Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s Last Wish
The accompanying extract is being taken from Bhai Sahib Randhir Singh Ji’s self-portrayal, “The Jail Chittihiya” (Letters from Jail). In this part, Bhai Randhir Singh portrays his gathering with Shaheed Bhagat Singh. Prior to meeting with Bhai Randhir Singh, Bhagat Singh stayed a firm skeptic—however subsequent to having sangat of a Gursikh that lasted just two hours completely changed him and changed his mind in God. After this gathering, Bhagat Singh moved nearer to Sikhi and kept his kesh (hair) whole for the remainder of his life, until suffering.
It was finally 6 October, 1930. It was unlike any other evening at 6 pm.
The information on my delivery was reported and everybody was extremely cheerful about it. I was sitting in an euphoric isolation inside my cell. Every one of the nationalists surged towards my cell to break the news to me and praise me.
The first to come and praise me was Bhai Gajjan Singh (Master). Very quickly, different nationalists accumulated around me and read cheerfully the sets of delivery.
I was overpowered less by the delight of delivery as by the division I would need to bear from committed companions like Bhai Kartar Singh (of Canada). I was overpowered by these double feelings of bliss and distress when companions came to offer farewell with cherishing embraces.
The jail authorities remained there prepared to complete the request for my delivery yet my feet were hesitant to move away from such dear colleagues. I accepted everybody of them and after a couple of friendly words with every single one of them, I left them all with tears in their eyes. The stream isolated from the waterway finally.
At the point when I left these jail wards, I met Mohammed Akbar close to the focal arch. He was grinning and coming towards me. On seeing me, he saluted me for my delivery. Absent to his felicitations, I revealed to him that it was time that he ought to satisfy his guarantee. He ought not botch the opportunity. He grinned and said that he had effectively made game plan for the gathering with Bhagat Singh. “You could now meet him for full two hours.”
I inquired as to whether he had taken authorization from the Superintendent.
“Before I thought that it was important to ask him, the Superintendent was at that point stressed and confounded and was searching an exit from a tough spot. His concern is that you ought to be discreetly delivered without allowing any opportunity to outcasts to make a lot of clamor about your delivery. He requested that I discover an exit from this trouble. He said, there are ordinary pickets of individuals outside, who are sitting tight for the information on the arrival of political detainees.
“When a political detainee is delivered the word gets out like fire and there is an incredible commotion and uproar of long parades, which are exceptionally upsetting to the Government. The Government has given severe guidelines, that the delivery ought to be confidential and calm. You see individuals sitting close to the jail entryways in customary pickets till nightfall. ‘You should make some plan to send Randhir Singh out covertly and unobtrusively so we may not be faulted for anything later on.’
“At that exact instant, I asked the Superintendent not to stress and recommended to him the arrangement, saying, ‘You recall sir, the day Randhir Singh resulted in these present circumstances jail, Bhagat Singh who has been condemned to death presented an application for authorization to meet him, yet you dismissed it. I accept that on the off chance that we presently permit him to meet Randhir Singh, the gathering might require around two hours. It will be very dull by then, at that point and by 8 pm we will send Randhir Singh out. Accordingly severe mystery about the delivery will be kept up with.’
“The Superintendent was intrigued by this idea and happily gave requests to permit this gathering and you can talk openly as long as you prefer. I will presently give you a jailer, who will direct you to Bhagat Singh.”
So saying, he sent a jail jailer with me and requested him to allow us to have an unhindered gathering.
Bhagat Singh was going for his every day walk in the jail compound. He had been told about the consent conceded for this gathering. On seeing me he came running towards me. I was remaining external the fence of the patio. He approached the fence and welcomed me with extraordinary love and love, bowing low out of worship. I likewise collapsed my hands and welcomed him energetically.
The corrections officer moved away when we were together. Indeed, even the police officers working in the compound avoided us. We were in isolation confronting one another.
Bhagat Singh was so overpowered by the delight of meeting following quite a while of restless minutes, that tears moved down his eyes. I had scarcely met anybody in life who had grown so profound friendship and love even prior to coming into contact with me. Maybe we had known one another for long time.
In an euphoric tone he said, “O, I can barely say how cheerful I am today on having met you finally. Day and night, I was anxiously yearning for simply a short gathering with you. Finally the favored second has come and my wishes have been satisfied. In the wake of knowing all your extraordinary forfeits and experiencing in jail, I had become your sharp admirer and enthusiastic fan.
“It was the valor of the extraordinary political dissidents of 1914-15 like you which propelled an immaterial loyalist like me. All our upheaval abuses aren’t anything contrasted with the surprising brave deeds performed by you and your friends. Your own life and battle for opportunity and rights particularly intrigued me.
“Munshi Manna Singh maybe advised you with what energetic aching I was aching to meet you and converse with you. I should say that my inward connection and deference for you took you back to Lahore jail following sixteen years. At the point when I initially made an impression on you inside this jail, that I was restless to meet you, I accepted your heavenly order to keep the Sikh images (unshorn facial hair and hair).
“I’m ready to submit to your wishes. I’m truly embarrassed and am ready to reveal to you honestly that I eliminated my hair and facial hair under squeezing conditions. It was for the assistance of the country that my sidekicks constrained me to surrender the Sikh appearance and camouflage myself as a sannyasi (homeless person). So it is in relationship with the skeptical individuals that I was constrained to show lack of regard to my strict images, yet presently I will absolutely do whatever you wish me to do.”
I was happy to see Bhagat Singh apologetic and humble in his current demeanor towards our statements of belief. I was profoundly intrigued by his straightforward assertion of realities, however I was unable to delay in communicating my internal sentiments and I said:
“Sibling Bhagat Singh ji, I am profoundly moved by your adoration for me. I’m likewise intrigued by your soul of administration and energetic energy, however I should advise you, dear sibling, that your allies didn’t offer you great guidance. You appear to look for something exceptionally unimportant and you turned into a prey to the underhanded and naughty ideas of your sidekicks.
“Contrasted with our occasions, the period wherein you took an interest in the opportunity battle is a time of extraordinary arousing. You could valiantly participate in the opportunity battle and serve your nation and mankind as you wished. However, you should be realizing that in our occasions (1914-15) few and uncommon spirits felt propelled to devote their lives to the reason for opportunity. In the Punjab, a couple of Sikhs who could be relied on fingertips were politically alert, felt the enthusiastic enthusiasm to battle for opportunity.
“There was an incredible inclination and political resistance to the chivalrous Gaddar Leaders and loyalists who had come from Canada and America. Each kid in the Punjab was against them. I will give you only one illustration of the ethical fortitude of an incredible nationalist of those days.
“Bhai Nidhan Singh of Chugga town was an extraordinary loyalist and warrior for opportunity, who motivated many Indians living in unfamiliar nations to come to India and devote their lives to opportunity battle. He burned through huge number of rupees from his own pocket for opportunity battle. But then he didn’t camouflage himself. He came transparently via ocean yet the Government immediately made elaborate plans to capture him.
“He arrived at India, alongside his partners, without being recognized. He was unable to be captured. He went to the Punjab and hurled himself serious energy into the opportunity battle. His brave deeds for the reason for opportunity should be known to you. Warrants for his capture had been given, his photo was generally pitched and a cost was set on his head. There was a hard and fast endeavor to capture him. He moved quickly starting with one spot then onto the next getting sorted out the opportunity battle.
“There was no compassion and backing for these political dissidents in general society. The nationalists relied for the most part upon Bhai Nidhan Singh for association and motivation. Obviously, in bravery, there was none so particularly trying as Kartar Singh Sarabha. One day Kartar Singh Sarabha expected that Bhai Nidhan Singh might be captured. He was the vital figure among the political dissidents and it was essential that he ought not be captured soon.
“Keeping just the political interest in see, he proposed to Bhai Nidhan Singh that he should color his facial hair and in this manner change his broadcasted appearance somewhat. Bhai Nidhan Singh strikingly addressed that he could never do something like this and stain and shame his bravery in the opportunity battle. ‘You can utilize me as best as you can imagine with this appearance just, yet don’t make any ideas which would make me a weakling’, he said.
“His allies needed him to succumb to their shrewd ideas yet his assurance stayed unshaken. For getting sorted out the opportunity battle, he headed out twenty to thirty miles per day and in some cases boldly passed nearby police posts. He performed such courageous deeds contrasted with which your arrangements were unimportant. He didn’t consent to change the shade of his facial hair, while you went to the degree of eliminating your hair and facial hair.”
Bhagat Singh: “Really, I didn’t kill Saunders. I was obviously blamed for having killed him. I thought of it as an extraordinary chivalrous deed thus assumed the praise for it.
If there was any advantage in it, I by and by got the credit for the entire deed. Indeed, even in any case there was never be a way out for me.”
Randhir Singh: “The ideal of a genuine loyalist is never to look for such unimportant delights of void credits. For the delight of getting common acclaim, you didn’t spare a moment to tumble from a higher otherworldly ideal of turning into a defector from Sikhi, nor did you at any point apologize over this tumble from a lot higher great. All that you have accomplished by this off-base advance is some trumpeting of your name and bravery by certain papers. You surrendered the Guru’s character for bogus wonder and void desire. In the event that you felt that you committed an error, you ought to have apologized and returned to the Khalsa ideal by keeping a Sikh-like appearance once more. For what reason did you not do it?”
Bhagat Singh: “I may have kept the Sikh personality once more, however at that point I would have lost the kinship and compassion of my companion, B.K Dutt. Also; I would not have such a lot of exposure as I am getting now. It is actually the case that my penances are irrelevant contrasted with the penances of the political dissidents of 1914-15. In any case, after such bewildering penances, they didn’t get any exposure or commendation in the papers. The Sikh papers had exceptionally restricted course. Indeed, even they didn’t uncover all realities of the courageous deeds of nationalists like you, in light of the fact that their bashful approach kept them from composing anything obviously.
“It is the non-Sikh papers which advanced my name broadly and it is through them I have procured all the magnificence related with my name. It’s obviously true that on the off chance that I had kept up with the Sikh appearance and in the event that I had claimed myself to be a rehearsing Sikh and kept hair and facial hair unshorn, the non-Sikh papers would not have composed a word about me, similarly as not compose a word about you and your colleagues.”
“Indeed, of the Sikh papers, just The Khalsa Akhbar of Lahore, a Urdu paper, set out to compose something about you. I know it for sure that the Hindu papers are consistently hesitant to compose even a word in recognition of Sikh loyalists and political dissidents. They don’t care for Sikhs being applauded for anything.
“In the event that I had kept hair and facial hair again and turn into a Sikh, they would have begun putting down me as opposed to applauding me. So I wondered whether or not to keep unshorn hair and facial hair once more.”
Randhir Singh: “On deciding what you have said, my dear Bhagat Singh, your ideal of nationalism is extremely low and ornamentation. To make such a demonstration of energy and administration to the country for individual magnificence is modest pettiness and vain patriotism. The nationalists of 1914-15 development endured and served the nation, keeping just the benevolent assistance of the homeland in see. They didn’t have the smallest considered such modest exposure and never at any point in a fantasy had any aspiration of individual magnificence. It is just in the organization of frivolous leaning and evil-spurred individuals that your brain was deceived into such vain contemplations of individual greatness. The looking for of greatness through papers, and honor and wonder through publicity are on the whole shallow things about which it is properly said in the Guru-Granth Sahib:
“Distraught are the individuals who trumpet a man’s magnificence,
Improper is he who acknowledges such popularity,
He resembles a rodent who has attached a winnowing bushel to his abdomen,
He presently thinks that its unimaginable even to get into his opening.”
On hearing this, Bhagat Singh was profoundly moved and said: “The ideal of Sikhism is no question extremely high. The world overall craves after void wonder as it were. I additionally floated in a similar enthusiasm for individual magnificence. However, today I have understood that this load of things are inactive show of vanity, vanity and self-glorification. I would have been lucky in the event that I had got the chance of living in close relationship with you for no less than three or four months. In the event that I had got this chance to live in your organization for three or four months, I would have acquired a lot and every one of my weaknesses would have vanished.”
“Presently I will do whatever you request that I do. You currently need me to turn into a kesha-dhari Sikh. I currently concede that I committed an extraordinary error. Indeed, even in opposition to this sound family custom, I conflicted with the Guru’s guidelines and showed disrespectfulness to the Sikh images. Be that as it may, there is one more reality, and I would submit a wrongdoing in the event that I cover it from you. I kept hair and facial hair only in light of the fact that there was a long standing practice in our family to do as such.”
(Bhagat Singh, before he wrongly trim his hair)
“I’m extremely pleased to be known as a Sikh. However, the hard reality is that I was never strict on a basic level. You will pardon me on the off chance that I advise you in very plain terms that on a fundamental level I am a skeptic. I actually don’t put stock in God. Every one of my partners know it. With all that, I will do anything you request that I do. On the off chance that you order me, I will keep hair and facial hair. Too bad! if by some stroke of good luck I had got the chance to remain close to you somewhat more, you might have changed my skeptical perspectives.”
Randhir Singh: “I’m exceptionally glad that you have uncovered the reality of your inward perspective and have not covered what is truly in your heart. It is totally futile to keep strict images like hair and facial hair while you are a nonbeliever on a basic level, nor would I be glad for causing you to do something like this. I’m not any more restless about your returning to Sikh structure, nor am I sorry that you don’t have hair and facial hair.”
“My solitary uneasiness and wish presently is that you should kick the bucket with confidence in God. You will bite the dust on the framework. It would have been exceptional if your secularism had vanished before you confronted capital punishment. Despite the fact that you are a skeptic, recall one thing that you won’t bite the dust, keep it engraved in your heart that you won’t pass on. You will be brought back to life. Your spirit is eternal and ever-enduring. It won’t ever be annihilated. It will be brought back to life and once more. Know this for absolutely sure that you won’t pass on. You will take human birth once more. Search inside and see what you are!”
“Is it accurate to say that you are a spirit, a soul (atma) or simply a chunk of flesh? Do you feel that this self inside you which talks, gets, thinks, ponders serving humankind and terminates in the wake of carrying out extraordinary things, isn’t anything past bones, blood and tissue. Do you truly accept that it will all end with the finish of the body? No, never. Your genuine self won’t be obliterated and you won’t ever kick the bucket”.
On hearing these words, which were articulated feeling roused (by the Grace of God), Bhagat Singh remained there quiet and deep down moved. Briefly, he appeared to have lost his actual awareness and his brain took off high.
Astounded, he bowed low, as though some obscure force had claimed him. For at some point he stayed ingested in profound quietness. I shook him with my hands and assisted him with standing.
All over, there was an odd shine. He came closer me and, extending his hands through the fence, he attempted to contact my feet. I held his hands in mine and said that solitary the Guru’s feet merit venerating, not human feet.
I assisted him with standing up and when he had recovered command over himself he said:
“Your words have pierced my heart like a bolt, my doubt and irresoluteness have been horrendously shaken, an attractive impact has changed my internal being. Where it counts in my heart now, I accept that I won’t kick the bucket and this conviction will stay unshaken to me, discourse and activities. I’m that Spirit that passing won’t annihilate. I won’t kick the bucket. After I surrender my body I will be brought back to life. Until my new birth, my atma will stay in everlasting brilliance. At the point when I pass on the platform, I will bite the dust with an incredible otherworldly euphoria.”
“I was daring through sheer resolve and attested that I could have done without death. Inside my heart was the profound secret distress of complete elimination in the afterlife. At whatever point this idea rung a bell, there was obscurity before my psyche. The prospect of being diminished to nothingness after death made an agonizing void inside my heart. Your words have acquired an extraordinary change me. I would now be able to see my future plainly in the light of new cognizance you have given me.”
“The void made by the considerations of annihilation have vanished. All questions and dreams have been dispersed.”
“I have acquired substantially more strength. I will presently kick the bucket with extraordinary good and profound mental fortitude. Your magnified life has conferred to me the mixture of otherworldliness and I feel its recognizing impact. I knew one thing about your life that you generally say what you have encountered and your words and activities are consistently as one. In addition to the fact that i am persuaded that I won’t pass on, and that I am undying atma, however I am persuaded that there is God and you have had a brief look at Him.”
“So presently you will be amazingly satisfied to discover that your dear Bhagat Singh is an adherent to God and he will pass on with complete otherworldly confidence in Sikhi, and appropriately, I will confront not demise but rather rising. The word climb is a wonderful word and uncovers that the spirit will transcend the body and go past death. Subsequent to leaving my body, my soul will climb paradise wards and won’t ever kick the bucket. It will be brought back to life and will work for the best help of the Motherland and the country. How productive has been this gathering with you!”
(Bhagat Singh didn’t trim his hair in the wake of meeting Bhai Sahib. This image was taken before his suffering)
After this huge finish of our gathering, we welcomed one another and separated in merry quiet.
It was very dull at this point. I was taken to the workplace from where I was given unqualified delivery and conveyed of the jail under front of haziness.
I boarded the train from Lahore rail line station and came to Amritsar. From Amritsar rail line station I strolled to the Golden Temple. A Government worker had been given to me to help me in my excursion. He conveyed my pack and bedding and went to every one of my requirements.
Close to the clock tower, the worker held up with my gear while I headed inside and had a dunk in the blessed tank. It was 1 am. There I sat in serene isolation pondering His Name. I partook in this isolation definitely. After contemplation, I had a brain to meet a few companions. However, actually I needed to stay quiet about this journey to the Golden Temple.
I realized that on the off chance that I met a few companions, there will be pointless clamor of celebration about the delivery and a decent arrangement of trumpeting through parades. I was enticed ordinarily to proceed to meet Gyani Nahar Singh and Gyani Harbhajan Singh in the Malwai Bunga, however I conquered the allurement.
Until dawn, I partook in the heavenly Kirtan of the Golden Temple. Then, at that point discreetly, I got out of Amritsar and continued my excursion to Ludhiana.
