Transformation and realisation

The young yogi was known for his tantric (occult) powers. People, full of awe, flocked to him for charms to get rid of sorrows and misery. Proud of his fame and supernatural powers, the yogi did not feel hesitant to play pranks on the visitors and saints, especially by overturning the cots they were seated on. This lasted one day, till in the autumn of 1708, he happened to meet the 10th Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh.

In September 1708, the guru who had stopped at the yogi’s monastery at Nanded occupied the cot used by the yogi. The yogi was not present in his hut but when informed by his followers about the guru’s act, he summoned the secret spirits to overturn the cot but to no avail. The yogi, astonished by the failure of his supernatural powers, rushed to the spot where the guru was seated. It was a meeting of transformation and realisation. The following conversation, recorded in the Zikr-i-Guruan wa lbtida-i-Singhan wa Mazhab-i-Eshan by Ahmad Shah of Batala, shows the spiritual angle of the encounter between the guru and the yogi, Madho Das.

Madho Das: Who are you Guru Gobind Singh: He whom you know. Madho Das: What do I know Guru Gobind Singh: Think it over in your mind. Madho Das (after a pause): So you are Guru Gobind Singh! Guru Gobind Singh: Yes. Madho Das: What have you come here for Guru Gobind Singh: I have come here so that I can make you a banda (human). Madho Das: “I submit, my Lord. I am a banda (slave) of yours.”

Then started the transformation of an occultist into a saint. The young yogi was none other than Banda Singh Bahadur, the Sikh warrior. He proved to be true Banda of the guru. Banda Singh Bahadur was born as Lachhman Dev on October 27, 1670, at Rajouri in Punjab, Kashmir. Fond of hunting, Lachhman Dev was a man of tender heart. During one of his hunting expeditions, he shot a doe who was pregnant. The sight of the dying animal and the look in the eyes of the mother doe made Lachhman Dev renounce the world. He was only 15 but decided to become an ascetic. It was a long search until he met Guru Gobind Singh who administered him the vows of the Khalsa and gave him the name — Banda Singh.

Banda Singh Bahadur was a brave soldier who had established a secular state where no one was forced to change his religion. He was a saviour of the poor and the oppressed. He abolished the monopoly of landowners and curbed the evils of the caste system. The poem, Bandi Bir, written in Bengali by the Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore, praises the bravery, mission and sacrifice of Banda Singh Bahadur. Before being executed, Banda Singh was, says the poet, ordered to kill his own son holding him in his hands. It was a sacrifice for the sake of dharma, the true path. Banda Singh was tortured to death in 1716 AD. His cremation took place in Barapullah village in Delhi. The Barapullah flyover, an important link between east and south Delhi, is renamed as Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Setu in light of the third centenary celebration of Baba Banda Singh’s martyrdom.

Kulbir Kaur teaches sociology at Shyama Prasad Mukherji College, Delhi University