It is with such a
fiery note of idealism that the young Govind Singh embarked upon his
life-mission even from his infancy. As a child he had drunk deep at
the fount of Raamaayana, Mahaabhaarata and Puraanas.
He was inspired with the heroic examples of Sri Rama, Sri Krishna,
Bheema and Arjuna. He felt convinced that he too like those great
forbears was born to vanquish the wicked and protect Dharma.
He began preparing himself in a thorough-going fashion to play that
historic role. He assimilated the spiritual truths enshrined in the Vedas,
Upanishads and the Bhagavad Geeta. He became adept in
Persian, Arabic and Punjabi languages just as in Samskrit and Hindi,
and was a peerless poet as well. As an archer he was unequalled in
the whole of Hindusthan. No wonder, equipped as he was with such a
rare combination of brahmateja and kshaatrateja, he
wrote in his autobiographical poem Vichitranaatak that he was
commanded by God to take birth to uphold the true path of Dharma.
No catastrophe to
his personal self or to his family members, however tragic, could
shake his rock-like resolve to pursue his chosen mission. When his
two elderly sons, Ajit and Jujhar whom he had sent to lead the
battle laid down their lives before his very eyes thus did the Guru
offer prayers to God: "O Lord, I have surrendered to Thee what
belonged to Thee." Later, when his two younger kids Jorawar and
Phatte were bricked alive by the Moghals for refusing to succumb to
Islam, and the heart-rending news reached the Guru, he simply lifted
his hands in prayer and uttered the words: "These two, Thy
trust, I have rendered unto Thee."
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