The following is the second part of Sant Maghar Singh's brief life sketch. For previous part, please refer to:
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Hukam to Maintain High Moral CharacterIn the absence of barracks and camps, the Sikh soldiers were staying at the houses of French civilians. For this reason, Sant Maghar Singh jee had given strict instructions to all Sikh soldiers to maintain a high moral character and not give bad name to Sikhi by indulging in Kaamic activities. Sant jee said it very clearly, “If we see any Sikh soldier committing an anti-Gurmat Kaamic action, we will right away shoot such person and if any of you see us doing anything wrong, you must shoot us and if you don’t shoot us for our anti-Gurmat Kaamic action, then we will certainly shoot you.”
This was a very strict Hukam but it was very much required because such mistakes were common for soldiers in those days. It was considered to be important to fulfill the carnal needs of the soldiers engaged in fighting the enemy. There are many stories of Japanese soldiers sexually exploiting Korean and Chinese women during the 2nd world war. Same way, such atrocities used to get committed by most soldiers of those times.
Another factor was that most young men of Europe had been recruited to join army and fight the enemy. The cities were empty of young men in those times and for this reason, young women were driven to transgression by their carnal desires. But such sinful activity is unthinkable for a Sikh and in order to save them from transgressing, Sant jee issued such strict Hukam of shooting any Sikh soldier indulged in Kaamic activity.
Soldier Mansha Singh Faces TemptationThis story was narrated by one of the companion of Sant jee whose name was Bhai Mansha Singh. One day, Sant jee before going to the war front, asked Mansha Singh to stay behind and do cooking. After Sant jee had left, the girl who lived in the neighbouring house came over and asked Mansha Singh if he needed any help. Her intentions were not pure but Mansha Singh was able to resist her advances. He dryly replied in negative and the girl left.
A little while later she came back again and asked Mansha Singh if he needed anything. Mansha Singh could sense what need she was referring to but he had been doing Sangat of a Gurmukh and for this reason, he was not led astray. This time he addressed her as sister and said that he did not need anything. The girl left but someone complained to Sant jee when he came back that a girl had been visiting Mansha Singh during the day.
Sant jee came home and took hold of his gun and ordered Mansha Singh to stand by the wall. He further ordered him to start doing Vaheguru Simran and informed him that he was going to shoot him.
Mansha Singh humbly replied that it would be a pleasure to die at the hands of Sant jee but he wished to explain about the girl’s visits to their house. When Mansha Singh narrated the whole story of how she tried to seduce him and how he refused her advances, Sant jee was extremely pleased. He got up and embraced Mansha Singh and gave him many blessings.
It was because of presence of such Gurmukhs like Sant Maghar Singh jee and Bau Mal Singh jee that ordinary Sikh soldiers maintained high moral character during such trying times.
Sant Maghar Singh jee RamgarhSant jee’s Samadhi and faith in Guru Sahib’s Divine ProtectionIn France it gets quite cold during the winter and in the area where the Sikh soldiers were stationed, it snowed too. Sant jee used to get up at Amritvela and do Ishnaan even in such harsh weather. One day Sant jee did Ishnaan and after Ishnaan just sat outside doing Abhyaas. While doing Abhyaas, his Surthee went into deep spiritual realms and this way he went deep into Samadhi. While he was in spiritual trance, it started snowing and he totally got covered by snow. In the morning when no one could find Sant jee, they went out to look for him. After much searching they discovered him buried in snow. Mr Hill, the commander of that unit, too was involved in the search. They all quickly brought Sant jee over to their residence and massaged his body to give it heat. Sant jee was perfectly fine and his body showed no evidence of any kind of damage due to exposure to freezing snow.
While fighting on the war front, Sant jee used to fight without any fear of getting hit. He used to sing Gurbani loudly and sometimes in the midst of heavy bombardment, he used to sit in sitting posture and go in Samadhi chanting Naam. Bombs used to fall right and left to him but never used to harm him and Sant jee too never used to get even an iota of worry of getting hit by a bomb. In such instances he used to make no effort to safeguard himself. Everyone used to try to sit near Sant jee because they all had faith that no bomb could harm them there.
Such was the faith and devotion of Gurmukh Pyare Sant Maghar Singh jee.
Samagam to Celebrate Victory and moving towards Middle EastOn March 26, 1915, the Sikh soldiers celebrated their victory over the enemy by doing a Kirtan Samagam. Sant jee always used to start doing Kirtan by singing the Shabad ਸੇਵਕ ਕਉ ਨਿਕਟੀ ਹੋਇ ਦਿਖਾਵੈ ॥ Since he was was very fond of doing Baani of Siri Guru Gobind Singh jee, he sang many Shabads of Dasam Baani that day in Samagam.
After this Samagam, they had few more battles in Europe but soon this unit of Sikh army was sent to Middle East (modern day Iraq). All the way from Europe to Middle East, Sant jee stayed absorbed in Naam Simran and this way gained heavy spiritual earnings.
Saved from DrowningThey were travelling from Basra to another city in that area and they had to cross a very fast flowing canal. All soldiers were to cross this canal in boats. In the boat that Sant jee took had Arjun Singh, Inder Singh, Jawala Singh and a European officer. When the boat reached the middle, water started filling it since the current of water was very tumultuous. With water filling the boat, it started getting heavy and was about to drown. The European officer jumped out of the boat following by Inder Singh and Arjun Singh.
When Jawala Singh was about to jump, Sant jee smilingly said, “where are you going to go after jumping in the canal? Kartar (Vaheguru) is everywhere every moment. Have faith in Vaheguru and stay on the boat.” Jawala Singh obeyed and stayed back. Arjun Singh drowned in the canal and other two swam across. The water filled boat that was carrying Sant jee and Jawala Singh too somehow got across. Both Sant jee and Jawala Singh were saved.
Going for Darshan of Sangat at all CostSoon the Sikh unit arrived at Sheik Saad. The date they arrived was around January 20, 1916. This place is quite beautiful but it has lots of flies and mosquitoes but most houses have basements for protection from extreme weather and flies and mosquitoes. These Bhoray (basement) were very suitable for Sant jee and other Gurmukhs who stayed engaged in Naam Abhyaas for about a month.
One day, Sant jee noticed Nishan Sahib on the other side of the river. He also heard faint sound of Kirtan coming from there. He decided to attend the Amrit-vela Siri Asa kee Vaar Samagam the next day. Early morning at 2Am, he did Ishnaan along with Bhai Naranjan Singh and reached the bank of river Dajla. They found that the waters in the river were quite tumultuous because of rainstorm.
It would have been quite dangerous to cross the river in such situation but Sant jee had made up his mind to have Darshan at all cost. He asked Bhai Naranjan Singh to go back. Naranjan Singh said that at morning the order is to leave this place and it would not be possible to reach back on time. Secondly he reminded Sant jee about the tumultuous waters of the river. He asked Sant jee to forgo his idea of going to Sangat.
Sant jee replied unwittingly that the Hukam to march out would get cancelled and as far as crossing the river was concerned, Guru Sahib’s Hukam was very clear on it:
ਝਖੜੁ ਝਾਗੀ ਮੀਹੁ ਵਰਸੈ ਭੀ ਗੁਰੁ ਦੇਖਣ ਜਾਈ ॥13॥
ਸਮੁੰਦੁ ਸਾਗਰੁ ਹੋਵੈ ਬਹੁ ਖਾਰਾ ਗੁਰਸਿਖੁ ਲੰਘਿ ਗੁਰ ਪਹਿ ਜਾਈ ॥14॥He asked Naranjan Singh to leave. Saying this he was about to jump in the river that he heard a voice who asked him to stop. An Arab boatman had arrived from nowhere and asked Sant jee to board on his boat. It was a Vaheguru-sent help.
Sant jee reached the Sangat and was extremely pleased to have Darshan of Guru Sahib and Sangat there. He earned countless spiritual earnings in Sangat and on his way back found the same boatman waiting for him. When Sant jee and Naranjan Singh arrived back at their camp they found out that the order to march had been cancelled as Sant jee had said.
Such was the devotion of Gurmukh Pyare Sant Maghar Singh jee.
Daas,
Kulbir Singh
To be continued
ਸਤਿਗੁਰਬਚਨਕਮਾਵਣੇਸਚਾਏਹੁਵੀਚਾਰੁ॥
