Guru Gobind Singh – The last Sikh guru

The tenth and the last Guru or Prophet of the Sikh religion was Guru Gobind Singh. However, at birth he was called Gobind Rai Sodhi. The tenth Sikh guru was born on 22 December 1666 at a place called Patna, which is in Bihar.

The father of Guru Gobind Singh was Guru Tegh Bahadur. He was the Ninth Guru. During the birth of Guru Gobind Singh, the family was traveling all over Bengal and Assam in India. When the family returned to Patna, which was in 1670, Guru Tegh Bahadur asked his family to go back to Punjab.

Guru Gobind Singhji was born in Patna and spent most of his childhood years there. There is a sacred and holy shrine called the Takht Sri Harimandar Sahib. This is one of the five most revered of religious shrines of the Sikhs.

Guru Gobind Singhji learned a lot of things out here including different languages and martial arts. Then, when Guru Gobind Singhji was nine years old, life changed for him completely on the death of his father. This was the kind of life that he was destined to lead by god.

The father of Guru Gobind Singhji died while trying to make people free from the shackles of the mughal rulers and died in the year 1675.

Guru Gobind Singh became the tenth guru on the day of Baisakhi, which was 29 March 1676. When he interacted with the common man and the youth, he always stressed on the importance of being very good in physical skills and literature.

Guru Gobind Singh himself was young, energetic and an excellent fighter. He was a born genius and was creatively inclined too. Right since his early years he wrote several books and poems in Punjabi language.

These poems were about the struggle between the gods and the demons. The martial written by Guru Gobind Singh was used to awake the spirit among his followers to help them fight injustice and tyranny of those more powerful.

Paonta played an important role as much of Guru Gobind Singh's creative and literary work was written here. This was the place that Guru Gobind Singh had founded on the banks of the River Yamuna. This was the place to which site he had temporarily shifted in April 1685. The main reason for him to write poetry was to get the youth together to fight injustice.

The Guru Gobind Singh's aim was to create strong principles and a personal vision of God amongst his followers. His works are still read diligently by his followers. Guru Gobind Singh was the only Sikh guru who preached through his poetry, love and equality. He was extremely strict about ethical and moral code of conduct and behavior to be followed at all times.

Guru Gobind Singh preached the worship of the One Supreme Being called God. All the Sikh gurus preached against idol worship and superstitious beliefs and other ceremonial observances and rituals.

Guru Gobind Singh's glorified the sword. He considered it to be the most important object. This was to secure God's justice and help for the downtrodden on the earth. Guru Gobind Singh's sword was never meant to be a symbol of hatred, and it was only supposed to be used for self defense. This was the first roots of the Khalsa movement that Guru Gobind Singh was so famous for.

When Guru Gobind Singh was at Paonta, Guru Gobind Singh spent a lot of time in the practice different forms of exercises, such as riding, swimming and archery.

Also, Guru Gobind Singh's increasing influence on the people of that region along with martial arts aroused a lot of jealousy of the neighboring Rajput rulers.

This was when the Sikh guru had to face an attack. Guru Gobind Singh had to face many an attack during his lifetime and that made his resolve stronger of having a strong Sikh youth force. He ordered that all the Sikh youth follow these 5 principles. They must wear the following articles:

They began to be called the 5Ks because all their names began with the letter k. they were Kesh, which means hair that is never cut represents sainthood. This is the first and most important manifestation of the Sikh faith. The next is Kanga, which is a comb to clean the hair, Kachha which is an underwear depicting a virtuous character, a Kara, which is an iron bracelet worn on the wrist to symbolize the dedication and a Kirpan, which is a sword which stands for dignity, power and an unconquerable spirit.