Guru Har Rai

Guru Har Rai ([ɡʊru həɾ ɾɑɪ]; 16 January 1630 – 6 October 1661) was the seventh of the Sikh Gurus. He became Guru on 8 March 1644 following the footsteps of his grandfather. Just before his death at age 31, Guru Har Rai Sahib passed the Guru Gaddi to his younger son, the five year old Guru Har Krishan.

Guru Har Rai was the son of Baba Gurdita and Mata Nihal Kaur (also known as Mata Ananti). Baba Gurdita was son of the sixth Guru Hargobind. Guru Har Rai married Mata Kishan Kaur (sometimes also referred to as Sulakhni) the daughter of Daya Ram. He had two sons named Ram Rai and Guru Harkrishan.

Armed legion of Sikh soldiers

Although, Guru Har Rai was a man of peace, he never disbanded an army of more than 1200 Sikh warriors ( which was a lot at that time ), who earlier were maintained by his grandfather, Guru Hargobind. He always boosted the military spirit of the Sikhs, but never indulged in any direct political or armed war with the Mughal Empire.

Helped Dara Sikoh escape death

Rai

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Guru

Guru (Sanskrit: गुरु. IAST: guru) is a Sanskrit term that connotes someone who is a "teacher, guide or master" of certain knowledge. In pan-Indian traditions, guru is someone more than a teacher, traditionally a reverential figure to the student, with the guru serving as a "counselor, who helps mold values, shares experiential knowledge as much as literal knowledge, an exemplar in life, an inspirational source and who helps in the spiritual evolution of a student." The term also refers to someone who primarily is one's spiritual guide, who helps one to discover the same potentialities that the guru has already realized.

The oldest references to the concept of guru are found in the earliest Vedic texts of Hinduism. The guru, and gurukul – a school run by guru, were an established tradition in India by the 1st millennium BCE, and these helped compose and transmit the various Vedas, the Upanishads, texts of various schools of Hindu philosophy, and post-Vedic Shastras ranging from spiritual knowledge to various arts. By about mid 1st millennium CE, archaeological and epigraphical evidence suggest numerous larger institutions of gurus existed in India, some near Hindu temples, where guru-shishya tradition helped preserve, create and transmit various fields of knowledge. These gurus led broad ranges of studies including Hindu scriptures, Buddhist texts, grammar, philosophy, martial arts, music and painting.

Guru Har Krishan

Guru Har Krishan ([ɡʊru həɾ kɾɪʃən]; 23 July 1656 – 30 March 1664) was the eighth of the ten Sikh Gurus. At the age of 5, he became youngest Guru in Sikhism on 7 October 1661, succeeding his father, Guru Har Rai.

He is also known as Bal Guru (Child Guru). He died at age eight during a smallpox epidemic in Delhi, and his granduncle Guru Tegh Bahadur became the next Guru of the Sikhs. He had the shortest tenure as Guru, lasting only 2 years, 5 months and 24 days.

Early days

Har Krishan was born in Kiratpur Sahib, Rupnagar, Punjab, India to Guru Har Rai and Kishan dei (Mata Sulakhni).

Before His death in October 1661, Guru Har Rai designated his younger son Har Krishan as the next Guru. Har Rai chose Har Krishan, rather than his elder son Ram Rai, because Ram Rai was in collusion with the Mughal Empire. Har Krishan was only five years old when he succeeded his father as Guru.

Attainment of Guruship

It is said that when Guru Har Rai was asked which of his two sons Ram Rai and Har Krishan would be the next guru, he said that although both of them followed the same religion and recited the same bani, there was softness in the heart of Har Krishan and Ram Rai was rough from the heart.