Pseudo - Nirankaris

One Buta Singh (1883-1944) was a paid hymn-singer at Rawalpindi headquarters of the true nirankaris, but was dismissed and expelled from their congregations on account of his excessive addiction to alcohol and lax morals. He tried to set up a rival or separate nirankari congregation at Peshawar to eke out a living, but met with no success and died in penury with a revolting disease. He gathered another unemployed companion, Avtar Singh by name, who was making a precarious living by baking bread and selling his own products as a pedlar in the streets of Peshawar, till 1947, when he migrated to Delhi as a refugee. The common bond between Buta Singh and this Avtar Singh was their partiality for alcohol and sex and their firm conviction that men are easiest to dupe in the name of religion, leading to easy money and sumptuous living. The 'success' that had evaded Avtar Singh in the pre- partition Punjab smiled on him in Delhi where he rented a small tenement in the Paharganj area and publicised, through agents, employed on commission basis, that he, Avtar Singh, could reveal the 'Face of God' to anybody at a short notice and for a moderate fee.

Miserable refugees from western Pakistan, hapless and haggard, fell an easy prey to one who promised instant peace of mind, for a small fee, but without demanding any curbs of self-discipline or self-denial. A new religion was born, the cardinal doctrines of which were as simple as simplicity and as acceptable as sin. This Avtar Singh died in 1969 in Delhi, afflicted with cancer and other revolting diseases after proclaiming that his son Gurbachan Singh, aged 17 then, was the God Almighty. This new 'religion' of libertinism and permissiveness has three basic tenets, proclaimed openly, solemnly and authoritatively through the written and the spoken word: (I) Believe that Avtar Singh and subsequently, his son, Gurbachan, is God Almighty in human form, having the authority and charisma of all the past prophets of mankind, out of whom, Moses, Mohammad, Christ, Krishna, Rama, and Guru Nanak are specifically mentioned by name. In the Illustrated Weekly, Bombay, 24th October, 1971, this claim is unequivocally made. (2) No sin can touch or tarnish those who cherish full faith in the cent per cent Divinity of Avtar Singh and his progeny. In the officially sponsored write-up about this Gurbachan Singh, published in the Illustrated Weekly, a prominent follower of this modern religion tells us:

'Before I was converted to this new faith,
I was an agnostic (i.e. a misguided Sikh).
Gurbachan Singh has completely changed my psyche.
I now freely consume beef and pork.
I also freely indulge in alcoholic drinks.
This makes no deleterious effect on my inner
purity and spiritual progress.'
(as reproduced in the, Nakli Nirankara, infra, p. 126).

Likewise, in the divinely inspired anubhavi gyan of the Sant Nirankari issue of June, 1964 (p. 16), we are informed that the followers of Gurbachan Singh are beyond good and evil, freed from all moral controls, ethical shackles and social censure:

"My blessed followers are free to indulge in whatever they desire. Nothing is pure; nothing is impure. All fellow-believers merrily tread this straight path."

The third tenet of this modern religion is a logical corollary. (3) The only thing forbidden to the followers of this new 'religion' is, social censure of any fellow believer for whatever he may or may not do in his personal life. All these three doctrines are unambiguously and repeatedly proclaimed and reiterated in the authoritative and official corpus of writings of these pseudo-nirankaris, their ghost-written scripture, Avtar-bani and their official periodical: Sant nirankari. The Avtar-bani, a book of cheap contents in crude Punjabi diction proclaims this divine revelation for the enlightenment of the modern man: "In the Beginning, in the middle and at the End of All things, Formless God is ever and for ever more... He is the Creator omni competent under the name and style of Avtar Singh. The Mother of the Universe (Mrs. Avtar Singh), therefore, would have every one know that Gurbachan Singh is the only true Guide and Light for mankind, for, he is, verily, the God Almighty incarnate." May, 1964 issue (p. 9) of the official publication of this 20th century World-religion informs all and sundry that, "Avtar Singh is Allah returned to Earth and God also has been brought along. Rama frolicks in his lap, for, he, Avtar Singh, is the One and only God, the Lord come down to Earth." Again, February, 1966 issue of this periodical reveals the 'fundamental truth to the whole world' thus: "The whole world must know this fundamental truth, here He is (as Avtar Singh), the Creator of the World. He is the only ever lasting and undying One, all else is perishable." Lest doubts should disturb sceptical temperaments as to the authority of 'the Mother of the Universe' to invest her son, Gurbachan Singh, as 'the Creator - omni competent God', here is the logical argument to dispel all doubts, given in the modern scripture, Avtar-bani itself.

"She who marries a medico is automatically called a lady-medico. She who weds a school teacher is known as a female teacher. I, by becoming the spouse of Avtar Singh, have been exalted as 'the Queen of the Universe'.

But off and on, the current 'Sustainer of the entire Universe', Gurbachan Singh, makes such statements in Press and on platform as he finds necessary to tide over a particular situation, which statement is supposed to have no binding-force on him or his followers, since he is, ex hypothesis, immaculate and utterly pure and no sin can touch or tarnish his followers. The late Avtar Singh was wholly illiterate and ignorant person but he was amply endowed with the shrewdness of a petty peddler. His "Scripture" was ghosted by a cheap pen-pusher, whose identity is known. The current "Sustainer of the entire Universe", Gurbachan Singh, is a scooter-repairer by training and his educational progress did not proceed beyond upper primary standards, an admission he has repeatedly made in public statements and through issues of his official periodical. The followers that he gathered around himself remained limited in number till about ten years ago, when he was catapulted into a world-figure, overnight, with branches of his 'Mission' in over a hundred countries and with huge activity-centres and properties throughout India. His private and family assets are now believed to be computable in millions of rupees. High politics, secret and practically unlimited patronage and resources, have endowed Gurbachan Singh with vast affluence and power.