Baba Sri Chand

From SikhiWiki
Revision as of 14:46, 18 February 2011 by Hari singh (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigationJump to search
For Information only Please note: Due to the high volume of editing and possible edit warring, this page is now locked.
SikhiWiki is keen to avoid edit warring.

If you wish to make any changes to this article, you need to discuss those changes on the discussion page and after review, those changes may be transferred to the article page by an administrator. Please add your comments here.

Baba Sri Chand Ji's statue. Sculpture by Amrit Singh Khalsa

Sri Chand (1494 to 1643), also called Baba Sri Chand is the elder son of Guru Nanak and the founder of the ascetic sect of Udasis. He was born to Mata Sulakhani on Bhadon sudi 9, 1551 Bk / 9 September 1494 at Sultanpur Lodhi, now in Kapurthala district of the Punjab. This type of arrangement where the child is born at the mother's parental (ਨਾਨਕੇ s  "Nanakay" meaning 'maternal grandparents') home was a quite common and accepted custom at that time.

Sri Chand mastered the techniques of yoga at a very young age. He remained devoted to his father, Baba Nanak and established the Udasi order. He traveled far and wide and spread spread awareness of Guru Nanak.

Baba Sri Chand was held in great esteem by the ensuing Sikh Gurus. Baba Mohan, the eldest son of Guru Amar Das and the person who is best known as the custodian of Guru Sahib's Pothis (hand written verses) from which Guru Arjun Dev compiled the Guru Granth Sahib also became a renunciate, possibly influenced by Sri Chand.

History

General background

Guru Hargobind sent his sonBaba Gurditta to Sri Chand. He became Sri Chand's successor and is regarded as a patriarch of the Udasi Sampardai (order). Baba Gurditta was the father of Guru Har Rai, the grandfather of Guru Harkrishan, the older brother of Guru Tegh Bahadur and the uncle of Guru Gobind Singh.

After his father, Guru Nanak left Nankana Sahib, Sri Chand stayed in Dera Baba Nanak and maintained Guru Nanak Dev Ji's temple. Later he established the Udasi order.

Early Life

After Guru Nanak left home on his travels to distant lands, Baba Sri Chand's mother, Mata Sulakhani took him and his younger brother, Lakhmi Das, to her parents` home at Pakkhoke Randhave on the left bank of the River Ravi.

Guru Nanak had discourses with various yogis and their disciples like Gorakh, Bhangarnath, Loharipa, Hanifa, Kanifa, Bharthari etc. [1]. He taught them by answering their direct questions. [2][1][3].

When Guru Nanak, after his travels, had settled down at KARTARPUR on the right bank of Ravi and not far from Pakkhoke, Siri Chand rejoined the family.

Reburial of Guru Nanak’s Ashes

Guru Nanak having chosen one of his disciples as his spiritual successor, passed away at Kartarpur on 7 September 1539 and a monument was raised over the site where his ashes were buried. As the monument was washed away by floods in the river, Siri Chand had the urn containing the ashes salvaged, reburied it at some distance close to the well of Ajitta Randhava, a devotee of the late Guru, and built a mud hut over it. The place came to be revered as a dehri or samadh (mausoleum) of Guru Nanak around which the present town of Dera Baba Nanak grew. It is mentioned in accounts of the time that that when Guru Ram Das met Baba Siri Chand, Baba Siri Chand Ji commented that Guru Ram Das had the longest beard he had seen. Guru Ram Das replied, "It is to wipe the feet of the saints like you". Guru Ram Das bent down to do so, and Siri Chand pulled his feet back in surprise.

Teaching of Sikh Traditions

Baba Siri Chand stayed on at Pakkhoke Randhave for some time. He gathered around him a band of his own disciples who, like him, shunned the householder`s life and practiced austerities. With his disciples he traveled throughout the length and breadth of India, initiating many as Udasin or Udasi (lit. indifferent, stoic) sect who functioned as itinerant teachers and established missionary centres at different places in the country and beyond.

Through these Udasin Guru Nanak`s word was also carried to far corners of the land. Baba Siri Chand`s own main centre was at Barath, eight kilometres southwest of Pathankot in Gurdaspur district of Punjab. Baba Siri Chand also kept in touch with successive Gurus during his long life of well over a hundred years. The Gurus held him in high esteem. In 1626, when at the behest of Guru Hargobind, his eldest son, Baba Gurditta, proceeded to found the town of Kiratpur in the lower Sivalik hills, he had the ground broken by Baba Siri Chand Ji.


Death

Picture Depicting Baba Sri Chand picking his nephew from Lakhmi Das's Horse

Baba Sri Chand died at Kiratpur on Magh sudi 1,1685 bik/ 13 January 1629.[4]. Udasi Traditions say that he never died but he vanished into the forest of Chamba.

After Baba Siri Chand went invisible, the son of Guru Hargobind, Baba Gurditta became his successor as head of the Udasis. The Udasis protected and maintained the historical shrines of Anandpur, Hazoor Sahib and Amritsar for over a hundred years after Guru Gobind Singh's death.

Views of Some Scholars

Some Views related to Sri Chand Exist:

Nihang Baba Uday Singh comments upon the Udhasis:
Udhasi Panth is from the time of Guru Nanak it was started by Baba Siri Chand Ji. It is an ancient Panth. In it also the [Adi] Guru Granth was preached. They set up Akharas [religious gatherings] and alongside Adi Granth they gave knowledge of Ayurved [Traditional Indian medicine]. They moved like an army through the villages and towns. They visited the Kumbh [ie. the Kumbh mela, a Hindu religious festival occurring every 12 years] at Hardwar on elephants and horses. This I do know about Udhasis the old ones use to preach Guru Granth with Ayurved. These Udhasis are an old Panth of Guru Nanak. They are exempt from the Khalsa initiation. From the beginning they did not get initiated into the Khalsa [since]they adopted the Udasi way of life [non-attachment]... (Baba Uday Singh, transcript of a recording, 01-03-2001) Udhasi Gobind Das, Chief Mahant at Kankhal, Hardwar points out there was no conflict between father and son over this:

‘What throne of a kingdom did Baba Siri Chand occupy you tell me? Or, did Guru Nanak have such a throne so as he had to have a successor? Were they kings of some state? Guru Nanak was no king of some kingdom. He occupied the throne... of devotion. Thus Guru Maharaj Baba Sri Chand Ji made his throne of devotion to God separate. In which there is no attachment and renunciation of every type, as is also found in Guru Nanak as well. Father and son appreciated that each other's way of life was different, so they each taught their ways separately. The difference that was that Baba Sri Chand became the teacher of Udasis because one was a house holder [Guru Nanak] and one unattached [Baba Sri Chand].’ ‘Maharaj [Baba Sri Chand] preaching of Guru Granth that the Udasis have done in India all over. In all places, history shows, using Gutkas [small Sikh prayer books] we spread. We taught all to read Sikh scriptures. This is the gift of the holy men, the Udasis. They [S.G.P.C. Akalis] cannot even in seven lifetimes preach as much as the Udhasis and Nirmalas have done and are still doing now. Even now, whenever we preach [to Hindus] we always without exception include teachings from [Adi] Guru Granth Sahib. We give examples [from Sikh history] of how you should follow the footsteps of the Gurus. Then your suffering shall be removed. Only then can your thinking and mind can come pure. That is if you desire Oh Brother, otherwise, it is up to you.’ (Baba Gobind Das, transcript of a recording, 16-02-2001)


Sant Baba Jaginder Singh comments on the mission Guru Nanak set his son:
Baba Siri Chand was to teach the ascetic society how to contemplate God, how to put them on a straight path to salvation, make them firm in knowledge of God and reveal God to them. This was the duty Guru Nanak gave him. (‘Siri Hazoori Maryada Parbodh’, by Sant Baba Joginder Singh, Pa. 145-146)

Udhasi Karam Prakash speaks with regard to the Adi Guru Durbar, and, how Udasis and other Sikh religious orders presented scripture to the Hindus:
Guru Granth is such a great philosophy - greater than all. He who has read Guru Granth Sahib sees in it come all the reading of Vedas. How is this? Reading, reading we load carts [With books]’ [quote from Adi Guru Granth]So how many Hindu religious texts are we to read? For this reason we preached to all that in this [Adi Guru Granth] are all philosophies. The thinking of all religions is in this. Ramayana is in it, ‘Ram Ram keep near you’ [quote from Adi Guru Granth], This is written there. For this reason all the Shashters [Hindu spiritual texts] also come in it. That is why all our traditions [Sikh] acknowledge it [as Guru]. (Udhasi Karam Prakash, transcript of recording, 06-03-2001)

Virsa Singh Gobind Sadan
Baba Siri Chand was a renunciate; i.e., self-denying, celibate, and dedicated to meditation; but he was also a farmer. His father asked him not to leave the world but to take responsibility for the community farm at Kartarpur while he, Guru Nanak, was away. When Guru Nanak returned from his travels, the whole village happily told him that they had learned from Baba Siri Chand how to combine hard work on the farm and meditation. Baba Siri Chand had an extensive and dedicated following. When the Emperor Jehangir asked Mian Mir, his own darvesh (Muslim term for a powerful, truthful, God-intoxicated holy person), "Who is the greatest darvesh today?" Mian Mir replied, "At this time the elder son of Guru Nanak is the king of the darveshes."

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Twarikh Guru Khalsa - Giani Gian Singh Cite error Invalid <ref> tag; name "srichandTwarikh" defined multiple times with different content; $2
  2. ^ Sidh Gosati
  3. ^ Bhai Bala Janamsakhi
  4. ^ Bhatt Vahis
  • Nara, Ishar SINGH, Itihas Baba Sri Chand Ji Sahib ate Udasin Sampardai. AMRITSAR, 1975
  • Randhir Singh, Udasi Sikhan di Vithia. Amritsar, 1959
  • Macauliffe, Max Arthur, The SIKH Religion, Oxford, 1909
  • Harbans Singh, Guru Nanak and Origins of the Sikh Faith. Bombay, 1969

External Links

Relatives of Shri Guru Nanak Dev guru nanak

Grandparents: ✝ Mata BanarasiBaba Shiv Ram ✝ Grandparents (Maternal):✝ Mata BhiraiBaba Rama
Parents: ✝ Kalyan DasMata Tripta ✝ Uncle: ✝ Baba Lalu ✝ In-Laws: ✝ Baba Mool ChandMata Chando Rani
Wife: ✝ Bibi Sulakhni ✝ Siblings: ✝ Bibi Nanaki ✝ Brother-in-law: ✝ Bhai Jai Ram
Children: ✝ Baba Sri ChandBaba Lakhmi Das