Lehal Library

The Call to Anns 65 The absence of the Gurufrom the main centres of Sikh activity (Amritsar, Goindwal, Kartarpur, Khadur, and Kiratpur), the hostility of the disappointed claimants to guruship, and the general disintegration of the masai:ld organization, seriously prejudiced the advancement of the community. Har Rai tried to make up for this by undertaking a tour of the centres and by reorganizing the mission~. During his tenure ofguruship some notable conversions were made among the landed families of the Punjab. 14 At the end of 1658, Har Rai returned to Kiratpur. He became friendly with Shahjahan's eldest son, Dara Shikoh, 1' who being of Sufi persuasion sought the company of saintly men of all denominations. When the war of succession began between Shah Jahan's sons, the Guru's sympathies were naturally more wilh the liberal Dara Shikoh than with the bigoted Aurangzeb. Dara Shikoh was defeated and fled northwards to the Punjab. He called on the Guru and asked for assistance. The manner of the assistance given by the Guru to Dara Shikoh is not clear, 11; 14 The ancestors of the princely families of Patiala, Nabha, and Jind, who had come into comact with Guru Hargobind, became closely associated with the Sikh community. So did the ancestors of two other noLable families, Kaithal and Bagarian, whose descendants played a distinguished role in the building of Sikh power. · 15 Sikh records maintain that the Guru cured Dara Shikoh oflhe effects of poi:<10n. When asked why he had saved the life of a son of Shah Jahan, wbo had tormented his father and grandfather, the Guru replied; 'The man breaks flowers with one hand and offers them with the other, but the flowers pe1fume both hands alike. The axe cuts the sandal tree. yet the sandal pe-rfwnes the axe.' (Panth Pra/rii.i, 121-2.) 16 Some historians believe the Guru joined Dara Shikoh (Trumpp); others, that he covered his retreat by blocking Anrangzeb's troops on the Beas (Sarkar and Cunningham). S19an Rai, in his Khuliis(l.{.-W-Tnwo:tiM, has this to say: 'When after his defeat Dara Shikoh came to Labore, he became very much afraid of his brother and made up his mind to flee to Multan and (then to) Kandahar. Of this he spoke to some of his confidants. Raja Rajrup said that be wmlld go home to make better arrangements for the collection of troops and lea\ing his son and val<eel at Lahore he went away. And after a few days the vakeel and the son also fled. Guru Har Rai, who had come with a large army, left his camp with the plea that he was going to collect more troops for help.'