Guru Gobind Singh believed in a practical life-strategy. On March 30, 1699, had he announced that he wanted to raise an army to fight the forces of tyranny and promulgate the righteousness, he would have thousands of people coming forward. He did not just want a huge number. He was looking for the people with a perpetual love and an eternal urge to sacrifice their lives for a just cause. It is well known historical fact that, when he appeared on the stage with an unsheathed sword in his hand and demanded a few heads for sacrificial purposes, the people started to slip away. Only five people came forward and offered their lives. The spirit, which was infused through this aspect of practicality, became the everlasting cause of the success of Khalsa; the mighty Mughal, all-powerful Britishers and devious Brahmanical penchant could not subdue this.

As soon as Guru Angad Dev envisioned the celestial light at the portal of Baba Nanak, he abandoned his quest for the goddess. When Guru Amar Das was enlightened by Guru Angad, he forsook his sojourns to the places of deities. All the revered Sikh Gurus had instilled the worship of the One only, Akal Purkh. They wanted people to desist the rituals and adoration of gods and goddesses.

But, in spite of all that, on his advent, Guru Gobind Singh found the people (even some of those who exalted the Bani of his revered predecessors) still diverted their considerable attention to the pilgrimages to the places of Davies, the goddesses. He could have advised the masses thousands of times to refrain from such liturgy, which might have not been as effective. To make the people to understand how futile were their sojourns, and, to erase the misconception once for all, he asked the Brahmins to orchestrate a Havana, the sacrificial fire, and get the Devi manifested through their prayers. The Brahmins assured him that the goddess would personify herself at the end of the Havana.

Guru Gobind Singh spent hundreds of thousands of rupees. Tons of viands were provided to the Brahmins. The process continued for several weeks but no goddess appeared and the Brahmins had to accept the defeat.

Then, at that time, Guru Gobind Singh enlightened the people the fallacies of goddess and her, so-called, benevolence. He illuminated the minds of the astray-ones with the reality, and the reality was Bhagauti - the Shakti, Faculty and Integrity.

For the last so many ages people had been obsessed with the writings of the Puranas and Vedas. Without comprehending the purports (being in old impenetrable languages) they listened to the expositions of Brahmins reverently. When Guru Gobind Singh fathomed the factual purport of those, so-called scriptures, he coveted to enlightened the world with what, as a matter fact, was entailed in such `gospels.' He realised that mere explanation of the hidden contents would not be long lasting. He set down to present the real meanings to the people in the understandable language prevalent at the time, and, also, he inspired some of his court-poets to expose the truth behind such tales, plausibly endowing them the contemporary substance. His aim was nothing but to uncover, to the public, the reality behind those renderings of the medieval books, some of which were religiously revered.

It is preposterous to say all that is contained in Dasam Granth is the results of Guru Gobind Singh's own penmanship. Such assertions coming from the anti-Sikh forces can be expected but I feel sorry and offended to go through the pronouncements of such ardent Sikhs as Piara Singh Padam. They have bent over backward to prove that all those were the original creations of Guruji who had chosen to write under the pen-names of Ram and Siam. If they stress that those are the conceptions of Guruji then why do they plead for their publication in a separate volume? Could Guru Gobind Singh write such stories and such stanzas which the readers would find in Chritropakhyan (Female Attributes) 2 to 20, 402, and some of the Hikayat (Fables) rendered into English by the writer of this article? Not only the Attributes and the Fables, some parts in many other Chapters, such as Krishna Avatar are equally erotic. Could readers sit down with their wives, sisters, mothers and children and read aloud these tales? Most of them are epitome of degradation to womanhood. They are as pornographic as the present day adult movies.

Apart from the obscene substance, there is lot of material, which is quite contrary and offensive to the philosophy of Guru Gobind Singh and the Sikhism as promoted by first nine Masters.

Their presentation in one volume, in conjunction with the Celestial Revelations of the Tenth Master, was the biggest folly of the time. Now, the time has come to dispense with this amalgamation of Bani with the contemptible temporal aspect of life, lest it is too late to prevent irreparable damage to the thinking of our illuminated and inquisitive coming generations, particularly in the west. Pritpal Singh Bindra

Mississauga, Ontario, Canada