Third Sikh Guru, Amar Das was given title on March 29, 1552.

The third Sikh Guru, Amar Das, born a Hindu in 1479 in Basarke, a village near Amritsar in Punjab, had been a fervent Vaisnava all his life. He had undertaken, and led, yearly pilgrimages to Haridwar – history speaks of at least 20 yearly treks made by him – that have great importance to devout Hindus. [5, 8]

Two incidents are said to be responsible for his transformation to a Sikh. First a Hindu holy man chided him for not having a living spiritual master. The other, more important, was a chance meeting: Guru Angad had succeeded Nanak as the second Sikh Guru. His daughter, Bibi Amro, was married to a nephew of Amar Das. In 1540, Amar Das heard her singing a hymn of Guru Nanak. When he asked her about it, she escorted Amar Das to a conclave of Sikhs and the presence of Guru Angad, her father. Amar Das was so enthralled that he stayed 12 years in service of Guru Angad and never again went on any Hindu pilgrimage. [1, 3]

Amar Das was 61 years old when he changed the direction of his life and entered the path of Sikhism. [4]

He spent much of his time in meditation and service in the community kitchen (langar) in which he volunteered for the chores of cooking and cleaning, serving meals, and collecting firewood. He would also rise 3 h before dawn to fetch water from the nearby river Beas. Tradition records that one dark and stormy night, returning with pails of water, he tripped and stumbled. A woman in a nearby house, awakened by the noise, dismissed him with the comment “Oh it’s that homeless Amru again.” When Guru Angad heard of it, he honored Amar Das as the “Home of the homeless, strength of the weak and the honor of the destitute…”. [1, 3, 6] Almost 500 years later, Amar Das continues to be defined by the words that Guru Angad bestowed upon him.

Perhaps this incident played a part, but when the time came for Guru Angad to anoint a successor as the third Guru, Amar Das was a natural choice because of unfailing service to the House of Nanak. The two sons of Guru Angad were not at all pleased to be spurned by their father as claimants to the honor. The 73-year-old Amar Das became Guru Amar Das on March 29, 1552 and served in that position until September 1, 1574. [1, 3, 4, 6]

From his headquarters in Goindval in Punjab, Guru Amar Das dramatically expanded the reach of Sikh presence across the country and set up an organizational structure along some very modern principles of management. His period was also notable for dramatic steps to improve the place of women.

An egalitarian society, social enlightenment, and the position of women in a progressive society were the overarching concerns of Guru Amar Das. Building, consolidation, and reform of the Sikh community are his legacy. [7, 9]

Guru Ka Langar, the community kitchen that Guru Nanak founded, became increasingly important because of Guru Amar Das. He insisted that every visitor first joins the pangat at langar and breaks bread with others before the Guru would see him or her. [3, 4] This not only fed the visitors who had often come from afar but, more importantly, also destroyed the rigid caste distinctions that defined people of India then.

It is important to note that these matters were so pervasive in society at that time that people from high and low castes would not sit together and never break bread together. A high-caste person would not accept food from the hands of one from a low caste and never sit with him to share food or conversation on community matters.

Tradition states that Akbar, the emperor of India, an enlightened ruler, and a contemporary of Guru Amar Das, respected the Sikh tradition of a casteless langar. Once he came to visit the Guru and partook of langar with the ordinary Sikhs before the Guru would meet with him. [1, 3, 6]

Guru Amar Das actively discouraged the custom of sati, prevalent at that time, in which a Hindu woman would immolate herself on the funeral pyre of her dead husband. He also rejected the system of dowry to be provided by the bride’s family at marriage. In the widely practiced mores of the day, a widow would not remarry; Guru Amar Das condemned this practice and encouraged the remarriage of widows. He also discouraged the prevailing custom that required women to veil themselves in public. [2, 4]

Both Gurus that preceded Guru Amar Das, particularly Guru Nanak, had traveled widely across the country. In a far-reaching step, extremely advanced for the times, Guru Amar Das organized the ecclesiastical structure to carry the message of Nanak across the land into 22 diocesan areas and appointed a manager for each; eight of these territorial heads were women. [2, 4]

History is clear that Guru Nanak developed the first Sikh community in Kartarpur and personally guided it for more than the last decade of his life, while Guru Angad moved to Khadur Sahib to nurture a second Sikh community. Similarly, Guru Amar Das selected Goindval as his headquarter. [4] Tradition suggests that Angad and Amar Das moved away from Kartarpur to develop new townships because of internecine conflict between the previous Guru’s progeny that had been bypassed in succession and his incoming successor. [1, 3, 6] Even though true to an extent, this is too simplistic a rendering to be entirely satisfactory.

History states that by the time a new Guru was anointed, the town founded by the previous Guru had already developed into a thriving center of business, commerce, and manufacturing. [2, 4] The new Guru’s physically moving to a new town did not dramatically diminish the luster of the old center. Note that every Guru, with the exception of Harkrishan who was very young and served as Guru for a very brief time, founded one or more new townships. Surely, establishing new townships by the Gurus was a conscious and serious attempt to develop the economic infrastructure and social fabric of Punjab.

Guru Amar Das asked that Sikhs assemble twice a year – at Diwali and Baisakhi – at Goindval to meet with the Guru and reconnect with the teachings. He also had a baoli (a deep well) with 84 steps constructed to assure adequate water supply for the residents and the large number of visitors. [1, 3] However, as would not be surprising in the traditional Indian culture, the site and the baoli have, with time, morphed into impressive centers of pilgrimage despite the clear teachings and doctrine of Guru Granth to the contrary.

Like Guru Nanak and Guru Angad before him, Guru Amar Das composed hymns that form a significant part of the corpus of Guru Granth. His compositions are in 17 of the 31 different musical measures or raagas represented in the Guru Granth; only Guru Nanak and Guru Arjan, the fifth Guru, contributed a larger number. Guru Amar Das collected the writings of his predecessor Gurus and of selected saints and writers of that time in two volumes. [3, 4]

Many miracles are attributed to Guru Amar Das, but it is good to remember that he rejected all miracles, as did all other nine Gurus in Sikhism. [2, 4] His teachings were as simple as his way of life.

On September 1, 1574 Guru Amar Das anointed his son-in-law Jetha as Ram Das, the fourth Guru of the Sikhs, in preference to his own two sons. [2, 3]