Little Known Sindhi Mahapurakh

[tuhintuhin]

Baba Sham Singh is accepted as an undisputed Brahmgyani in Sikh Panth. Great Gurmukhs including Bhai Sahib Randhir Singh jee and Sant Attar Singh jee Mastuanewale accepted Baba jee as Brahmgyani and at some point in their life took guidance from him.

Baba Sham Singh jee was born around 1805 and lived till mid 1920s. He did Kirtan sewa at Siri Darbar Sahib for more than 85 years. During his long life, he came across many great Gurmukhs and wrote about some of them in his book. Presented below is a brief account of a Sindhi Mahapurakh Sant Bhai Thahiriya Singh Kandhra, resident of district Sakhra.

Siri Sant Bhai Thahiriya Singh jee Kandhra was the resident of district Sakhra. He was a great lover of Gurbani and had mountain faith in Siri Guru Granth Sahib jee. He had no attachment to this world, and was a contented, patient, merciful and benevolent Sant. He renounced the world from heart at a very early age. Whatever wealth he received from anywhere, he used to give it away in charity. When his father noticed this charitable behavior of his son, he stopped giving him any money but then Sant jee started taking loan to give charity. When his father found out about this, he told his son to leave his house along with his wife.

Sant jee along with his wife left his father’s house and opened a store in some other village. He continued with his habit of giving charity generously but he noticed that he still had abundant money. Sant jee kept doing Simran of true Naam all the time and for this reason his Bairaag (longing for God) increased day by day. His disinterestedness for the world kept increasing.

As a result of doing simran and paath, he started thinking that only ignorant people love maya (wealth). Wealth is a gift of Vaheguru who is also the giver of countless gifts. He started thinking about why he shouldn’t do simran of Vaheguru who is the giver of all gifts. Thinking along these lines he totally renounced the world and gave up all worldly possessions. He started doing simran day and night. Pleased with his Bhagti (spiritual devotion in form of chanting of Naam), Siri Guru Gobind Singh jee gave him darshan, riding on Blue horse, White falcon (baaz) in his hand, and Kalgi on his dastaar. Sant jee was filled with gratitude for Guru Sahib. Guru Sahib gave him many boons and blessings.

After getting spiritual power from Guru Sahib, Sant jee went on extensive parchaar (preaching) of Gurmat and as a result of his parchaar countless people stopped worshipping graves, ghosts, stone and idols; and stopped doing Black magic, superstitions and other such anti-Gurmat practices. They started worshipping the true Lord through Siri Guru Granth Sahib jee. Sant jee had immense love for Siri Guru Granth Sahib jee and was unable to survive without darshan of Guru Sahib at least once a day. Where ever he went, he always carried Guru Sahib along with him.

This way most of the Sindhi people were connected spiritually to Siri Guru Granth Sahib jee. Baba Sham Singh jee has written that Sant Bhai Thahiriya Singh came for darshan of Siri Harmandir Sahib along with countless Sindhi sangat. Baba jee has written that because of sangat of Sant jee, all the sangat who came along with him had become very holy and pious. They were never tired doing Gurbani Kirtan no matter how late it was at night and while doing kirtan they lost all consciousness of eating food or sleeping.

Not much else is written about the life of Sant jee but since Baba Sham Singh jee has written about him, he must have been a Gurmukh of high spiritual state.

In the memory of Sant jee there are several Gurdwaras and deras including one near Darbar Sahib called “Sant Thahiriya Singh Nivas Asthaan”. Other places where Gurdwaras have been established in his memory are Siri Hazoor Sahib, Bombay, Indore, Gwalior and Malerkotla. This is as per the writing of Sant Baba Sham Singh jee, written more than 100 years ago. Whether these places are still standing today, is unknown to the writer.

God knows how many unknown Gurmukhs have lived and earned the true laaha of Naam. May Guru Sahib enable us to earn the true laaha of Naam and Gurbani while living in this precious human form.