Guru Angad Dev- the second Guru of the Sikh faith.
Guru Angad Dev (1504-1552)was the second Guru of the Sikhs. Guru
Nanak Dev (1469-1539), the first guru and founder of Sikhism anointed him
during his lifetime preferring him over his two sons but not before putting him
through strict tests which mainly comprised of test of obedience and respecting
God’s will, which he passed with flying colours.
Guru Angad Dev, formerly known as Lehna, was formerly
a devotee of the Hindu goddess Jwalamukhi. He performed annual pilgrimage to
her temple. Once during his sojourn, in the year 1527, while passing through
Kartarpur, a town newly established by Guru Nanak Dev, he thought of visiting
the Guru. Riding on the horseback, on his way to Guru’s place called
Dharamsaal, he met the Guru but being ignorant of his identity asked for the
way to Guru’s place. Without revealing himself, Guru Nanak offered to take him
to the Dharamsaal. On reaching the place, he realized that the person who
walked alongside, while he rode the horse, was none other than Guru Nanak
himself. He expressed his great remorse and asked for forgiveness, but the Guru
replied your name is Lehna which means the creditor and the creditors always
come on horseback for recoveries .May be I owe you a debt. The words proved
prophetic and in the year 1539 Guru Nanak, shortly before departing to his
heavenly abode, anointed him as the second Guru naming him Angad Dev.
After his coronation, he asked him to move to
Khadoor, a village away from Kartarpur, and continue the preaching of Sikhism
from there. After the departure of Guru Nanak Dev, Guru Angad Dev, carried on
the task with great zeal. Alongside his spiritual discourses, he emphasized the
need of all round development of the children being the future of mankind. He
established schools, gyms and hospitals. The hospital established by him was so
popular that once the Mughal emperor Humayun while in wilderness, having been
defeated by Sher Shah Suri, visited his hospital for medicines for his little son
Jalaludin who had fallen ill. Jalaludin later succeeded Humayun taking on the
name of Akbar. (No wonder, on ascending the throne he visited the then reigning
Sikh Guru Amar Dass, the third Guru of the Sikhs and donated a large piece of
land.)
The free community kitchen or langar established by
him was particularly famous for the tasty and rich food served there. (Mata)
Khivi, the wife of the Guru, personally took great interest in running the free
kitchen.
However, Guru Angad Dev’s greatest contribution was
the popularization of Gurumukhi script. Gurumukhi is a descendant of the family
of scripts originating with Brahmi, a popular classical script of the non-Brahmanical languages
and was commonly used during ascendancy of Budhhism. However, the script had
largely gone out of circulation under brahmanical influence after the decline
of Buddhism in India. The revival of
Brahamanism in the post-Budhhist era also resulted in the rise of Devnagari, a
script favored by the Brahman elite as they claimed it having originated with
the gods as also being the script of their language called Sanskrit as opposed
to Brahmi and other such allied scripts which were used by the commoners for their languages.
The Brahaman looked down upon all other scripts and deliberately decimated them.
On the other hand the conquest of Afghanistan- where the script had still
survived in some form- by Muslims, who brought with them Arabic script, gave it
a near death blow. It hardly survived in a few pockets as the mercantile script
called landa or tailless script signifying its vowel less character making it
unfit for using it for literary purpose. Centuries later, the script was resurrected by Guru Nanak , the founder Guru of the Sikh faith., Guru Nanak, though born in a orthodox Hindu khatri family, was well
known for his anti-Brahmanism since childhood when he first refused to adhere to the brahamanical rituals like wearing the
sacred thread or Janeu and went on to challenge other rituals prescribed by the Brahmans as he grew up. He not only resurrected the script but also used Punjabi and
Hindavi or Sant Bhasha as the medium of his preachings- the languages looked down upon by Brahmans.
ਸੁ ਕਹੁ ਟਲ ਗੁਰੁ ਸੇਵੀਐ ਅਹਿਨਿਸਿ ਸਹਜਿ ਸੁਭਾਇ
ਦਰਸਨਿ ਪਰਸਿਐ ਗੁਰੂ ਕੈ ਜਨਮ ਮਰਣ ਦੁਖੁ ਜਾਇ
Comments
Post a Comment