27. Meetings with the Emperor, Aurangzeb

Guru Tegh Bahadur held three meetings with the Emperor, Aurangzeb. During the course of the discussions and the arguments that ensued in these conferences. Aurangzeb tried to justify his actions to crush the infidels, because according to him the Hindus were destined to be thrown into hell if they did not accept Islam. He pretended to be carrying out this policy on the orders of the God Almighty and was serving as a saviour for these condemned people and further argued that the only way for them to gain admission to the heavens and to avoid hell was to embrace Islam. He advanced the futile argument that only the muslims were believers in God and only they were acceptable to God. The despot who was blinded by power and pride did not realise that he was trying to persuade the Divine Manifest - the very source of Light and Knowledge. Who had already in His First Form as Guru Nanak told his ancestors at Mecca itself that both the Hindus and the Muslims will suffer without good deeds, and the good deeds were based on love and service of the whole mankind. Guru Tegh Bahadur ji in His reply told the Emperor of Delhi: "All men are created by God and therefore must be free to worship in any manner they like." It would be worth noting that the Sikhs are as much against idol worship as are the Muslims. Therefore, ideologically Guru Tegh Bahadur and Aurangzeb were much nearer to each other, than the Hindus - whose cause the Guru was espousing.