1 May 2001

This month we celebrate the birth of Guru Amar Das Ji, the Third Guru, who became Guru when he was 72 years old and remained Guru for 22 years.

Amardas was a spiritual genius of the times of Guru Angad. He was a great pilgrim who had been to the sacred Ganges at Hardwar many times, going there bare-footed, singing divine hymns all the way, and feeling charitable, good, pure, and all the while poor. When he was Seventy years old a trifling event produced a revolution within him; merely hearing of the song of Nanak, sung by Guru Angad's daughter, Bibi Amro. "Whose song is it ?" he asked "Our Father's," said she, "It is the Jap Ji Sahib, of Guru Nanak."

She took the old man to her father. Guru Angad received him with great respect that was due to both his age and to his position in society. Having seen Guru Angad once, he never left his presence. So deep and intense was his passion that he would find pleasure in doing every service necessary to his Guru.

Notably, he would bring him a pitcher of fresh river water from the river Beas every morning for his bath.

One day, Amardas, while carrying his brass pitcher of the Beas water, fell by the house of a weaver, having tumbled against a wooden peg that the weaver had driven into the ground. It was a severe winter night, raining and pitch-dark. The weaver's wife said to her husband, "Ah, who can have fallen at our door like that?" The husband replied, "Who else could it be, but that homeless insane Amru; he, who never sleeps, never rests and never tires?" When Guru Angad Dev Ji came to hear of this he was moved immensely and hugged Amar Das and bestowed him with the following title:

Guru Angad Dev Ji then bestowed the Guruship upon Guru Amar Das Ji, who was 20 years elder to him.