VAISAKHI/BAISAKHI

14th April 2025

Sikhi

The Sikh New Year Festival.

In 1699 CE, on Vaisakhi, the tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, founded the Order of the Khalsa. Five men, who later came to be known as the Panj Piare (Five Beloved Ones), were prepared to offer their lives when the Guru asked for volunteers. According to tradition this is when he initiated both these Panj Piare and many others into the Khalsa, with men taking the name ‘Singh’ and women taking the name ‘Kaur’. On this day Sikhs, both young and more mature, are nowadays initiated into the Khalsa by ‘taking amrit’; in doing so they commit themselves to a discipline that includes daily prayers and the wearing of the external markers of Khalsa identity (the Five Ks). Outside each gurdwara the Nishan Sahib (the Sikh pennant) and its flagpole are taken down, ceremonially bathed and then re-erected.

The formation of the Khalsa, the community of committed Sikhs, was the first step to prepare the Sikh people for the day when there would be no further human Gurus. Instead, after the death of Guru Gobind Singh, as they sought for further guidance and following the Guru’s clear instructions, they came to look for authority in the Guru Granth Sahib, the compilation of the writings of the earlier Gurus, and also in the tenth Guru’s writings in the Dasam Granth.