Gurgaddi Purab of Sri Guru Har Rai Sahib Ji: the gentle seventh Guru

The Gurgaddi Purab of Sri Guru Har Rai Sahib Ji remembers the day in 1644 when Sri Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji, at Kiratpur Sahib on the Sutlej, entrusted the Guruship to his grandson. Har Rai Ji, the son of Baba Gurditta Ji and Mata Nihal Kaur Ji, was fourteen. The SGPC's Nanakshahi calendar keeps the anniversary on a fixed solar date.

The flower and the robe

Sikh tradition tells that as a boy, Har Rai Ji was walking in a garden when his long robe caught a rose bush and some petals fell. He stopped, saddened. His grandfather is remembered as telling him that a robe should be gathered in so that it harms nothing as one passes; and Har Rai Ji carried that lesson for the rest of his life. He is remembered as the gentlest of the Gurus, with a deep love of nature and every living thing.

A peaceful Guruship

Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji passed over his own surviving sons and chose the boy for his devotion and character. As Guru, Sri Guru Har Rai Sahib Ji kept a body of about two thousand mounted Sikhs, as his grandfather had asked, but his years were largely peaceful and given to preaching in Punjab, the Malwa and beyond. He kept gardens and a dispensary of herbal medicines at Kiratpur Sahib, and tradition remembers that he sent medicine that healed Dara Shikoh, the son of the emperor Shah Jahan, without regard to the family's past hostility.

How the day is observed

The day is marked with kirtan and Ardas at Kiratpur Sahib and in gurdwaras everywhere. Katha often turns to his care for living things, and some sangats plant trees in his memory.