ਪੂਰੀ ਹੋਈ ਕਰਾਮਾਤਿ ਆਪਿ ਸਿਰਜਣਹਾਰੈ ਧਾਰਿਆ ॥
ਸਿਖੀ ਅਤੈ ਸੰਗਤੀ ਪਾਰਬ੍ਰਹਮੁ ਕਰਿ ਨਮਸਕਾਰਿਆ ॥
Complete miracle has happened; by Own-Self, the Creator has established (him).
Sikhs and sangat, having considered (him) the Transcendent Being, have saluted.
Vahiguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Vahiguru Ji Ki Fatih!
Today, we reverently celebrate the Gurgaddi Divas (Coronation Day) of Guru Ramdas Sahib.
In Ramkali ki Var, Bhai Satta and Bhai Balvand describe Guru Ramdas Sahib’s transformation into the Guru as a complete karamat, a complete miracle.
Perhaps there is no better way to reflect upon his life.
Guru Ramdas Sahib was born as Jetha in Chuna Mandi, Lahore. He lost his parents while still a child and was raised by his grandmother. His family had little, and from a young age, he worked to help sustain himself, selling chickpeas in the streets.
It is difficult to imagine a beginning further removed from the position he would eventually occupy. The child selling food to make a living would become the fourth Guru of the Sikhs. The orphan with few material possessions would establish a city. The young boy searching for a livelihood would eventually help organize a growing Panth spread across the subcontinent.
The transformation began at Goindval.
As a young boy, Jetha encountered Guru Amardas Sahib and the Sikh sangat that had gathered around him. Something changed. He chose to remain there and entered a life of seva, attaching himself to the Guru and serving the developing Sikh community.
In time, Guru Amardas Sahib arranged the marriage of his daughter, Bibi Bhani, to Bhai Jetha. Their partnership would have consequences extending far beyond their own lives. Their son, Guru Arjan Sahib, became the fifth Guru, and every Guru who followed was descended from Guru Ramdas Sahib and Bibi Bhani. Their household became intertwined with the unfolding history of the Guru itself.
Yet Guru Ramdas Sahib’s significance was never simply a matter of lineage. Guruship was bestowed upon the Sikh who had been transformed through love, discipline, humility, and service.
When Guru Amardas Sahib passed the light of Guru Nanak Sahib to Guru Ramdas Sahib, he also entrusted him with a Panth that had grown far beyond a single locality. Guru Ramdas Sahib strengthened the network of representatives connecting distant sangats to the Guru, helping organize an increasingly large and diverse Sikh community.
At the center of this growing Panth, he began something extraordinary.
Guru Ramdas Sahib founded a new settlement that came to be known as Guru ka Chak, Chak Ramdas, and eventually Ramdaspur. He invited Sikhs to settle there, while merchants, craftspeople, laborers, and others were encouraged to make the emerging city their home.
Amritsar was therefore more than a construction project. It represented possibility.
Here was a place being built around the Guru where people from different backgrounds could come together, establish livelihoods, participate in the sangat, and make new lives for themselves. The city physically embodied the community that the Gurus were creating.
At its heart, Guru Ramdas Sahib began the excavation of the Amrit Sarovar. His son and successor, Guru Arjan Sahib, would continue the work and later establish Harimandar Sahib within it. Over the generations, the settlement begun by Guru Ramdas Sahib became Amritsar, the city that remains at the center of Sikh collective life today.
A child who once sold chickpeas in the streets of Lahore had founded the city toward which Sikhs around the world would turn.
The miracle that Bhai Satta and Bhai Balvand saw in Guru Ramdas Sahib was not simply a dramatic reversal of fortune. His life reveals what becomes possible when a person is transformed through the Guru. Humble beginnings did not determine the boundaries of his life. Through seva and devotion, Bhai Jetha became Ramdas, the servant of the Divine, and through the Guru’s grace, Ramdas became Guru.
Bhatt Kirat beautifully situates this transformation within the continuing light of the Guru:
ਨਾਨਕਿ ਨਾਮੁ ਨਿਰੰਜਨ ਜਾਨੵਉ ਕੀਨੀ ਭਗਤਿ ਪ੍ਰੇਮ ਲਿਵ ਲਾਈ ॥
ਤਾ ਤੇ ਅੰਗਦੁ ਅੰਗ ਸੰਗਿ ਭਯੋ ਸਾਇਰੁ ਤਿਨਿ ਸਬਦ ਸੁਰਤਿ ਕੀ ਨੀਵ ਰਖਾਈ ॥
ਗੁਰ ਅਮਰਦਾਸ ਕੀ ਅਕਥ ਕਥਾ ਹੈ ਇਕ ਜੀਹ ਕਛੁ ਕਹੀ ਨ ਜਾਈ ॥
ਸੋਢੀ ਸ੍ਰਿਸ੍ਟਿ ਸਕਲ ਤਾਰਣ ਕਉ ਅਬ ਗੁਰ ਰਾਮਦਾਸ ਕਉ ਮਿਲੀ ਬਡਾਈ ॥੩॥
Guru Nanak Sahib realized the Nam of the Immaculate One, lovingly absorbed in devotion.
From him came Guru Angad Sahib, ever at his side, who established the foundation of consciousness in the Sabad.
The story of Guru Amardas Sahib is an unnarratable narrative; one tongue cannot begin to describe it.
Now, to carry the whole world across, greatness has been bestowed upon Guru Ramdas Sahib, the Sodhi.
On Guru Ramdas Sahib’s Gurgaddi Divas, we commemorate that continuing light and the extraordinary life through which it shone.
From Jetha to Ramdas. From an orphaned child to the Guru of the Panth. From selling chickpeas to building a city. From Goindwal to the Amrit Sarovar and the future Harimandar Sahib.
The miracle was made complete.
May we continue to be inspired by the transformation and the miracle, the foresight and the devotion—by the steady, unfathomable, unweighable Guru Ramdas.
In celebration,
The SikhRI Team
