Lehal Library

82 The Punjab and the Birth of Sikhism him into the new fraternity. The Guru was no longer their superior; be had merged his entity in the Khalsa. 18 Gobind Singh is said to have explained these innovations in a lengthy address to the assemblage: 'I wish you all to embrace one creed and follow one path, obliterating all differences of religion. Let the four Hindu castes, who have different rules laid down for them in the sastras abandon them altogether and, adopting the way of cooperation, mix freely with one another. Let no one deem himself superior to another. Do not follow the old scriptures. Let none pay heed to the Ganges and other places of pilgrimage which are considered holy in the Hindu religion. or adore the Hindu deities, such as Rama, Krishna, Brahma, and Durga, but all should believe .in Guru Nanak and his successors. Let men of the four castes receive baptism, eat out of the same vessel, and feel no disgust or contempt for one another.' '° The newswriter of the Mughal Court who was present on the occasion wrote in his report that: 'When the Guru had thus addressed the crowd several Brahmins and Khatris stood up and said that they accepted the religion of Nanak and of the other Gurus. Others, on the contrary, said thal they would never accept any religion which was opposed to the teaching of the Vedas and sastras, and that they would not renounce at the bidding of a boy 18 Khiilsli mnr> rup hm KM..r-the Khalsa is exactly like me. LateT on, the convention dt!\•eloped of calling a resolution carried out by the majority of tbe congregation tbe gurmata and treating iL as Lhe order of Lhe Gum. 19 The above address is based on the report of a newswrit.er sem to Lhe Mughal Coun and is vouched for by Lhe Persian historian, Ghulam Mohiuddin. (Teja Singh and Ganda Singh, A Shott History of tht Sikhs, p. 68; Macauliffe, The Sikh Religinn, v, 93--4.) In Gobind's own writings Lhere are passages which give the impression that Lhey might be summaries of the address he delivered on Lhis occasion: 'He who keeps alight the unquenchable torch of tmth and never swerves from the thought of one God; he who is full of love for God and has confidence in Him; he who never puts his faith in fasting. I.be worship of graves of Muslim saintS or of Hindu sepulchres; he who recognizes the one God and believes not in pilgrimages, throwing of money LO beggars, preserving all fonns of life, doing ~ 1ances or austerities; and in whose heart the light of the Perteet One shines-he is to be recognized lIB a pure member of the Khalsa.' (Svaiyiis Dasam Gmmth)