Guru Gobind Singh

At age nine, Gobind Rai held the severed head of his martyred father, Guru Tegh Bahadur, an experience that shaped his mission to resist injustice. From Anandpur, he built a disciplined martial community (the Khalsa) devoted to both spiritual and political renewal. A brilliant poet and scholar, he saw the kirpan (sword) as a divine symbol of justice and protection. For Sikhs, it became a sacrament of righteous action. Even today, the Sikh prayer (ardas) begins with an invocation to Bhagauti, the Divine Sword.