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Travel
Gurdwara Dukh Nivaran
by RUPINDER KAUR
The Basant season, popularly known as Spring in various parts of the world, has great importance in gurbani.
As the Basant season approaches, flowers blossom and seedlings come out. In many ways, this is a new beginning not only for plant life but for us too. We should take inspiration from this season and make an attempt to accentuate its qualities within us.
Basant Panchmi is celebrated all over the subcontinent.
In Punjab, the day is significant owing to the visit of the Ninth Master, Guru Tegh Bahadar, to the village named Lehal (now part of Patiala) and his curing numerous people suffering from a serious and mysterious disease.
Ever since, each year people from nearby as well as far flung areas come to visit this place where today stands a gurdwara named Dukh Nivaran Sahib.
On this occasion the gurdwara is decorated beautifully with lights. Long queues of devotees starting from the main gate till the Darbar Hall can be seen here who, after the darshan, move toward the ‘sarovar' or the pond to take ishnaan or dip in it, starting from midnight itself. Tadition says that the water has healing powers.
The place where there is a sarovar now was originally a small pond dug on the orders of Guru Tegh Bahadar, so as to cure the people. At that time, Guru Sahib was on his sojourn at the village of Safiabad which is now known as Bahadurgarh. According to history, supported by an old handwritten HukamNama which is still preserved in the gurdwara, a resident of this village named Bhag Ram requested Guru Tegh Bahadar to visit his village and bless the people. Guru ji asked the ailing people to drink the water from the pond. Soon the villagers got rid of the disease and since then the place has come to be known as Dukh Nivaran ('eradicator of suffering').
According to the HukamNama, any person who takes a dip in the pond with full devotion on the day of Basant Panchmi, will get rid of all his ailments.
February 8, 2011
Conversation about this article
1: N. Singh (Canada), February 08, 2011, 5:33 PM.
My earliest childhood memories are of going to Gurdwara Dukh Nivaran with my Nana ji. It is the one of the most beautiful places in the world. I would play around the tree where Guru ji meditated. I always felt safe and protected there. In 1986 I witnessed first-hand the devastation of the 1984 attack by government troops on THIS gurdwara. Even two years later, there were pot-holes in the stone pillar that holds the Nishan Sahib as well as the walls of the main gurdwara. The sarovar in which my parents had bathed me many times was now full of fish. I was told that after the attack the sarovar ran blood-red and had to be cleaned out quickly ... people then filled it with water which must have contained either small fish or fish eggs because the fish suddenly appeared.
2: Brijinder Singh (New York, U.S.A.), February 08, 2011, 8:37 PM.
It is a beautiful gurdwara with obvious historical significance. However, I doubt that the water has the ability to cure people of disease. Guru Tegh Bahadar was a wise man and he never claimed to have supernatural powers. Guru Nanak preached against superstition and mysticism, and it is a shame that these things have crept back into our thinking.
3: Rajinder Singh (Mumbai, India), February 08, 2011, 9:20 PM.
Satguru tumaare kaaj sawaarey ...
4: Mohan Singh (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), February 09, 2011, 10:48 AM.
Guru Amardas says on page 843 of the Guru Granth: "Only fools worry about these omens and days." It appears that brahman-vaad rituals are still prevailing in our gurdwaras. All sarovar around gurdwaras are considered as amrit sarovars, as they have the current of gurbaani in them.
5: Jasvinder Singh (New Delhi, India), February 10, 2011, 2:31 PM.
I have visited the Gurdwara plenty of times wheneverzI go to Punjab to visit my in-laws. The name "Dukh Nivaran" symbolizes the power of faith for which the Gurdwara stands today with its historical importance. My first visit to Patiala and this gurdwara was in 2007 with my parents. I saw a physically handicapped and challenged man escorted by his mother, praying with complete faith. This reminded me about Dukh Bhanjani Beri near the Darbar Sahib sarovar in Amritsar and the associated story. The supernatural power comes to you with a strong faith that you can always fight back the problems in life whatever they are. By visiting these gurdwaras one truly gets the inspiration and the strength.
6: I. Singh (Bell, U.S.A.), March 31, 2011, 5:27 AM.
N. Singh ji: I know exactly what holes you are talking about as I witnessed these holes myself after a few days of the operation. All government agencies and media only talk about the attack on the Darbar Sahib but so many gurdwaras around the country, including this one, were attacked as well. Countless numbers of innocent people were killed or injured during these military assaults.