Sacrifice

In India whenever the term of Sacrifice comes into picture. the name of karna from the Mahabharatha is taken as an example. If someone sacrifices or gives away something, He behaves like Karna or don't behave like Karna, small charity won't make you Karna will be many of the examples. 

But if we have witnessed History there are many others who also can be called into this group or can be example of Sacrifice. Out of the many names, one name comes into my mind, he is none other than Guru Teg Bahadur. Guru Teg Bahadur, the name many in the country don't know and many in the north will be known. He is from the Sikh Community and is the 9th Sikh Guru and father of the 10th Guru Shri Guru Gobind Singh. 

Once, when i went to a Gurudwara, I asked the caretaker for a book on Shri Guru Gobind Singh as I consider him an important person in the Indian History. But he said, the copies are over instead he advised me to take a book on Guru Teg Bahadur. I was bit taken aback as I didn't know about him and felt he may be popular among the Sikhs but for me, Shri Guru Gobind Singh was the biggest Sikh Guru and a great Freedom fighter. 

But as I finished reading the book, a small book of about 15-20 pages, i was shocked. Not only shocked reading the content of the book but also severely shocked I could never learn or read or know about him. I felt utterly ashamed about my ignorance about the Person. The Story goes something like this.

During the reign of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, there were lot of attacks on the Hindus and many were forced to get converted. But during this time, many brave warriors like Chatrapati Shivajji, Krishna deva Raya and many brave sons of Mother India gave stiff resistance. During one of the events, When Aurangzeb wanted to convert Kashmir Pandits, they found refuge under the 9th Sikh Guru Shri Guru Teg Bahadur. They pleaded with him, Guru, we have nowhere else to go. We are under the compulsion either get killed or get converted. 

Please guide us and save us, they pleaded. Guru Teg Bahadur, told them, why don't you go to a holy person to meditate with Aurangzeb. Listening to the entire conversation, his young son of about 10-12 years old said, Father, who is more holy than you. Why can't you take the lead to meditate with the emperor. 

Listening to the words of his son, Guru Teg Bahadur assured the Kashmiri Pandits, they need not get converted. He will stand between them and the tyrant Aurangzeb. Saying this, he sent a message to the Mughal Emperor, if you want to convert the Kashmir Pandits, you have to convert me first. The rest will get converted. Mughal Emperor was happy listening to this, he thought his work became easy as he need to convert only one person. His job is now easy. 

A date was fixed and Guru Teg Bahadur went to Delhi to meet Aurangzeb with his few disciples. An exchange of words happened between the two and Guru Teg Bahadur was adamant. he politely refused to convert to Islam, he was not at all deterred by gifts, money, pleasantries and threats. Aurangzeb found the situation helpless, he began to think it is getting difficult to convince this man. Now, he ordered his soldiers to create fear in the eyes of Guru Teg Bahadur by doing different dangerous antics. Guru Teg Bahadur was unmoved. Then the irritated Aurangzeb who felt he is losing the situation, ordered his soldiers to torture the disciples of Guru Teg Bahadur. The torture will be stopped if Guru admits to accept Islam, But Guru was unmoved. Few of his disciples were tortured to death like peeling their skin alive, sewing them alive, throwing hot oil on to their bodies. 

Now, he ordered to torture Guru, Guru Teg Bahadur was tortured. Hot sand was thrown on him, he was threatened to be trampled by Elephants. But Guru was calm. After torturing Guru for few more hours, Tired and irritated Aurangzeb ordered to Behead Guru Teg Bahadur and ordered none to touch the dead body. As Guru was beheaded, a massive storm came in the area and all of them were blinded. One great devotee took the severed head of the Guru and ran to another place and cremated it. 

This happened on 24th November. The place where guru teg bahadur was beheaded is in Delhi and a Gurudwara is constructed in its place Sis Ganj Sahib gurudwara in Chandni Chowk. 

24th Nov is celebrated as Shaheedi Diwas and the martyrdom of Guru Teg Bahadur. 

This is a harrowing story but teaches a great lesson. It is the story of a person who sacrificed his life to save the honor of people of another faith. Most of the times, sacrifice is done to the people known to us or our close relatives or friends. 

But here Guru Teg Bahadur a Sikh sacrificed his life to save the honor of hundreds of Kashmiri Pandits who don'g belong to his faith. I think incident has got no precedent in World History. A person of a faith sacrifices his life to another faith.