Akal Purakh Ki Fauj, an organization of the Sikh youth for the study of the Khalsa heritage, invited me to Malaysia. In a house in Kuala Lumpur, we discussed sakhis related to the life of Guru Nanak Dev. Observations of the teacher-in-charge of the youth group suddenly drew my attention, when she said, "No Guru celebrated the birthday of Guru Nanak Dev." Before I could question her statement, she explained, "If the birthday was celebrated during the time of the Gurus, there would not have been the mention of two dates, one in Kartak and the other in Vaisakh." The analysis of her statement, in the light of the Sikh chronicles, left no doubt in my mind that Gurus or the Khalsa did not hold any function to celebrate the birthday of Guru Nanak Dev.

Have we ever thought of the 'side effects' of these celebrations started quite late in the Sikh history. Since my visit to Malaysia, more than a decade ago, the issue has been bothering my mind. When I look back, I find it (the celebrations of the birthdays) to be partly responsible for the split of our community, and thus, a cause of the undoing of the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev. Dear Sikhs, please read the facts and the logic given below and reflect upon them.

Whenever I observe the Ravidasi Sikhs conductiong a procession under the banner of 'Birthday of Guru Ravidas' (note: the title now used is Guru and not Bhagat), I am reminded of the statement of the Malaysian lady. My eyes are hurt to see the picture (assumed by the painter) of Bhagat Ji, bare-headed with hair hanging down, and my mind feels hurt to see only a small gathering of the Sikhs in the procession. The thought which pricks me is, "Does the Bhagat belong to Ravidasi Sikhs only?" Standing on one side and watching the procession slowly moving on, I cannot help churning this question in my mind and coming to the conclusion, "Maybe, the clelebrations of the birthday of Guru Nanak Dev laid the foundation of this split." We know that the birthday celebrations of the Bhagats have been started only recently.

The Beginning (The Question)

A student, at a camp in USA asked me a written question, "Why do most temples celebrate only Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh's birthdays and not of the rest of the Gurus? Are not they all equal?"

The feelings behind such questions led to the clelebration of the birthdays of other Gurus also. How then Bhagats, whose hymns are also included in Guru Granth Sahib, could be ignored? Now, we have the celebrations for the birthdays of Bhagat Kabir, Baba Farid, Bhagat Nam Dev and Bhagat Ravidas conducted, in many cases, only by those who belong to the caste of the Bhagat.

The results of the birthday celebrations are before us. For Example: (i) We find Ravidasi Sikhs segregated from the mainstream of Sikh body. Majority of them, at present, no more think themselves to be the members of the Panth. In many villages, and in some areas in the cities also, they have their own gurdwaras called Gurdwara Ravidasian. Some of these gurdwaras now display the sign 'Mandir Guru Ravidas' (their other gurdwaras will surely follow suit and will also be declared mandirs). To complete the split, at many such mandirs, the painting/statue of Bhagat Ravidas has replaced Guru Granth Sahib.

(ii) Ramgarhias[1] celebrate the Vishawkarma day (Vishawkarma is the mythological chief engineer of gods who built their houses and manufactured their arms, etc.) with greater enthusiasm and deeper devotion than that they exhibit during gurpurb days. For their congregation, they have also built their own places, called Gurdwara Ramgarhian, where the management is exclusively in the hands of the Ramgarhias. Tomorrow, their faith in the Vishawkarma may motivate them to install his statue (in some cases, pictures can already be seen hanging there) in their gurdwaras. That way, they may also break away from the Panth and become followers of the mythical god instead of Guru Nanak, who united the people to worship one universal God.

Panth must recognize these facts. Because of these birthday celebrations, caste distinctions are getting more and more significant everyday and resulting in the split of the Panth. Is this not undoing the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev, who aimed to unite all people as one big brotherhood of equals?

These long time negative results of starting the celebrations of the birthdays of the Gurus made me think seriously about it. I discussed this topic with some Sikh scholars. They could not agree upon what should be done about it. However, on the basis of my discussions with the scholars, I gave the following information to the youth, in response to their question mentioned above, regarding the celebration of birthday gurpurbs of only the first and the tenth Nanak.

The Answer

(i) Many of us have a wrong perception that whenever we Sikhs have a special gathering (jor mela) we do so to celebrate the birth, demise or any other event in the life of a Guru. Actually these gatherings were held to preach Gurmat and not to celebrate any day or date in the life of a Guru. That is why these functions were named jor melas, For example, Diwali jor mela, Vaisakhi jor mela, Maghi jor mela, Fatehgarh (Sirhind) jor mela, Kartak (now birthday of Guru Nanak) jor mela, etc.

Some convenient and easy to remember days, whether related to the life of a Guru or not, were chosen for gatherings of the Sikhs. Only less than half a dozen days were chosen for the national functions. Sikhs from all over Panjab participated in them. Other functions were held locally on days important for that place/locality and attended mostly by the Sikhs of the area around. The national functions were conducted region wise on a large scale. All these functions were used to preach gurmat, educate the Sikhs regarding their heritage, and to plan for the future of the community.

Let us look at the major days celebrated by the Sikhs during my school days (thirtees and forties):

Vaisakhi and Diwali: During the 18th century, Sikhs got together (and they continue to do so even today) twice a year on Vaisakhi and Diwali at Amritsar. These two days are not connected with Amritsar.[2] People celebrated these days even before the birth of Guru Nanak Dev. They were chosen by the Sikhs because they were well known and very popular throughout Panjab and not because they are connected with the birth or demise of any Guru.

Anandpur is the place where the Khalsa was founded on Vaisakhi Day but the Vaisakhi jor mela was not held at Anandpur. It was and is still held at Amritsar (now, in addition to Amritsar, the main function is held at Damdama Sahib, Sabo Ki Talwandi, Bathinda). However, the Panthic gathering at Anandpur is held, not on Vaisakhi, but on Hola Mahalla.

Hola Mahalla: Hola, a spring festival, is celebrated at Anandpur, a few weeks before Vaisakhi. Again, this day is not connected with any incident in the life of the tenth Guru or any other Guru. Celebration of this spring festival is an old custom and it, too, started even long before the birth of Guru Nanak Dev. Being a common, well known, and a celebrated day, Guru Gobind Singh fixed it as an annual sports and war games day for the Sikhs at Anandpur. Since then Sikhs continue to gather there for this function every year.

Kartak Pooran-masi: The jor mela at Nankana Sahib was held on the full-moon day of the Kartak month (fall), although Guru Nanak Dev was born there in Vaisakh (early summer). Sikhs used to gather there to know Gurmat, the Sikh way of life, and Sikh history. This being the place of the birth of the Guru, the gathering there was wrongly assumed to be the celebration of the birthday of the Guru.

From this we may conclude that all major Sikh gatherings, jor melas, were held on days already popular with the people and not necessarily on the birthday or another day connected with the life of a Guru.

This technique, choosing an already popular day for the community celebrations, has been also used by the Christians. Christ is believed to have been born sometime in August/September but Christians celebrate it on December 25. Even before the birth of Christ, this day (25 December) was already a public festival day for celebrating the beginning of the new solar[3] year. On this day, when the new solar year was considered to have started, the day length starts increasing from then on. Now, people often assume, of course, mistakenly that December 25 (Christmas) is the birthday of Christ.

Until recently, a seasonal or an annual major function of the Sikhs was called a jor mela; Sikhs, however, now advertise it as celebration of the birth day or shaheedi (martyrdom) day of the Guru. This is a wrong approach to the Sikh gatherings. Sikhs held their congregation for community education and not to celebrate the birth or demise day of any Guru, even though the gathering may be held on such a day. Do the Sikhs distribute ladoos to celebrate the birthday of the Guru or do they sit together to mourn on the shaheedi days? Of course, not. (No wonder, in future the Sikhs may start doing that, if we continue to go on drifting away from the philosophy of gurbani.) Days were chosen for Panthic congregations for preaching gurmat and remembering heritage (history) for maintaing charhdi kala in the community, and not for celebrating only a specific incident in the life of the Gurus. Gurdwara functions are held, therefore, in the same way, that is, Kirtan, katha, lecture, dhadhi var, etc., whatever the day, birthday or demise day of the Guru.

Naming the functions as birthday celebrations of the Gurus is of recent origin, particularily during the British regime. There is no evidence in Sikh history that the birthdays of the predecessor Gurus were celebrated by the successor Gurus or by the Khalsa. No writer has mentioned the celebration of the birthday of Guru Nanak or the martyrdom day of Guru Teg Bahadur by Guru Gobind Singh or his own birthday by him.

In the light of the above historical facts, the correct answer to the above question, asked by the youth, seems to be that local gatherings and national gatherings (as explained above) are held on popular and convenient days. These days were chosen for Gurmat Parchar and discussing the issues related to the Panth. The jor melas were not advertisied as the birth or martyrdom days of the Gurus even when such days, being important in the Sikh psyche, were chosen for the big functions. This is a very important issue before the Panth for consideration and for giving direction to the Sikhs.

(ii) A wrong response to the above question (Why do we celebrate the birthdays of Guru Nanak Dev and Guru Gobind Singh only, and not of other Gurus? Are they not all equal?) was adopted by the Sikhs and they started holding functions on the birthdays of other Gurus as well. When the logic was carried further, another question, "Why are the birthdays of the Bhagats not celebrated by the Sikhs?", cropped up. Some Gurdwaras again responded wrongly by fixing special gatherings on the birthdays of the Bhagats. Ravidasi Sikhs, as some Sikhs are mistakenly called, now have started to celebrate the birthday of guru Ravidas in their own places. This is surely a step in the wrong direction. Some Sikhs have, now, started the celebrations of birthdays of Bhagats (by giving them a new title guru) Kabir, Namdev and other contributors to the Guru Granth Sahib. This has split the Sikhs into different sections based on caste. Thus, the unintended side effects of such functions are undoing what the Gurus did throughout their lives -- uniting people into one brotherhood of equals believing in one scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib.

Therefore, it is suggested to the Panth for their consideration that the gatherings, we hold for preaching Gurmat, may not be named (advertised) as birthday or martyrdom day celebrations, even when they are held on such dates.

Anyway, we cannot celebrate equally big functions on the birthday/demise day of all the Gurus, the Bhagats, Sikh shaheeds, Khalsa generals and other important days. To avoid the image that we give more importance to the birthday of one Guru than the birthday of the other Guru, we may name the function as jor mela on the date/place as was done by the Khalsa for the functions held by them upto the first half of the last century. (These jor melas have been mentioned above.)

NOTE: Sankrant, Pooran-masi, Amavas and other such days were chosen for local regular gathering of Sikhs and not to celebrate per se the significance of these days. Unfortunately, now people believe them to be sacred days, an anti-Sikh belief. They were chosen just for convenience because these dates/days were easy to remember. Now, instead of Sankrant or Amavas, the Sikhs have chosen Sunday for such gatherings. Sunday is a sacred day for the Christians but not for the Sikhs, for us it is merely a convienient day. Similarily, the other days like Sankrant, Pooranmasi etc., were chosen for being convienient and not because they were considered to be sacred. They become sacred for the Sikhs if, on that day, they learn lessons in spirituality, which help them to make their minds peaceful.

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[1] Ramgarhia is no caste but all craftsmen, carpenters, blacksmiths, and masonry workers have adopted this appellation after Sardar Jassa Singh (he belonged to the carpenter class before becoming a Sikh) was given this title. He was made the Jathedar of the fort Ramgarh, Amritsar. The misl, a unit of the Khalsa, headed by him became known as Ramgarhia misl.

[2] The statement, 'Diwali celebrations were started when Guru Hargobind Sahib reached Amritsar on that day', is a later addition to our history. During Guru Arjun Dev times, Harimandar Sahib would not have been left to remain dark, when lamps were lighted all over the city, and in the whole country. It is a cultural festival practiced in North India since times immemorial.

[3] Actually the solstice falls on December 21/22.