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Kathmandu Tuesday January 22, 2002 Magh 09, 2058.
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Shikhs celebrate Guru Govind’s birth
anniversary
By Perina Pathak
KATHMANDU, Jan 21:Thousands of Shikhs living in Nepal
celebrated the 335th birth anniversary of Guru Govind Singh, who is a founder of Khalsa
Panth and the preserver of Hindu religion.
Those residing in the Kathmandu Valley gathered at local
Gurudwaras that are situated in different places. Gurudwara Guru Nanak Satsang had
organised a programme in which hundreds of Shikhs participated.
Around ten priests of the Gurudwara recited Akhanda Path from
the religious book, Guru Grantha. The non-stop Akhanda Path that began two days ago
concluded on Monday morning, reading out the last episode to end one of the greatest
celebrations of Shikhs.
There are about 1000 families of Shikhs living mainly in
Kathmandu, Birgunj, Bhairahawa and Nepalgunj.
At the concluding ceremony, former Prime Minister Lokendra
Bahadur Chand offered his honour to Guru and said, "He was not against any religion.
Instead, he raised his voice against the evils of the Hindu religion for its
protection."
Acting President of Gurudwara and the member of Rajparishad,
Satya Pal Sachdeva said, "Guru Govind fought for the protection of Hindu religion
without caring for his life."
"Guru Govind was not only the Guru of Shikh community,
but is also the Guru of humanism", said Jay Prakash, chairman of World Hindu
Federation – Kathmandu.
Shankar Lal Kedia, member of World Hindu Federation, shed
light on the relationship of Guru Govind with Nepal. "Nepal is a Hindu country and
Guru fought for the protection of Hindu religion, so he is directly related with Nepal and
the Nepali people."
After an hour long Bhajans (hymns), all those present at the
celebration took Manabhog as prasad and participated in the Langar, a special lunch.
Looking back towards the history, Guru Govind Singh is the
10th and last Guru of Shikh community, which is also known as Khalsa Panth. Guru Nank
founded Khalsa Panth around the 16th century.
Hinduism was in debacle during the rule of Mughal King,
Aurangzeb, as they were against the religion. Therefore, to protect the Hindu religion,
nine years old Govind Rai had suggested his father Guru Tej Bahadur to sacrifice his own
life. Thus the Shikhs began calling him Guru Govind, when he was just nine years old, on
November 11, 1675.
After pronounced Guru, he inspired the Shikh community to
fight war against those fighting against the Hindus. Guru fought 14 wars and won all of
them. Hardayal Singh Gupta writes in his book ‘Shikh Dharmako Ruparekha’ that
four sons of Guru Govind died during the war against Mughal rulers and no other such Guru
emerged after him.
" The Shikh community is not only the part of Hinduism
but is also one of its protectors," writes Hardayal Singh. "In the Shikh
community, men generally write ‘Singh’ after their names and women write
Kaur."
Guru Govind made Shikh people compulsory to have five things
that start from ‘Ka’- Kesh (hair), Kachhad (underwear), Kada (bangle), Kirpan
(sword) and Kanga (comb).
Shikh people follow the Granth (a holy book) called Guru
Granth Shaheb. The Granth with 1430 pages is the collection of preaches given by ten Gurus
and by other gods and goddesses.
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