Vaisakhi, 1699
Imagine a community of believers
gathered at Anandpur Sahib on Vaisakhi
to listen faithfully to their Guru's wisdom.
The plume-adorned Guru dazed them
like a bolt of lightning on a sunny day
a poet philosopher inspiring his listeners
with a clarion call, simply demanding a willful
surrender of self-a readiness to give up self-worship.
Imagine those five beloveds
from different creeds and castes:
a shopkeeper, a farmer, a tailor,
a water-carrier, a barber who
rose up to the call for solemn sacrifice.
Fearless with faith to meet the Guru's sword,
they stepped up to follow him unquestioningly
ready to surrender their lives for the Guru.
Imagine as the Guru brought
his beloved disciples back-- the glorious Khalsa
adorned in his image nurturing compassion,
righteousness, courage, strength and humble grace
to follow the path of oneness and fellowship
to resist tyranny, to defend social justice
to serve humanity with selfless love
and to promote compassion for all.
Imagine such wonder of selfless love
embracing thousands of seeking souls.
A sweet immersion into a promise
of compassionate connections initiated
the five beloveds as they sipped the sweet Amrit.
The Guru then bowed for his own initiation -
Guru became disciple-- his palms joined blissfully
to drink the sweetened sword-dipped nectar..
Imagine such undying legacy of humanity as
the Guru gifted his disciples with 5 Ks, names and purpose,
asking Sikhs to relinquish rituals, forego taboos,
cast-off castes, renounce superstitions and unshackle their
minds from divisions. Instead assume a unique identity --
to be courageous Singhs and Kaurs practicing equality,
and creating a world of freedom and revolutionary love
where no one is superior nor deemed inferior.
Parvinder Mehta©
14th April, 2017
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Photo Credit for Inscription:: Jasleen Kaur - originally posted to Flickr as Takht Sri Keshgarh Sahib The Original Khalsa at Takht Sri Keshgarh Sahib, birthplace of the Khalsa.Permission details
This image, which was originally posted to Flickr.com, was uploaded to Commons using Flickr upload bot on 17:55, 30 August 2009 (UTC) by Ekabhishek (talk). On that date, it was available under the license indicated. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
Photo Credit for Header image ~ Sikh Answers
