Week 7 · Brave hearts · Day 48
Bhai Tara Singh Ji Wan — the twenty-two
In the village of Wan, not far from Amritsar, a local Mughal official came to seize the village’s Guru Granth Sahib Ji and demanded that the Sikhs give up their faith. Bhai Tara Singh Ji and twenty-one other ordinary farmers — field workers, not soldiers — refused. They knew what the refusal would cost them. They were taken and executed one by one, each given a final chance to convert, each quietly saying no. Their shaheedi in 1726 shook the Sikh world and became a rallying story for generations. They were not kings or trained warriors. They were farmers who had simply learned, from the Guru’s teachings, that some things are worth more than life.
In 1726, twenty-two Sikh farmers chose martyrdom rather than give up their faith — showing that ordinary people can do extraordinary things.
Watch together Bibi Sharan: Shaheeds and Bullies ਸਤਿ ਸੂਰਉ ਸੀਲਿ ਬਲਵੰਤੁ; ਸਤ ਭਾਇ ਸੰਗਤਿ ਸਘਨ ਗਰੂਅ ਮਤਿ ਨਿਰਵੈਰਿ ਲੀਣਾ ॥
Sat soora-u seel balvant; sat bhaai sangat saghan garoo-a mat nirvair leenaa.
“The Guru is the hero of truth, powerful in humility — absorbed in the infinite, enmity-free Lord.”
Ask: 'The twenty-two were farmers, not trained warriors. What does it mean to be brave when you are just an ordinary person?'
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