The very day Guru Teg Bahadur offered his sacrifice Guru Gobind Singh descended on the Guru throne as the rightful heir by unanimous consent of the Sikh bodies. Even before leaving Anandpur Sahib for Delhi Guru Teg Bahadur had himself appointed Guru Gobind as the inheritor of the Guru Gaddi after him. The only dilemma was that Guru Gobind was only 9 year old then. And Sikhism itself was a fledgling religion nesting on the tree of Hinduism. It faced challenges from all sides. Mogul were after it wanting to nip it in the bud before it became a real threat. Orthodox Hindu priests despised it because it stood against casteism and other evil social customs the priests perpetuated.
Then, there were internal rivalries among various Sikh bodies, sects and individuals. Even for a child prodigy hurdles appeared daunting. Many of the followers doubted the immature leadership’s ability to keep the flock together and to work for the progress of the Sikhism. Guru Teg Bahadur had done everything to see his son properly educated but the learning and training also needs time to take roots. How much could a 9 year old learn in 4-5 years of time of the post-childhood period? And there was also the fact that young Gobind had the little benefit of living with his father to learn things by association as his father mostly remained away from family being busy in his preaching missions.
Anyway one year after the sacrifice of Guru Teg Bahadur, in 1676 Gobind was duly coronated as the Tenth Guru of the Sikhs. A large number of Sikhs and the representatives of various Sikh bodies took part in the ceremony.
The faithfuls of Guru were asked to present arms and war horses as gifts instead of the traditional costly items. It was indicative of the changed mindset of the Sikhs towards the Mogul rulers of Delhi. Their hostile attitude was becoming apparent. The cruel treatment meted out to Guru Teg Bahadur had filled the hearts of the faithfuls with a wish to challenge the tormentor Moguls in the battle field to take revenge. It had become clear that in the prevailing situation one needed the support of the sword to defend one’s own faith or there was nothing but humiliation. What fate Guru Teg Bahadur had met had made every Sikh heart suffer the agony which was seeding a new realisation and specific aim. Their new Guru had already formed a warrior mindset in the very childhood.
Young Guru Gobindrai did not flounder or betrayed any teething trouble after taking charge. Infact, he began to mature at incredibly fast rate. His father’s glorious sacrifice and the responsibility of leading the Sikh faith were fuelling his mental growth.
He had taken a vow in his mind to physically deal with the tyranny of Mogul rulers. For that purpose he chalked out three important tasks, the first was the serious devotion to education, the second was to remould the faithfuls into soldiers and the third was to train and equip them with arms.
Guru Gobindrai was capable of grooming the people who were talented but lacked the courage to take decisions. He wanted Hindus to learn to rule and he was confident that he could transform meek Hindus into ferocious warriors by igniting fire in them. The later events proved that he was not merely whistling into the dark. He did raise such a dare devil army that the Mogul had to pay a heavy price and suffered debilitating setbacks.
Your guru won the confidence of the faithfuls in a very short time through some very smart acts.
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