भारतीय इतिहास के ६ स्वर्णिम पृष्ठ (वीर सावरकर - विदेशी आक्रान्ताओं पर विजय गाथा)

954-955. Nor now in the fading light of my last days, is any time left for them! This Rana Pratap Singh, a great ornament to the Hindu society, died in A.D. 1581. The rise of the Sikhs in Punjab—a new awakening of the Hindu might 956. A saintly person, by name Guru Nanak, started a new religious sect in Punjab by the end of the fifteenth century, the followers of which soon organized themselves into a homogeneous group calling themselves Shikh [Sikh— शिष्य—The disciples of Guru Nanak] Shree Guru Nanak was not a sanyasi—a recluse—but a man with a family to bring up. He preached that the worship of God and the service of humanity was possible through devotion. “Every man can follow this path of devotion!”, he asserted. 956A. At that time not only in Punjab but throughout the whole of India, the Muslims had waged a total war against Hinduism and resounded the whole country with the clash of swords, the twang of arrows and the beat of drums. But throughout the whole of India, Hindu rulers and the Hindu populace had been bravely resisting the Muslim aggression on every battlefield. Allauddin’s almost completed India-wide conquest and the consequent Muslim empire, was precipitately broken into numerous fragments and free and strong Hindu States like the Vijaynagar empire had already been established. In Rajputana and Gondwana, too, the Hindu Kings with their daring armies had frequently worsted the Muslim forces! 957. But in Punjab alone, there was left no Hindu strong enough to challenge the Muslim government. At such a dark hour SHREE GURU NANAK began to preach in the Punjab that from the point of view of God, both the Hindus and the Muslims were the same. Both the communities could attain bliss through his path of devotion. Both the communities were one common fraternity. In his sect, he said, he did not recognize any distinction between the two. Yet with all his preaching of this common accord, very few Muslims could be found amongst his disciples. All the others were Hindus. Shree Guru Nanak himself was a Khatri. He died in A.D. 1538. Although he had sons of his own, they did not follow his tenets. So, he installed his disciple Angad as the chief priest after himself. This sect of Shree Guru Nanak, however, was at least up to his death, nothing more than a mere devotional group, a singing choir of devotional songs and mattered very little politically. Still, his grief at the miserable plight of the Hindus, found echoes in some of his writings. For example: