RENUNCIATION means the giving up of the style of living dominated by worldly ambition and craving and discarding the love of possessions for the sake of achieving the ultimate goal of religious life. The theistic traditions hold that when one is united with God, all else loses its significance. In this sense, God realization can be viewed as the culmination of renunciation. A devotee of God is supposed to withdraw from the world to practise piety in loneliness, and to resort to self denial, so that he can see and know and be one with God.
SAIF UDDIN MAHMUD, also called Saif Khan (d.1685), a high ranking noble in the reign of Aurangzib, was a man of religious disposition which, earned him the popular title of Faqirullah, meaning a holy man of God. His father, Tarbiat Khan, had been a Bakhshi or paymaster under Emperor Shah Jahan, and his elder brother, Fidai Khan, was Aurangzib`s foster brother. During the war of succession (1658) Saif udDin had fought gallantly on the side of Aurangzib, who rewarded him with the title of Saif Khan and the governorship of Agra. Relieved of his post later, Saif Khan retired to his small fief in Sirhind territory where he founded, in 1668, a fortified habitation named Saifabad, now Bahadurgarh, near Patiala. He was governor of Kashmir twice in 1665-68 and again in 1669-1671. In 1671, he quit the post and turned a hermit.
SANT TRADITION comprises those medieval monotheistic and devout personalities belonging to different shades of Indian society who are supposed to have been quiet, tranquil nonsectarian, opposed to Brahmanical ritualism, piously tired of the duplicity of the world but otherwise deeply conscious and critical of the outrageous anamolies professed by certain vested interests among the people around. In general terms these mystical personalities are known as nirgun bhaktas or more commonly sants. The Sanskrit form of the term sant is rooted in sam meaning `appeased* or `pacified`.
SHAHI TIBBI, a low mound about 6 km south of KIratpur Sahib (31"11`N, P&`SaE) in Ropar district of the Punjab, was the scene of a fierce battle in the time of Guru Gobind Singh. The Guru who evacuated Anandpur on the night of 56 December 1705, was given a hot pursuit by the besieging host contrary to solemn assurances of safe conduct. He was following the main route to Ropar. By the time he had reached near Shahi Tibbi, covering a distance of about 14 km from Anandpur, he was overtaken by the pursuers.