Guru Arjan Dev Ji

Sikh Guru Arjan Dev Ji - The youngest son of Guru Ramdas Sahib, the 4th Nanak and Mata Bhani Ji served as the fifth Sikh guru. Born at Goindwal Sahib on April 15, 1563, Guru Arjan Sahib Ji had a deep divine inclination right from his childhood. A perfect blend of devotion and sacrifice, Arjan Sahib Ji received an appropriate education in Persian, Hindi and Sanskrit.

Installed as the Fifth Nanak at a tender age of 18 years, Guru Arjan Sahib ji constructed two sacred sarowars namely Santokhsar and Amritsar and also laid the foundation stone of Harmandir Sahib. He also founded the town of Tarn Taran Sahib near Goindwal Sahib and supplemented it with a large tank and Gurdwara. He even got a house for lepers also built there.

An energetic and aspiring personality, that he was, he toured extensively for five years in order to strengthen the cult of Sikhism. Along with compilation of all the verses of his predecessors, Guru Arjan sahib Ji also contributed about 2000 verses for Guru Granth Sahib Ji thus bringing about a much awaited sensor of religious separation from the Hindus and the Muslims. This caused the development pf Sikhism as a different religion. It was during the reign of Guru Arjan Sahib ji that Baisakhi started to be celebrated as ana annual feature at Amritsar observing a huge get together of all the Sikhs. This was also used as an occasion by the Massands to deposit the collected offerings from different parts of the country in Guru Sahib's treasury which was later on abolished by Guru Gobind Sahib Ji.

His endless virtues and marked intellect caused him to be referred to as "Sacha Patshah" by his followers. Jealous of the large scale propagation of Sikhism by Guru Arjan Sahib Ji, many baseless allegations were leveled against him. He was therefore arrested and brought to Lahore where he was charge-sheeted and implicated in the false cases.

Thence, the Governor of Lahore was assigned the task of the execution of Guru Sahib who in turn handed the former over to a petty businessman Chandu who tortured Guru Sahib for three days in a manner unknown in the history of mankind. This torture included making Guru Sahib to sit on hot iron plates. Burning sand was poured over his naked body and his blistered body used to be thrown into the river Ravi. Thus this great saint embraced martyrdom on May 30, 1606.

This immortal end to the most peaceful sage naturally came as a radical change in the entire Sikhism as this newly born peace loving system started considering both the theist Muslim state and the orthodox Hindus as inhuman and callous people.