TAXILA: Sikh community from across the globe especially from the sub continent started pouring in at Hassnabdal on Thursday to participate in Besakhi celebration beginning at Gurdwara Punja Sahib on Friday.

Around 3,000 pilgrims from neighbouring India were due to arrive here through special trains amid strict security measures.

Scores of Sikhs from all over the subcontinent and abroad including US, UK, Canada and UAE have arrived here at Gurdwara Punja Sahib where the tenth Guru of the series, Guru Govind Singh Maharaj had settled around 300 years back and preached Sikhism.

Govind Singh (1666-1708) initiated the surname Singh (lion), created the military fraternity called the Khalsa, or “pure,” whose ideal was the soldier-saint.

He also introduced the Sikh practices of wearing a turban, carrying a dagger and never cutting the hair or beard.

Besakhi Festival marks the constitution of Khalsa Panth in 1699 by Guru Govind Singh Maharaj. The Khalsa Panth was meant for protecting sanctity of Sikhism and fighting out social evils from society.

Sikhs believe that during his stay at Hassanabdal, Guru Govind Sahib Maharaj was one day refused water from a local preacher and on insistence, a huge stone was hurled on the followers of the Sikh religion from the top of a hill.

To secure his followers, the Sikhs believe, when Guru Govind Singh Maharaj stopped this stone with his hand, it miraculously turned into a loaf of wax and still bears the imprint of the Punja of the Guru.

They declare the Punja imprint a symbol of Shanti (peace) and a source of inspiration to motivate them to piety and brotherhood.

They touch the hand-print of Guru Govind Singh Maharaj with a belief that its touching mitigates their miseries and hardships.

The continuous oozing out water from underneath this stone affix in the premises of Gurdwara Punja Sahib is also described as a miracle of the Guru Govind Singh Maharaj.

They also take bath (Ashnan) in this water. This three-day event of Besakhi starts every year on first day of Besakh, the fifth month of the Bikrami calendar with the recitation from the Guru Granth Sahib. Followers recite from this 1430-page scripture during these three days without a break, thus performing their sacred duty one after the other.

The celebrations culminate with the end of the recitation on the third day of Besakh and the ‘Bhog,’ the last rite, takes place.