Guru Har Gobind - The Sixth Sikh Guru Volume 1 and Volume 2 English Graphic Novel | Sikh Comics Series

"Wear two swords — one for spiritual power, and one for temporal. The time has come."
— Guru Arjan Dev, to his son Hargobind, five days before his martyrdom

His father was tortured to death by the Mughal Emperor. He was eleven years old. What he built in response would change the course of Sikh history — and give a people the means to defend their faith for all time.

Hargobind was the only son of Guru Arjan Dev and Mata Ganga. Before his birth, his mother had gone to seek the blessings of Baba Budha — and Baba Budha had told her: you will have a son, but he will be extraordinarily chivalrous. The child who arrived in 1595 at Wadali, near Amritsar, would prove those words to be an understatement.

He grew up in the shadow of Harmandir Sahib, in the holiest city of a faith that was drawing thousands to its doors. He learned Gurbani from Bhai Gurdas. He learned swordsmanship and archery from Baba Budha. He survived smallpox as a child. He survived a poisoning attempt by a jealous uncle. He survived a cobra thrown into his path. It was as though the world were testing him before the Guru's seat was his.

On May 25, 1606, Guru Arjan Dev, before leaving for Lahore in response to Jahangir's orders to arrest him, summoned his eleven-year-old son and gave him his final instructions: start a military tradition, always keep yourself surrounded by armed Sikhs, and wear two swords — one for Piri, spiritual authority, and one for Miri, temporal power. Five days later, Guru Arjan Dev was dead.

On June 24, 1606, the tilak was applied. The Sixth Sikh Guru had arrived.

The story of Guru Hargobind is the story of how a faith forged in love and devotion learned also to stand and fight — without ever losing its soul.

Add this illustrated Sikh children's book to your cart and begin the story.

Part of the Sikh Comics series on the Ten Sikh Gurus — explore the full collection.

At his succession ceremony, Bhai Budha reached for the Seli, the thread that had been the mark of the Guru's spiritual authority since Guru Nanak and a sign of spiritual devotion, detachment, and sainthood. Guru Hargobind stopped him. He asked for a sword instead. He buckled on both swords himself, one on each side, and took his seat not only at Harmandir Sahib, the seat of spiritual authority, but on a raised platform twelve feet high directly opposite it, where he declared temporal authority over the Sikh nation. He called it the Akal Takht, the Throne of the Timeless One. A thundering drum called the Nagara was installed. Sikh bards sang the praises not only of the Guru's spiritual greatness but of his sovereignty and majesty. For the first time in Sikh history, the Guru sat as a king.

He was eleven years old.

The transformation of the community was total and deliberate. Where the Guru's court had been a place of Gurbani and congregation, it became also a place of martial training, of horses and swords, of the hawk and the hunt. Guru Hargobind acquired 700 horses, 300 horsemen, 60 gunners, and 500 infantry. He built the fortress of Lohgarh near Amritsar to defend the city. Every Sikh who came to him was encouraged to bring a horse or a weapon as an offering alongside their devotion. The saint-soldier, the Sikh ideal that would define the faith for all centuries to come, was born here, in these years, under this eleven-year-old Guru who had watched his father go to his death rather than surrender a single word of the Adi Granth.

Jahangir watched the growth of Sikh military power with alarm. He had Guru Har Gobind imprisoned at the fortress of Gwalior to subdue his power. The young Guru did not resist. He went to Gwalior. He prayed. He kept the company of the fifty-two Hindu Rajas who were imprisoned there as hostages, kings who had opposed Mughal rule and were now held for millions of rupees in ransom, losing hope with every passing season.

When Jahangir eventually sent word of his release, Guru Hargobind's response was simple: he would not leave unless every one of the fifty-two Rajas was freed alongside him. Jahangir offered a compromise, as many Rajas as could hold onto the Guru's garment could walk free. Guru Hargobind had a cloak made with fifty-two tassels. As he walked out of Gwalior Fort, each of the fifty-two imprisoned kings held a tassel, and walked into the open air behind him. The Guru who entered that fortress alone left it leading fifty-two free men. The Sikhs celebrated his return to Amritsar with lamps and joy. That celebration is remembered every year as Bandi Chhor Divas, the Day of Liberation, which falls on the same day as Diwali.

After his release, relations between Guru Hargobind and Jahangir became surprisingly cordial. The Guru even saved Jahangir's life on a hunt by throwing himself between the Emperor and a charging lion, a man he could have easily hated for his father's death, protected by the Guru's own body. But when Jahangir died in 1627 and Shah Jahan came to power, the fragile peace ended.

Shah Jahan persecuted the Sikhs with a ferocity that Jahangir had never sustained. Four times the Mughal army came against the Sikhs, at Amritsar, at Kartarpur, at Lahira, and at Gurusar. Four times the Sikh forces, outnumbered on every occasion, fought back and won. The myth of Mughal military invincibility, which had held across the entire subcontinent, was shattered by a community that had been entirely non-military barely one generation earlier. Historians mark these victories as the first real cracks in the foundation of the Mughal Empire.

Guru Hargobind held the Gurgaddi for thirty-seven years, nine months, and three days — the longest tenure of any Sikh Guru. He founded the city of Kiratpur in the Shivalik Hills, where he spent his final years. Before his passing in 1644, he chose his grandson Har Rai, a soul of extraordinary gentleness, and offered him a piece of advice that captures everything the Sixth Guru had learned across a lifetime of swords and scripture: live peacefully, but uphold honour and integrity.

He was the Bandi Chhor, the Liberator of the Captive. He was Saccha Patshah, the True King. He was the saint who became a soldier so that the saints who followed him could live freely.

What's Inside:

• The Prophecy: Baba Budha's words to Mata Ganga before Hargobind's birth, and the childhood that fulfilled them, including smallpox, a poisoning attempt, and a cobra
• The Last Command: Guru Arjan Dev's final instructions to his eleven-year-old son, five days before his martyrdom, and what the two swords meant
• The Succession: The moment Bhai Budha reached for the Seli and Guru Hargobind asked for a sword instead, and the declaration of Miri Piri that changed Sikhism forever
• The Akal Takht: The Throne of the Timeless One, built directly opposite Harmandir Sahib as the seat of Sikh temporal authority, still one of the five most sacred Sikh sites today
• The Army: 700 horses, 300 horsemen, 60 gunners, 500 infantry — how Guru Hargobind built the first Sikh fighting force and forged the ideal of the saint-soldier
• Gwalior Fort: The fourteen-year-old Guru imprisoned by Jahangir, and what he found there among fifty-two captive kings
• The Cloak of 52 Tassels: How Guru Hargobind turned the Emperor's own compromise against him, walked free, and brought every imprisoned Raja with him; the origin of Bandi Chhor Divas
• The Lion Hunt: The moment Guru Hargobind saved Jahangir's life, the man who had ordered his father's execution, and what it reveals about the Guru's character
• The Four Battles: Amritsar, Kartarpur, Lahira, Gurusar — four Mughal attacks under Shah Jahan, four Sikh victories, and the first fractures in an empire that seemed unbreakable
• The Succession of Guru Har Rai: The Sixth Guru's final act, choosing his gentle grandson and the parting counsel that carried everything he had learned

Perfect For:

• Children aged 7 and up (and the adults reading alongside them)
• Gurdwara Sunday school programs and Sikh Studies classes
• Parents and grandparents wanting to share the lives of the Ten Sikh Gurus with the next generation
• Anyone moved by the story of a child who inherited grief and turned it into the foundation of a people's dignity

Book Details:
32 Pages · Paperback · English · Published 2021 · ISBN 9789382887904 · Publisher: Sikh Comics

Covers both volumes of the Guru Hargobind story; from his succession at eleven through thirty-seven years of Guruship, four battles against the Mughal Empire, and the founding of a military tradition that would define Sikhism for all time.

An illustrated Sikh children's book bringing the life and teachings of the Sixth Sikh Guru to vivid life — one sakhi at a time.

Also Available in Punjabi - ਗੁਰੂ ਹਰ ਗੋਬਿੰਗ - ਸਿੱਖਾਂ ਦੇ ਛੇਵੇਂ ਗੁਰੂ (ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਸਿੱਖ ਕਾਮਿਕਸ)