The tenth Guru Sri Guru Gobind Singh ji sacrificed his entire family at the altar of safeguarding the rights of underprivileged and fought for the right of religious freedom besides taking up cudgels against injustice, tyranny and castiest differences. Guru Sahib visualized a society with equal rights for everyone and was a firm believer in the freedom of humanity thus enabled the downtrodden people to be the stake holders in power.Dr. Jaspal Singh, Vice Chancellor of Punjabi University Patiala expressed these views in the panel discussion on ‘Sri Guru Gobind Singh–A spiritual savior & crusader of rights ’organized on the second day of the three day International Sikh Conclave dedicated to the 350th birth anniversary of Sri Guru Gobind Singh ji at Patna Sahib. Dr. Jaspal Singh in his presiding address said that common masses were made to suffer so much during the tyrannical Mughal rule that they were not even able to raise their voices against the brutalities. He further said that Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji raised his voice against the injustices perpetrated by the Mughal empire and the tradition was continued by all the Sikh Guru Sahiban including Sri Guru Gobind Singh ji.
Referring to Allah Yar Khan and Hari Prasad Bedi, Dr. Jaspal Singh said that only Sikh history has the distinction of being replete with the examples of unparalleled sacrifices where the father, mother and innocent children were sacrificed to protect the religious freedom of the mankind. Dr. Singh said that Sri Guru Gobind Singh ji had made a lot of sacrifices for upholding the rights of all mankind.Dwelling further, Dr. Singh said that Sri Guru Gobind Singh ji established the order of the Khalsa to set aside the differences of caste, creed, race and religion, and thereby, according honorable status to the people suffering slavery since centauries. He exhorted the people to get inspiration from the great life and philosophy of Sri Guru Gobind Singh ji. Earlier, addressing the gathering former Chairman of National Minorities commission Mr. Tarlochan Singh said that in the context of major problems being confronted by human race in India and abroad, it becomes all the more relevant to translate the sacred Bani of Guru Sahiban into all languages for spreading the message of mutual brotherhood in every nook and corner of the globe.
He said that it is necessary that the Union, Punjab and Bihar governments must initiate joint campaign for propagating the life and lofty ideals of Sri Guru Gobind Singh ji so that the message of universal peace propagated by Guru Sahib reaches every corner of the world by the time of his 350th birth anniversary.Dr. Nanak Singh Nishtar, Head of International Sikh center for Interfaith Relations, Prof. Gurinder Singh Maan, former Professor at Sikh Studies America, Dr. Sukhmander Singh, Professor at Civil Engineering Santa Clara University, California, Surinder Singh Raheja from Virginia, Dr. Parmveer Singh, Professor at Punjabi University, Prof. Shamsher Singh, Mohamad Habib Habibi, Dr. Harbans Kaur Saggu, Prof. Bhupinder Singh Delhi, Bhai Sukhbir Singh from Nishkam Sewak Jatha and Lieutenant General K. S. Gill also expressed their views in this panel discussion.
Second session - panel discussion on 'Sri Guru Gobind Singh - A poet par excellence'Second session of the day was devoted to the panel discussion on 'Sri Guru Gobind Singh - A poet par excellence'. During the session, Dr. Harbhajan Singh, Dr. Balbir Singh Bhasin, Dr. Manjit Singh, Acharya Kamal Kunal, Lal Mohar Upadhaya, Dr. Harminder Singh Bedi, Gurjit Singh Bains, Jaswal Avinash, Sarabjit Singh and Dr. Sukhdyal Singh expressing their views said that Guru Sahib had not only used sword in his fight against tyranny but also used his literary genius to raise voice against injustice.The speakers also said that Guru Gobind Singh was the lone authentic poet of ‘Bir Ras’ (Heroic Poetry) who not only eulogized the weapons in his literary creations but also made use of these to fight cruelty. They are of the view that Guru Sahib was the initiator of the literary renaissance. Guru Sahib was proficient in many languages and patronized 52 poets in his darbar.Quoting the references from ‘Chandi di Vaar’, ‘Jafarnama’, ‘Bachhiter Natak’ and other literary creations of Guru Sahib, Speakers also quoted said that Guru Sahib was a great poet whose literary creations reflects the Indian literature, culture and languages in all their forms.