麻豆社

Good morning.

Some institutions are considered sacrosanct, and yet even they can be violated. As we鈥檝e witnessed at the Capitol in Washington, violence and thuggery can rock them and everything they stand for to their very core.

During the times of the Sikh Gurus in the 16th and 17th centuries, the question of who would be the next Guru was always answered by the current one, who would name a successor when they knew their own death was approaching. This system worked well, ensuring that the Sikh community remained committed to the seat of the Guru above all else.

Just before the 8th Guru passed away from smallpox in Delhi, he proclaimed that the next Guru would be found in the town of Bakala in Punjab, but he failed to give a name. Several people moved to that town immediately, and by the time the true 9th Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, was discovered some months later, there were 22 others claiming that the Guruship should have passed to them instead.

One of the pretenders was Dhir Mall, a relative of the 8th Guru. He felt he鈥檇 been overlooked in the past, and now he saw his chance to claim what he believed was his God-given role.

Dhir Mall had many followers who were angry when Tegh Bahadur was named as the Guru. They felt that the Guruship had been stolen from them, so they tried to take the position by force. The Guru鈥檚 home was stormed, ransacked and looted. Shots were fired at the 9th Guru. Disorder and chaos descended.

The 9th Guru鈥檚 supporters retaliated to retrieve what was taken, and Dhir Mall was injured in the process. But rather than standing by their actions, the 9th Guru reprimanded them, ordering them to return the material possessions they had seized even if Dhir Mall鈥檚 supporters had looted them in the first place.
The moral leadership shown by Guru Tegh Bahadur in comparison to the deceit and brute force used by Dhir Mall continues to resonate today, and it reminds me of the former First Lady Michelle Obama鈥檚 famous quote: 鈥淲hen they go low, we go high鈥�.

That transition of Guruship, from the 8th to the 9th Guru, was without a doubt a difficult one, and although the community doesn鈥檛 dwell on it much now, that period of Sikh history must have been filled with great uncertainty and unrest. That鈥檚 precisely where America finds itself today.

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