When I was young and uninitiated in the Sikh Rehat or moral tradition, I used to wonder why the Sikhs kept long hair and beards. The other races, the Chinese, Malays, and Indians, kept only short hair and no beards. During our Punjabi classes, Sikh boys used to question the Master ji about their long hair because washing of hair on Saturdays was a bugbear for them. We never got a convincing answer from our Master ji. However, I used to observe in films that the characters of holy men were always shown with long hair, and they had magical powers and what they said used to come true. In one film, the mythic characters Ram and Lakshman, had long hair and a nice "jura" like mine. Later, I read the story and saw a film entitled "Samson and Delilah". The story emphasized that Samson's strength lay in his pure uncut hair, and when these were shorn off by Delilah he became weak and was captured and blinded by his enemies, the Philistines. Later in prison, his hair grew again and he regained his strength and caused the death of thousands of evildoers. He even sacrificed himself in the process. In a flash, Guru Gobind Singh's words came to my mind, "Sewa lakh se ek laraun" - Single man of God pitted against hordes.

I had a better understanding of the value of hair, when I had the good fortune of reading a book entitled, "Ek Onkar Philosophy" written by Giani Kartar Singh Sarhadi. In his chapter on the importance of keeping unshorn hair, Giani Kartar Singh draws on the explanation given by Bhai Sahib Bhai Santokh Singh, the writer of "Guru Partap Suraj Granth". I think that chapter is important to all Sikhs, particularly the youth. It explains why the Brahmins led the masses to cut their hair and in this way made them lose their spiritual strength.

The story goes that one day some disciples of Guru Gobind Singh asked the Great Master about the Brahmins.They asked how it was that the Brahmins were uncontested leaders during the three earlier yugas - Satyug, tretayug, and Doapur. They were then keeping long hair. But now in this era of Kalyug, they are all clean-shaven and are found to be avaricious and greedy. They are so weak that their ladies and young men are made prisoners by invading Muslim tribes and sold in the slave-markets of Kabul and Ghazni. Guru Gobind Singh's explanation is summarized:

After the rule of the Pandava kings, the country was ruled by kings of the Nand dynasty. They waged wars against other kings and after defeating them took over their lands and thus extended the boundaries of their own kingdom. In time, they became very powerful. However, they feared the Khatris as they were the ones who carried arms and could pose a danger to them. They began to kill the Khatris in thousands. The Brahmins, Vaishas and Sudras were made slaves. In this way, they ruled over the people for many years, believed to be about 1500 years.

One of the kings called Nand Raja, made more conquests and added more areas to his kingdom. The minor kings who were defeated were made prisoners and later banished from his territories. However, the king regretted his action because he thought that these exiled kings may seek the help and blessings of the Brahmins and through Veda Mantras might defeat him in war and depose him. The threat was real because the Raja found out that some Brahinins were doing exactly that.

Nand Raja then assembled all his ministers and told them of his fears and asked for advice to deal with the Brahmins. At that time it was a well known fact that if anybody's hair were to be cut, his intelligence took a plunge and deteriorated adversely. This was given in the commandments of the ancient rishis and munis and was evident from the appearances kept by the avtaras. It was also known that prayers and mantras read by such profane Brahmins would have no effect - so was the law of nature. So the ministers advised their king that the hair of all the leading Brahmins in the country be cut off and on their clean-shaven heads be printed the words "shundar-shap", meaning a person of low intelligence. And all the people will know that prayers and pujas done by these down-graded Brahmins were not accepted by God.

All the learned Brahmins in the country were arrested and their long hair and beards were forcibly removed. According to expectations, these "shundar-shap" Brahmins began to lose their spritual capabilities. They began to think of materialistic things. Now they wanted to indulge in pleasurable amusements and other merry-making pursuits. Dancing girls, thirty-six types of foods and good clothes were supplied on a generous scale by the king.

Nand Raja and his ministers noted with satisfaction the change in the character of the Brahmins which declined steadily as more and more pleasurable things were supplied to them. They were now devoid of any spiritual power. The king and his ministers now hit upon another plan. They thought that through these "shundar-shap" Brahmins, other Brahmins, whoever they might be, could be brought under their influence so that no Brahmin could be left with long hair and pose a threat to the king.

In order to achieve this, the captives now steeped in vices, were told to change the couplets in their religious books to say that no Brahmin is required to keep long hair and beard, and that it was not a requirement of the religion. The captives were then released on condition that they will also persuade other Brahmins by reading the changed precepts in their books. This they did.They read from their religious texts and told the people that cutting of hair was a requirement of their religion. As they were well known Brahmin leaders previously, the others began to follow suit. In time, they persuaded the masses that cutting of hair was part and parcel of their religion sanctified, to date, in the mundan ceremony.

The Guru said that if such a state was allowed to prevail, people will be enslaved politically, economically and morally. Thus, when the remaining Khatris also cut their hair, they lost their strength (parallel to the Samson & Delilah story). They lost their will to fight or ward-off any foreign threat. So when India was attacked time and again by invaders from the North West, the Khatris were unable to save their young ladies and boys from being taken away to foreign lands as slaves.
That is the background in which Guru Nanak declared with regret that when the Khatris had cut their long hair and beards, the question of saving the country and religion did not arise.

"Khatrian ta dharam chodiyo, malech bhakhia gahi
Shrist sabhek varan hoyi, dharn ki gat rahi."
Dhanasari Mahalla 1 -p663

[The Khatris have abjured their religion, and have taken to foreign language. The whole world has assumed the same caste (of evil) and the ordinance of righteousness has lapsed.] (Translation by Manmohan Singh)

It was left for the Khalsa of Guru Gobind Singh, Gursikh with unshorn hair and beards, to fight the invaders and rescue the women. The following is an extract from the "History of the Sikh People" by Dr. Gopal Singh:

"When Nadir's forces, carrying enormous booty passed through these areas on their way back home marching slowly due to the heat of May, the Sikhs pounced upon them time and again, and divested them of a sizable amount of their treasures. They also rescued many women and artisans whom the invaders were taking along with them."

I now have no doubt that in the moral as well as the historical sense, keeping of hair is the first requisite for a spiritual power. But this alone is not enough, without "naam-simran" - repetition of God's Name. A Gursikh has to live an exemplary life, a life contained in the concept of "siddha marg" - references of which are made in Guru Granth Sahib, Varan of Bhai Gurdas, the Rehatnamas and other Sikh religious books.