Miri-Piri Divas: the two swords of Sri Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji

Miri-Piri Divas remembers the teaching of Sri Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji, the sixth Guru, who wore two swords: one of Miri, worldly authority and responsibility, and one of Piri, spiritual authority. The day reminds Sikhs that devotion and the duty to stand up for justice belong together.

The two swords

When Sri Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji became Guru in 1606, after the martyrdom of his father, Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji, he put aside the seli, the woollen cord worn by the earlier Gurus, and girded himself with two swords. He built Sri Akal Takht Sahib facing Sri Harmandir Sahib, kept horses and armed Sikhs, and asked Sikhs to bring weapons as offerings. The Sikhs, who had seen their Guru tortured to death, learned to defend themselves and others.

Saint and soldier

Tradition remembers a meeting between the Guru and Samarth Ramdas, the Maratha saint, who asked how a follower of Guru Nanak could carry weapons and ride like a king. The Guru is remembered as answering that he was a householder outwardly and a renunciate within, that the sword was to protect the poor and destroy the tyrant, and that Guru Nanak had renounced not the world but the self. The idea was carried forward by Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji in the Khalsa, the saint-soldier, and the Khanda, the Sikh emblem, includes two curved swords for Miri and Piri.

How the day is observed

Gurdwaras hold kirtan, katha and Ardas, especially at Sri Akal Takht Sahib, and many hold displays of gatka. It is a day to think about how faith shapes the way one acts in the world.