Hardeep Puri requests PM to find suitable home for 'Jore Sahib', footwear of Guru Gobind Singh and Mata Sahib Kaur

‘Jore Sahib’, the holy relics of Guru Gobind Singh and his wife Mata Sahib Kaur, will soon find an appropriate home where devotees will be able to pay obeisance in large numbers.

Union Oil and Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri on Friday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him that the relics be placed appropriately. The relics are expected to find a home in one of the gurdwaras in the national capital.

The Puri family, which has been preserving the 'Jore Sahib', a footwear each of Guru Gobind Singh and Mata Sahib Kaur, has decided to place the relics in suitable care to allow everyone to offer respects.

As the eldest member of the Puri family, which has had these relics for 300 years, Puri has taken the initiative.

Puri, along with a committee of eminent members of the Sikh sangat, called on PM Modi to submit the recommendations of the committee for the safekeeping and befitting display of the holy ‘Jore Sahib’.

In a message, Puri said the ‘Jore Sahib’ are a footwear each of Guru Gobind Singh Ji (right foot 11" by 3½") and his revered wife Mata Sahib Kaur Ji (left foot 9" by 3").

“The Puri family has been immensely blessed and fortunate to perform seva of these holy relics from the time these were bestowed upon our ancestors by Guru Sahib and Mata Ji themselves more than 300 years ago. Our ancestors had the great divine blessing to be in the direct service of Dasam Pita," he said.

"Legend has it that pleased with his seva, Guru Maharaj commanded him to ask for any reward.

"Our ancestor requested Guru Sahib to kindly grant him his divine permission to keep the sacred ‘Jore Sahib’ so that the direct blessings of Guru Sahib and Mata Ji continue in his family and their generations to follow," the minister said.

The last custodian of the ‘Jore Sahib’ was Hardeep Puri's late cousin, Jasmeet Puri, who lived in Delhi’s Karol Bagh on a street which was subsequently named ‘Guru Gobind Singh Marg’ to honour the sanctity of the holy relics.

"Since I am one of the eldest members of the family now, his wife, Manpreet ji, wrote to me to find an appropriate home for these relics so that the faithful could pay obeisance to the ‘Jore Sahib’ in greater numbers," Puri said.

He subsequently had the holy relics carefully examined by the Ministry of Culture. Carbon testing has also been done to establish their authenticity and supreme religious and spiritual importance.

"Members of the committee have made their recommendations and presented a report for a decision befitting the holy 'Jore Sahib' to PM Modi, who has always expressed respect towards teachings of our Guru sahibs and affection towards members of the Sikh sangat," Puri said.