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BAISAKHI
A FESTIVAL OF HOPE
What makes Baisakhi so special
Spring-time is festival-time in India. Early spring is ushered in our country with Holi, the festival of colours in March end; Ugadi and Gudi Padava follow in mid-April. And then comes Baisakhi, the harvest festival which derives its name from the Vikram Samvat month of Baisakh. It falls on April 13 every year, but on April 14, once every 36 years.
This harvest festival is celebrated with gusto by Sikhs and Hindus all over the world. Change of weather, fresh rains and a forecast of a good Rabi crop are reasons enough for happiness and celebrations -- with song and dance.
Special significance of Baisakhi
Baisakhi is also the beginning of the traditional Indian (solar) New Year. For Hindus too this festival has a special significance. It is believed that thousands of years ago, Goddess Ganga descended to earth on this day and in her honour Hindus take sacred bath in the River Ganga on Baisakhi. It also coincides with Rongali Bihu in Assam, Naba Barsha in Bengal, and Vishu in Kerala. In Himachal Pradesh, this festival is also celebrated in the honour of Goddess Jwalamukhi. The Sinhalese New Year in Sri Lanka, and Jur-Shital --the Mithila New Year in some regions of Bihar and Nepal -- too are celebrated now. For the Sikhs, this day is about worshipping their Gurus, feasting, merriment, holding processions and performing the dances -- Bhangra and Gidda.
Khalsa Panth established
On this auspicious day in 1699, Guru Govind Rai, the 10th Sikh Guru, founded the Khalsa Panth, community of the pure, at Keshgarh Sahib, near Anandpur. He baptized his chosen faithfuls, Panj Piaras with Amrit, and hailed them as Singhs, lions. He gave his followers a military zeal and orientation, so that they could defend their faith, in times of need. He ordained them to carry five visible symbols of faith, the five K's -- Kesh, Karra, Kirpan, Kanga and Kachhera. He also proclaimed himself to be the last Guru and declared that, henceforth, ‘the Adi Granth’ would the future guru of the Sikh faith. He ordained them to believe in the oneness of God and to serve the followers of the community. The Guru thus transformed the Khalsa, a spiritual and social entity, into a forceful religious group with a new political and military orientation.
The creation of the Khalsa Panth by Guru Govind Singh was a by-product of the sacrifices made by the Gurus who preceded him. The celebrations of Baisakhi would be incomplete without remembering those noble humans.
Contributions of the Sikh gurus Guru Nanak Dev, the first Sikh guru, shown a new light in an era of conflicting religious beliefs and Sikhism was born. Guru Ramdas, the fourth guru, gave the Sikhs a rallying centre at Amritsar and built the Golden Temple. The fifth guru, Guru Arjun Dev, compiled the teachings of the gurus into a sacred book called the ‘Adi Granth’. On September 1, 1604, the holy book was installed at the Harmandir Sahib in the Golden Temple. The holy scripture propagated three principles of the Sikh community -- Naam Japo, remember God; Kirat Karo, earn livelihood by honest means; and Vand Chako, share with others.
The Mughals in the post-Akbar era were not secular minded and their forcible conversions brought them into conflict with the Sikh Gurus. Guru Arjun Dev was tortured to death by Jahangir. His martyrdom was the beginning of the Sikh transformation to militarism. Aurangzeb's repression peaked with the execution of the ninth guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, on November 11,1675. His teenage son, Govind Rai succeeded him as the tenth guru.
~ Prof Gopal K Piplani
Part 1 of 2
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