BATTLEFIELD VISIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 70, 22 March 1916, Page 7

BATTLEFIELD VISIONS.

m ■■ SKH SOLDIERS SEE SPIRITUAL LEADER. Many Sikh oißcers and soldiers who have taken part in recent battles relate that they have seen their great spiritual leader on the battlefield urging them on to charge the foe. These accounts are by no means the Indianised versions of the v tales told about St. George appearing before the British troops at Mons. Many of the Sikhs who tell of their do not know a word of English, and never heard that their British comrades had seen visions of their patron saint. The statements of the Sikhs, therefore, refer to an experience all their own. According to one account, Guru Govind Singh—who lived, in the 17th century and who infused the martial spirit into the Sikhs—appeared on the battlefield riding a beautiful white charger with a long, flowing tail. He wore a I resplendent aigrette fastened to his turban which waved above his head like the "white plume" of Navarre, a veritable oriflamme to hte followers. It may be recalled that the Guru is invarahly depicted in Sikh annals and shown in old paintings riding a white horse and wearing a large aigrette. One of the favoured names by which Sikhs of tbJs age remember Guru Govind Singh is "He with the aigrette." According to a second, version, "the photo of Guru Govind' Singh" was the only* thing that the Sikhs, advancing <n a bayonet charge, saw to their "right, left, and front." The words quoted are from the account given by Sabadar (Indian Major) Sardar Narain Singh of the 14th Sikhs, who received six bullet wounds while engaged in action in Gallipoli, from which he has recently recovered. He says that the vision of Guru Govind Singh appeared before the Sikh soldiers just as the bugle sounded "March" and they brandished their bayonets. He declares that he cannot explain in words '"The spirit this hold sight infused in us. It emboldened us to march on, piercing through the abdomens of the enemy, unmindful of the havoc being wrought by the horrid machine gun. We shouted 'Sat Sri Akal' ("God is timeless'—the battle-cry of the Sikhs), and chanted the Shabads (hymns) of Halla (attack) ac if ours was a nuptial procession. Those among iv who fell wounded or dead we minded never, as the only thought before us was devotion to the Guru, who was so omnipresent in the march, and adherence to Government." ■ The 240 th anniversary of Guru Govind Singh's birth occurred a few weeks ' ago, and was celebrated by the Sikhs at the depot for wounded Indians at Mil- j ford-on-Sea, as, indeed, it' is celebrated j every year by the Sikhs wherever they i may be.