Guru Nānak

Guru Nānak (1469–1539) was a mystic, poet and religious teacher from the Punjab, and the founder of Sikhism, now the world’s fifth-largest organised religion with some 25 million followers. Born into a Hindu family in a land ruled by Muslims, he taught that “there is no Hindu, there is no Muslim” — that God is one, formless and beyond all religious divisions, and is to be found through loving remembrance of his name (nām), honest work and service to others, not through ritual, pilgrimage, asceticism or caste. His hymns, composed in Punjabi and sung to classical rāgas, form the core of the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh scripture. He was the first of the ten Sikh Gurus; the tenth, Guru Gobind Singh, declared the scripture itself the eternal Guru.

Life

Nānak was born on 15 April 1469 (celebrated in November by Sikhs) at Talwandi, now Nankana Sahib in Pakistan, to a Khatri Hindu family; his father, Mehta Kālū, was a village accountant. The janam-sākhīs, hagiographical accounts, tell that as a child he astonished his teachers with questions, refused to wear the sacred thread at his initiation (“make compassion the cotton, contentment the thread, continence the knot and truth the twist”), and, sent to make a profitable trade, spent the money feeding hungry ascetics — the “true bargain” (sachā saudā).

He married, had two sons, and worked as a storekeeper for a Muslim official at Sultanpur Lodhi. Around 1499, bathing in the river Bein, he disappeared for three days. When he emerged, he was silent for a day; then he said: “There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim.” He had, he later sang, been taken into the presence of God and given a cup of nectar and a mission.

He then spent some twenty-five years travelling (udāsīs), accompanied by his Muslim friend and musician Bhāī Mardānā, who played the rabāb while Nānak sang. Tradition says he went east to Assam and Bengal, south to Sri Lanka, north to Tibet and Kailāsa, and west to Mecca and Baghdad. A famous story: sleeping at Mecca with his feet towards the Kaaba, he was kicked awake by an angry qāzī; he replied, “Then turn my feet towards where God is not.” At Haridwar he saw pilgrims throwing water towards the rising sun for their dead ancestors, and began throwing water westward; asked why, he said he was watering his fields in Punjab — if their water could reach the dead, his could reach his fields.

In his last years he settled at Kartarpur on the Ravi, where he founded a community of disciples (Sikhs, “learners”) who farmed, prayed and ate together in a common kitchen. Before his death in 1539 he appointed his disciple Lehnā, renamed Aṅgad (“my own limb”), as his successor, passing over his own sons.

Teaching

One God

The Mūl Mantar, the opening of the Guru Granth Sahib and the basic creed of Sikhism, describes God:

ੴ ਸਤਿ ਨਾਮੁ ਕਰਤਾ ਪੁਰਖੁ ਨਿਰਭਉ ਨਿਰਵੈਰੁ ਅਕਾਲ ਮੂਰਤਿ ਅਜੂਨੀ ਸੈਭੰ ਗੁਰ ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ ॥ Ik Onkār, sat nām, kartā purakh, nirbhau, nirvair, akāl mūrat, ajūnī, saibhaṅ, gur prasād. One God; truth is his name; the creator; without fear; without enmity; timeless in form; unborn; self-existent; known by the Guru’s grace.

God is nirguṇa (without attributes) and yet present in all creation; he does not take incarnate form; he is to be worshipped through his name and his will (hukam), not through images.

The name and the will

The path to God is nām simran, constant, loving remembrance of God’s name, which purifies the mind of the five “thieves” — lust, anger, greed, attachment and ego (haumai). Liberation (mukti) is union with God, achieved by grace through living in harmony with his will.

Against ritual and caste

Nānak rejected ritualism, idol-worship, pilgrimage, fasting, asceticism, the sacred thread, caste distinctions and the seclusion of women. He taught that one should remain a householder, working honestly and serving others: the three pillars of Sikh life are nām japo (remember God), kirat karo (earn an honest living), and vaṇḍ chhako (share with others). He insisted on the equality of all: “Recognise the divine light in all, and do not ask about caste; there is no caste in the next world.” Of women: “From woman, man is born… why call her inferior, from whom kings are born?”

Laṅgar

He established the laṅgar, the community kitchen, where all — of every caste and religion — sit together on the floor and eat the same food. It remains a central institution of every Sikh gurdwārā.

Works

Nānak’s 974 hymns, in Punjabi with elements of Hindi, Persian and Sanskrit, are the largest single contribution to the Guru Granth Sahib. The most famous is the Japjī Sāhib, 38 stanzas recited each morning by Sikhs, beginning with the Mūl Mantar and meditating on God’s will, the vastness of creation and the stages of spiritual ascent. Others include the Āsā dī Vār, Siddh Goṣṭ (a dialogue with yogis), and Bārah Māhā (the twelve months).

Legacy

The nine Gurus who followed developed Nānak’s community into the Sikh religion; the fifth, Guru Arjan, compiled the scripture (1604), including hymns by Kabīr, Ravidās, Nāmdev and the Sufi Bābā Farīd; the tenth, Guru Gobind Singh, founded the Khālsā (1699) and declared the scripture the final Guru. Nānak’s birthday, Guru Nānak Gurpurab, is celebrated worldwide.

Guru Nānak in conversation

“There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim” — the sentence with which he began his teaching. And the three pillars: remember God, work honestly, share what you have.