THE SIKH DIWALI:
BANDI CHHOR DIVAS
(THE DAY OF LIBERATION)
(THE DAY OF LIBERATION)
This Wednesday marked the Sikh festival of ‘Bandi Chhor Divas’ (also spent ‘Bandi Shhor Divas’), which coincides with the Indian cultural festival and holiday of Diwali. This whole week Sikhs across the world will be celebrating this festival.
Bandi Chhor Divas, literally meaning the day of liberation, celebrates the release of the sixth Guru of the Sikhs from prison along with fifty-two other political prisoners whose release was secured by the Guru’s refusal to leave prison without them in 1619.
The 17th century intolerant and cruel Emperor of India, wary of those who might oppose his tyrannical rule, arrested the sixth Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji, who was speaking up for social and religious justice and fighting injustice. Others were also imprisoned in a fort converted as a prison called the Gwalior Fort.
After falling in and receiving advice from various saints, the Emperor realised his error in imprisoning the Guru in which the Light of God shined. As the festival of Diwali approached, the Emperor ordered the release of the Great Guru. To his surprise, the Guru refused to leave unless all the other political prisoners were released at the same time.
The Emperor decided to compromise and said that anyone who could hold onto the Guru’s clothes could be freed with him. He thought that at the most, two or three of his fellow prisoners would be able to go with the Guru through the fort’s narrow passage to freedom. In the event, the Guru walked to freedom followed by all the 52 political prisoners holding onto robe made with 52 flowing segments sewn to it. The Guru became known as ‘Bandi Chhor Daathaa’ (the Giver of Freedom).
The story reminds Sikhs to put the wellbeing of others before our own; in this case the freedom and human rights of the Guru’s fellow captives. Bandi Chhor Divas is a useful reminder to the rest of us to make concern for others part of our daily lives.
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