By Karminder Singh Dhillon | The Sikh Bulletin |
On 13 December 13 2021, at the inauguration of the Kashi Vishwanath Dhaam corridor in Benares, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the Panj Pyare of the Khalsa Panth were sent by Guru Gobind Singh to the Hindu holy city to gain knowledge of the Sanatan Dharma.
Now, either that was a lie or it was the truth.
SGPC spokesperson Kulwinder Singh Ramdas took four days to make up his mind. In a statement released on December 17, he said Modi’s assertion was “devoid of facts, (made) with illusory intentions and lack of knowledge about the Sikh faith.”
So Modi’s claim was a lie. But if it was, it was our lie.
The lie about Guru Gobind Singh sending 5 Sikhs to Benares is found within the plethora of corrupted, distorted and tainted body of writings composed by Nirmlas over a period of 200 years beginning 1765. This plethora is what we so proudly but recklessly label as “classical Sikh literature.” Nirmla writer Gyani Gyan Singh has written that Guru Gobind Singh sent five hand-picked Sikhs to Benares to learn Sanskrit and classical Hindu literature. He claimed that after they returned to Anandpur, they were honoured with the title Nirmla (Sanskrit for ‘unsullied’).
Based on such a claim in our own literature, Modi was speaking the truth. And it was our truth – as contained within our own literature.
The SGPC representative may well have said that Nirmla Gyani Gyan Singh’s assertion was as “devoid of facts, (made) with illusory intentions and lack of knowledge about the Sikh faith” as was Modi’s. But he didn’t have what it takes to speak such a truth.
The four days that Kulwinder Singh took to respond to Modi were probably used to ponder over how to best slam Modi for telling a lie that was after all our own lie. The SGPC achieved this feat through the propagation of yet another lie. He said “the five Sikhs sent to Kashi were totally different from the Panj Pyaras who offered their heads at the time of the formation of the Khalsa at Sri Anandpur Sahib.”
So, according to the SGPC, Modi was right in saying that Guru Gobind Singh sent 5 Sikhs to Benares to study Sanskrit and all else that came along with it. He was right because he was merely repeating what Nirmla Gyani Gyan Singh had written and what Sikh clergy, writers, thinkers and leaders had unthinkingly propagated for the past 200 years. What Modi got wrong was about which five were sent. One could argue that if it was all about “which five”, then it was a small error that could be easily rectified.
The SGPC spokesperson then went on to make it easy for PM Modi to rectify a lie which was actually our own lie to begin with. SGPC did so by providing a cooked-up rationale. It said in its December 17 statement that “factual information about Sikh history related to Kashi was that, at Paonta Sahib, when Pandit Raghunath refused to teach “Dev Bhasha” Sanskrit to some “Sikh students” belonging to the so-called “Shudra” class, Guru Gobind Singh sent five Sikhs belonging to different castes to Kashi to learn Sanskrit.” Modi would indeed be pleased to note that the SGPC was referring to Sanskrit as “Dev Bhasha” – the language of the gods.
This concocted rationale is also taken from our “classical literature” that says Gobind Singh had to resort to sending the 5 Sikhs to Kanshi as no Sanskrit scholar wanted to teach Sanskrit to Shudras. So the tenth Guru sent some Sikhs dressed in upper-caste attire to Benares, where they covertly became scholars of Indian theology and philosophy.
What a whitewash. Effectively then, the SGPC engaged in a deliberate attempt to conceal our own lie in order to protect our own reputation. According to the SGPC, Guru Gobind Singh’s decision to send the 5 Sikhs to Benares was actually the best thing that happened in the name of equality of the castes. Because Pandit Ragunathan said Sanskrit was not for the lower castes – the tenth Guru sent 5 Sikhs from 5 different castes disguised as Brahmins to Benares. Now all that is left for the SGPC to explain is what was the need to camouflage these 5 Sikhs from different castes in upper-caste attire. After all, a good deed done with stealth and disguise hardly counts as a good deed anymore.
We know that five Sikhs from five different castes is the narrative of our Panj Pyaras. Perhaps the SGPC is giving Modi the wordings for his apology to the Sikh world – in case the PM was thinking about it. It could go something like this.
“The SGPC and I agree that five Sikhs were indeed sent to Benares by Guru Gobind Singh. The five were sent to learn “Dev Bhasha” and “Snatan Dharma.” Our only issue is which five. Given that both the Five Pyaras and the Five Benarsis were of 5 different castes, confusion was inevitable but entirely unintended. No one should take offence over such a genuine error.”
The SGPC then called for a ban on the book Sri Kashi Vishwanath Dham Ka Gauravshali Itihas (The Glorious History of Kashi Vishwanath Dham) that contained the assertion that Modi made and that was launched by Modi on December 13.
But given that Modi’s lie is actually our own truth, and the Prime Minister’s truth our own lie; shouldn’t the SGPC be calling for a ban on our own books that contain this same lie – or at least make a call to expunge such concocted tales from our “classical literature.”
This is the conundrum that results when our own lies are repeated long enough to become the truths of others. And when these truths of others (which are our own lies) come back to haunt us, we end up looking foolish in making ridiculous demands for apologies and bans of books. We look foolish because these books are merely regurgitating our lies – lies that we ourselves held on to for centuries. We also end up concocting fake justifications and rationales (equality of castes in this case) to further justify our original lies.
The truth simply is that Guru Gobind Singh sent no Sikh to Benares for any purpose whatsoever. The most basic reason for that is that the entirety of Sikh spirituality stood as an anti-thesis to all that Benares stood for. If Guru Nanak went to Benares it was to tell the clergy of their hypocritical ways. He went there to remind them of the injunction against them as contained within the SGGS.
ਓਇ ਹਿਰ ਕੇਸੰਤ ਨ ਆਖੀਅਿਹ ਬਾਨਾਰਿਸ ਕੇਠਗ ॥ ੧ ॥
Oye Har Kay Sant Na Akhiyeh Benaras Kay Thugg. SGGS 476.
Meaning: Call them not “sants” of the Omnipresent Creator (as they call themselves) – these conmen of Benares.
THE TRUTH OF IT ALL
The Nirmlas were Brahmins from Benares who descended into Sikh Gurdwaras and institutions disguised as Sikhs beginning 1765 in the aftermath of the destruction of Darbar Sahib by Durani. They ended up taking over control of our Gurdwaras and institutions from the Udasis who had done the same for some 62 years after the fall of Banda Singh Bahadur in 1718. All this while the real Sikhs were busy fighting for survival in the jungles of Punjab, deserts of Rajasthan and the hills of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Nirmlas – given their Benares education, origin and backing – were inherently superior in intellect, capacity, numbers as well as spiritual prowess (albeit Vedic) to actually replace the Udasis as the primary Hijackers of the Sikh psyche.
The Nirmlas would make for a superior breed of hijackers of Sikh spirituality. The reason why they called themselves Nirmley was to fool the Sikhs into believing that they were indeed the pure Khalsas. And that the rest were un-Nirml – either incomplete, impure, or of lower order.
The story of Guru Gobind Singh sending 5 Sikhs to Benares to start the Nirmla tradition is what I call the Big Nirmla Bluff. In my book The Hijacking of Sikhi the fakery of this story is exposed over a mere 9 pages.
THE BIG NIRMLA BLUFF
The Nirmlas concocted a historical cum philosophical lie to establish their legitimacy amongst Sikhs. They created a fake narrative that Guru Gobind Singh ordered five Sikhs to become and remain celibate. He then ordered them to go to Kashi (Benares now) to study Sanskrit and the spirituality of the Vedas disguised as Brahmins.
In The Hijacking of Sikhi, I provide 8 reasons why this story is fake. I further provide appropriate verses from within the SGGS that reject the spiritual parameters of Benares. Here is just one from page 491 of the SGGS.
ਗੂਜਰੀ ਮਹਲਾ 3 ॥ ਨਾ ਕਾਸੀ ਮਤਿ ਊਪਜੈ ਨਾ ਕਾਸੀ ਮਤਿ ਜਾਇ ॥ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਮਿਲਿਐ ਮਤਿ ਊਪਜੈ ਤਾ ਇਹ ਸੋਝੀ ਪਾਇ ॥੧॥
Gujri Mehla 3. Na Kashi Mutt Upjey Na Kashi Mutt Jaye. Satgur Mileyey Mutt Upjey Ta Eh Sohi Paye.
Meaning: Enlightenment Is Neither Gained nor Lost in Kashi. I Obtained Such Understanding from The Creator-Connecting Guru Shabd.
The practical injunction of this verse is rather straightforward: Going to Kashi or otherwise is of no consequence to one’s enlightenment. Enlightenment is not a function of one’s location. It is a state of mind that emanated from within the messages of the shabd.
Guru Gobind Singh would thus have to be unaware of such injunctions within the SGGS to have sent 5 Sikhs to Benares to study spirituality – and then come back to spread that version to Sikhs.
As for the sending them to study Sanskrit at Benares, we can consider the following facts. First, in addition to being proficient in Brij and Farsi, Guru Gobind Singh ji was a Sanskrit scholar; in the tradition of Guru Nanak and Guru Arjun ji. The SGGS contains compositions and entire Banis of Guru Nanak and Guru Arjun ji in Sanskrit as well as its precursor language Prakrit; titled Salok Seheskrtiti Mehla 1 and Mehla 5. (SGGS 1353 – 1361). Sikhs were thus already exposed to Sanskrit in the spiritual context.
Second, Guru Gobind Singh ji had Sanskrit scholars in his Darbar. Kirpa Raam Duut was a top-notch Sanskrit scholar with Guru ji. He was tasked with teaching Sanskrit to Sikhs. Sikhs in Punjab were well versed in Sanskrit. Jhajju Jheevar in Pajokhra Village for example was a Sanskrit scholar. For someone considered to be of a “low caste Jheevar” to become a Sanskrit scholar meant that large number of Sikhs across all sections of society had a working knowledge of Sanskrit. It is thus inconceivable that any of our Gurus had to send Sikhs to Benares to study a language.
It is thus patently clear that the story is concocted by Nirmla author Gyani Gyan Singh to provide a fake Guru-ordained stamp of approval not just to the Nirmla way of life – celibacy included – but to accord legitimacy to the Nirmla movement and their Hijacking conspiracy as a whole.
FACING OUR OWN LIES
The first thing our own lies did was to destruct our own truths. The truths of Gurbani pertaining to the irrelevance, triviality, and insignificance of Benares in Sikh spirituality were the first casualties of the fabrications such as the Big Nirmla Bluff. The consequences of which can be found in incidences such as the following.
In 1839, Maharaja Ranjit Singh covered the spires of the new Kashi Vishwanath temple at Benares with gold. The Maharajas of Nabha and Kapurthla donated generously towards the founding of a Sanskrit College in 1911 and Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, founder of Benares Hindu University got “Sant” Attar Singh of Mastuanna to inaugurate this Benarsi college.
The second thing our own lies do is that they become the truths of others. In the hands of “others” who view Sikhs and Sikhi through the lens of antagonism – such “truths” come back to haunt us badly.
The solution is to sieve out our lies, discard our falsehoods, and disown the untruths that fill our so called classical literature and pollute our psyches. These are the lies that fill the pages of our Janm Sakhis. These are the falsehoods that blacken the pages of Sooraj Parkash, Bhagat Maal, Gurbilas Patshahi 6, Bachitar Natak (Dasam Granth), Sarab Loh, some 35 other primary classical texts and hundreds more derivative ones.
One can only hope that the day will never come when the 404 tales of sexual debauchery as contained within the Chritropakhyan chapter of the Dasam Granth will become the truths of others. Imagine these Charitars being turned into a movie titled 404 Shades of Grey. If such happens, one of the credits will read “adapted from the Sikh Scripture as composed by Guru Gobind Singh.”
We need to disown our own lies before they become the truths of others – only to be weaponized against us.
We need to discard the lie that the DG is a Sikh Scripture, that the DG is scripture at all. We need to shed the untruth that the DG was composed by any Sikh let alone a Guru. We need to disown the lies that are our Janm Sakhis. We need to clean out the falsehoods that decorate the pages of our so called classical texts such as the Sooraj Parkash, Bhagat Maal, Gurbilas Patshahi 6, Rehatnamas, etc.
The episode of December 13 involving the highest office in India is yet another clear indication of things to come on this path of slippery slope pertaining to our own lies. Its not just a case of our lies becoming the truths of others, but our lies being weaponized by the highest and most powerful of entities.
Sikh thinker, writer and parcharak Karminder Singh Dhillon, PhD (Boston), is a retired Malaysian civil servant. He is the joint-editor of The Sikh Bulletin and author of The Hijacking of Sikhi. This article appeared as the editorial of The Sikh Bulletin issue of 2022 Issue 1 (January – March 2022). He can be contacted at dhillon99@gmail.com.
RELATED STORY:
Making the case for the ‘Hijacking of Sikhi’ (Asia Samachar, 18 Jan 2022)
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