Gurudwara Baba Atal, Amritsar as seen a hundred
years ago
The above sketch was carried in the calendar
printed by (the then) Bank of Punjab Ltd., in the
year 1999.
According to popular
tradition, Atal Rai, at the age of nine, restored
his close friend Mohan, son of a widow, to life
after his sudden demise. Guru Hargobind considered
his son's act as being against the Sikh tradition
and rebuked him for performing a feat involving a
miracle and warned him that one's spiritual power
should be displayed "in purity of doctrine and
holiness of living". It is said that Atal Rai told
his father that he would lay down his own life for
breaking the law of nature by reviving his friend
from the dead. So he went into a meditative trance
and soon breathed his last. His pyre was lit on the
bank of Kaulsar and, later on, to perpetuate his
memory a monument was raised.
Although Atal Rai died
at the age of nine, he was honoured with the title
of
Baba, a grand old
man, for the extraordinary powers he had displayed.
The present nine-storey building represents the nine
years of Baba Atal's life.
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