī (magistrate) asked the Guru to either convert to Islam or face death. When the Guru did not relent, they started torturing his three disciples and killed them one by one in front of his eyes. The first disciple was sawed into two pieces alive. The second was boiled to death in an oil cauldron. The third was wrapped in a bale of cotton and was burnt to death. The Guru was deeply pained but refused to convert to Islam. The Emperor asked the Guru to show a miracle if he wanted to save his life. But the Guru refused, saying that he could not disobey God’s rules by showing miracles.
It was ordered that the Guru would be beheaded if he did not convert. The brave Guru agreed to face death rather than give up his religion. The site where he was beheaded is today a Sikh shrine in Delhi. The great sacrifice of the Guru was possible because he valued his dharm more than his life, and was willing to stand up for his principles as a brave man and as a spiritual person who believed in the eternality of the ātmā. His is an example of a true devotee of Bhagavān who accepted his murder as the will of Bhagavān, and therefore did not forsake his principles.
The sacrifice of the Guru did not go in vain. His son, Guru Gobind Singh, raised an army of Sikhs within a few decades. And within less than a century, the Sikh warriors freed large parts of the region of Punjab in India from Islamic rule.