Guru Nanak: A Great Saint of India
Guru Nanak was born on 15 April 1469 at Rai Bhoi Ki Talvaṇḍi village (present-day Nankana Sahib, Punjab, Pakistan) in the Lahore province of the Delhi Sultanate. He is the founder of Sikhism and is the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. His birth is celebrated worldwide as Guru Nanak Gurpurab on Katak Poornamashi (‘full-moon of Kattak’), i.e. October–November. The Sikh records state that Nanak died on the 10th day of the Asauj month of Samvat 1596 (22 September 1539 CE), at the age of 70 years, 5 months, and 7 days.
Nanak is said to have traveled far and wide across Asia teaching people the message of ik onkar i.e. ‘one God’, who dwells in every one of His creations and constitutes the eternal Truth. With this concept, he would set up a unique spiritual, social, and political platform based on equality, fraternal love, goodness, and virtue. Nanak’s words are registered in the form of 974 poetic hymns or shabda, in the holy text of Sikhism, the Guru Granth Sahib, with some of the major prayers being the Japji Sahib (jap, ‘to recite’; ji and sahib are suffixes signifying respect); the Asa di Var (‘the ballad of hope’); and the Sidh Gosht (‘discussion with the Siddhas’). It is part of Sikh religious belief that the spirit of Nanak’s sanctity, divinity, and religious authority had descended upon each of the nine subsequent Gurus when the Guruship was devolved onto them. The Sikhs are great spiritual persons in India. Wherever they may live, they perform their devotional duties and public service.
His Philosophy
Nanak’s teachings can be found in the Sikh scripture Guru Granth Sahib, as a collection of verses recorded in Gurumukhi. There are two competing theories of Guru Nanak’s teachings. The first, according to Cole and Sambhi (1995, 1997), based on the hagiographical Janamsakhis, states that Nanak’s teachings and Sikhism were revelations from God, and not a social protest movement, nor an attempt to reconcile Hinduism and Islam in the 15th century. The hagiographical Janamsakhis were not written by Nanak, but by later followers without regard for historical accuracy, containing numerous legends and myths created to show respect for Nanak. In Sikhism, the term revelation, as Cole and Sambhi clarify, is not limited to the teachings of Nanak. Rather, they include all Sikh Gurus, as well as the words of men and women from Nanak’s past, present, and future, which possess divine knowledge intuitively through meditation. The Sikh revelations include the words of non-Sikh bhagats (Hindu devotees), some of who lived and died before the birth of Nanak, and whose teachings are part of the Sikh scriptures.
The concept of man as elaborated by Guru Nanak, states Mandair (2009), refines and negates the “monotheistic concept of self/God,” where “monotheism becomes almost redundant in the movement and crossings of love.” The goal of man, taught by the Sikh Gurus, is to end all dualities of “self and other, I and not-I,” attaining the “attendant balance of separation-fusion, self-other, action-inaction, attachment-detachment, in the course of daily life.” Guru Nanak and other Sikh Gurus emphasized bhakti (‘love’, ‘devotion’, or ‘worship’), and taught that the spiritual life and secular householder life are intertwined. In the Sikh perspective, the everyday world is part of an infinite reality, where increased spiritual awareness leads to increased and vibrant participation in the everyday world. Guru Nanak described living an “active, creative, and practical life” of “truthfulness, fidelity, self-control, and purity” as being higher than the metaphysical truth.
Through popular tradition, Nanak’s teaching is understood to be practiced in three ways. These are as follows:
• Vand Shhako (‘share & consume’): Share with others, and help those who are in need, so you
may eat together;
• Kirat Karo (‘work honestly’): Earn an honest living, without exploitation or fraud; and
• Naam Japo (‘recite His name’): Meditate on God’s name, to feel His presence and control the five thieves of the human personality.
Anybody in India can see the duties the Sikh brothers do at the Gurudwaras. They are mostly very hard-working, and devotional persons. Their appearance and attire attract people from all over the world. With a helping attitude and honest work, India as a whole can become a greater and stronger country. All people irrespective of any religion should pray and practice honest living.
