Guru Kiyan Sakhiyan, Bhai Swaroop Singh Kaushish

Here goes the tale of celebrating the Divaali (Festival of Lights) at the town of Paonta.

Satguru Ji accompanied Raja Medani Prakaash and said good-bye to Sri Ram Rai Ji up to the boat at the bank of Jamuna. Sri Ram Rai Ji after crossing on the boat steadily reached at his residence. Here, Guru Ji sent commandments to the Sikh congregations that this time come to Paonta Sahib to celebrate Divaali [17th October 1685 CE].

On getting the directive of Satguru Ji, the congregations from Delhi, East, Assam, Majha, Malwa, Doaba, Puthohar, Kabul etc, all of those countries, swarmed to the town of Paonta.

From Assam, Rattan Rai, the son of Raja Sug Deo, along with his mother and uncle Ram Rai came. They were loaded with many precious artefacts. Previously, Rattan Rai had come back to Chak Nanki along with his mother and father when he was just twelve years old. That time too, his parents had donated many precious articles. Among them, there was one convertible arm; by twisting it’s knob, it could be changed into a sword, a pistol, a spear, a mace or a pike. Also they had presented one unique elephant, which had a white streak from head to tail. Apart from that there were ornamented bowl of gold, gold crest, rosary of pearls and one hundred gold coins. They supplicated after offering all these.

Similarly people with various gifts came from all the countries. There was hustle and bustle everywhere. Sri Amrit Rai, Tehkan Gujratia, Ani Rai, Alam, et al, also came there and presented themselves in the Durbar of fifty-two poets.

Apart from that, Guru Ji himself was an adept poet and the poetical symposia ensued everyday. At Anandpur, Guru Ji had already begun writing ‘Krishna Avatar’ and the time started to fly at Paonta.