RELEVANCE OF GURU TEGH BAHADUR JI’S

PREACHING IN THE PRESENT TIME

“Give up your head, but forsake not those whom you have undertaken to protect. Sacrifice
your life, but relinquish not your faith.” – Guru Tegh Bahadur.”

A learned spiritual scholar, a poet whose 115 hymns are included in Shri Guru Granth Sahib
and a fearless warrior- Guru Tegh Bahadur Singh was born on 1st April 1621 in Amritsar ;
Punjab. He was the ninth of the Ten Gurus Of Sikhs, is known by Hindus as
‘Hind-Di-Chadar’. He was the youngest son of Guru Hargobind: the sixth guru. He was
named Tyag Mal. Later he was known as Guru Tegh Bahadur. A poet, a thinker and a warrior,
Guru Tegh BahadurJi promoted the revelation of the purity and divinity of Sri Guru Nanak
Dev and his later Sikh Gurus. His martyrdom was a momentous unique event.

At the age of 13, he asked his father to accompany him to battle when his village was
attacked by Mughals. After winning the battle, the victorious Sikhs honored their new hero
with a new “warriors” name. So Tyag ji Mal was renamed Tegh Bahadur Singh. He spent his
time in studies and meditation. The responsibility of instructing and guiding the Sikh
community was on Guru Tegh Bahadur. He taught them in batches to seek inspiration
through his teachings and practice. Guru Tegh Bahadur composed 116 shabads and 15 ragas.
His lessons had message of peace and flee from lust.

Guru Tegh Bahadur was a merciful saviour of the weak, and that is what he preached. He
taught his disciples to protect the ones who need protection, even if it comes at the cost of
one's own life. We should learn from this People normally do insurance in order to protect
themselves as well as their family members from major financial loss.Thus, insurance is
simply a promise or a kind of shield from the uncertainty which one gets in the form of
reimbursement for a loss in return for a premium paid. people needs to share their hard earn
money (may be just 0.05%) needs to donate the poor because if each individual does this than
automatically protection of others will be taken care off. For example the concept of Langar
is to provide everyone in need of food, irrespective of their caste, class, religion and gender
and the person is always welcome as the Guru’s guest.

Guru Tegh Bahadur preached the conviction it takes to be indifferent to misery and
happiness, to get rid of vices like flattery and allegation, and every other worldly pleasure. It
is when one has mastered the art of self-control that he/she can truly be spiritual.From this we
learn today that self-control one needs to pass the obstacles and challenges one’s own senses
to better self-controlling practices. These obstacles might be due to lack of knowledge and
insight about self-control, one’s own discipline, one’s own willpower, one’s own desire to
change and strong emotional outbursts, very fast and quick reactions to outside stimuli
without considering and believing that self-control is something uncomfortable and
unpleasant activity. Example : In almost all the religion there is an important practice of
keeping fast which is again based and tries to develop the art of self-control.