The holy writings of the Tenth Guru Sri Gobind Singh Ji

To see it as self sufficient is to distort reality and convert its goodness into evil. If human life is believed to be a separate and complete affair in itself, selfishness prevails and human existence is perverted. Men thus immersed in the world are eventually chastised by God as is illustrated in Guru Nanak's treatment of Babar's invasion of India. One very common way of being severed from the Divine is to attach meaning to the external forms of religion in themselves rather than as means of attaining the Divine. Guru Gobind Singh conceived God as the embodiment of the fighting spirit. But as the evil is in man's perspective, it must be remedied in human terms; the visible action in God's war on evil must be performed by men of realization. The Guru's proclamation of his gospel is but a readiness to fight in God's name and when he goes to battle, he does God's work. No wonder, he always wins. The Bachitra Natak is an exultation over God's triumph acted out by noble souls on the world's stage and an expression of faith in future victories. It is a confident call to saints to put on arms in continuation and transformation of earlier Sikhism. Consequently, Bachitra Natak is largely a series of vivid battle scenes created with forceful imagination.

Through a variety of generally quick and sinuous metres, apt descriptions and a profusion of appropriate similes and metaphors, mention of the entire paraphernalia of battle, diction reproducing its very sounds and sensations, and glimpses into the psychology of the Warriors, the poet captures the verve of battle and quickens the reader's spirit. To reproduce an image, Mahant Kirpal Das rising in his stirrups and shouting Sat SRI Akal smote Hayat Khan's head with his wooden truncheon that his skull was crushed and "his brains, spilt forth as butter flowed from the Gopi's pitchers broken by Krishna."

 1. Macauliffe, Max Arthur, The Sikh Religion. Oxford, 1909
2. Gopal Singh, Thus Spake the Tenth Master. PATIALA, 1978
3. Ashta, Dharam Pal, The Poetry of the DASAM GRANTH. Delhi, 1959
4. Loehlin. C.H., The Granth of Guru Gobind Singh and the Khalsa Brotherhood. Lucknow, 1971
5. Jaggi, Ratan Singh, Dasam Granth Parichaya. Delhi, 1990
6. Randhir Singh, Bhai, Shabadarth Dasam Granth Sahib, vol. I. Patiala, 1973

Article courtesy of Sikh Encylopaedia

Bachitra Natak 1