Sikhism - Culture - Gurmat Veechar

A glance at his performance, accomplishments andthe landmarks
established by him shall reveal that no ordinary person can ever
imagine performing andexcelling in so many diversifiedactivities
as Guru Arjan Sahib did, andthere shall be not any iota ofdoubt in
concluding that Bhatt Mathra was quite right in making his
assessment about Guru Sahib.
Guru Arjan was a great builder. He initially under took the
completion of different projects initiated by Guru Ram Dass Sahib
such as the development of the town Guru Ka Chak, Amritsar, the
completion ofthe Amrit Sarovar, and building ofHarimandir Sahib in
the middle ofthe Sarovar. Then he gave us buildings and cities, which
depicted his tastes and interests in art, minute observations and far
sightedness. He built the Harimandir, our most revered place with four
doors, in the middle ofthe Sarovar, in a clean environment with wide
'parikarma' (walking and service area around the sarovar). He took up
and completed the building of Taran Taran Sahib -Sarovar and Hari
Mandir, Kartarpur town near Jalandhar, Chhe-hartta well (A very big
well with six chains and outlets, Guru Dham in the outskirts of
Amritsar and Ram Sar, Santokh Sar and Ram Bagh in Amritsar itself.
Guru Arjan was a great Poet, who createdandcomposeda lot of
Gurbani. He as a young child was predicted to be 'Bani Ka Bohitha',
by none other than Guru Amar Dass, who happened to be his maternal
grand father. He, in the tradition set by Guru Nanak, composed a lot,
most revered, and sweet and solace giving verses in a very simple
language. His Bani gives rest and peace to the most disturbed and
perturbed mind. Number wise too his compositions are much more
than that ofany other single contributor to Guru Granth Sahib. Out of
1430 pages of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, 650 pages are of his own
writings. To be precise and to quote Dr. Teja Singh, out of a total of
5894 distinct pieces from different composers Guru Arjan himself
composed 2216. Sukhmani Sahib i.e. "Sukhmani amrit prabh naam,
bhagat jana ke man bisram", Bawan Akhri, Barah Mah, Ruti, Thiti,
Pehrai, Din-Raain, Vaaraan are some of his vivid compositions. The
Bani he gave us has a dense meaning, appeal and message for the entire
humanity.
Besides giving his own diversified and solace giving bani, he
compiled Guru Granth Sahib and gave the same as most precious and
Martyrdom Day - Guru AIjan Dev Sahib / 23