The Ethics and Attributes of ‘Sant Sipahi’
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Email: nirinjan@sikhdharma.org
Since the time of the
sixth Guru, Guru Hargobind Sahib, Sikhs have walked the path of Sant
Sipahi - the Saint-Soldier. As a
young man of eleven years, Guru Hargobind Ji had to bear the heartbreaking
martyrdom of his saintly father, Guru Arjun Dev Ji, at the hands of the Moghul
court in Delhi. This experience
transformed young Hargobind and, when he stood before his people for the first
time as Guru of the Sikhs, he boldly wore two swords. This was an awakening for
the gentle followers of Nanak. He declared one sword as “Miri”, the temporal
strength of a soldier and leader. The
other sword he proclaimed as “Piri”, the spiritual and saintly aspect of the
inner world of deep meditation.
Taking the sensitive grace of
a saint, and the fierce skills of a soldier, Sikhs have claimed a unique and
important role in the panorama of humanity.
The teaching of the Tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh Ji, gives the Sikhs an
avenue for martial strength and noble defense while retaining saintly and moral
principles that assure a stable society.
These teachings define the ethics and attributes of Sant Sipahi.
In the rapidly changing world
scenario today, human values are still constantly challenged. Life is confrontational by its very nature
as good and evil interact in our world.
We find ourselves constantly defining who we are, and who we are not, as
the world quickly shifts around us. The
need for a saint-soldier is as acute today as it was during Guru Hargobind’s
time. Exalted souls are needed to
protect the saints, defend the helpless, and preserve righteousness on the path
of human endeavor.
Who is Sant-Sipahi:
An enlightened human being,
with equal love of meditation and martial skill, was the life of Guru Gobind
Singh Ji and the legacy of the Saint-Soldier that he left to his Sikhs. The
Khalsa were saints in service and soldiers in action. The Guru established the
character of a Sikh to be a saint as well as a soldier, in one harmonized value
system.
Guru Gobind Singh knew that
something of value could not be retained unless it could be defended. In his autobiographical writings, the Guru
wrote that he took human birth to live as a saint spreading dharma, and
to act as a warrior protecting the saintly people. He built a nation of Saint-Soldiers who made a dramatic impact on
humanity. He wrote:
XwhI kwj Drw hm jnm
smJ
lyhu swDU sB mnm
Drm
clwvn s¼q aubwrn
dust sBn ko mUl aupwirn [
I took birth only for this purpose;
Understand this in your heart, O holymen!
To spread Dharma and protect the saints,
And to uproot all the demons and fiends.
(43)
[Guru
Gobind Singh Ji, Bichitra Naatak – Apnee Kathaa]
A Saint-Soldier is one who is
committed to his spiritual life, but with the will and the skill to defend
saintly values from the evil that will harm them.
Sant-Sipahi are protectors of the weak:
We must learn to protect
others and ourselves because righteousness and unrighteousness are always at
loggerheads. Might is not always right,
and a Sikh is the one who will stand against the unrighteous aggressor. Sant-Sipahi is not a coward; he is a
fighter. But as a Sikh of the Guru, he
has clear rules of engagement. Sant
Sipahi will never initiate combat, and will only act in self-defense. Military might shall be employed by a Sikh
only after all peaceful attempts to rectify the situation have failed. But when a Sikh does strike, he should be so
skilled and so victorious that no second strike is needed.
cMU
kwr Az hmw hIlqy dr guzSq]
hlwl Asq burdn bSmSIr dsq]
When all
endeavors to restore peace have failed
It is righteous and just to unsheathe the
sword (22)
[Guru Gobind Singh Ji ,Zafarnama]
Many people are afraid of
arms, but Guru Gobind Singh’s philosophy was simply that those who respect
weapons would never misuse them. For this reason, the sword has been elevated
to a position of holy honor and respect, and is found on the altar of a Sikh.
Guru’s tenet was that excessive force is not acceptable under any
circumstances. Only defensive force has
a place in the Khalsa’s life. In Guru’s
court, if a person violated this concept of Sant-Sipahi he was asked to
surrender his sword as a chastisement of supreme dishonor.
Sant-Sipahi are fearless in action
If you live in fear, then you
have no life. If all your life energy is used to contain your fear, then your
life becomes a slow death. Fear takes
away your joy, your happiness, and your experience of life.
“Guru Nanak
said in the Mool-mantra ‘Nirbhao, Nirvair’ – Fearless and
revengeless. You should not have fear
and you should not take vengeance. When
you live in fear and take vengeance, you cause the cause. And then the effect continues. But if you forgive and be compassionate then
nature takes care of things. And the
hand of nature is very powerful”
[Siri
Singh Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogi Ji 7/6/93]
Most fear comes from the fear
of death. For a soldier, this is the
essential heart of the martial experience.
We perceive death to be a dreadful occurence, a tragedy. Most religions
see death as punishment at the hands of the Eternal Judge. To a Sant-Sipahi, death is a concept
that is embraced because he knows that the time of our death, as well as the
days of our lives, are in the hands of God and God alone. There is no intermediary between the Sikh
and God, and no circumstance in which God will reject the Sikh.
isrIrwgu
mhlw 1 ]
mrxY
kI icMqw nhI jIvx kI nhI Aws ]
qU
srb jIAw pRiqpwlhI lyKY sws igrws ]
AMqir gurmuiK qU vsih ijau BwvY iqau
inrjwis ]1]
I have no anxiety about dying, and no
hope living.
You are the
Cherisher of all that begins - You keep the accounts of our breaths and morsels
of food. You abide within the
Gurmukh. As it pleases You, the
allotment is decided.
[Guru
Nanak Dev Ji, Siri Guru Granth Sahib: page 20-21]
In preparing the Sant-Sipahi,
Guru Gobind stripped away the fear of death in his soldiers by teaching them to
embrace death, to befriend death, and to consider death their protector. By
enlisting death as an ally rather than an enemy, the supreme fear of battle
became impotent. Rather, without the
fear of death, a soldier is empowered with an almost supernatural courage in
battle:
srb
kwl rCw sB kwl[
loh
rC srb dw ibswl[
FIT
BXo qv ikRpw lKweI[
AYNfo iPry sBn BXo rweI[
The “Eternal Death” provided protection
at all times
The “All-steel” provided safety from all
sides
Realizing His kindness, I became
courageous
And started to operate with dignity and
honor, considering all other supports and protection as inferior (9)
[Guru
Gobind Singh Ji, Sarb Kaal Ki Bentee]
As beautifully stated by Guru
Gobind Singh Ji, once the fear of death is contained, then the human is free to
act with dignity and honor. A leader
who employs his soldiers out of the terror of his own mortality will bring pain
and suffering on his people. However, decisions that once were dictated by
instincts of survival instead can be acted upon with grace, compassion, and
regard for the good of all when the fear of death is not a factor.
Sant-Sipahi
lives in Chardi Kala
The most beautiful attribute
of the Sant Sipahi is the eternally uplifted spirit of Chardi Kala.
Chardi Kala is to be conscious in the moment, without guilt, without
regret and without fear. Chardi Kala
is a positive projection that comes from a direct relationship with Infinity,
without thought, and without fantasy. This state of mind is the true exaltation
of the self, which comes through God’s Name.
This does not mean that we do
not have personal tragedy and unhappiness.
But a Sant Sipahi knows that we are not meant to live depressed
and negative, and so these emotions are not a permanent state of mind. This human life is given as a gift to live
in total awareness, fullness and grace, making the most of each waking moment.
“Chardi Kala is a very simple thing. Welcome tomorrow and forget yesterday. We welcome tomorrow with the spirit of perpetual endurance. Because God gave you breath of life for
tomorrow and if that breath is true for you, then you should be true for it.
The moment you start welcoming tomorrow consciously, ‘Ang Sang Wahe Guru’
will happen.”
[Siri
Singh Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogi Ji]
Military might and depression
make deadly partners. If a person, or a country, holds the power of life and
death by brute force, then anything that hinders the clarity of decision making
must be eliminated. A depressed state
of mind that is consumed with the past is more likely to make mistakes in
judgment than a mind that is clear, focused, and in the present. For the General as well as the soldier, this
attribute is essential.
Sant-Sipahi lives in humility:
Humility is not a
characteristic that is often associated with soldiers. But in the realm of Sant Sipahi,
humility is a basic attribute that contains the physical might of a
warrior. When you view the world with
humility, you see the hand of God in the worst situations as well as the
best. Humility is a state of alertness
and consciousness where you see things as they actually are and not clouded by
colors of your own ego. Humility is a source of courage, strength and power.
This is a critical trait to make clear decisions that affect the life and death
of others.
“In this Raaj Yog, the higher you are the
more humbler you must be. Humility means there is nothing impossible in your
life. Humility means you will be humble before the light of God and get the
power and accomplish what you have to accomplish. Call of duty is the beauty in
life. That’s humility.”
[Siri
Singh Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji]
Humility does not mean you are
meek or that you subjugate yourself to the will of another. Rather, being humble means you are complete,
you are aware, you are conscious, and you know that the Immortal God is the
commander of your life. This allows you
to act with compassion and consciousness, without fear or ego. As spoken by Guru Arjun Dev Ji:
jb
iehu mn mih krq gumwnw ]
qb
iehu bwvru iPrq ibgwnw ]
jb
iehu hUAw sgl kI rInw ]
qw
qy rmeIAw Git Git cInw ]1]
shj
suhylw Plu mskInI ]
siqgur ApunY moih dwnu dInI ]1]
When this mind is filled with pride,
then it wanders around like a madman and
a lunatic.
But when it becomes the dust of all,
then it recognizes the Lord in each and
every heart. || 1 ||
The fruit of humility is intuitive peace
and pleasure.
My True Guru has given me this gift
[Guru
Arjun Dev Ji, Siri Guru Granth Sahib: page 235]
It is a law of nature that a
person of higher consciousness will automatically elevate one of lower caliber,
that love will resolve hatred, and that truth will win out over deception. For over 300 years, the Khalsa has evolved
the ethics of Sant Sipahi to be an advanced form of humanity that now
needs to be put into service on a worldwide scale. If the Sikhs, as a segment of world society, fully embrace the
teachings of Guru Gobind Singh, our prayers alone will elevate humanity. World
political leaders and military commanders must be elevated in consciousness, or
death and destruction will continue to visit upon our generations in dramatic
proportions.
The Sikh Panth at large has not cherished, documented
or archived this important technology of Sant Sipahi as given by Dasmesh
Pita, Guru Gobind Singh Ji.
Instead, the Panth has abandoned these precious teachings to the
exclusive venue of the Nihang Dals. By Guru’s Grace, these selfless soldiers of
the Panth have propagated and protected this knowledge in the shelter of
their own people. Following Guru Ji’s plan they have kept this knowledge
covert, and so protected it from the contamination that would have inevitably
come during the years of British colonialism and the social modernization that
followed. Consequently, today, we have the rare opportunity to apply these
teachings in their purest form.
Now is the time to bring forward the technology of Sant
Sipahi into the mainstream of Sikh culture so that we can impact world
leadership and effect military decisions being made at the highest levels. The hearts of the Sikh youth in every
country are crying for the experience and understanding of Sant Sipahi, because
intuitively they know how important it is in the world arena. When this technology is fully embodied by
the Sikhs, the course of military history in the world will change.
“There are
two ways to understand destiny. One is that you live and you die like
earthworms. Or, you do certain deeds
that cause you to be remembered unto Infinity.
If you carve your place into the memory of this planet earth, your
destiny is served. That is why it is
said, “Live like a saint, die like a soldier.”
Then you shall carve your destiny into the planet earth.”
[Siri
Singh Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogi Ji]
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