This post will include historical info with my itinerary of my travels around Amritsar with my guide, Nirgun.
I stayed at the Udasin Akhara Brahm Boota Sahib. “Udasi” refers to the sect of Sikhs who recognize Guru Nanak’s son Sri Chand as an avatar of Shiv. “Akhara,” he said, means wrestling ground. “Sahib” is a Punjabi title of respect. If someone said “Brahm Boota” to me I would not know what to think.
Baba Santok Das founded the Sri Chand temple after meditating for twenty-one years on a spot marked in its lower level. This was between the time periods of the fifth and sixth Gurus.
He arranged for his 700 disciples to get water from the River Ravi 35 miles away by hard work (not a miracle!). They built an irrigation system to the Golden Temple. After partition, Ravi was in Pakistan and today another water source has come to use.
The Sri Chand temple and the Golden Temple were connected by a pipeline when the waterway was in use. Baba Santok Das swam this underground passage to get to the Golden Temple and do service during time of oppressive Mughal restrictions.
I seem to have lost a page of my notes on Sri Chand, but here is the story as I can piece it.
Guru Nanak’s wife had a vision of Shivji during her pregnancy. Her son Sri Chand was born as an avatar of Shiv, and he would be separate but venerable to the traditional Sikh order. Sri Chand lived about 120 years and was alive during the time of the first six gurus.
Guru Nanak was a great collector of information and his four great travels are well-known stories. He knew multiple languages and translated various religious books into Punjabi. He also wrote commentaries and his own dissertations. Many of these books became the property of Sri Chand.
I went to a gurudwara in Goindwar. The third guru, Amardaw, went near here for darshan of Sri Chand who was staying in Baratsar. He was accompanied by his son, Baba Monaji. At this time his son was given to Sri Chand for spiritual instruction. The third guru also left all of his books – including all works extant which had belonged to Nanak – with his son for security, as the peaceful life was assured there. After Baba Monaji’s education Sri Chand sent him to Goindwar.
At a later date the fifth guru went to Sri Chand and requested the books… (more to be transcribed)
Sri Chand gave some of these books to someone called Monaji. He directed Monaji only to give the books to the fifth Guru, who he knew would eventually cause the books to be compiled into the collection which is the Guru Granth Sahib. Some characters named Baba Buddaji and Pie Gurdasji wanted the books from Monaji. I really enjoyed listening to Nirgund and the story had a point when he told it, but now that I type this I recall nothing and it all seems so trite. I simply am not familiar with these characters.
The Golden Temple’s foundation was laid by a Sufi Saint named Sai Miameer. That name kept coming up. We went to some place called Goindwar and went underground at this Gurudwara 84 steps to this pool of water. Sikh mythology says that there are 84 lakhs of species – this number 84 comes up in Hinduism also. (Later when I went to Bara Imambara at Lucknow I would hear that the labyrinth had 84 steps to the top, but I could not count because I was too lost.)
We also went to this other gurudwara which had a tank that kept draining. As I remember, Sri Chand ordered someone to pour a few buckets of water from some source into that tank and that would miraculously stop the leak. I lost my notes for this but I was impressed with the place. I do not even have a name, but it was a half hour bus ride from the Golden Temple.
Within walking distance of the Golden Temple we went to a gurudwara dedicated to Kolan, a Muslim lady who fell in love with the sixth guru. I think the place was called Kaul Sat. The story is that she wanted immortality through that guru’s child, but he gave her immortality through the construction of the complex. Sai Miameer smuggled Kolan away from her father Kaz Rustam Khan when he issued a death fatwah against her because of her devotion to the sixth guru and the Adi Granth in general. The site of that temple was her place of refuge. The sixth guru decreed that people should visit this tank before visiting the Golden Temple, so translated Nirgund.
The sixth guru had five sons. The first was donated to Sri Chand as a personal disciple. This was when Sri Chand was a Baratsar, which is also where the water to plug that leaky tank came from.
One of that guru’s other sons, Baba Atal Rai, was playing a game with some playmates when he was nine years old. One of the playmates died, but when Baba Atal Rai called him back to games later that day he rose from his deathbed. In memory of his age at the time of that miracle there is a nine-story building near the Kolan building. The story is that before the monsoon, they wash the building, and the monsoon always happens right after that.
I wish I had had more time to study with that guide. He did everything for me, was a perfect gentleman, and knew English. He told me that he had worked with Osho in Oregon. His name again was Nirgun. His mailing address as he wrote it is:
Nirgun
Trin c/o
Baba Bhula Das
Tarasthan Baba Sri Chandra
Ji Mahraj near Langar Sri Guru Ram Das
Akhara Baahm Buta
Amritsar
and his phone number there is 9814105288.
There is not enough time in the world…