Guru Hargobind Jiਗੁਰੂ ਹਰਿਗੋਬਿੰਦ ਜੀ

Guru Hargobind Ji (1595 to 1644) was the sixth Guru of the Sikhs, and the Guru who changed what the Guruship looked like. He became Guru at the age of eleven, days after the Mughal authorities executed his father, and he answered that martyrdom not with retreat but with a throne, an army and two swords: Miri, temporal sovereignty, and Piri, spiritual authority, worn together as one teaching. In his 38 years the Sikhs gained the Akal Takht, their first standing force, and a festival of liberation, Bandi Chhor Divas, still celebrated at Diwali.

A childhood under a shadow

Hargobind was born on 19 June 1595 at Guru Ki Wadali, near Amritsar, the only son of Guru Arjan Dev Ji and Mata Ganga. His childhood was not safe: Sikh tradition remembers attempts on his life by his uncle Prithi Chand's faction, who had never accepted Guru Arjan Dev Ji's succession. He was raised in both worlds his father embodied, trained in scripture and music, and equally in riding, wrestling and the sword. In 1606 the news came from Lahore that Guru Arjan Dev Ji had been tortured to death on the orders of Emperor Jahangir. The boy of eleven was installed as the sixth Guru, and at the installation he made the decision that defines him.

Miri and Piri: the two swords

At his investiture, tradition tells, the elder Baba Buddha Ji brought the customary woolen rosary and headdress of the Gurus. Hargobind asked instead for swords, and wore two of them: one for Miri, the temporal power that protects people in this world, and one for Piri, the spiritual authority of the Guru. The message was deliberate. After the martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev Ji, the Sikh community would no longer rely on the goodwill of emperors for its survival. The Guru was to be both saint and sovereign, a teacher who prayed and a leader prepared to fight injustice. The two swords remain at the heart of Sikh political thought, and the emblem of Miri Piri still flies in the Nishan Sahib's design.

The Akal Takht and a standing army

In Amritsar, directly facing the Harmandir Sahib, Guru Hargobind Ji raised a throne of his own: the Akal Takht, the Seat of the Timeless One, begun in 1606 and completed within a few years. Where the Harmandir stood low in humility before God, the Akal Takht stood high, a court where the Guru heard petitions, settled disputes and issued orders to the community. Around it he built a new Amritsar: the Lohgarh fort for defence, and the Akal Sena, the first standing army of the Sikhs, with cavalry, trained soldiers and war musicians. He kept court like a prince, hunted, patronised the martial game of gatka, and encouraged Sikhs to offer horses and weapons at his court. To Jahangir's empire, the Guru's court at Amritsar looked increasingly like a state within the state.

Gwalior Fort and Bandi Chhor Divas

Emperor Jahangir eventually had Guru Hargobind Ji imprisoned in the fort of Gwalior, where he was held, by most accounts, for around two years in the late 1610s; accounts differ on the exact years. Fifty-two Hindu princes were also held in the fort, and the Guru used his time there to care for them. When release was finally ordered, the Guru refused to leave alone. Jahangir agreed that whoever could hold on to the Guru's garment could walk free, so the Guru had a special cloak made with 52 tassels, one for each prince, and all 52 walked out holding it. He reached Amritsar around Diwali, and the Sikhs lit lamps for his homecoming. The day is kept to this day as Bandi Chhor Divas, the Day of Liberation, celebrated alongside Diwali wherever Sikhs live.

War with Shah Jahan

Relations with the empire broke down completely under Jahangir's son Shah Jahan. Between 1634 and 1638 the Guru's forces fought four major battles against Mughal troops: at Amritsar in 1634, at Lahira the same year, at Kartarpur in 1635, where his father's old rival's son Painde Khan fell fighting against him, and at Kiratpur in 1638. Outnumbered each time, the Akal Sena held its ground, and the Guru, now in his forties, fought in the front of his own battles. These were defensive wars, fought to protect the community and its towns, and they proved the doctrine of Miri Piri in practice: the saint-soldier was no longer an idea but a fact of Punjab's politics.

Kiratpur and the final years

In 1634 Guru Hargobind Ji founded Kiratpur Sahib in the Shivalik foothills, and in his later years he withdrew there from the plains of Amritsar. He had earlier founded the town of Hargobindpur on the Beas after the battle of Rohilla in 1621, and he is credited with creating the taus, a peacock-shaped stringed instrument, out of love for music. His last years were shadowed by loss: his eldest son Baba Gurditta, father of the future Guru Har Rai Ji, died in 1638. Judging his grandson worthy, Guru Hargobind Ji named the fourteen-year-old Har Rai as his successor, passing over other claims, and died at Kiratpur on 28 February 1644.

What do Miri and Piri mean?

Miri and Piri are the two principles Guru Hargobind Ji joined in his Guruship. Piri is spiritual authority, the Guru's role as teacher of the divine word, inherited from Guru Nanak. Miri is temporal sovereignty, the duty to protect the community, administer justice and resist tyranny in this world. By wearing both swords together, he taught that a Sikh's spiritual life and worldly duty are one path, not two.

Why is Bandi Chhor Divas celebrated at Diwali?

Bandi Chhor Divas, the Day of Liberation, marks Guru Hargobind Ji's release from imprisonment in Gwalior Fort, when he refused freedom for himself alone and brought 52 imprisoned princes out with him, each holding a tassel of his specially made cloak. He arrived back in Amritsar at the time of Diwali, and Sikhs lit the city in welcome. The festival is therefore celebrated on Diwali day, with the Harmandir Sahib illuminated, as a festival of freedom won for others as well as oneself.