Bhagauti

Bhagauti means Gurmat(mind which have Spiritual Intellect and wisdom.) Bhagauti is never by body but by mind. In Gurmat world, the whole definations are related to Spirit. Gurmat = Gur + Matt = Mind of Spiritual Wisdom. The Gurmat is one which know the god and which know the way of god and which walks on god's Command(Hukam). When such person loss his(Bhagauti), he will just a body loss their Gurbani clears it with following lines:

____

Question : Who is Bhagauti?
Answer : The Matt or mind Which have Color of Bhagwant's worship, The Color of Bhagti (ਜਿਸ ਕੋਲ ਭਗਵੰਤ = ਪਰਮੇਸਰ ਦੀ ਭਗਿਤ ਦਾ ਰੰਗ = ਗ੝ਰੂ ਕੀ ਮਤਿ ਹੋਵੇ !). The person which have Gurmat also called Gurmat(i) or Gurmukh. He totaly leave the company of Dushat(which is Mann, i.e Manmatt). Gurmat is concept of Spirit not body so Bhagauti term can't be used for body

ਸੋ ਭਗਉਤੀ ਜੋ ਭਗਵੰਤੈ ਜਾਣੈ ॥

Bhagauti means the one who know Bhagwant(i.e God). The mind which knows God is called Bhagauti and such mind is Gurmat(i). The person have such mind is devotee to god. The one who understand Gurmat he also becomes Gurmuki or Bhagauti.

ਸ੝ਰੀ ਭਗਉਤੀ ਜੀ ਸਹਾਇ

In Dasam Granth, Guru Gobind Singh used phrase ਸ੝ਰੀ ਭਗਉਤੀ ਜੀ ਸਹਾਇ ॥, here Bhagauti is the will power of God. It is also called Gurmat because all the bani which are written by Guru Gobind Singh supports gurmat and interpreted by sikhs in light of Gurmat thats why he added this phrase before every bani. Guru Gobind Singh have studied all the scriptures of Hindus and ਸੋਧੇ ਸਾਸਤ੝ਰ ਸਿਮ੝ਰਿਤਿ ਸਗਲ ॥. He Studied Markandya Puran, Bhagwat puran and changed the definations of their Granths and told the truth. So he indicated before every bani to tell sikhs that if they want to read this granth and want essence out of it they have to take support of Bhagauti = Gurmat.

Some writers say Bhagauti is sword, but this is not so appropriate because Guru Gobind Singh was writing a granth, the world of knowledge. For writing knowledge poet has seek blessing from Gurmat = Parmeshwar ki Matt. ਕਹਾ ਬ੝ਧਿ ਪ੝ਰਭ ਤ੝ਛ ਹਮਾਰੀ ॥ ਬਰਨਿ ਸਕੈ ਮਹਿਮਾ ਜ੝ ਤਿਹਾਰੀ ॥ ਹਮ ਨ ਸਕਤ ਕਰਿ ਸਿਫਤ ਤ੝ਮਾਰੀ ॥ ਆਪ ਲੇਹ੝ ਤ੝ਮ ਕਥਾ ਸ੝ਧਾਰੀ ॥੩॥.Bhagauti is not less then

Some writers say Bhagauti is some hindu diety. These poeple have Brahmin's dictionary and Gurmukh will apply dictionary of Guru Granth Sahib on Dasam granth not brahmin's Dictionary. brahmin Dictionary can change whole meaning of GUru Granth Sahib main granth of Sikhs.

There are many interpretations of writers. But Sikhiwiki has given only Guru Oriented interpretations and the guy who will read and want to understand work of Guru Gobind Singh have to study Guru Granth Sahib, to know what GURMAT = BHAGAUTI is.

Ardas & Bhagauti

In Ardas Bhagauti term is used, but a Sikh should understand from first line what Bhagauti is:

ਪ੝ਰਿਥਮ ਭਗੌਤੀ ਸਿਮਰਿ ਕੈ, ਗ੝ਰ੝ ਨਾਨਕ ਲਈਂ ਧਿਆਇ ॥
First I meditate on that Bhagauti, which comes in mind of Guru Nanak Dev Ji

The word ਧਿਆਇ means Dhyan vich aana.(come in mind, meditated). Nanak found that Gur ki Matt = Parmeshwar ki matt which ਸਭ ਥਾਈਂ ਹੋਇ ਸਹਾਇ ॥੧॥

ਫਿਰ ਅੰਗਦ ਗ੝ਰ ਤੇ ਅਮਰਦਾਸ੝ ਰਾਮਦਾਸੈ ਹੋਈਂ ਸਹਾਇ ॥
ਹੋਈਂ ਸਹਾਇ : It means was Helpful(Sahaye hoyi see) Guru Angad Dev, Guru Amar Das and Guru Ram Das also helped by that Bhagauti

The ardas keep on continue, but here Bhagauti is Will power of God, Hukam of God or simply Matt of God = Gurmat(Wisdom).

Some scholars changed meaning of ardas i.e to meditate on Guru Nanak, which is against Sikhi philosphy, Sikhi guides to worship only god.

Now it's upto Person that he want to apply Gurmat meanings to it or meanings of Brahmin's dictionary.

Others Views

Hin Hindu's dictionary, BHAGAUTI or Bhavani is Bhagavati, consort of Visnu, or the goddess Durga.

In Bhai Gurdas's Vaar, bhagauti has been used as an equivalent of sword.

“Nau bhagauti lohu gharaia
iron (a lowly metal) when properly wrought becomes a (powerful) sword”(Varan, XXV. 6).

it is sword because it have Parchand Wisdom.

It is in the compositions of Guru Gobind Singh contained in the Dasam Granth that the term began to assume connotations of wider significance. Reference may here be made especially to poems by Guru Gobind Singh:

• Chandi Chritra Ukti Bilas in Braj
• Chandi Chritra in Braj
• Var Sri Bhagauti Ji Ki, popularly called Chandi di Var in Punjabi — describing the exploits of the Hindu goddess (Bhagavati) Chandi or Durga.
• Charitropakhyan

The title of Var Sri Bhagauti Ji Ki, which has also been appropriated into Sikh ardas or supplicatory prayer, along with the first stanza runs as follows:

Here, the primacy accorded Sri Bhagauti Ji is obvious. This leads to the question why?

Bhagauti is, it appears, a multifaceted archetypal symbol employed by Guru Gobind Singh to fulfill a multiplicity of functions simultaneously. He perhaps wanted to complement the exclusive masculinity of the Divine image. Until then, God had in Sikhism as in other major traditions by and large a masculine connotation. He had been called Purakh implying masculinity. Although, at times, He had been addressed as mata (mother) as well as pita (father), almost all the names employed for him in Sikh Scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib — Ram, Govind, Hari, Shiv, Allah, etc.— were only masculine names. To widen the conception Guru Gobind Singh may have chosen Bhagauti, a name with a clear feminine implication. It is significant that in the entire Hindu pantheon the warrior Bhagavati, or Durga, is the only goddess without a male spouse, thus symbolizing female independence, strength and valour. This derives further support from Guru Gobind Singh’s autobiographical Bachitra Natak wherein he designated God by a composite name Mahakal-Kalika (Mahakal which is masculine is juxtaposed to Kalika which is feminine). More specifically, what is really meant by Bhagauti (or its synonym Bhavani) is made clear in the following verse of Guru Gobind Singh:

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Notwithstanding the fact that names of the deities from many diverse sources occur in the Sikh text, here they mix naturally shedding, after acculturation in the new religious and theological environs, their original nuances and proclaiming one and one identity alone, i.e. God the Singular Being. All other meanings and shades are subsumed into One Indivisible entity. The names Hari (originally Visnu), Keshav (also an epithet of Visnu—one with long hair), Damodar (Krsna who had a rope tied around his belly), Murli Manohar (also Krsna, master of the melodious flute), Raghupati (Rama, the Lord of Raghu dynasty), etc., all came to signify in the Sikh vortex the unitary Godhead. The same applied to Bhagauti.

Says Guru Gobind Singh in the second stanza of this poem, Var Sri Bhagauti Ji Ki, the following about Bhagauti:

• Taihi durga saji kai daita da nasu karaia:
• It was you who created Durga to destroy the demons.

The line establishes beyond ambiguity the contextual meaning of bhagauti. Durga could not be presumed to have created Durga. She like all other gods and goddesses was indeed created by God Almighty.

The nomenclature seems to have been employed to smoothen the gender distinctions when referring to God.

The second archetypal significance of Bhagauti is linked to its other lexical meaning ‘sword’ as exemplified by Bhai Gurdas. Bhagauti where prefixed with the honorific sri (lid. fortunate, graceful) signifies the ‘Divine Sword’ –the Power that brings about the evolution and devolution of the Universe.

In this kaleidoscopic universe, its Creator is immanent not in any static way. He is in all times and at all places dynamically protecting the good and destroying the evil (Sant ubaran, dusht uparan). “Everywhere through the great perplexed universe, we can see the flashing of ‘His Sword’! . . . and that must mean His nature uttering itself in His Own Form of forces (Phillip Brooks). That Sri Bhagauti, the Divine Sword, symbolizes Divine Power is further borne out in the Ode itself when about Bhagauti it is said:

The invocation to the Almighty through His image as the ‘Divine Sword’ as employed by Guru Gobind Singh purported again to instill the heroic spirit among his Sikhs, for:

• Jeha sevai teho hovai
• You become like the one you adore. (GG. 549)

Here a question arises: What is the special significance of remembering God with the name of a weapon? God is Pure Existence (sat), Absolute Essence (nam). Existence-Essence (sat-nam) is His primordial, archetypal, designation (GG, 1083). Whatsoever else is said to designate Him can only be symbolic. Though God is infinite, these symbols can only be finite. While the infinite includes the finite, it also transcends it. That is why every such symbol is not only affirmed by the symbolized but also negated at the same time. In the Sikh mystic lore, the prime symbol employed for God is the Word (naam). However, the other, even more structured symbol that Guru Gobind Singh introduced is the “the Sword’ (Bhagauti).

One might here ask: can a fragment of the finite symbolize infinite? The answer can be given in the affirmative for God being Pure Existence is immanent in everything that exists. Hence symbolization of God through a finite symbol ‘Sword’ is not only possible, but also, in a sense, true because it serves to symbolize Divine Power. Every mystic symbol is bipolar. On the one end it is in contact with the Infinite, at the other in contact with the finite. That is how it succeeds in fulfilling the symbolic function. Bhagauti is one such symbol as it is in its symbolic meaning of Divine Power, in contact with the Infinite, and in its concrete form, as a weapon, in contact with the finite. Guru Gobind Singh has consecrated not only the sword, but in fact a whole spectrum of weaponry:

• Remembering God through such heroic symbols was the exclusive style of Guru Gobind Singh.

Already in gurbani, the theistic symbol of the Nigam (Vedic) tradition had been monotheized. Guru Gobind Singh chose to monotheize even the theistic symbols of the Agam (Brahmanic) tradition. Thus his was a process of the integration of the two great mystical traditions of India.

Finally, the word bhagauti stands for God or His devotee on the one hand (signifying piri), for the sword on the other (signifying miri). This integration of piri and miri in Bhagauti encapsulates another major dimension of Sikh thought.

References

• Guru Granth Sahib
• Dasam Granth
• Concepts In Sikhism - Edited by Dr. Surinder Singh Sodhi