GURBANI p?okVh wjbk 4 jfo iB[ okw Bkw r[B rkt? .. i? e'Jh fBzd eo/ jfo iB eh ng[Bk r[B[ B rtkt? ..1.. ojkT[ .. i' feS[ eo/ ;[ nkg/ ;[nkwh jfo nkg/ eko ewkt? .. jfo nkg/ jh wfs d/t? ;[nkwh jfo nkg/ p'fb p[bkt? ..1.. jfo nkg/ gzu ss[ fp;Ekok ftfu Xks{ gzu nkfg gkt? .. iB BkBe ;fsr[o[ w/b/ nkg/ jfo nkg/ Mro[ u[ekt? .. (gzBk 719-720) Bairari Mahla 4 Composed in Bairari measure (Rag) by the fourth Guru. Sri Guru Ram Das ji, the above Sabad enunciates the qualities of a true devotee that he has with the Grace of the Lord, who is the doer and the cause behind all that is. A true devotee remains immersed in the name of the Lord all the time and in all the circumstances. Even when slandered or denounced without any reason, he does not renounce his merit by forsaking the path of righteousness, nor does he speak or think ill of the slanderer because he knows that God is the doer and the cause of everything and even the slanderer is not excluded from this principle of all pervading Will of Lord. Bestower of all wisdom and intelligence on mankind, He is the force behind all that man says or does. He has created the expanse of universe out of five elements, has joined the five substance (o;, o{g, rzX ;goF, Fpd) to these and has filled it with His Own Essence. Thus it is He, the all pervading Lord who in His Supreme Mercy, unites us with the Guru and settles all discord in our mind and other worldly entanglements. He is my sultan who rolls down a sea of life in me and asks not has I spend, but fells it from age to ape out of His own stores, and floods the soul with fragrant Beauty, and bides Himself in the limitless expanse!! His voice alone rings in my ears and sweat response shuts in my eyes, my lips vibrate with passion for the universe ! Hail, Lord! He is the truth to whom if we be loyal in love and faith. We are safe, or else we die. The world where He is not, is death to us. The man, woman, bird or beast, in whom we see Him not, are mere deceptions, pain and death. Devoid of Him, all aims dissipate all desires; chain the soul and all karma condemn. He visits me in strange guises, strange are His ways; One seldom can recognise Him, as he assumes different forms. He comes in wars, in great catastrophies; in pain, in suffering, in bunger; And in the faithlessness of friends and beloved ones. (Prof. Puran Singh) EDITORIAL ORAL EVIDENCE AND SIKH HISTORY The Sikhs have been known as makers of history. They could not write their history because they had to struggle hard for their very existence. Mostly the history of Sikhs is based on tradition which has been recognised as a valid source of information. Guru Amar Das, the third Sikh Guru has said : pkpkDhnk ejkDhnk g[s ;g{s eo/fB (gzBk 951) The accounts of their great elders their worthy scions repeat. At times tradition has to be verified with other sources of information. There is scarcity of Sikh source material. Consequently there are a number of distortions in Sikh history as it is based mostly on the information provided by the opponents. The problem of sources of information has become acute under the impact of science and technology. Telephone has become a common mode of communication. People in general including Sikhs have been abandoning the habit of diary keeping or letter writing. Thus the future historians are being deprived of two important sources of information. This loss as well as paucity of source material referred to above can be set right with the help of Oral History. One of our contemporary Punjabi papers of Canada quoting from the Oral History statement published in the Abstracts of Sikh Studies, “disagreed with the Editor. There is a system of recording Oral statement. Wherever the Oral History cell is established whether in a University in USA or in Nehru Memorial Museum, New Delhi – The primary thing is to select knowledgeable persons whose reminiscences are to be tape-recorded in connection with particular topic. The statements published in Abstracts of Sikh Studies have been recorded after a lot of efforts by the Editor who was founder project officer, Oral History Cell in Punjabi University, Patiala. The Oral History Cell first studies the biographical details of the person concerned along with the events in which he /she has taken part. Then the questionnaire is prepared in such a way as to draw maximum information from the person concerned. That questionnaire is sent to the interviewee. Arrangements are made to tape record the statement according to the questionnaire. Then the tape-recorded statement is converted to a script, which is sent to the person concerned for final approval. How Oral evidence is helpful in writing of Sikh history can be 4 ABSTRACTS OF SIKH STUDIES —JANUARY - MARCH 2003 illustrated by one example. Operation Blue Star 1984 is watershed in the modern history of the Sikhs. After hundred years or so its official records and tainted media papers (tainted because they are pro-government and not independent due to censor restrictions) will be available for writing its history. Practically no Sikh source material will be available for the event so intimately connected with the Sikhs. It is, therefore, high time that interviews by skilled persons with highly placed knowledgeable individuals should be tape-recorded. And their scripts preserved for the future historians. It is advisable that Oral History Cells may be established at Guru Nanak Dev University, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, Amritsar and Punjabi University Patiala Oral History Cell be revived. These centres may have advisory panel of experienced and knowledgeable persons to guide and help them in selection of suitable persons whose reminiscences are to be tape-recorded. In this way necessary source material will be made available to the future historians to arrive almost right conclusions. At times responsible persons in Government service or even after retirement hesitate to part with the information. In that case Oral History Cell has to convince the interviewee that complete secrecy would be kept about the statement uptill the specified time. In some cases written undertakings may be made to convince the deponent of the secrecy of the statement. One example will not be out of place here. When I went to England in 1964 late Master Tara Singh, the Akali Leader, gave me introductory letter to Maj. J. M. Short who was considered expert in Sikh affairs and had been re-employed to pacify the Sikhs in 1947. He arrived in India in the last week of July 1947. I requested him to give statement on some specific points. He gave his consent on the condition that his statement should be published immediately to which I readily agreed. In his statement he used the word “trim a little” for Sikhs which most probably he meant tehsil Zira, Firozepur, which were subsequently given to India. In the previous communication to Sir Evan Jenkins, Governor Punjab, these tehsils had been given to Pakistan. In 1964 it was highly controversial whether Punjab Boundary Award had been modified or not. I honoured my words. His statement was published in 1972 in my book Partition of Punjab three years after his death in 1969. In case the Sikhs want to avoid distortion and to present their history in the correct perspective, they must adopt the technique of Oral History for collection of material. Otherwise the Sikh perspective is likely to be lost in the flood of information released by science and technology. ¤ DIAGNOSIS PAR EXCELLENCE 5 DIAGNOSIS PAR EXCELLENCE GAJINDER SINGH* The oft-repeated sermon of Guru Nanak to the devotees who came. to him for enlightenment, spiritual solace and worldly worries was: - Naam Japo -Meditate on God, All Pervading, The Doer, - Kirt Karo- Engage in honest earnings - Vand Chhako -Share your wealth, material as well as spiritual, with others. The congregations in the times of Guru Nanak were made up; as in the present times, of persons harassed by economic and social problems, and some seekers of Truth. They all must have approached him to get answers to their complex as well as simple problems bothering them. Virle kau sojhi pae. Rare ones get enlightened. SGGS 62 It is also obvious that many of them considered a visit, a dialogue with the Great Master of immense contentment for straight and abiding solutions, since his path was simple and factual. The available literature of his times, in Janam Sakhis depicts Guru Nanak as an outstanding miracle- man, showing super-natural feats at every turn. People in those days valued the super-natural and expected a holy man to exhibit miracles, to prove his worth. This was the essential test which, both Hindus and Muslims had adopted to evaluate a man of God. This yard-stick is still applicable to common people that God-men must demonstrate miracles. In Christianity, Catholics 'decide to confer sainthood on the basis of miracles performed. The emphasis and urgency of the super-natural in Janam Sakhis and other accounts may be seen in this light. Guru Nanak started a crusade five hundred years ago to purge superstition ridden society of any false expectations, magical solutions and practices which were harming their inhrent energies and dampening their * 2983, Phase VII SAS NAGAR-I60062 6 ABSTRACTS OF SIKH STUDIES — JANUARY - MARCH 2003 capacity to improve their social and family lives.