Bhai Vir Singh.pdf - Vidhia.com

84 / Bhai Vir Singh
andrealizea religious orpropheticpersonality.Mythandlegend
become data of real importance. History here, unlike that of a
worldly sovereign, does not have to be clinical and linear. "To
knowaboutspiritualbeingswehaveto leanonpiousaccounts,
besides the scientific ones, for they alone unfold their hearts'
secrets. Although those accounts are more in the nature of the
angel's wings in a painting, they reveal the real truth."! In the
author'sintroductionwhichis commonto bothSri Guru Nanak
ChamatkarandSriKalghidharChamatkar,BhaiVirSinghsays:
Catalogues of years, dates and events do supply some
substanceandtheymightbehelpfulinotherwaysaswell.
But from them arises no breath of life. This breath, this
current comes into life only when lives are presented as
they were lived, moving and vibrant, engaged in their
daily tasks, experiencing joys and sorrows, advancing,
slipping, and then rising again, striving and achieving,
pulsating with high ideals...2
These books, again in the words of Bhai Vir Singh, "are
not in the nature of history: they are an exposition, in the
language ofhistory, ofSriGuru Granth Sahib andthe teaching
of the ten Gurus."
This was the philosophy which inspired the writing
contained in these famous Chamatkar volumes. In the same
style and with the same object in view Bhai Vir Singh sought
to complete theseries byattemptingthelives oftheremaining
eightGurus. Butinhislifetimehe couldfinish onlyfour ofthese.
Three of these he published under the title Sri Asht Guru
Chamatkar(Vol.I)in 1952. Thelife ofGuruAIjan waspublished
posthumouslybyhis brotherDr BalbirSingh, who contributed
a learnedintroductionanalysingthesourceandqualityofBhai
VirSingh'screativevision. Withinthisframework, butinsimpler
detail and style, were attempted stories from the Guru's lives
1. GurPartap Suraj Granth, Khalsa Samachar, Amritsar, 1954, Vol. I, P. 71.
2. SriKalghidharChamatkar, Khalsa Samachar, Amritsar, 1963. Vol. I, Introduction.
Page 92 of 108