The Sikh’s holy shrine that shines in the
morning light with its golden covered tomb along with little minarets is the
golden temple. The Golden Temple is located in Amritsar in the state of Punjab.
The Golden temple Amritsar is like a palace belonging to the fairy world to the
ardent believers of Sikh faith. The golden temple displays a magnificent view
as it stands in the centre of a pool and gives the innocent viewers a thrilling
feeling of looking into heaven. Amritsar means ‘Pool of the Nectar of Immortality’
and thus the temple rightly gets its name as Golden temple Amritsar. The
shining holy shrine of the Sikhs creates an image of ecstatic awareness and the
vision has been experienced by the innumerable millions of visitors and
pilgrims for many centuries. Sikhs from all over the world come to this
heavenly place and experience miraculous cures by touching the pool of nectar
of the golden temple.
The world famous Golden temple Amritsar was
originally built as a mud house by Guru Amar Das. He found an herb along the
sides of the pool which magically cured a skin disease of his Guru, Guru Angad.
The pool was called as ‘Amrit Sarovar’ which meant ‘Pool of Nectar’ and
remained as a village lake until when Ram Das, the fourth Guru, decided to
build a permanent construction with bricks. On completion of the Holy shrine it
was called as Sri Harimandir Sahib Amritsar.
Amritsar was earlier known as Chak,
Chak-Guru, Guru-ka-chak, Chak-Guru-Ram-Das and Ram-Das-Pura. Craftsmen
belonging to the towns of Patti, Kasur and Kalanur lived in houses that
surrounded the bank of the pool of nectar. A market named Guru-ka-bazar was
only present at that time, although it has become very popular now.
Guru Arjan Dev followed as the fifth Sikh
Guru to decorate the spiritual throne in 1581. He sensed the upcoming
popularity of the Holy Shrine as a pilgrimage centre and the importance of
paving the lake’s surroundings and its steps with bricks. Receiving help from
the ardent devotees he constructed the temple, which till today stands as a
symbol revealing the indefinite mystery of life to the people who desire to
look for it and continue to stand forever and ever. Guru Arjan Dev’s vision to
build a Heaven on Earth became urgent as he saw a number of people coming with
simple hearts, joining their hands to offer their prayers and touch and
sprinkle the holy water onto their foreheads. Therefore Guru Arjan Dev built
the structure of Sri Hari Mandir Sahib that represented a distinct identity and
glory, heritage of the Sikhs. The uniqueness of the golden temple lies in the
fact that it is a symbol of brotherhood and equality not only of the Sikhs but
among all people. The Golden temple Amritsar was built at a level lower than
the surrounding land level with four entrances to the Holy shrine, which
depicts that people belonging to all classes of life can walk in without any
inequality. There is a rectangular shape circumambulatory walk that ends at the
entrance of the golden temple and the path to Reality begins. Guru Arjan Dev
laid the foundation stone of the Golden temple Amritsar in 1588 A.D. to
symbolically combine the faith of the Hindu God Hari and his many incarnations
and the Muslim belief of One God taught by the divine Mian Mir of Lahore. The
unique design of the Sri Harimandir Sahib exhibits the combination of
rectangular form of a Hindu temple and the dome and minarets of the Muslims.
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