Guru Nanak.

A lot of things can be said about Guru Nanak, He was a nice guy who was born in a merchant family, He got married and had two sons. He travelled around the world with His Muslim friend named Mardana, He was kind, generous and taught people to love each other and all nice things.

However the purpose of this story is to show another side of history & how the Sadguru’s have been shaping Humanity and our evolution in their unique styles.

Guru Nanak was one of the greatest religious innovators of all time who lived during a very interesting period of history when Babur invaded India and the life of the ten Sikh Gurus runs parallel to the Mughal Empire.

We have seen how the Sufi saints of Chisti order played an important part in the assimilation of Hindus and Muslims.The assimilation stated with Moinuddin Chisti in Ajmer during the time of Mahmud Ghori’s invasion and rule of Prithvi Raj Chauhan, it then spread to Delhi ,through Qutab-ud-din Bhakhtiar Kaki during the establishment of the Slave Dynasty of Qutabuddin Aibak & Iltutmish, thereafter it spread to Punjab through Baba Farid and then again Hazrat Nizzamuddin Auliya in Delhi and His famous disciples Amir Khusro and Nassiruddin Chirag –I –delhi. They shaped the social, political and cultural life mainly through their writings , poetry , songs and music. The Delhi Sultanate in the process of trying to destroy the Sufi Saints destroyed themselves and paved the way for the Mughal Empire.

Guru Nanak brought about a revolution through a unique spiritual thrust by which he reorganized the social and political platform based on love, equality and goodness by breaking down all barriers of sex, caste, creed, religion. Needless to say that His work was further consolidated by the nine Sikh Gurus after Him and thereafter the Guru Granth Sahib remained the eternal Guru. The Sikh Guru’s had frequent conflicts with the Mughal Emperors as they considered it a spiritual duty to resist evil and injustice. They organized society as political and societal oppression could not be resisted by individuals.

The unique points which were spread by Guru Nanak and helped shape Humanity are

·         He brought out the importance of local language by encouraging Punjabi & Gurmukhi, he was always for the masses and therefore never encouraged Sanskrit language for the select few to understand God and have any monopoly.

·         He emphasized the role of hard work, discouraged begging and believed in the Householder way of achieving God and never encouraged any of the Guru to be an ascetic. He believed that increased Spiritual awareness leads to increased and vibrant participation in everyday world.

·         “From a woman, a man is born” – Guru Nanak gave highest value and importance to women.

·         He believed in a community concept of Dharamshala which later evolved into Gurudwara where Satsang or meeting of people for community development could take place.

·         He believed in langar or community kitchen for feeding the poor and also breaking all barriers of caste and creed by eating food together as human beings.

·         He believed in Naam Jaap or repeating the name of God to have direct access to God without the help of any rituals or priests.·        

     Sikhism is also highly influenced by the secularism of the Bhakti Saints and Sufi Saints like Kabir and Baba Farid as their hymns and couplets have also been included in the Guru Granth Sahib along with music and langar concept to bring about integration in society.

Therefore we see that a lot of nonsense was wiped out and logical and simple rules for spiritual and material evolution and growth was made.

However I cannot resist the urge to point out that Guru Nanak’s body was not found when He died as only flowers were found, similar to Kabir. The true Guru often fills up his body with pure energy which probably disintegrates into the ether, once the mission is completed.

Let us always remember the simple teachings of helping each other, leading a simple life and serving all as a means of serving God.