Get complete information on the Estimation of Guru Gobind Singh

Get complete information on the Estimation of Guru Gobind Singh

Guru Gobind Singh was a builder par excellence. “He brought a new belief into being and released a new dynamic force into arena of Indian History.” He was the saviour of Hinduism. He came to the help of the Hindus when Aurangzeb was determined to convert Dur-ul-Harb (Land of Infidels) into Dar-ul-Islam (Land of the Faithful).

He infused a new spirit among his followers and but for that spirit, most of the Hindus in Northern India might have embraced Islam. It is true that he protected Hinduism from Islam but this does not mean that he hated the Muslims. He was merely opposed to the tyranny of the Mughal Emperors and not to Islam as such. He had his friends among the Muslims who actually saved his life when he was being hunted by the Mughals.

Guru Gobind Singh was not a military or political leader. He was essentially a man of God. He was made to infuse a militant spirit into his followers on account of the force of circumstances. The Guru was a scholar and a poet. He composed a large number of verses in Punjabi, Hindi and Persian. He was a patron of learning. He was a true democrat. He did not appoint any person who was to succeed him as a Guru of the Sikhs. He asked the sikhs to have general meetings and make their decision by Gurmata or the deliberations and resolutions of the council.

According to Cunningham, “The last apostle of the Sikhs did not live to see his own ends accomplished, but he effectually roused the dormant energies of a vanquished people, and filled them with a lofty although fitful longing for social freedom and national ascendancy, the proper adjuncts of the purity of worship which had been preached by Nanak.

Gobind saw what was yet virtual, and he resumed it with Promethean fire. A living spirit possesses the whole Sikh People and the impress of Gobind has not only elevated and altered the constitution of their minds, but has operated materially and given amplitude to their physical fames.”

Again, “Gobind was equally bold, systematic and sanguine, but it is not necessary to suppose him either an unscrupulous impostor or a self-deluded enthusiast. He thought that the minds of men might be wrought upon the great purposes, he deplored the corruption of the world, he resented the tyranny which endangered his own life, and he believed the time had come for another teacher to arouse the latent energies of the human will. His memory was filled with the deeds of primeval seers and heroes; his imagination dwelt on successive dispensations for the instruction of the world, and his mind was not perhaps untangled with a superstitious belief in his own earthly destiny.”