The Jore Sahib, a pair of sacred shoes belonging to the Tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, and his wife, Mata Sahib Kaur, will be kept at Patna Sahib in Bihar, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, whose family has had custody of the relics over the last three centuries, announced Saturday.
The pair of footwear is sacred in Sikhism, and it is believed that a darshan of the shoes is an experience in divinity due to the personal connection with the Sikh spiritual leadership.
These are now scheduled to be at the core of an interstate yatra at the conclusion of which they will be established at the Patna Sahib Gurdwara located in the capital of poll-bound Bihar.
“The overwhelming opinion of the Sikh Sangat, which engaged in consultations, was that since Guru Maharaj Gobind Singh ji’s birthplace is Patna Sahib, the Gurdwara Management Committee there should be requested to take over their sewa (service towards them),” Puri said.
“They (the Delhi and Patna Gurdwara Prabandhak Committees) will take charge from here and work out the modalities of the yatra – the route, the timing… this will be shared in the coming days…” he added.
Last month, Puri and members of the Sikh Sangat, or community, had called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his guidance regarding the future placement of the sacred articles, which were handed down over several generations in the Puri family and were so far housed at a residence of his late cousin in Karol Bagh.
Holy relics as significant and spiritually important as the ‘Jore Sahib’, PM Narendra Modi had said, “are as much a part of the glorious Sikh history, as they are of the cultural ethos of our nation.”
Guru Gobind Singh, the last of the human Sikh Gurus who founded the Khalsa Panth, that is the community or order of the pure, and named the Guru Granth Sahib as successor, defined its vision, introduced rites of initiation and a code of conduct for the faithful as per the five K’s. These include Kesh or uncut hair, Kangha or a wooden comb, Kada or iron or steel wrist bracelet, Kirpan or sword, and Kachera or short breeches to be worn waist-down.
To commemorate the establishment of the Khalsa, Puri also said, one of the suggested locations for the holy relics was Anandpur Sahib, but there were more members of the community in favour of Patna Sahib.
