The Night is a Jungle

II

So on this day, five specially selected disciples were chosen, and they were called panch piara or the beloved five. The prevailing conditions of India at that time called for such action, but that is past and is not our concern. In those days, whether friends or enemies, men had no respect for each other, and the Guru sought to awaken the life and meaning of True Teaching.

He made a public announcement, and asked,

Who will offer his head for sacrifice?

Now, it is a simple matter to find hundreds of people who will agree with everything you say, and still more who will willingly bow down in obeisance. There are many also who will give their wealth for a cause.  But how many can you find who will give up their lives? After a moment’s pause, one man arose and came forward to the Guru, and then four others, one by one. He did not kill them, but made them His beloved disciples, above all religion – True Human Beings with the fact accepted. Then He gave them His Light, for from one Light others are kindled. He made the Khalsas – and what is said of the Khalsa?

The Khalsa is my True Form; the Khalsa is my abode; the Khalsa is my full intoxication; the Khalsa is my Complete Satguru.

He is One Who will never leave me.

He takes responsibility for the soul until the end; in that Lord does my mind rejoice. 

And as further indication:

Think of Him as the Pure One, in whom the effulgent Light is glowing.

He infused them with the Water of Life.

Religion is no consideration; he who takes God’s Name becomes His own.

Masters never make people the prisoners of religion. Religions are our schools of thought, of which we have to make the best use.

I am Thine, oh Lord. May Thy victory be everywhere.

The Khalsa has been described as a Living Light. Guru Gobind Singh gave them the Inner Light, and even outwardly bound them unto Himself by vows with charged sweetened water given by His own hands. And then He made them offer the same water to Himself, showing that the Guru is the disciple, and the True Disciple is the Guru – which is an outer pointer to His greatness.

All Masters made disciples, of course, including Lord Buddha, Hazrat Mohammed Sahib, Jesus Christ and others. They made disciples that they should become Buddhas, and Christs. They regularly took food with Their disciples, though the disciples never actually realised Them to be as great as They were. I am speaking very frankly.

The tenth Guru Sahib said,

I am a Khalsa

and saying this, He took the amrit from their hands; and to combat the conditions of the time He formed a volunteer corps. He changed nothing in their religion; they remained Hindus, but willingly sacrificed their lives for the cause of Truth and honour. One is reminded of Vali Khan and Nabi Khan Ali Khan who were Muslims, and who also sacrificed their lives for Guru Gobind Singh’s cause.

When Nabi Khan Ali Khan was killed, a man went to inform his wife; her first words were not concerning the death of her husband but,

Is my Guru all right?

What sacrifice was that!

When Bhai Nand Lal Ji wrote a book of prayer called Bandgi Nama, Guru Gobind Singh gave the book the title of Zindgi Nama, meaning ‘The Giver of Life.’ If you have the opportunity to read it, you will become thoroughly awakened to the True Teachings. 

The tenth Guru said,

We are the worshippers of the same Living Light.

All Masters pointed out that outer practices are of our own making, meant for the preparation of the ground. Maulana Rumi also said that theists and atheists have the same right to realise the Truth, for the soul is the same in both. All rituals are results of superstition.

First the unity of consciousness in creation was set. There is only one Brahm – there is nothing else – which was later qualified by others according to their own approach. 

Through God’s Light were all His children created into His play; with the same Light the whole world is created – who is good and who is bad?

It is a subject for deep thought. How can you make a Khalsa by merely sticking a label on someone? The greatness of the tenth Guru lies in this: that He Himself infused the Light, and then made them as great as Himself. 

Wherever these five beloved will be, there will I be also.

If you sit near an awakened soul, you also will awaken.

The system was excellent, but it was difficult to get constituents. He made one Guru-home in which all were equal. No one need worry what he was going to eat, where his clothing was coming from, how his children were going to be fed. He told everyone to do nishkam seva, selfless service, and to keep the Living Light within alive always.

He gave an example:

Like sparks jumping from a fire, they fall back to become part of it again.

We are the sparks of that Living Light. The soul has an innate desire to return to its own Home; but estranged in this foreign land, it has become entangled with the mind and senses and is superficially reluctant to leave.