Provocation

The methodology evolved and constantly practised to insult Sikh beliefs and institutions and to provoke publicly Sikh religious susceptibilities, is no less crude and objectionable. (1) The congregations of these pseudo-nirankari, whether in the presence of Gurbachan Singh, the 'Sustainer of the entire Universe' or otherwise, invariably begin and end with hymn-singing the sabad-kirtan, mode of Sikh worship, and in these hymn-singing sessions the sacred and pious Sikh poems are intermixed and entwined with anti-Sikh apocrypha and self-made verses calculated to profane Sikhism and to insult its sacrosanct dignity. This mock kirtan, thus, becomes of the genere of the anti-Christ Black Mass of mediaeval Christian history, not enacted in secret privacy like the Black Mass, but publicly, in centres of dense Sikh populations and on occasions of traditional Sikh religious gatherings, to insult Sikh religion, to mock at Sikh practices and to provoke Sikhs into violent protest or dishonourable submission. These hymn-sessions end, invariably, with their litany:

"Gurbachan Singh is the Descent of Divinity on Earth. He is the Sustainer of the entire Universe. (O, Gurbachan) your Will is the sole measure of Goodness. For, you are the eternal living God."

The last couplet of this litany is from the Sikh scripture, Guru Granth Sahib, which enunciates that, God's Will is the Matrix and final Test of human ethical judgement and He is the eternal Living God. The first two lines are a piece of crude versification in the Avtar bani of these pseudo-nirankaris and by joining these two couplets the Sikh sacred text has been grossly profaned and put into service of deification of Gurbachan Singh. Nothing could be conceived as more provoking to the Sikh religious sentiments. As the April, 1972 issue ( p . 26) of the Sant Nirankari shows, the pious text of Bhai Gurdas, jahar pir jagat gur baba, 'Guru Nanak is the living Light and Guide of mankind' has been perverted by these pseudo-nirankari into Jahar pir Gurbachan baba, '(Baba) Gurbachan is the light and Guide of mankind', (2) Gurbachan Singh has given the title-names to certain of his followers in mock imitation of Sikh hierarchy of Prophets and saints. His wife is ceremonially addressed as Mata Tripta, the name of the mother of Guru Nanak. His son has been actually named Gobind Singh, not as a mark of reverence for Guru Gobind Singh as many Sikhs do, but as a mockery of the last Sikh Prophet.

On the Baisakhi (13th April) of 1973, 'at Hoshiarpur in Punjab, this Gurbachan Singh, who has named his son as, Gobind Singh, created a serious riot by stating in a public gathering that "Guru Gobind Singh, the Sikh Prophet knew nothing about spiritualism or devotion to God; he was just a common hunter, a shikari of birds and animals.." So, he could not have named his son, Gobind Singh, in any spirit of reverence towards the Sikh Prophet; it has been done demonstratly, in mocking contempt of the Sikh Prophet.

On the same occasion this Gurbachan Singh gratuitously said that when Sikhs reverently gather to clear the silt out of the holy lake at Amritsar, karseva, in fact, they are engaging in a stupid and futile labour, bekar-seva. Like sensible persons, he and his followers, ran away into safety when public feeling violently erupted against his crude profanities of and malicious insults to Sikh religion. He has conferred the ceremonial names and titles of Baba Buddha, (the Sikh patriarch), Bebe Nanaki (the sister of Guru Nanak) Bhagat Kabir (the revered saint of Sikhology), Mira Bai (the peerless, God-intoxicated medieval princess), and so on and so forth, on certain of his followers, men and women, to exhibit what malice and contempt reside in the bosom of this man against Sikhism and the galaxy of Sikh saints. (2) As reported in the April 1966 issue of the Sant Nirankari (p. 7), Avtar Singh, in a public gathering at Delhi on the 27th February, 1966, proclaimed that,

"while Guru Gobind Singh had ordained only Five Beloved Ones as the founding members of the Khalsa, the apotheosis of Sikhism, I, Avtar Singh, have now ordained Seven Beloved Ones".

Gurbachan Singh, the son and successor of Avtar Singh, has now re-named these seven Beloved Ones, panj pyaras, as Seven Stars, satt sitaras, betraying his deep attachment to the movie-cult and intimate interest in cine-literature. Incidentally, on the fateful day of the 13th April, 1978, this Gurbachan Singh was taken in a huge procession, under the police protection, through the winding streets of the holy city of Amritsar, and throughout, en route, it was being repeatedly proclaimed on the loud-speaker, addressing a million strong Sikh pilgrims: 'Behold, Baba Gurbachan, the real Guru of the age who is competent to release Sikhs from the bonds of transmigration. While Guru Gobind Singh could ordain only Five Beloved Ones, he Gurbachan Singh, has ordained Seven Stars for elevation of, mankind.' It was this grave provocation, audaciously offered I to the gathered Sikh pilgrims at Amritsar on this fateful day that outraged the Sikh religious feelings, and on learning that Gurbachan Singh and his followers were still repeating this and other similar insults to the Sikh religion and sentiments, a batch of respectable and disciplined Sikhs marched in protest to the venue of Gurbachan Singh's gathering and were stopped by the policemen on duty, about two hundred yards away, till the private militia of Gurbachan Singh, massacred the un-suspecting Sikhs, the police lending a helping hand by teargassing the Sikh protestors. (3) When the Fifth Nanak, Guru Arjun (1563-1606), established Amritsar as the centre of Sikh religion, the first sacred tank he got dug-up, was Santokhsar. Avtar Singh has recently dug up a ditch at his headquarters at Delhi and has named it Santokhsar, with the deliberate and malicious intention of insulting the Sikh religion. (4) Mahapurusha is a Budhist appellation for a perfected, fully integrated man as the opposite number of the vedic arya, 'the noble man'. Brahmagyani is the Upanisadic term for the highest, spiritually evolved soul. In Sikhism both these words are transvalued and re-interpreted as identical in content, designating a 'perfect man', Insanulakmal concept of the eleventh century Muslim philosopher, Abdul Karim Jilli, and in the Sikh scripture, mahapurusha and brahmagyani are interchangeably employed to denote a fully evolved and spiritually perfected man. The vedic concept of arya is not inducted into Sikh religious terminology owing to its undertones of caste and distinction by birth. The pseudo-nirankaris, through their Chiefs, the Father and the Son, Avtar Singh and Gurbachan Singh, has "entitled a few dozens of their followers as mahapurushas or brahmgyanis, all hawkers, and petty traders, rustics and ignoramuses, decrepit social drop-outs and rejects. In their congregations and public gatherings these persons are ceremoniously presented to the audience, with the object and intention of mocking at Sikhism and insulting Sikh doctrines and beliefs. (5) In 1972, Gurbachan Singh, to outdo the Agha Khan and Asiatic emperors and magnates of the past ages, had himself publicly weighed against bundles of Reserve Bank of India paper-currency. Whether this weighing ceremony was a proof positive of the divinity of Gurbachan Singh or merely a device to convert smuggled money or secret fund into white, legitimate money, is not a direct issue between the Sikhs and Gurbachan Singh's caucus. Photographs of this royal and spectacular ceremony widely appeared in the Press and. these photos carried a caption underneath: ape kanda tol toraji ape tolan hara. This is a text from Guru Granth Sahib (Suhi. I.) wherein the Sikh scripture, in reference to the human numinous experience of God, poses the question:

"Who shall measure the Glory of God and weigh His Greatness?

Who the supervisor and which the weighing apparatus?"

And the answer is supplied in the text under reference and its concluding lines:

"Who else but God Himself can be the measurer and weigher, the weighing machine and the supervisor, because, as it is, human mind is purblind and feeble, human reason self-limited and capable of moving only on set rails, infected with distracting mercuriality and alienated from its Base."

Gurbachan Singh and his cronies have, in this instance, not only fully equated Gurbachan Singh with God the Almighty and the Transcendent but, in the process, have denigrated the Sikh Vision of God, the Sikh understanding of the human existential situation, with the evil and malicious intention of confounding the Sikh religion and outraging the religious feelings of the Sikhs. Such instances and antics of these enemies of Sikhism are there in any number but the point has been made out that, the 'religion' which Gurbachan Singh and his late father, preach and have preached is no religion at all. A religion deals with 'the sacred', the sacred as forbidden, the sacred as mysterious, the sacred as secret and the sacred as potent, but the pseudo-nirankari cult deals with no secret, sacred mystery and is exclusively concerned with earthly pleasures and gratification of human passions. Religion is an ensemble of scruples; a repudiation of all scruples is plain anti-religion, that is pseudo-nirankaris. This cult, besides, is demonstrably a conspiracy, a ploy and a facade for destroying Sikhism through a crude methodology of corrupting and insulting Sikhism and outraging Sikh beliefs. How can such a sadistic and satanic enterprise be protected by or seek protection under Article 25 of the Constitution of India, as is being demanded? The Article 25 lays down that, "freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion" is constitutionally guaranteed in India, 'subject to decency, law and order and public morality'. The 'religion' and activities of Gurbachan Singh cannot attract this provision as applicable to their case.