UGA Sikh Student Association

Thank you all for your cooperation and support! Today’s Vaisakhi 2023 event was a great success! We hope to organize more of such events inthe future!

Introducing our fourth post for our Bhagat Series: Bhagat Ramanand also known as Swami Ramanand, was a Gurmukh, Poet, Saint, and Devotee, whose bani is present in the Adi Granth Sahib, the Holy book of Sikhs, now known as the Sri Guru Granth Saahib Ji. He is popularly known as Vaishnav Saint and is considered as the reviver of the Bairagi Sect. He was born to an upper-caste Brahmin family, around the mid 14th Century, and preached that Hari was available to people of all castes, which reflected in the teachings of the bhagats following him: Bhagat Dhanna Ji, Bhagat Kabir Ji, and other Bhagats.

https://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Bhagat_Ramanand

Introducing our fourth post for our Bhagat Series: Bhagat Beni is one of the fifteen Sikh Bhagats and a Sufi saint who is believed to have been born in India. His Bani consisting of 3 shabads is included in the Guru Granth Sahib. The place and year of his birth are unknown but Guru Nanak Dev Ji refers to Bhagat Beni as "a Master of Yoga and meditation, and the spiritual wisdom of the Guru; He knows none other than God"

https://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Bhagat_Beni

Introducing our third post for our Bhagat Series: Bhagat Sadhna was a Muslim poet and one of the fifteen saints and sufis whose hymns are included in the Guru Granth Sahib. A butcher by profession, he sought to attain spiritual enlightenment despite the sentiment that a butcher could not. His one hymn is present in the Raga Bilaval; he explains that Karmic thought ends after attaining spiritual wisdom (Gurmat) and that the evil deed of man can be washed away by devoted meditation on the Name. https://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Bhagat_Sadhna
https://www.searchgurbani.com/bhagats/bhagat-sadhna

Introducing our second post for our Bhagat Series: Bhagat Parmanand Maharashtrian saint-poet, one of whose hymns is included in the Guru Granth Sahib. Born probably in 1483, he is believed to have resided at Bãrsi, situated to the north of Pandharpur. Parminand’s one hymn incorporated in the Guru Granth Sahib (p. 1253) subscribes to this view. In this hymn, he disapproves of the ritualistic reading and hearing of the sacred books If that has not disposed to the service of fellow beings. He commends sincere devotion which could be imbibed from the company of holy saints. Lust, wrath, avarice, slander have to be expunged for they render all seva, ie. service, fruitless. https://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Bhagat_Parmanand

Introducing our first post for the Bhagat series: Bhagat Jaidev, saint and poet, two of whose hymns are incorporated in the Guru Granth Sãhib, is chiefly known to the literary world as the author of the Gita Govinda, a lyrical poem in which the love of Rãdhã (soul or devotee) for Govinda (the Supreme Being) is described symbolically and mystically. Jaidev’s hymns in the Guru Granth Sãhib, one in Raga Gujari and the other in Rãga Märü. https://www.allaboutsikhs.com/biographies/sikh-bhagats/sikh-bhagats-bhagat-jaidev-ji/

LAST IN OUR SIKH WOMEN SERIES IS: Dr. Dalip Kaur Tiwana (1935- )

Dr. Dalip Kaur Tiwana is an eminent fiction writer of contemporary Punjabi literature. She was Professor of Punjabi and Dean, Faculty of Languages, Punjabi University, Patiala, and is now Life Fellow of the Punjabi University. She has written 3 books of literary criticism, has edited 3 anthologies of short stories, and translated 2 novels from Hindi to Punjabi. She has 38 novels to her credit and 7 collections of short stories, and her works have been translated into several languages internationally. She has also won many literary awards.

Picture from:

NEXT UP IN OUR SIKH WOMEN SERIES IS: Princess Sophia Duleep Kaur (1876-1948)

Princess Sophia Duleep Kaur was the granddaughter of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the last King of Punjab, and the goddaughter of Queen Victoria. Living in England she participated in the Women’s Tax Resistance League and defiantly refused to pay taxes to protest against the disenfranchisement of women. She also served as the President of the Committee of the Suffragette Fellowship. Her aggressive activism even involved her in a riot in November 1910, during which she co-led a march to the Parliament that resulted in a clash with the police.

Picture from:

NEXT UP IN OUR SIKH WOMEN SERIES IS: Inderjit Kaur

As a social worker, professor, administrator and international representative, Inderjit Kaur has many accomplishments to her name. During the Partition of India in 1947, she ran an organization that rehabilitated more than 400 refugee families. She also set up Mata Sahib Kaur Dal School in Patiala for the children of these refugees. Inderjit valued a well-rounded education, so she organized self-defensing and shooting training for the women of these camps, and established a dance troop at her college. Inderjit Kaur was one of the first women to earn her Master’s degree from Punjab and went on to become the only woman on the governing council of Khalsa College, Amritsar. In 1975, she became the first female Vice-Chancellor of a Northern Indian university serving at the Punjabi University in Patiala.
Picture and Summary from:

NEXT UP IN OUR SIKH WOMEN SERIES IS: Sada Kaur (1762-1832)

Sada Kaur was a military mastermind. Born into a ruling family of Punjab, India, she came to assume the leadership of the Kanhaiya Misl (a region of Punjab) and the loyalty of its 8,000 cavalry members. She was known as a poised and strategic leader, and she joined forces with her son-in-law, Ranjit Singh, in an effort to unite Punjab into one nation-state. To achieve this, she led armies into battle and negotiated at diplomatic tables. Punjab ultimately came together under their leadership—Ranjit Singh came to be Maharaja (King), and she served as the Regent of Punjab.

Picture from the webpage: https://www.thetravellingsingh.com/and-everything-in-it/top-20-warriors-in-sikh-history

NEXT UP IN OUR SIKH WOMEN SERIES: Sahib Kaur: The Spiritual Mother - - Mata Sahib Kaur (1506-1582) joined the Court of Guru Gobind Singh to live a life devoted to social justice and community service. She would join him in serving langar, fighting battles and singing hymns. Due to her dedication to the Sikh path, in 1699, when Guru Gobind Singh ceremoniously created an order of initiated Sikhs (Khalsa), he asked her to play a central part in the ceremony. She famously added sugar to the Amrit (nectar of initiation) that he and the other committed Sikhs were to drink. To this day, she is considered “Mother of the Khalsa.” Picture from: