Baru Sahib

Description

One more religious place of Sikhs in Himachal is Baru Sahib. It is believed that this is the holy place, where several saints, sages and rishis were believed to have performed penance from time immemorial, has also been hallowed by the visit of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru. Rightly so, Baru Sahib is called ‘The Valley of Divine Peace’. Sant Attar Singh Mastuane Wale (1866-1927) had visualized this place as a place where spiritual and modern scientific education could be given for spreading the message of universal brotherhood. Thus, his devout disciple SantTeja Singh (1877-1965) with the help of Baba Iqbal Singh Ji and Dr.Khem Singh Ji in 1956 discovered this place to realize this vision. About 60 km from Solan in Himachal Pradesh, there was a village called Baru spread over 400 acres owned by one Thakur Joginder Singh. It was densely forested with several springs. Under a huge walnut tree near a spring, sadhus used to come and meditate from time to time. Thakur Joginder Singh would welcome them and offer them food. When Sant Teja Singh Ji informed him of this vision, Thakur Joginder Singh agreed to sell it off. In 1959, SantTeja Singh ji (82 years old that time) started Akhand Paath of Sri Guru Granth Sahib to start his mission. Today, it has become a big centre of educational activities (see Chapter 7 for details) and this Gurdwara is a source of inspiration for all those associated with this mission.