INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

The two types of nectars have power to bring about quite different effects on the
drinker: whereas kirpanvala amrit purifies and protects the recipient in different life
situations, the khandevala amrit accomplishes a complete purification that will transform
the bio-moral identity of a person. A local granthi explicated the distinction in the
following way:
I do kirpanvala amrit in the same way as they do the amrit of the five beloved
(panj pyare), but the five beloved use khanda, in this I use kirpan. The
kirpanvala amrit is for purity [shuddh]. The khandevala amrit has power
[chamta] to change a person. Whatever he or she has done in the past, after
taking this nectar they start to perform religious duties. It brings about
a change in them.
Giving kirpanvala amrit to a child after birth has undoubtedly other significations than
distributing khandevala amrit to a neophyte in the Khalsa ceremony, yet the two events
are comparable considering the ritual preparation and uses.
Seen from a historical perspective, it is possible to argue that the current uses of
kirpanvala amrit is a modern extension of the pre-Khalsa ceremony Charan pahul, or the
“foot- initiation” that candidates earlier drank as a token of submission to the Guru
and admission into the Sikh community. The Sikh Guru or his deputy would prepare
this amrit by touching water with the toe of his right foot and thereby transformed the
water into a sacred “foot-nectar”(charan amrit). Drinking the water which the Guru’s
toe had touched was to recieve residues of the Guru’s feet that would enhance the
ability to achieve salvation. The creation of Khalsa in 1699 introduced a new initiation
ceremony – Khande di pahul ‒ in which the foot nectar of the Guru was exchanged with
water prepared with the recitation of five gurbani verses and stirred with the doubleedged
sword by five beloved Sikhs representing the Khalsa community. Although the
new Khalsa ceremony replaced the earlier Charan pahul as a Sikh initiation ceremony,
the concept and practice of the “foot-nectar” was sustained in new modified forms. As
reflected in the eighteenth century rahit-nama of Chaupa Singh, for instance, a significant
distinction between Khande di pahul and Charan pahul developed subsequent to the
event of Khalsa: whereas the former was intended for male Singhs who affirmed their
loyalty and readiness to fight for Khalsa, the latter was to be maintained and performed
for non-Sikhs and community members who were “not yet ripe” (kache pille),
including women, men, and children. Chaupa Singh gives Charan pahul subservient
status to the Khalsa ceremony, yet argues that it should be retained for non-Sikhs. As
Mann (2004) suggests, Chaupa Singh reiterates to non-Sikhs the new centres of authority
‒ the Sikh scripture (granth) and the five beloved as representing the community
(panth) ‒ by prescribing new ways of preparing Charan pahul, either by washing the
bed-post of Guru Granth Sahib or from the toes of the five beloved. By the late eightpain
and elimination of sorrow. Some of the hymns used are found on page 201, 202, 720, 783
and 816 ‒ 817 in Guru Granth Sahib.
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008