Guru Gobind Singh started this love of the Khalsa, the brotherhood -- Khalsa the sister, Khalsa the brother. We are sons and daughters of the great father and great mother, Mata Sahib Deva. Guru Gobind Singh said that man cannot live without identity. Satnam. My name is truth - identity. Why not to accept identity which is above time and space?

There is the impact of inadequacy and an emptiness of the role of father and mother in every life. To solve that forever, Guru Gobind Singh took a very plunging step. He totally took off the pain of the modern parenthood and gave us a permanent, beautiful, alive concept. He created an abstract of a father, of a mother, with which we can grow, with which we can go, always as happy as we could be. It's a very relaxed and profound concept. In this concept, Guru Gobind Singh gave that perfection of imagination, realization, and history.

So the aspect of father and that of the mother is very well engraved. It is very respectfully accepted that the parents on the earth may fail. They may have weaknesses. They may not come through. But Guru Gobind Singh will always come through. When the forty beloved ones, the great sons of Guru Gobind Singh, gave to him in writing, that "You are not our Guru and we are not your disciple," the Guru didn't accept what they said. Normally the word of the Sikh should be acceptable. He said, "No, no, no. Jethadar Mahan Singh, put it in writing. I want to have it on record." The Guru knew how it would turn out. The all-knowing Guru knew the real reality. When these same 40 stood and gave their life to defend the Truth, Guru came and blessed everyone. Guru Gobind Singh came to the Jethadar, that very son of the Guru who walked out in betrayal, when the pranas left in his body were very few, and he blessed him for his bravery, for his sacrifice, for his offering. At that time Bhai Mahan Singh couldn't do anything. He simply told the Guru with his eyes, "You remember that paper?" The Guru said, "Yes." He took it and he said, "Tear it up, so that the reconciliation of my destiny may be achieved here. Nothing should stand in my way." That was the concept of that ultimate father, that authority, that Guru, that central eye in the sun, that ray of light on the earth.

Guru Gobind Singh knew all that. He understood it well. He offered himself as a father of every Khalsa, Mata Sahib Deva as a mother of every Khalsa, so that there is imaginative feeling, respect, projection, and understanding. There is something to inspire, go to, accomplish. The principle of being a father is to accomplish. And the accomplishment is achieving and being the anand, the bliss. That's why the Anand Sahib says:

Anand bhaia meri maa-eh,
Satiguroo meh paaiaa."

Oh my mother, I have obtained True Bliss,
For I have found the True Guru.
Guru Amar Das