Word Of The Day: Abichal Nagar

????? ???? (abichal nagar)
Meaning: noun: Literally, immovable or eternal city; an adjective for Amritsar.

Quote:
????? ???? ?????? ???? ?? � ???? ??? ???? ???? ????
abichal nagar gobi?d guroo kaa�� naam japat sukh paa-iaa raam.
(Amritsar) the city of the godly Guru (Guru Ram Das) is everlasting, where reflecting on the Name of the Divine one finds spiritual peace.
– Guru Arjan Sahib, Guru Granth Sahib, Page 783

Message: Some Sikh scholars are of the view that �abichal nagar� here implies the congregation or assembly of Sikhs (saadh sangat). However, the authors of �Shabdarth Sri Guru Granth Sahib� (page 783) mention that this hymn was composed when the city of Amritsar was built.

Guru Arjan is here praising the ever-growing atmosphere of peace and serenity in Amritsar. It is true that the Gurus possessed great leadership and they inspired their followers in the same way to be leaders in the right frame of their minds – to earn an honest living, to make improvements for the common folk, and improve their common lot. Guru Arjan must have been so impressed and mesmerized by the spirit of care, love and cooperation that the Guru�s disciples showed as they built the town as well as when they lived peacefully together.

Notes:This is also the symbolic name given by Sikhs to Hazur Sahib, one of the five Takhats, situated near Nander city in Maharastra (India), where Guru Gobind Singh Sahib offered Guruship to Guru Granth and Guru Panth, before he breathed his last in October 1708.

Summary for the Week:

The biggest lesson of this week�s verses is the fact that the Sikh Gurus were not merely religious teachers. Rather they were humanists of the highest sort who wanted to improve the welfare and life of the people of the area they visited. They were very well organized in their planning and execution of projects.

They proved to be great leaders who mobilised the masses to help in reorganizing the social fabric of the place through public works, social campaigns and a host of other projects that helped in promising jobs to people, providing stability in the lives of people and also providing peace, serenity and a spirit of cooperation while remembering their Creator.

In this way, the missionary goals of the Gurus could be met easily as there was the provision of basic needs of the people. Infact, the Gurus were geniuses of their time as they knew how to mobilize the masses to help in the upliftment of society. They were instrumental in lifting the poor out of poverty. They did what many rulers of the past and present are not doing.
The Gurus got rid of corruption, developed towns, encouraged commerce and industry, provided jobs, or provided basic amenities like water through digging wells and pools. Overall they were an efficient and mobile vehicle of social change for the masses. The Gurus were also geniuses in the sense that they never stayed at one place; instead they moved to new places to spread their message. New towns sprang up wherever they moved.

Unfortunately, the pain the Sikhs felt was all the more greater because even though the Gurus and their Sikhs gave their all, their sweat, blood and their humble efforts to build not only places of congregation but whole towns, infrastructure, schools and roads for all people irrespective of caste or religion, many of these were taken away from the Sikhs when the Sikh nation had to face partition in 1947. In that event, they lost what the Gurus had built when Sikhs had to vacate these lands and structures when they were forced to migrate to India. The priceless towns and projects that the Gurus had established and carried out were lost. The cost has not only been physical but mental too for a proud people.

We can pay our debt to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves.
-John Buchan, poet, novelist and politician, 1875-1940