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Good morning. Sikhs are today marking the anniversary of the birth of Guru Gobind Singh, the last of the human Sikh Gurus. Born in 1666, the same year as the Great Fire of London, his life saw much personal upheaval. He became Guru at the age of 9 when his father was killed on the orders of the Mughal Emperor, and he fought several battles during his lifetime, effectively fighting for the survival of the Sikh faith and identity. His four children died in awful circumstances over the course of a single week in late 1704, and he was forced into exile from the city his father had founded at Anandpur, a city he would never see again. Virtually overnight, the Guru went from a courtly life as the leader of the growing Sikh faith to becoming a refugee, bereft of his family and banished from his home. It would have been easy for him to view himself as a victim, but his faith remained strong throughout all of this. He accepted what he saw as the Almighty’s will, and yet he held to account those who had treated his family and his faith so despicably. The Guru pursued justice and dignity without fear, and he wrote the Zafarnama or Letter of Victory. Written in the Mughal court language of Persian, it admonished the Emperor for failing to live up to the ideals of his leadership. The Guru didn't want revenge. Instead, he wanted to meet the Mughal Emperor in person and shame him for all the wrongs he'd committed. As leader of the Sikhs, a moral victory was what the Guru sought, calling into question the Emperor's own faith as the atrocities he'd committed were completely at odds with the tenets of his beliefs. The Emperor was suitably humiliated by the letter and wanted to meet the Guru and seek forgiveness, but the Emperor died before he could do so. Most of us would probably hope we would be just as fearless in the pursuit of justice, but the reality is often very different. Having the inner strength to remain true to oneself and speak truth to power isn’t easy when left with nothing to call one’s own, and when facing great adversity and opposition. It’s often easier to give in rather than fight for what’s morally right. However, the power of the collective can be so much greater than that of a single person, as we have seen recently with the Post Office scandal. Individually, we may not be able to change anything, but collectively, it may be possible to challenge those in authority who have done wrong by staying firm to our values and beliefs and simply by not giving up. The journey to justice may be long, but it doesn’t need to be a lonely one.