Shri Guru Amar Das Ji

Shri Guru Amar Das Ji; 5 May 1479 – 1 September 1574) was the third of the Ten Gurus of Sikhism and became Sikh Guru on 26 March 1552 at age 73.

Shri Guru Amar Das Ji adhered to the Vaishnavism tradition of Hinduism for much of his life. One day he heard his nephew's wife, Bibi Amro, reciting a hymn by Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, and was deeply moved by it. He persuaded her to introduce him to her father, Shri Guru Angad Dev Ji. Shri Guru Amar Das Ji at the age of sixty met and devoted himself to Shri Guru Angad Dev Ji and became a Sikh. In 1552, after Shri Guru Angad Dev Ji, he became Shri Guru Amar Das Ji, the third Guru of Sikhism.

Shri Guru Amar Das Ji was an important innovator in Sikhism, who introduced a religious organization called the Manji system by appointing trained clergy, a system that expanded and survives into the contemporary era. He wrote and compiled hymns into a Pothi (book) that ultimately helped create the Adi Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Shri Guru Amar Das Ji helped establish the Sikh rituals relating to baby naming, wedding (Anand Karaj), and funeral, as well as the practice of congregation and celebrations of festivals such as Diwali, Maghi and Vaisakhi. He founded centres of Sikh pilgrimage, and picked the site for the Golden Temple.

Shri Guru Amar Das Ji remained the leader of the Sikhs till age 95, and named his son-in-law Bhai Jetha later remembered by the name Shri Guru Ram Das Ji as his successor.