In early 1699, few months before the Vaisakhi Day, Guru Gobind Rai sent a special invitation to the Sikhs all over the country to join the special Vaisakhi Divan in the town of Anandpur Sahib (also known as “Kes-Garh Sahib”) in the Punjab state of India. He asked them not to cut any of their hair and to come with their turbans on.
Masses of people turned up on the day. Guru Ji welcomed everyone and reminded them of their duty, commitment, loyalty and faith. Then to everyone’s surprise, Guru Ji withdrew his long sword and said in a very powerful voice “Who will be brave enough to come forward to offer me a head? ”. Guru Ji asked for sacrifice of head (body & soul) in order to ensure that the Sikhs met the first condition for receiving Amrit (Surrendering the self-pride and ego). No one expected this to happen. This amazed and horrified many. There was a pin drop silence. Some people were looking for the way to escape. No one came forward. Guru Ji repeated this three times. Out of many thousand, a Sikh named Bhai Daya Ram came in front of Guru Ji with head bowed and hands folded. Firstly, he apologised for not responding earlier on and then humbly uttered that his body & soul belonged to the Guru. Guru Ji took him into a tent. A few minutes later the crowd heard a big THUD! Then Guru Gobind Singh Ji came back with blood-smeared sword. He said the same words again and then another Sikh named Bhai Dharam Das offered himself. On Guru Ji’s demand, three more Sikhs came forward. Their names were Bhai Muhkam Chand, Bhai Himat Rai, Bhai Sahib Chand.
This time Guru Gobind Singh Ji took much longer to return from the tent. The crowd was getting anxious. The ruling emperor Aurangzeb had sent his spy to closely monitor the event. He just managed to catch the glimpses of the heads separated from the bodies inside the tent. Outside the tent, there was eagerness but suddenly to everyone’s surprise, Guru Ji came out of the tent with the five Sikhs all wearing beautiful coloured robes and their appearance was just the same as the Guru’s. Guru Ji announced that the five Sikhs have shown great courage and loyalty by offering heads for their faith and from now they will be known as the “Five Beloved Ones” (Panj -Piyare).
Next, Guru Gobind Singh Ji prepared the Amrit, Guru Ji gave five palms full of Amrit to drink (for internal/mind’s purification), sprinkled five times into their eyes (to see good) and five times into their hairs (regard hair as God’s Will / Wisdom), each time making them repeat after him “WAHEGURU JI KA KHALSA, WAHEGURU JI KI FATEH” meaning Khalsa was creation of God and God has been victorious in the creation of Khalsa”. This demonstrated Guru Ji’s humility where He disclaimed any credit for the creation of Khalsa to himself rather proclaimed it to be God’s own deed.
The remaining Amrit was drank by the Panj Piyare from the same bowl which was a revolution in the history in that although being from different classes and caste (see below), they accepted to be the members of the same class that was “Khalsa Panth”, Guru Gobind Singh Ji as their father and Mata Sahib Kaur as their mother. In order to prove the significance of this event, it is reminded that the people from low classes were not allowed to enter the religious buildings, nor were they given any dignity as human beings. In fact, animals were treated better than low class people i.e. animals could live in the homes of higher class people but low classed person was not even allowed to pass through the street where so called superior class lived.
“Singh” (Lion) & “Kaur” (Princess) were appended to the male & female members respectively of the Khalsa Panth for identification through their names.
The Guru knelt down before the Panj Piyare and requested them to give him Amrit, so that he could become member of the Khalsa Panth as well.This signified that the Guru gave all the glory to the Khalsa. This also showed importance of Amrit which Guru did not want himself to be deprived of. That is why Guru Ji is referred as “Aape Gur Chela” (“Awpy gur cylw”)which meansHe was the Guru and disciple himself i.e. He had no ego to consider himself disciple of the Khalsa. He declared that there was no difference between him and Khalsa.
Guru Gobind Rai now became Guru Gobind Singh. It is worth mentioning here that the Muslim spy sent by the emperor saw the entire event and it left him spell bound. He took Amrit and was named as Gurbakhash Singh. He later sent his resignation to the emperor and said that how foolish he had been to have worked against a God sent person Guru Gobind Singh Ji. He would hope that his sins will be forgiven.
On the day, many thousand Sikhs took Amrit and became member of Khalsa Panth. Code of conduct for the Sikhs (Reht) was established and the Sikhs were given unique identity through possession of 5 essential items as part of their uniform for unique identity, all beginning with letter “K” and were termed as 5K’s i.e. Kes (uncut hair), Kangha (wooden Comb), Karha (Iron ring worn on the wrist), Kirpan (6-12" sword), Kachhehra (baggy shorts).
