Kirpal Chand, Bhai Jetha, Bhai Dayala put up a stout defencewith whatever stick or staff they could get hold of. In the nextmovement, Shihan aimed bullet at Guru Tegh Bahadur andfired point blank. The Guru had a minor bullet injury on hisshoulder. Kirpal Chand and Bhai Jetha asked all the men tohold their arms and be prepared to punish the bandits andredeem the stolen goods. A messenger was immediately sentto Makhan Shah. Guru Tegh Bahadur urged everyone not toget upset by the material loss. Soon, Makhan Shah arrivedwith his men armed to their teeth. Makhan Shah was shockedat the damage done to the Darbar and injuries sustained bythe Guru.After a tough battle, everyone of Dhir Mal's Masands andhired bandits were arrested and dragged to the presence ofGuru Tegh Bahadur. Addressing Dhir Mal, Makhan Shah said,"I have spared your life just because you are the Guru'snephew, otherwise I would not have hesitated to finish acowardly killer like you." Dhir Mal and his Masands weredown on their knees begging the Guru to pardon theirmisdeeds. Deeply moved by their tears of repentance, GuruTegh Bahadur not only ordered their immediate release, buteven resented harsh treatment accorded to them. Explaininghis action, Makhan Shah said, "Gurudeva, if we allowedourselves to be robbed and plundered the way Dhir Mal andhis Masands have done, we might be completely annihilated.How could we tolerate their attempt to murder you, Master?"All the items brought from Dhir Mal's camp were returned asper the Guru's directive. Dhir Mal then reprimanded Shihanfor all these happenings and left for Kartarpur.At KiratpurGuru Tegh Bahadur and his followers reached Kiratpur viaAmritsar, a number of distinguished visitors came to payobeisance to the Master. Rani Jalal Devi, wife of Raja DeepChand of Bilaspur, offered substantial amount of money andland to build a new city for Guru's residence. Guruji refusedto accept the land as gift but agreed to buy it on reasonablepayment in the vicinity of Kiratpur. Makhan Shah had madeconsiderable contribution in the payment. An old villageMakhowal, 8 km from Kiratpur, was selected as the site fornew city, which was first called Nanaki Chak and after itsextension with villages Mathaur and Lodhipur, it was namedAnandpur.Makhan Shah and Kirpal Chand's contribution in processingthe present site of Anandpur Sahib is worth mentioning. Both ofthem had the active participation during the purchase of land.Separation from the GuruAs soon as rainy season was over and it was time to attend tohis trade commitments, with a heavy heart, Makhan Shahasked his men to get ready to depart. He visited first motherNanaki for blessings. She said, "Makhan, my dear child! Theservices you have rendered will be remembered for all timesto come. To me, you shall be as dear as my son. Whereveryou are, my blessings shall always be with you." Makhan Shahthen bowed in devout reverence to Mata Gujri, whoaffectionately said, "Would you leave us so soon brotherMakhan, what will be the Guru Darbar without you?" MakhanShah next went to the Guru Darbar to seek permission and bidfarewell to the Master. With folded hands, he stood beforeGuru Tegh Bahadur, who bestowed on him very costly robesof honor and blessed him saying, "You are the most sincereand loyal devotee of Guru Nanak. You are free from the cycleof birth and rebirth." Makhan Shah bowed in reverence andplaced his head on the feet of Guru Tegh Bahadur. TheMaster's hand blessed him with tender affection and urgedhim not to make the parting painful. Without turning his backto the Guru, he came out of Darbar. He left for his destinationalong with his caravan of men, material and machinery.SixImpedimentstoBhakti- UpdesamritaOne's spiritual advancement is spoiled when hebecomes too entangled in the following sixactivities:1. Eating more than necessary or collecting morefunds than required;2. Overendeavoring for mundane things that arevery difficult to obtain;DeathBaba Makhan Shah was told by the Guru that besides trade,he had to propagate Sikhi too. In the North-West Punjab, hepreached Sikhi. During his last days, he traveled aroundDelhi, Kashmir and Sialkot, where he made a Dera in HarpalNagar. Baba Makhan Shah died in 1674 at village RajaHarpal, Sialkot.Baba Makhan Shah Lubana dominated the stage of eventfulSikh history as 'Defender of Faith', 'Champion of Truth' and'Revealer of Guru Tegh Bahadur'. He was a terror to impostersand relentless fighter against falsehood in all spheres of life.Makhan Shah was practical, powerful and imposing in actionand always eager in upholding the glory of his revered Master.He was decisive, uncompromising in his conviction, submissiveand humble before the Guru. He spent all his time, money andenergy under guidance and inspiration of Guru Tegh Bahadurto remove the physical, mental and spiritual hungers of toilingand suffering humanity.3. Talking unnecessarily about mundane subjectmatters;4. Practicing the scriptural rules only for thesake of following them and not for the sake ofspiritual advancement, or rejecting the rulesand regulations of the scriptures and workingindependently or whimsically;5. Associating with materialistic people, whohave no interest in spiritual life;6. Being greedy for mundane achievements.<strong>Eternal</strong> <strong>Voice</strong> Nov, 2010 - Jan, 201168 69
Breaking thefetters of FearBy Harsaran Bir Kaur Pandeyost of us spend large portions of our lives living in fear.Fear seems to be a part of the human condition and weMneed to ask ourselves: why do we live in fear? And do faithand religion provide answers to show us how we can livewithout fear?While the word 'fear' is being used in a wider sense, it alsoencompasses the lesser self-constraints we bind ourselves with,like worry, stress and of course fear itself.Babies are taught to fear those things that might cause themharm or injury. We must not touch fire, or plug points, or cometoo near the edge or near sharp objects as we might hurtourselves. We are taught that unless we do as we are told(by others) we will get hurt or injured, so we must limitourselves. Most of us learn the lessons almost too well. Later inlife, when we need to make a leap of faith and stretch ourselvesto even beyond our reach, some of these early lessons becomebinds that hold us back in fear.From childhood, we also learn to do those things that pleasethose near us. We begin with our parents, siblings and friends.We learn to fear the disapproval of our teachers; we fear failure,and of becoming objects of ridicule; and the fear of breakingthe web of social norms.As we grow up, we fear professional disapproval - fear of notmeeting the boss's or our colleagues' approval. We fear that ourskills and knowledge may not stand up to scrutiny or that in afast-paced world our knowledge may be outmoded and not upto the mark.We also have many fears of the natural world; some fears areremnants from past lives like fear of water, of fire, of crowdedplaces, of creatures. We also suffer from the fear of loss,fear of abandonment and the fear of becoming helpless beforeexternal forces.Till we achieve success in life, our fear is that we will spend therest of our life at a mediocre level, while others apparently arerising to greater heights (the grass always appearing greener onthe other side). Once we have made it - there is the fear oflosing it - our position, beauty, reputation, wealth and theesteem of our society. Something might shame us and ruin ourstatus in society. The burglar might rob us of our belongings;our own kith and kin might let us down and cause loss of facebefore our social peers (imagine the mind of the parent, whokills his son or daughter to uphold family/community honor -the fear of losing honor becomes even greater than the fear oflosing a child!)With every gift from life is an associated fear of losing that gift.A great job – we fear to lose it; a great performance report fromthe boss – we fear that even a small drop in achievement couldmake us number two; we are declared the most beautifulwoman in the world and we are terrified of an accident or illhealth that might rob us of that beauty. Underlying such fears isalso our growing awareness of the impermanence of things -eventually the impermanence of life itself.A major fear is the fear of being let down, by ourselves and byothers – and yet that is the reality of the human condition.Because human life has limitations, it is inevitable that we willbe let down at some time or the other - because even theperfect moment cannot be frozen into perpetuity. Often, we arefearful because we do not believe in our own deservingness orour worthiness of the success we have achieved.Some might say that these fears provide the necessary fillip toour progress and that the fear of breaking social norms is whatallows us to co-exist successfully in a civilized society without ittaking legal constraints to rein us in from aggression andexpression of aggressive self-will.According to psychiatrists, fear of any kind, constrains humandevelopment and prevents us from reaching our full potential.In the case of children, it undermines their personalities.Perhaps the fault lies in our training of our young ones as weinstill in them many fears, including the fear of failure. In factfailure is the best opportunity to learn how to succeed.Our Creator gave us many gifts to start our lives with and eachof us has something, we can be thankful for. We must build intoourselves/our next generation a basic faith in life, in the powerof goodness and moral strength, of the power of doing the rightthing because it is right. We also need to exercise our moralmuscle to enable growth of our inner strength.Today, every magazine and television guru tells us theimportance of exercising the body to keep healthy. Some arebeginning to encourage the strengthening of the moral fibre ofindividuals. India's Mid-night children were carted by ourparents to Satsangs and prayer meetings, and imbibed manymoral lessons, both from example and from these discourses.Our generation was taught something called 'Moral science' inour schools. These classes offered a platform to discuss issueslike the need for parents to define the limits for their children orthe need for differentiating between social acceptance andmoral strength - issues that some families would not allow to bedebated at home. That, and of course, the whole force ofDaadi Ma telling stories from various scriptures, whichreminded the young of the need for building and maintaining amoral backbone. Our Daadi narrated to us the Saakhis – storiesfrom the lives of the Gurus – which taught some history and alot about right and wrong action.We need to encourage our young generations to build theirmoral muscle and strength, otherwise in the face of misfortuneor tragedy they will not have the ability to sustain the shock.Living in fear is not the way forward.What does Sikhism have to say about fear?Sikhism reminds us of our Creator, Waheguru. In theMool Mantra, we are reminded that He is 'Nirbhau' (fearless).What does He expect from His Gursikhs? Our guidance is to liveby the three main tenets of Sikhism, Kirat Karo, Wand Chhako,Naam Japo. Even if most of us do not meet these tenets ahundred per cent, if we try to follow these for a major part ofour lives, they would allow us freedom from fear.Kirat Karo: Sikhism is not asking a devotee to take aKarmandal and head for the Himalayas. A Gursikh is expected tobe both a householder and to uphold the highest tenets ofSikhism not by escaping everyday life but by living it – andliving it as well and truly as he can. Sikhism expects eachperson to lead this life, this gift of human life - which we haveearned, after, God knows, how many eons of re-births - as wellas we can.Our duty is to accept what comes, good and bad, as a Daat fromWaheguru and thereafter to give it our hundred percent effort todo our best. Work hard, work honestly, and do not hanker aftera result. Accept what we have as:eyih iB dwiq qyrI dwqwr ] (5)Eh bhi daat(i) t-ai-ree daataar(Even these are Your Gifts, O Great Giver!)<strong>Eternal</strong> <strong>Voice</strong> Nov, 2010 - Jan, 201170 71
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