Guru Gobind Singh's Death at Nanded Examination of - Vidhia.com

16 AN EXAMINATION OF SUCCESSION THEORIES
natural death or disappears—deceiving and defying God and His
natural laws—along with his physical body of flesh and blood,
his dress of cotton and silk, his worldly arms and ornaments
of iron, silver and gold, nay even with his pet horse along
with its embroidered saddle and trappings. Or, after his
death and cremation whereby the body is reduced to ashes, he
rises up again and moves about not openly amongst the
men of this world but secretly, known only to unknown men,
who existed only in the imagination of poets and fablers
or in the whims of abnormal people.
To them he alone is a prophet or an inspired leader
who exhibits supernatural powers and works miracles. Therefore,
the ultra-enthusiastic devotees would create fables out of
their fertile imagination and so intersperse and weave them
in the life-stories of their heroes, saints and prophets as to
make an integral part of them. But a fable is after all a
fable, a fictitious story. And it betrays itself. Such stories
have found their way into the lives of Lord Christ and Prophet
Muhammad and of gods and goddesses and of Buddhist
and Jain saints and sages. Even the Sikh Gurus, who lived and
moved about in the historical period, could not escape them.
Guru Gobind Singh was a man of this earth, a historical
man, who made his countrymen realize that life was real
and earnest and not maya and mithya. It was, therefore,
worth living, not in wasteful pursuits of empty show and
momentary pleasure but in the service of man—for the uplift
and advancement of goodness and resistance of evil. That
was the mission of his life which he so often declared in
unambiguous resounding words. He was no doubt an extraordinary
man, a fully realized being. But he was not
supernatural, outside the operation of the laws of nature.
He was born like all other men, lived in this world among
and for other men and died a natural death like all other
men of the world. To make something unnatural, supernatural
or a god of him is to go against his own words
wherein he has declared in clear language that he was but a
man, a slave of the Almighty Lord, and those who called
GURU GOBIND SINGH S DEATH AT NANDED 17
him God should fall into the pit of hell :
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Those who call me God, shall fall into the pit-of hell.
Consider me to be a slave of His. Have no doubt
about it.
I am but a slave of the Almighty Lord, and have come to
see the spectacle of the world.
[Bachittar Natak, vi, 32, 33.]
India has no doubt been the land of great philosophers,
poets and masters of astrology, astronomy and many
other sciences. But as believers in the unreality of human
life which, according to their negative philosophy, was maya
and mithya, illusory and unreal, they paid no serious
attention to history, the objective recording of its activities.
In an unreal world they saw no sense in keeping accounts of
the transitory lives of the human beings who were but insignificant
creatures in this vast universe. With this philosophy
and attitude, the scholars of ancient India could not appreciate
and develop the discipline of history. They were poets
par excellence, no doubt. But poets are men of imagination
and emotion. They at times rise to great heights far above
the unalloyed truths of life, and in their flights of imagination
they create a world of their own and present things
and happenings of this world in their own subjective manner,
not unoften far removed from reality. In this, the poets
say, lies the skill and beauty of this art. This is particularly
the case with the Braja-bhasha poets under the influence
of their ancient literature. The poets of other Indian languages,
including Panjabi, have not lagged behind them in the
introduction of fables and supernatural element in their
epical narratives. Thus, history in the hands of imaginative
and emotional poets and fablers is very often mutilated