Harmandir Sahib, Amritsar · Bernard Gagnon · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sikhism

Tradition·Founded 1499 CE·est. ~26 million worldwide

Sikhism → 1 branch

Branch
G Figure of Sikhism

Guru Har Rai and Guru Har Krishan — the gardener and the child.

Har Rai kept a herb garden and a free dispensary that treated the emperor's own son, and disowned his elder son for altering a single line of Nanak's verse to flatter Aurangzeb. Har Krishan became Guru at five, nursed Delhi through a smallpox epidemic, and caught it himself at eight.

Names & titlesGuru Har Rai and Guru Har Krishan
DomainSeventh and eighth Gurus — the gardener and the child
RelationsGrandson and great-grandson of Guru Hargobind; Har Rai disowned his elder son Ram Rai
Depicted asHar Rai with medicinal herbs; Har Krishan as a boy, hand raised
StandingHar Krishan became Guru at five and died of smallpox at eight, nursing the sick in Delhi
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

These two are the shortest Guruships and are usually skipped, which is a mistake. Har Rai kept a large herb garden and a free dispensary at Kiratpur, sent medicine to the Mughal prince Dara Shikoh, and is remembered in Punjabi devotional literature for extreme carefulness with living things — the story of him lifting his robe so as not to damage flowers is told to children. His decision to bar his elder son Ram Rai for altering a word of scripture to please Aurangzeb is the tradition's hardest statement about textual integrity: the succession went instead to Har Krishan, who was five. Har Krishan was summoned to Delhi, refused to see the emperor, and spent his time in the sick quarters of a city in a smallpox epidemic until he caught it and died at eight. Gurdwara Bangla Sahib in Delhi stands where he stayed, and it runs one of the largest langars in India.

The same ground, other faiths

claims that share this one's ideas
The woman they were going to stone. Christianity · story Read it in full →
The Rigveda. Vedic Religion · scripture Open the book →
Ahimsa — do no harm. Hinduism · precept Go deeper →
Compassion extends to all sentient beings. Buddhism · core tenet Go deeper →
The Agamas. Jainism · scripture Open the book →
Argument, for the sake of heaven, is sacred. Judaism · core tenet Go deeper →

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