Sahibe - Kamal - 4

In dedication to Guru Gobind Singh ji

The tranquil and serene environment of Paonta was the best time where Guruji could reveal to us his best poetic imaginations and mystic intuitions. In his poetry he reveals to us his versatile personality and his amazing range of  learning languages and acquiring knowledge in diverse fields of mythology, metaphysics, astronomy, geography, ayurveda, botany,  human psychology, religion and warfare. He possessed mastery  over words and that too in many languages such as Braj, Avdhi, Arabic, Persian and Punjabi. His favourite language was Braj because that was considered as language of poetic expression contemporary to his time. The poetry was not his aim though, it was just a medium of expression for him to reveal his divine principles and to consolidate the tenets of Sikhism that he inherited from the house of Nanak. Poetry was his personal vision which he could express best to preach the Sikh tenets of equality, love for fellow human beings, strictly ethical and moral codes of conduct. He preached the belief in One Supreme Being, shunning the idolatry, superstitions and blind faith that encouraged fear in people. He glorified sword as a symbol for fulfilment of God's justice. The strict disciplinarian as he was sword was for the use of self defence as a last resort and never to be used as weapon to make acquisitions of any kind like territories, property or even women. It was allowed to be used for the protection of poor, downtrodden victims of tyranny. It stood for the brave righteous action to defend truth and virtue.

The poesy-laden atmosphere of preachings started attracting large number of devotees to the hilly Paonta. The  Hill Chieftains of the surrounding areas started becoming jealous and as it is they never liked the mingling of four varnas in Sikhs because such preachings diluted their power and sway over poverty ridden, ignorant people who were only used as revenue provider for the luxurious and immoral life-style of the Rajas.

Not only that they were so coward that to retain their territories they bowed down to the Moguls without conditions. For Moguls they were not of any interest as fighting in the difficult terrain of hills was not easy and they were more interested in the plains from where revenue from agriculture was more beneficial. The rajah Fateh Shah of Srinagar, Garhwal  plotted a battle against Guruji along with other small rajhas. The battle site - Bhangini was chosen by Guruji 11 km from Paonta between Jamuna and river Giri as this provided strategical advantage. A fierce battle between an organised and well trained armies of rajahs and Guruji's Sikhs took place. Sikhs who had not fought any wars, fought with such gallantry and courage that the adversaries had to beat retreat. Guruji has written about this battle in Bachitra Natak because he never understood the purpose of this war. This battle of Bhangani  was fought on September 18,1688and soon Guruji left for Anandpur Sahib.