JOGA SINGH, BHAI

Bhai Joga Singh, son of Bhai Gurmukh, a resident of Assia Mohalla, Peshawar (Pakistan), was a dedicated Sikh of the time of Guru Gobind Singh. According to a tradition, when his marriage ceremony was just completed,* he received a message from Guru Sahib, and, he immediately rushed to Anandpur Sahib. On his way, he broke his journey near Hoshiarpur,** where a courtesan tried to seduce him but he meditated upon the Name of the Almighty and remained unaffected. Bhai Joga Singh was a great missionary of Sikh faith in his area. A Gurdwara at Peshawar (Pakistan) has been built in the memory of Bhai Joga Singh. After 1947, the Sikhs who had migrated from Peshawar (in the wst Punjab) also established a Gurdwara and a school, in East Nagar, at Delhi, in his memory.

*Later the poets and the story tellers began exaggerating the story by adding that the letter was delivered to him in between the circumambulation (i.e. the four laavaan, the ceremony of marriage), and he left the ceremony in between and left for Anandpur Sahib. During the time of Guru Sahib, the marriage was performed simply by ceremony of ‘ardaas’ (making prayer for blessing of the Guru and God; the present, four laavaan, ceremony was introduced in 1855.

**Hoshiarpur was established by Hoshiar Khan, a general of the eighteenth century; at the time of the Guru, it was just a small village.

Pictures
Gudwara Bhai Joga Singh at Peshawar:

Front gate

From roof

Inside: the main hall

(Dr. Harjinder Singh Dilgeer)