Consideration:
Sun Tzu advises,
“When the weapons dull and the spirits fall our strength flees and resources deplete- it is then that our opponents exploit our weakness to their advantage. Even if our wisest generals were to ride to our rescue it would still do us no good.”
-The Art Of War.
Consider these words in historically applicable contexts. Pyrrhus confronted an embryonic Rome two times from 275-280 B.C. Despite winning multiple pitched battles against the Romans, Pyrrhus cautioned his generals that several more similar victories and he would not be left with a standing army. Or consider 16th century Europe. The Spanish juggernaut under Phillip II aimed to attack a fiscally crumbling England under Elizabeth I. Lacking both an army and navy, Elizabeth hired privateer Francis Drake who attacked Spanish ships plying critical trade routes. Phillip was finally forced to concede defeat having ruined Spain’s fortunes against Elizabeth who dexterously outmanoeuvred him. And to top it all off, America’s abysmal humiliation at the hands of Vo Nguyen Giap. All these considerations retain an underlying similarity.
Grocer turned warrior:
Gulaba Khatri was a small time grocer in his native village of Dalle. The man had no military experience nor any interest in the pursuit of arms. Statesmanship and strategy existed outside his plane of existence. His spirituality orbited the profits he accrued. His hell was the taxes levied upon him. Nonetheless, he was a conscientious man; keeping his head low in a fast unravelling 18th century Punjab. Then one-day reality came home to roost. When he turned up to his store at dawn he discovered it ransacked. He ran straight to the authorities but they ignored him. Their indifference compounded his already dire situation. Mosques and temples closed their doors to him. The Muslims vilified him as an infidel. The Hindus gleefully cried it was his past-life Karma catching up with him.
A desperate Gulaba finally approached the Sikhs at their Amritsar headquarters. Generalissimo Nawab Kapur Singh heard his woes. Gulaba concluded that he wanted to convert to Sikhi. Kapur Singh initially laughed him off but the ex-grocer persisted. The Nawab advised him to grow his hair long; read and live by the Guru Granth and learn the use of arms. Gulaba acquiesced and promised to honor the Generalissimo’s instructions.
A few months later word reached authorities of a middle-aged horseman who suspiciously resembled a vanished grocer and his band of 10-15 companions raising cain in the vicinity of Dalle. The authorities laid meticulous traps for the culprit but were routinely ambushed by him or skilfully routed. Dalle was terror-stricken. No non-combatant was touched but riches were plundered. One element united all victims; they had messed with the wrong grocer. Speculating as to his identity, concerned elders finally approached a local Sikh and begged him to intercede. The man requested that the honorable thieves fight him. Gulaba, unwilling to fight a Sikh, approached him and revealed himself.
Gulab Singh:
Reprimanded by the Sikh as to his conduct, Gulaba Khatri altered tact. From pursuing vendettas he oriented himself towards ruling firmly but fairly over the masses. This new direction rapidly witnessed a growth in his following until over a 100 young men converted to Sikhi under his aegis. Once again approaching Nawab Kapur Singh at Amritsar Gulaba underwent the Khalsa initiation and became Gulab Singh. In 1748 Gulab Singh was declared the Sirdar (chief) of the Dallewalia Misl. From a middle-aged entrepreneur struggling to feed his family he had expeditiously transformed himself into a consummate ruler, able tactician and far-sighted visionary. Though he acquired the right to rule through the sword, his iron-handed impartiality saw him much respected among the masses.
What defined Gulab Singh both militarily and politically was his singular usage of what can be called the Poor Man’s Virtue. This was- in a way- the same tactic used by the Romans, the English and the Vietnamese. The Romans did not build up mighty resources against Pyrrhus. Rather, they used their formidable iron-discipline against their foe. This discipline allowed them to inflict disquieting casualties even when retreating. Elizabeth built up a navy piecemeal but used Drake to attack critical Spanish shipping routes. As for the Vietnamese they used 19th century tactics to outsmart the 20th century American juggernaut.
Gulab Singh was similar. He used what was available to him in creative and different forms to achieve his expeditious victories. Commanding only 400 horsemen, he inflicted decisive humiliations on his opponents as well as the persecutors of the Sikhs. He was a Master of the Poor Man’s Virtue and famed for defeating forces ten times larger than his own.
The Poor Man’s Virtue:
The Guru Granth was Gulab Singh’s primary instructor. He perceived it as holding the answer to all his dilemmas. This belief was the root essence of his faith. A particular verse in the Guru Granth proclaims:
ਮਨੁ ਹਾਲੀ ਕਿਰਸਾਣੀ ਕਰਣੀ ਸਰਮੁ ਪਾਣੀ ਤਨੁ ਖੇਤੁ ॥
ਨਾਮੁ ਬੀਜੁ ਸੰਤੋਖੁ ਸੁਹਾਗਾ ਰਖੁ ਗਰੀਬੀ ਵੇਸੁ ॥
ਭਾਉ ਕਰਮ ਕਰਿ ਜੰਮਸੀ ਸੇ ਘਰ ਭਾਗਠ ਦੇਖੁ ॥੧॥
“Within the mind adopt this form of farming: make action your land, modesty the water and your body the fields. Let the divine wisdom be the seed you sow and poverty’s decorum your boundary. Do such noble acts and watch your hearth flourish.”
-Guru Granth, 595.
Invoking an entrepreneurial farmer, this verse presents life as an agrarian settlement. Within this settlement, action is the foremost commodity. Modesty is the sustenance which action requires and both engage the body in pursuit of meaning. Divine wisdom is the fuel with which to energize action and commence the whole process. Poverty’s decorum does not refer to enforced poverty or the absence of fiscal success. Rather, it defines a particular virtue: creativity. In figurative terms creativity is to be the boundary or the fence through which to protect this divine farming.
Contrary to the baleful renditions and self-derived meanings of this verse thrown about today, it speaks a profound truth. A poor man is not obligated to exhibit satisfaction with his lot in life but to alleviate his dire straits it is necessitated that he accept his current situation as a means to alter it. How will he alter it? The most pivotal way would be to use the limited means at his disposal to carve out further opportunities for himself and/or position himself for such opportunities. This is the Poor Man’s Virtue or poverty’s decorum: the ability to think creatively and expend only limited energy to achieve a herculean goal with whatever is at your disposal.
Comprehension:
Guru Nanak establishes:
ਕਿਵ ਸਚਿਆਰਾ ਹੋਈਐ ਕਿਵ ਕੂੜੈ ਤੁਟੈ ਪਾਲਿ ॥
ਹੁਕਮਿ ਰਜਾਈ ਚਲਣਾ ਨਾਨਕ ਲਿਖਿਆ ਨਾਲਿ ॥੧॥
“How can one become truthful and annihilate the entrapments of falsity? Nanak, conform to reality and walk within its path.”
-Guru Granth, Japji.
Hukam or reality should be understood in its infinite dimensions. It limits us by delineating unalterable parameters which we cannot violate even if we try our utmost best. We only have a certain amount of energy to expend, food to consume and skills to build before we naturally exhaust ourselves and hit the final boundary: death. Consider the serpent, it crawls with an economy of motion. An animal does not seek to violate these parameters of reality. It knows that doing so will leave it vulnerable to attack with the energy and the power required for defence irredeemably depleted. However nor does it retain the cognition to utilize these parameters to its advantage. Only man does, but man seeks to efface the very existence of these parameters beyond a certain limit so they do not apply to him anymore. This is catastrophic in the long run.
The poverty stricken are well aware of their limitations. Their acute acknowledgement of reality necessitates rapidly unique creativity which allows them to make the most of what they have rather than seek to alter their condition overnight. The rich on the other hand luxuriate in abundance. They forfeit their sense of reality and imagine themselves to be unbound by limits. Abundance enriches dreams and visions but impoverishes interaction with reality. It breeds decadence, softness and mental atrophy. Life, on the other hand, is perennial warfare against oneself and against others.
ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਜਿਤਾ ਮਨਮੁਖਿ ਹਾਰਿਆ ॥੧੭॥
“The Gurmukh triumphs in the battle of life while the Manmukh is annihilated.”
-Guru Granth, 310.
Conflict demands realism, the ability to integrate with reality rather than seek to change it. Like the serpent, warriors battling themselves and battling others seek to deliver killer blows with the least expenditure of their power and resources. They root themselves in reality with the wisdom that they can die anytime. This drives them to accept that there are achievements, skills and talents they will never have. Nor do they crave them. Instead they select to use whatever they have at their disposal and employ it to their advantage creatively. This is the Poor Man’s Virtue in action.
“Be like the Shuai-Jan. They are serpents which live in the Ch’ang mountains and are good at practical tactics. Attack the head their tail retaliates. Attack the tail and you confront the head. Attack the middle and confront both head and tail.”
-The Art Of War.
The Romans only had their formidable discipline against Pyrrhus and used it to deadly effect. He was unable to disperse their legions which fought calculatedly and almost mechanically against his gargantuan armies. Despite forcing them to retreat, Pyrrhus often suffered greater losses in men and material than his opponents ergo the epithet Pyrrhic Victory in which the winner proves the loser in both manpower and resource expenditure.
Elizabeth, on the other hand, was well aware that Italian merchants were investing in Phillip’s invasion plans. Whatever gold the conquistadores were acquiring in the New World was swiftly depleted on interest rates in the King’s court. A colossal portion of this gold went to the Italians. If the ships carrying the Italian shares could be sunk then the merchants would naturally raise the interest rates on their loans. This is exactly what transpired and Phillip bankrupted Spain attempting to pay off both the ever-ascending interest on his loans and the loans themselves. Destitute, he conceded defeat without setting foot in England. Elizabeth had no navy to speak of but built up a miniscule fleet from scratch captained by privateers like Drake while Phillip retained a professional armada crewed by veterans making his defeat all the more ignoble.
Giap faced unheard of odds when battling the Americans. His ragtag band of peasant guerillas had no electronic radios nor even the training to use them. He refused to throw in the towel and turned the Poor Man’s Virtue to his advantage. He established networks of coolies to transport arsenal through jungles. Unable to see any trucks on the roads, American airpower was instantly negated while Giap’s forces continued fighting and enjoyed jungle cover. Of course American helicopters lent American soldiers impressive mobility. But the Americans were not the masters of the Vietnamese jungle. That was Giap and he used this fact to deadly advantage.
Gulab Singh Dallewalia had neither the vast resources of the Islamist Afghans, the Mughals or the veteran professionalism of the Rajputs and Poorbias. What he had however was his faith and the strong sense of fairness it cultivated among the Sikhs; jungle terrain and fast mounts. Employing guerilla tactics learnt from Guru Gobind Singh and Banda Singh he launched quick demoralizing attacks on the oppressors of the Sikhs. When they returned to their headquarters after ravaging his territories they found their own supplies depleted and territories savagely destroyed. When they pursued him into his jungle strongholds they were easily disoriented and fell prey to his traps. He meanwhile continued living by poverty’s decorum despite the rich booty he continually acquired.
Application:
Guru Nanak had foreseen the necessity of conflict for his Sikhs and had prepared them accordingly with his new brand of spirituality which accepted conflict as part and parcel of reality. He acknowledged the fact that war, irrespective of how its fought and who it is fought against, is a balance of ends and means. Aurangzeb and the Hindu monarchy had the best plans to annihilate Sikh supremacy and slay Guru Gobind Singh but lacked the means to accomplish these designs. The Guru, on the other hand, was a sagacious commander who refused to waste precious time in acquiring the tools required by fanciful strategy but rather based his strategy on the tools he had: the foremost being Guru Nanak’s militant Sikh spirit in the Guru Granth and its practical embodiment in the Khalsa.
Learning from both the Guru Granth and Sikh history, Gulab Singh adjusted his ends to his means. This lent him a decisive edge over his overtly religious and superstitious foes. He would command a subordinate Misldar to appear before an opposing army with 150 horsemen while he himself would make feints towards the rear. Confused as to his real strength the opponent would either retreat or stretch himself too thin. Gulab Singh would then launch a swift attack which would see him decimate centre lines and ride roughshod over a demoralized enemy. At other times he would emulate Nawab Kapur Singh who would confuse the enemy into wasting his energy and resources on pursuing the Sikhs. Then when assured that the foe was fatigued beyond all measure he would suddenly launch a deadly counterattack. Through all this he continued singing:
ਮਨੁ ਹਾਲੀ ਕਿਰਸਾਣੀ ਕਰਣੀ ਸਰਮੁ ਪਾਣੀ ਤਨੁ ਖੇਤੁ ॥
ਨਾਮੁ ਬੀਜੁ ਸੰਤੋਖੁ ਸੁਹਾਗਾ ਰਖੁ ਗਰੀਬੀ ਵੇਸੁ ॥
ਭਾਉ ਕਰਮ ਕਰਿ ਜੰਮਸੀ ਸੇ ਘਰ ਭਾਗਠ ਦੇਖੁ ॥੧॥
“Within the mind adopt this form of farming: make action your land, modesty the water and your body the fields. Let the divine wisdom be the seed you sow and poverty’s decorum your boundary. Do such noble acts and watch your hearth flourish.”
-Guru Granth, 595.
Legacy:
Gulaba Khatri transitioned to Gulab Singh and then Sirdar Gulab Singh of the Dallewalia confederacy through the practicality and tutelage of the Guru Granth. The same Guru Granth we seemingly adhere to today. But while we believe hollow recitation is enough to breed mystical solutions, Gulab Singh was realistic enough to know that the pragmatic application of Gurbani in pursuit of his aims would allow him to become the very solution others sought elsewhere. Poverty’s decorum allowed him to ascend from a lowly grocer suffering the pangs of hunger to the status of a warrior-aristocrat alleviating the hunger of others. We honor Gulab Singh as a martyr; he fell warring in 1759 but rarely do we surgically dissect the elements which made him who he was. His transformation is indicative of the Guru Granth’s powerfully unique mysticism which only works wonders when the Sikh selects to live by it. Lip-service is of no use.
Learning the sggs and its practical answers requires a comprehensive understanding of sggs grammar and vocabulary. I am stuck relying on translations into English. Simply reciting gurbani is not the answer as it doesn’t lead to understanding. I find these articles amazing because the allow a through understanding and application of gurbani. Any recommendations for further study other than your articles?
Amazing. SGGS has all the psychological and social answers required to improve oneself and the world but only if we look into it as such. Sirdar Gulab Singh was an amazing Gurmukh.