Mogul court was alarmed at the growing power and influence of Guru Gobind Singh and due to that fact the increasing tendency of hill kings to raise the banner of rebellions. The matter required immediate attention. Aurangzeb himself was in the South leading some campaign again but he kept abreast of the developments in Punjab region. He asked his eldest son, Prince Muazzam to go to Punjab and take stock of the situation and take essential steps Muazzam reached Punjab on 13 July, 1696.
Muazzam later became the Emperor.
The prince himself remained at Lahore and sent one of his lieutenants named Mirza Beg to Punjab to assess the situation there. Mirza Beg led a great army into Punjab. It crushed all the rebellious hill kings. Mogul fear spread. The towns and villages were ravaged. There were scenes of destruction all around.
But miraculously Anandpur Sahib was untouched. The credit went to Bhai Nandlal who was the private secretary of Prince Muazzam. He also was a devotee of Guru Gobind Singh. Nandlal briefed the Mogul prince on the values and the mission of Guru Sahib.
It was in a way nature’s genetic miracles. A son of a fanatic can not necessarily be a fanatic. It could normally be just the opposite. So, the fanatic Aurangzeb’s eldest son was secular by nature although he did not reveal it overtly because of his father. When his secretary Nandlal revealed to him that Guru Govind was a poet Prince Muazzam grew a soft corner for him. This fact made him change his mind and he returned to Delhi without causing any harm to Guru Gobind. It provided a great relief to Guru Sahib.
The peace reigned for 6-7 years.
But Guru Gobind knew that eventually he would have to contend with Moguls. It was only a matter of time because his aim was to bring a change in the fortunes of the natives. And to bring that about he must oppose the tyranny of Moguls which could set up the clash. The whole ideology and the spiritual message of the Sikh Gurus was focussed to that end.
Guru Gobind now knew that he could not depend on the support of hill kings as they had joined hands with Moguls in their own narrow interests. The emancipation of the masses was never their goal. They were themselves forces of oppression like Moguls. To tackle the Moguls Guru shall have to depend on his own strength which meant raising more powerful Sikh army, arranging arms and training for soldiers, charging up Sikhs with more zeal and purpose and augmentation of the fortifications.
Guru Gobind did just that during those 6-7 years of lull. He created literature too mostly of martial kind. He wrote ‘Ramavatar’ which was completed in 1698. It deals with the wars Rama had fought and highlighted the warrior qualities of the Lord. In that way he was inculcating warrior mindset in his followers. The rest of his writings were also on those lines. In one of his verses he outlined his wish to create soldiers each of who could deal with one hundred thousand enemy soldiers and to breed a specie of pigeons that could kill hawks.
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