Harbans ji,
Guru Fateh.
You write:
Hemkunt Sahib may not be a place which reflects true History, but coincidently it matches exactly with description given in Bachittar Natak.
Whoever has visited it cannot fail to be just overwhelmed by fabulous sight that he beholds. Can it not be taken as a celebration of the work of art of Bachittar Natak?
Have not the Greek epics produced monuments in celebration of their great epics? Have not the epics of Mahabharat and Ramayan produced great awe inspiring works of art especially in South India?
I agree with your first part of the statement but I am puzzled about your claim of the latter in the first paragraph above.
Do you mean Guru Gobind Singh ji was there- the place called Hemkunt- in his previous reincarnation, (that is what Bachitar Natak claims and it also claims that Guru Gobind Singh penned that himself), which is neither a Gurmat tenet nor is it a Sikhi ideal but a Hindu philosophy based on mythology?
It seems a bit far fetched and quite insulting to Guru Gobind Singh ji -who finalised Khalsa Panth - that he would utter these words about himself which are full of Me-ism and are totally based on Hindu mythology.
We all very well know that Sikhi was founded on One-ism.
Yes, the WOW! factor of Ik Ong Kaar is omnipresent and is manifested all over and around us on this little speck of sand called the Earth and beyond. Guru Nanak himself was awestruck when He explained this AWE! & WOW! factor in a very poetic and precise manner.
In Jap ji- Pataalan pataal lakh,Agaasan agaas-. There are innummerous planets and many many Milky ways. Coincidentally, we found another Milky Way through the telescope named Indira in 1992.
Now, claiming " but coincidentally it
matches exactly with description given in Bachittar Natak." is taking a bit too far in one's imagination.
Don't you think so?
I am sure many places in this world can be described and may look "exactly the same" as the place where Hemkunt is located. But it will not happen because the objective here was to make the ends justify the means. Any mythology can be proven to the ones who believe in it, because of the blinders it demands from the believers and the parochial mindedness to justify the means as they have the ends in their hands from some mythological story which is totally against the Gurmat ideals given to us in SGGS, our Only Guru.
If one visits the alps, the Scandanvian countries with fjords, Bariloche and other beautiful mountains in Chile and in other parts of South America, Africa and even in other corners of India, I am sure one can find "exactly the same" places as mentioned in the Bachiter Natak.
This is my personal opinion about why this mythology became famous, and I may be wrong.
It is because of the Hindu concept that all the sages went to the snowy mountains to "find" God and meditated there although India is considererd a tropical country. If these so called sages had gone to the areas where the temperature is pleasant, hence enjoyable all year around, where fauna and flora is abundant, where the Sangam of the AWE & WOW factor is nitidly shown and hence is shone with many waterfalls and other things, and if that had become the part of Bachitar Natak, I am sure people would have gone to other places in the southern or many other parts of India which offer the same scenario and would have found the " exact" place. As they would in many more parts of the world because there are more tropical forests left than the glacier mountains.
Foz de Iguacu- water falls which are part of Brasil, Argentina and Paraguay in the southern part of the continent are amazingly awe inspiring and the same goes for the Amazon basin up north ( I was fortunate enough to visit the both and many glacier countries both in Europe and in South America), and I am sure there are many, many other places which still exist and no man has ventured in them yet. National Geographic channel may be of a great help to see the places with flora and fauna which were recently discovered and may look " exactly the same" as mentioned in the Bachitar Natak.
So, the AWE & the WOW factor of Ik Ong Kaar is omnipresent and is all around us.
But, Gurbani teaches us in many places that as we have seen this AWE & WOW factor on the outside, let us discover the same within and we are fortunate enough to have the Blue print, the Road Map and the GPS in SGGS, our only Guru.
Many who visit Hemkunt, pridefully and I am sure with total sincerity utter the verse,
" Jithe jai bhayei, merah Satguru, sou thaan suhavah Ram Rajaehey".
But the sad part is that the meaning of the above verse is not about the book called SGGS at Hem Kunt but about ITS teachings. It has to be a part of all us so that our own inner space can breed goodness within so that it can be shared with others.
This is the way I see the meaning of the verse:
"Whichever place my Satguru- the True Teacher - Ik Ong Kaar- dwells at, that place becomes blessed, divine, awesome, motivating, marching ahead, doing good abode."
The only THAAN SUHAVAH can be built, erected, cultivated is within with the help of SGGS, our only Guru- our only Blue Print, our only Road Map and last but not the least, our only GPS.
So, let us make use of this. Our Gurus demand that from us.
The survival of Khalsa Panth which was started by Guru Nanak and the finishing touches were put by Guru Gobind Singh depends on this.
It does not depend on any meaningless slogans or on any man made myths.
Tejwant Singh