Anandpur Sahib - Our True Birthplace
                         by Harmohanjit Singh Pandher
                          April 1999

O Anandpur Sahib, City of Bliss, Land of the Pure, birthplace of mine,
Your intrinsic value in these few lines I shall try to define.

You were first founded by Guru Tegh Bahadur, Nanak Number Nine,
Who soon summoned Gobind Rai to his side at the tender age of nine.

His father was deep in thought so he inquired, what was on his mind?
The Guru replied that tyranny had sunk their country into dire decline.

He opined that a sacrifice might stem the tide and send a defiant sign,
But whose fine blood could inject such courage into the people's spine?

Gobind Rai proclaimed, why my noble father, let that blood be thine,
For I would rather go fatherless than see innocent millions maligned.

Thus a helping hand he did extend as all the while his life was on the line,
But the language of love is sometimes not enough as his brave son did find.

O Anandpur Sahib, City of Bliss, Land of the Pure, birthplace of mine,
From whose sacred soil sprang forth the Khalsa on the Vaisakhi of 1699.

Where the Five Beloved Ones were baptized as they all knelt in a line,
And the Tenth Master declared, I am likewise your disciple as you art mine.

Here the Red Cross was foreseen well over a century ahead of its time,
On thy battlefields, not aiding the wounded was considered a crime.

You see neither friend nor foe, only faces of children of the One Divine,
With walls shining dazzling white and borders that are colour blind.

Many millions of pilgrims were blessed by thee in the spring of 1999,
Your message of human rights will spring eternal in their hearts and minds.

And so, on our 300th birthday, I now turn my thoughts to you and pine,
That I too may come home to Kesgarh Sahib, our sublime and historic shrine!