Mother of Khalsa: The Fifth Role of a Woman

When I become a mother I will begin a new phase of my life. I pray to Waheguru to give me courage to walk in the steps of Mata Sundri Ji and become a proud mother of Khalsa. Every mother on Earth wants to give their child the best upbringing possible but what is a good upbringing? Is it a good upbringing to give your child everything they ever wished for before they can wish for it? We have become so materialistic that we buy our child’s happiness with toys and the latest clothes. A child raised on materialistic love will not make you a proud mother of Khalsa or bring honor to the Khalsa Panth. To raise a successful child who walks with pride on the path of Sikhi, we have to become like Mata Sundri Ji. Mata Sundri teaches us that to raise our children right we have to uplift them, make them strong, brave and fearless, educate them and then let them spread their own wings and fly. This process begins while the child is still within the womb. Even then, the vibration of sacredness is set by the mother's meditation and the frequency of the Gurbani in her environment. Every saint is born of a woman. Let us be blessed, as she was, to give birth to the saints that the world needs more than ever in these turbulant times.

Mata Sundri Ji sacrificed her four sons (Sahibzada Ajit Singh Ji, Sahibzada Jujhar Singh Ji, Sahibzada Zorawar Singh Ji and Sahibzada Fateh Singh Ji) for the Khalsa Panth to maintain our brave history. Mata Ji raised her children on a steady diet of stories from the Sikh History of the childrens' Grandfather Guru Tegh Bahudar Ji. Along with the history of their Grandfather, Mata Ji taught them about the other eight Gurus who came before; their teaching and their sacrifices. She made sure her children knew their heritage early on and she prepared them to sacrifice when the time came to do so. As mothers today it seems a distant thought to prepare our children for the ultimate sacrifice if the time ever comes, we don’t even teach them our own history. History is the foundation of a strong person. Without understanding our history our whole existence is brought into question. The best time to teach our children history is before they begin their formal education.

Mata Sundri Ji taught the Sahibzada their history and then she gave them the tools they needed to live up to their history. Sahibzada Ajit Singh Ji was taught the religious texts, philosophy and history, and had training in the martial arts such as riding, swordsmanship, gatka and archery. While Baba Ajit Singh Ji had successfully mastered the activities listed, the remaining three Sahibzada Jis were still receiving their education when they sacrificed their lives for Sikhi and for all Sikhs. It was their passion for Sikhi that gave them the encouragement to be great scholars and sportsman so they would be prepared to face all challenges. If your children today knew and understood more about the Sahibzadas at a young age, wouldn’t they be inspired to work harder to achieve their own excellence? What mother doesn’t want a child that has become a great scholar and sportsman by the age of 18? If we want our children to grow up with the brains and brawn of the Sahibzadas we need to raise them on Sikh history and instill the core values of Sikhi from the very beginning.
 
Mata Sundri Ji knew that once you raise a child to live as Khalsa, you then need to let them prove it. Mata Ji never held back her Sahibzadas from doing anything for the Panth. In fact, she did the exact opposite; she encouraged them and taught them to do whatever was necessary for the Khalsa Panth.  In the case of Mata Sundri Ji that meant she would have to live to hear that her two eldest sons died in battle and that her two youngest sons were bricked alive in a wall. That was Mata Ji’s faith in Sikhi and in her children. What is our faith today? We don’t have enough faith in Sikhi to follow it. We don’t have faith in our own children that we have given them the values and that they have the caliber to do the right thing. We live without faith, yet we ask for our children to be faithful to us and for God to bless us. Let us give our children caliber and nobility and let us put our faith in Waheguru and in our children to walk on the right path.

It is only when we raise our children on our rich Sikh history, give them a proper education and not smother them that the Khalsa Panth will flourish. We need to stop fearing that our child is not responsible enough to take Amrit or ready to live up to the Khalsa name. Teach them and trust them to do the right thing. It is wrong to force a child to take Amrit and it is also a crime to stop them from taking Amrit. A good Sikh mother needs to help her child prepare for Amrit and then let Waheguru take over so the child can fulfil their own destiny. Mata Sundri Ji understood that she had hundreds of children, because she was mother to every Khalsa. If the moms today take Amrit and become mothers like Mata Sundri Ji, no one can even look at the Khalsa Panth with negativity.