Guru Gobind Jayanti
Courage personified
The tenth and the last Guru or Prophet-teacher of the Sikh faith, was born Gobind Rai Sodhi on22 December 1666 at Patna, in Bihar. His father, Guru Tegh Bahadur, the Ninth Guru, was then travelling across Bengal and Assam. Returning to Patna in 1670, he directed his family to return to the Punjab. On the site of the house at Patna in which Gobind Rai was born and where he spent his early childhood.
He and five of his followers, three of them from the so-called low-castes, a Ksatriya and a Jatt, formed the nucleus of the self-abnegating, martial and casteless fellowship of the Khalsa. All of them surnamed Singh, meaning lion, were required to wear in future the five symbols of the Khalsa, all beginning with the letter K the kes or long hair and beard, kangha, a comb in the kes to keep it tidy as against the recluses who kept it matted in token of their having renounced the world, Kara, a steel bracelet, kachch, short breeches, and kirpan, a sword. They were enjoined to succour the helpless and fight the oppressor, to have faith in one God and to consider all human beings equal, irrespective of caste and creed. Guru Gobind Singh then himself received initiatory rites from five disciples, now invested with authority as Khalsa, and had his name changed from Gobind Rai to Gobind Singh.
Before his death, Guru Gobind Singh pronounced the end of the line of succession of gurus and declared that henceforth the function of the guru as teacher and final authority for faith and conduct was vested in the community and in the scriptures, the Adi Granth.
The book or Adi Granth. that came to be known as the Guru Granth Sahib, began occupying the same place in Sikh veneration that was given to the living gurus. The book itself is not worshipped, as an idol might be; Sikhs say they give reverence to it as the Word.
The idea is that when we know the eternal truths, surely we should abide by them and not always be dependent on a human Guru. Be courageous is another eternal truth Guru Gobind showed us and we all should learn this eternal lesson.