A Letter From Shaheed Bhai Harjinder Singh Jinda To His Family

 

One Universal Creator God. By The Grace Of The True Guru

 

Dearest respected mother, father, family and all who read and listen I greet you all lovingly with Guru’s Fateh. Greetings to my brothers and sisters – Truth is Eternal.

 

We are all in high spirits; we pray for your and the Panth’s high-spirited good nature!

 

I received the letter from sister Binder, the day before yesterday and tomorrow I will write a letter in reply to her. It is presently eight o’clock at night and it is raining a little. It has rained after a dry spell over the last three or four days. Brother Sukhdev Singh is sitting in front of me.

 

We received a letter from brothers Ranjit Singh Kuki and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhi who are presently in the USA the day before last. They mentioned the fines. Mother, I had said you could tell them about the fines but not to ask for money to pay it; I am hopeful that you only told them of the fines and said nothing more. If you have asked for contributions towards paying the fines then I am deeply pained as I assured you, we were not to ask for money from anyone. Even if accepting such funds is not a sin as we are hardly keeping it to build our own wealth, I still don’t think it’s right to take this money. For this reason, I have written to those brothers and told them not to send any funds. The Almighty has given us so much! If we were to lose a portion of our land, it matters not and doesn’t make any difference. It will hurt as father had paid for and bought this land, but that does not give us the right to ask the Qaum for help! We are indeed indebted to the Qaum. The love and respect we have received from the Qaum is priceless. What is there that the Almighty has not given us; he has provided us with everything. If we are still not satisfied today, then we will never be satisfied. I will take great pride knowing that my family never begged for anything from anyone. Even where somebody offers to help of their own volition, we should refuse it because taking money from the Qaum is like poison. It is not as if we have any rights to it in any case. Don’t be disappointed with me for writing such things, and know that I am not writing in anger. I know that you, my mother are having to expend a significant amount of money. That is why I have already made it clear to my brothers that whatever share of property belongs to me should be given over to my mother. When I met my dear brother Khalsa Ji and my dear sister-in-law, I told them I would be doing so and they said what could bring more joy than this? I felt very proud of my brother for being mature enough to see it this way. I made these decisions after a great deal of thought. Although my mother may feel disappointed with this decision, it is for the good of all. Mother, I swear to you do not refuse my share. I will explain this decision in more detail when we meet in person, why I came to this conclusion, and I am sure that you will agree with my decision.

 

Brother Bhupinder, do you agree with my decision or not? You must tell me, even though I know intuitively how you feel. Dear Brother if you can’t come to visit yet, then take care of the paddy first before planning to come. At the present time, I don’t really want to meet anyone as it is.

 

Sister-in-law Sukh, I have made a flower-pot out of the stand which you had brought for me; every day I put flowers in it and place it in front of my Gutka Sahib. It looks very beautiful. I will show it to you when you next come to see me and you will be surprised at how it looks. Please write about the flower garden in every letter – it pleases me when you write about the plants or flowers I have sent.

 

I must tell you a funny story: one day, brother Sukhdev and I were drinking milk in the morning, when a mosquito flew into his lap and sat there. We noticed that it was very thin. We watched it closely and saw that after some time it became quite fat – having drunk Sukhdev’s blood! As it moved to fly away, it was so full that it couldn’t take off and fell backwards. I trampled on it and helped it reach Jampur! I said aloud where else could it possibly go after drinking the blood of my brother! Brother Sukhdev says that he used to wonder why they weren’t getting stronger having eaten so much food, but it turns out that mosquitos don’t create as much blood as they drink. We were surprised at learning something else – the prison staff are afraid of us. But why aren’t the mosquitoes afraid? Now we discovered that it is because the blood is ours.

 

Today I met brother Avtar. Both he and his compatriot are in high-spirits. They have been sent away from here to another prison on account of having met us. They were pushing to get this done and it was quite hot when they arrived here. Brother, that letter you sent me was much appreciated. I am also sending a letter from brothers Kuki and Sukhi alongside this one. I have written to them just today and told them not to send any money. They have written their letter with genuine affection. You should not talk about fines with them again. Dear mother, what did you write in your letter to them? My dear respected mother, do not get angry with me. I write this to you because I am in fear of benefitting from the wealth of the Guru’s congregation.

 

Please shower kisses upon our household’s children Mandeep, Harman, and Simran. We both miss and fondly remember the children greatly. I am very angry with Harman because when she visits us here she shows me no affection, but returns home to report to her paternal aunt that her uncle gave her no affection.

 

Please write about the state of the crops. Pass on my greetings to our neighbours, towns-people and relatives. How are Saab, Kinder, and Kanwal? Did they receive my letter or not? It seems that sister Jass finds it difficult to write letters to me, hence I do not receive them frequently. Please take care of your health my dearest parents and continue to live in high spirits! Brother Sukhdev has asked me to write that he sends his greetings to everybody too. The rest we can pick up next week. Humbly I ask your forgiveness for my mistakes, Guru’s Fateh greetings.

 

Your own:

Bhai Harjinder Singh Jinda

Yerawada Central Jail

Pune

14.9.92