Yesterday was the day that the 5th Sikh Guru, Guru Arjan Dev was martyred.
Looking back everyone talks about Akbar and his secular move, yet the seed of Guru Arjan’s martyrdom was sown during his reign.
Guru Arjan Dev was the first Sikh Guru to be born to a Sikh family. He also consolidated the Sikh’s into a community and gave them the community ethical values.
It was in 1563 15th of April that Guru Arjan Dev was born to Guru RamDas and matha Bhani. In Goindval -TaranTaran district. In his 25yrs of guiding the Sikhs he carved their social presence which actually threatened the moguls.
Guru RamDas had taken on creation of the Ramdas sarovar a manmade water reservoir. It was completed under the guidance of Guru Arjan Dev. On completion he installed the scriptures there. Today the reservoir is the most holy destination of the Sikhs and is known as Harmindir Sahib or simply Amritsar. In addition to this Guru Arjan Dev also responsible for the building of the Santoshsar water reservoir and the Gongsar water reservoir.
As there were lot of disputes and misinterpretation of the hymns and discourses of Guru’s who were gone so Guru Arjan dev compiled the Grantha Sahib in Bhrijbhasha and Sanskrit. This is installed in Harmandir Sahib too. in addition to compiling the 2218 verses of Adi Granth he has also the Sukhmani Sahib.
It is believed that a meeting between Guru Arjan Dev and Akbar triggered Guru Arjan Dev to advise his son and successor Guru Hargobind to take to arms to resist tyranny. The Sikh Martial art is known as Shastar Vidya . It is a fading practice right now with few practitioners and fewer teachers.
The Mansand system of the Sikh Society is also credited to Guru Arjan Dev. The Mansand settled civil disputes of the communities and created a system called Dasvand where every Sikh donated 1/10th of his income to the community this money is used for the service of others, to sponsor the langars and other social needs of the community.The growing strength of the Sikh community caused threatened the Mogul emperor Jahangir who had succeeded Akbar. He captured the Guru and tried to converting him. When he failed to do so the Guru was tortured. Though various accounts give different versions of the death proper, there are accounts that say he was drowned some accounts that say he was impaled but it definitely strengthened the advice that the Guru had given his son and successor Guru Hargobind.
Guru Arjan Dev was martyred on May 30th 1606 at Lahore.
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