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Finally the Guru
himself, while in the south at Nanded, fell a martyr to the
treacherous designs of the Moghals and embraced Mahaasamaadhi
in the true tradition of yogis.
Could such a string
of stirring martyrdoms of all his four sons, his father, his mother
and finally he, the great Guru himself, followed by that of his
successor, ever go in vain? The flames of those sacrificial
offerings soon spread and inflamed millions of hearts. By the turn
of the century, the vast areas of the strategic north-western region
of Bharat right up to the Khybar Pass were freed from the foreign
Islamic yoke and the tide of one thousand-year old invasions from
that quarter turned back once and for all.
The spirit of
oneness and harmony which the Guru infused in the society has also
made him a social reformer of the highest order. His vision
encompassed the whole of Bharat, and his love embraced within itself
the lowliest in the society. The Panch Pyaare, the five
self-sacrificing heroes of the Khaalsa whom he chose through
a fiery ordeal on a aVaishaakha Pratipada, were those drawn
from distant parts of the country, right from Bidar in Karnataka,
Jagannaath Puri in Orissa, Dwaraka in Gujarat to Delhi and Lahore.
And three of them belonged to the so-called lower castes.
The Guru's breadth
of national vision could not brook any idea or gesture which would
even remotely suggest an exclusive or a warped mind. The Khaalsa,
the Pure, were to be the devotees of Akaal - The Timeless
Reality - in the true tradition of the Hindu tapaswis.
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