Baba Ram Rai Ji was Burnt Alive
n September 3rd, 1686 A.D. Baba Ram Rai expressed his desire to Punjab Kaur and other close disciples to sit in a prolonged meditation for at least three days to achieve some spiritual stages for which he had been long aspiring.
He asked Punjab Kaur to bolt the door of his room from outside and not permit anyone to disturb his meditation, till the time of three days had elapsed or he himself knocks from within. The mischievous Gurbakhsh, whose evil genius was responsible for Baba Ram Rai's estrangement with his father, and confrontation with his brother whom he loved so dearly at heart, now saw his golden chance to physically annihilate Baba Ram Rai and capture the wealth and power of the ashram.
He is described by Sewa Singh in his Shahid Bilas as the most ignoble dunce, a stupid rascal, a corpulent and haughty rogue, and a bull-headed egoist: rnaha agyani, abhimani, tumaltang deha, mughad, kukarmi, hankari.
Early the next day, 4th September, Gurbakhsh accused Punjab Kaur of having killed Ram Rai and hidden his body in a room, and conspiring against the durbar with the help of young Guru Gobind Singh.
In that state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi (Enstasis) Baba Ram Rai was absolutely unconscious of his body. Gurbakhsh created such a public opinion against Punjab Kaur that with an organized mass of men he rushed to the room where Baba Ram Rai was sitting in deep meditation, broke open the locks and showing his body as a lifeless corpse and after declaring it dead, hurriedly organized the funeral pyre, and placing it on piles of dry wood, he set fire to it.
Punjab Kaur sent a messenger to Guru Gobind Singh Ji Maharaj for help, but when Guru Gobind Singh Ji personally arrived with fully armed troops and surrounded the Ashram. Baba Ram Rai's body had been consumed by fire. All criminal minded people who had been instrumental in burning Baba Ram Rai Ji alive while he was in Samadhi, were rounded up, their misdeeds thoroughly investigated and they were severely punished.
Punjab Kaur was asked to point out all who had indulged in criminal activities. Everyone was punished according to his crime. In the skirmish that took placed with GurbaJchsh's men about fifty to sixty masands -were killed. But the willy masand Gurbakhsh escaped.
