Guru Har Rai Ji.

Guru Har Rai Ji. Within a year of assuming the Guruship, Guru Har Rai Ji had to leave Kiratpur to the relative safety of a small village in Sirmoor state. The absence of the Guru from the main centres of Sikh activity, the hostility of the disappointed claimants to the guruship and a general disintegration of the masands meant that Guru Sahib Ji had to undertake a tour of all the centres and reorganise the missions and brought many into the Sikh fold. At the end of 1658, Guru Sahib Ji returned to Kiratpur. Guru Ji became friendly with Dara Shikoh, the eldest son of the Emperor Shah Jahan. Dara Shikoh was a sufi and preferred the company of holy men. When the war of succession began Guru Ji’s sympathies lay with Dara rather then the bigoted Aurangzeb. But Dara was defeated and fled northwards to the Punjab. He called on Guru Har Rai Ji for assistance. This was sufficient to arouse the wrath of the Emperor and he summoned Guru Sahib Ji to Delhi. Guru Ji sent his son Ram Rai to represent him. Ram Rai succeeded in winning the confidence of the Emperor. Aurangzeb decided to keep Ram Rai in Delhi in the belief that, with the future incumbent of the guruship in his power, he would become the arbiter of the destinies of the Sikh community. The all knowing Guru, Guru Har Rai Ji proclaimed his intention of passing the guruship to his younger son, Har Krishan Ji. Aurangzeb encouraged Ram Rai in his pretensions for the guruship but it was not to be, Har Krishan Ji at the age of five years became the eighth Guru of the Sikhs.