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Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji was born in 1469
in Talwandi, a village in the Sheikhupura
district, 65 kms. west of Lahore. His
father was a village official in the
local revenue administration. As a boy,
Sri Guru Nanak learnt, besides the regional
languages, Persian and Arabic. He was
married in 1487 and was blessed with
two sons, one in 1491 and the second
in 1496. In 1485 he took up, at the
instance of his brother-in-law, the
appointment of an official in charge
of the stores of Daulat Khan Lodhi,
the Muslim ruler of the area at Sultanpur.
It is there that he came into contact
with Mardana, a Muslim minstrel (Mirasi)
who was senior in age.
By all accounts, 1496 was the year of
his enlightenment when he started on
his mission. His first statement after
his prophetic communion with God was
"There is no Hindu, nor any Mussalman."
This is an announcement of supreme significance
it declared not only the brotherhood
of man and the fatherhood of God, but
also his clear and primary interest
not in any metaphysical doctrine but
only in man and his fate. It means love
your neighbour as yourself. In addition,
it emphasised, simultaneously the inalienable
spirituo-moral combination of his message.
Accompanied by Mardana, he began his
missionary tours. Apart from conveying
his message and rendering help to the
weak, he forcefully preached, both by
precept and practice, against caste
distinctions ritualism, idol worship
and the pseudo-religious beliefs that
had no spiritual content. He chose to
mix with all. He dined and lived with
men of the lowest castes and classes
Considering the then prevailing cultural
practices and traditions, this was something
socially and religiously unheard of
in those days of rigid Hindu caste system
sanctioned by the scriptures and the
religiously approved notions of untouchability
and pollution. It is a matter of great
significance that at the very beginning
of his mission, the Guru's first companion
was a low caste Muslim. The offerings
he received during his tours, were distributed
among the poor. Any surplus collected
was given to his hosts to maintain a
common kitchen, where all could sit
and eat together without any distinction
of caste and status. This institution
of common kitchen or langar became a
major instrument of helping the poor,
and a nucleus for religious gatherings
of his society and of establishing the
basic equality of all castes, classes
and sexes.  When
Guru Nanak Dev ji were 12 years old
his father gave him twenty rupees and
asked him to do a business, apparently
to teach him business. Guru Nanak dev
ji bought food for all the money and
distributed among saints, and poor.
When his father asked him what happened
to business? He replied that he had
done a "True business" at
the place where Guru Nanak dev had fed
the poor, this gurdwara was made and
named Sacha Sauda.
Despite the hazards of travel in those
times, he performed five long tours
all over the country and even outside
it. He visited most of the known religious
places and centres of worship. At one
time he preferred to dine at the place
of a low caste artisan, Bhai Lallo,
instead of accepting the invitation
of a high caste rich landlord, Malik
Bhago, because the latter lived by exploitation
of the poor and the former earned his
bread by the sweat of his brow. This
incident has been depicted by a symbolic
representation of the reason for his
preference. Sri Guru Nanak pressed in
one hand the coarse loaf of bread from
Lallo's hut and in the other the food
from Bhago's house. Milk gushed forth
from the loaf of Lallo's and blood from
the delicacies of Bhago. This prescription
for honest work and living and the condemnation
of exploitation, coupled with the Guru's
dictum that "riches cannot be gathered
without sin and evil means," have,
from the very beginning, continued to
be the basic moral tenet with the Sikh
mystics and the Sikh society.
During his tours, he visited numerous
places of Hindu and Muslim worship.
He explained and exposed through his
preachings the incongruities and fruitlessness
of ritualistic and ascetic practices.
At Hardwar, when he found people throwing
Ganges water towards the sun in the
east as oblations to their ancestors
in heaven, he started, as a measure
of correction, throwing the water towards
the West, in the direction of his fields
in the Punjab. When ridiculed about
his folly, he replied, "If Ganges
water will reach your ancestors in heaven,
why should the water I throw up not
reach my fields in the Punjab, which
are far less distant ?"
He spent twenty five years of his life
preaching from place to place. Many
of his hymns were composed during this
period. They represent answers to the
major religious and social problems
of the day and cogent responses to the
situations and incidents that he came
across. Some of the hymns convey dialogues
with Yogis in the Punjab and elsewhere.
He denounced their methods of living
and their religious views. During these
tours he studied other religious systems
like Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and
Islam. At the same time, he preached
the doctrines of his new religion and
mission at the places and centres he
visited. Since his mystic system almost
completely reversed the trends, principles
and practices of the then prevailing
religions, he criticised and rejected
virtually all the old beliefs, rituals
and harmful practices existing in the
country. This explains the necessity
of his long and arduous tours and the
variety and profusion of his hymns on
all the religious, social, political
and theological issues, practices and
institutions of his period.
Finally, on the completion of his tours,
he settled as a peasant farmer at Kartarpur,
a village in the Punjab. Bhai Gurdas,
the scribe of Guru Granth Sahib, was
a devout and close associate of the
third and the three subsequent Gurus.
He was born 12 years after Guru Nanak's
death and joined the Sikh mission in
his very boyhood. He became the chief
missionary agent of the Gurus. Because
of his intimate knowledge of the Sikh
society and his being a near contemporary
of Sri Guru Nanak, his writings are
historically authentic and reliable.
He writes that at Kartarpur Guru Nanak
donned the robes of a peasant and continued
his ministry. He organised Sikh societies
at places he visited with their meeting
places called Dharamsalas. A similar
society was created at Kartarpur. In
the morning, Japji was sung in the congregation.
In the evening Sodar and Arti were recited.
The Guru cultivated his lands and also
continued with his mission and preachings.
His followers throughout the country
were known as Nanak-panthies or Sikhs.
The places where Sikh congregation and
religious gatherings of his followers
were held were called Dharamsalas. These
were also the places for feeding the
poor. Eventually, every Sikh home became
a Dharamsala.
One thing is very evident. Guru Nanak
had a distinct sense of his prophethood
and that his mission was God-ordained.
During his preachings, he himself announced.
"O Lallo, as the words of the Lord
come to me, so do I express them."
Successors of Guru Nanak have also made
similar statements indicating that they
were the messengers of God. So often
Guru Nanak refers to God as his Enlightener
and Teacher. His statements clearly
show his belief that God had commanded
him to preach an entirely new religion,
the central idea of which was the brotherhood
of man and the fatherhood of God, shorn
of all ritualism and priestcraft. During
a dialogue with the Yogis, he stated
that his mission was to help everyone.
He came to be called a Guru in his lifetime.
In Punjabi, the word Guru means both
God and an enlightener or a prophet.
During his life, his disciples were
formed and came to be recognised as
a separate community. He was accepted
as a new religious prophet. His followers
adopted a separate way of greeting each
other with the words Sat Kartar (God
is true). Twentyfive years of his extensive
preparatory tours and preachings across
the length and breadth of the country
clearly show his deep conviction that
the people needed a new prophetic message
which God had commanded him to deliver.
He chose his successor and in his own
life time established him as the future
Guru or enlightener of the new community.
This step is of the greatest significance,
showing Guru Nanak s determination and
declaration that the mission which he
had started and the community he had
created were distinct and should be
continued, promoted and developed. By
the formal ceremony of appointing his
successor and by giving him a new name,
Angad (his part or limb), he laid down
the clear principle of impersonality,
unity and indivisibility of Guruship.
At that time he addressed Angad by saying,
Between thou and me there is now no
difference. In Guru Granth Sahib there
is clear acceptance and proclamation
of this identity of personality in the
hymns of Satta-Balwand. This unity of
spiritual personality of all the Gurus
has a theological and mystic implication.
It is also endorsed by the fact that
each of the subsequent Gurus calls himself
Nanak in his hymns. Never do they call
themselves by their own names as was
done by other Bhagats and Illyslics.
That Guru Nanak attached the highest
importance to his mission is also evident
from his selection of the successor
by a system of test, and only when he
was found perfect, was Guru Angad appointed
as his successor. He was comparatively
a new comer to the fold, and yet he
was chosen in preference to the Guru's
own son, Sri Chand, who also had the
reputation of being a pious person,
and Baba Budha, a devout Sikh of long
standing, who during his own lifetime
had the distinction of ceremonially
installing all subsequent Gurus.
All these facts indicate that Guru
Nanak had a clear plan and vision that
his mission was to be continued as an
independent and distinct spiritual system
on the lines laid down by him, and that,
in the context of the country, there
was a clear need for the organisation
of such a spiritual mission and society.
In his own lifetime, he distinctly determined
its direction and laid the foundations
of some of the new religious institutions.
In addition, he created the basis for
the extension and organisation of his
community and religion.
The above in brief is the story of
the Guru's life. We shall now note the
chief features of his work, how they
arose from his message and how he proceeded
to develop them during his lifetime.
(1) After his enlightenment, the first
words of Guru Nanak declared the brotherhood
of man. This principle formed the foundation
of his new spiritual gospel. It involved
a fundamental doctrinal change because
moral life received the sole spiritual
recognition and status. This was something
entirely opposed to the religious systems
in vogue in the country during the time
of the Guru. All those systems were,
by and large, other-worldly. As against
it, the Guru by his new message brought
God on earth. For the first time in
the country, he made a declaration that
God was deeply involved and interested
in the affairs of man and the world
which was real and worth living in.
Having taken the first step by the proclamation
of his radical message, his obvious
concern was to adopt further measures
to implement the same.
(2)The Guru realised that in the context
and climate of the country, especially
because of the then existing religious
systems and the prevailing prejudices,
there would be resistance to his message,
which, in view of his very thesis, he
wanted to convey to all. He, therefore,
refused to remain at Sultanpur and preach
his gospel from there. Having declared
the sanctity of life, his second major
step was in the planning and organisation
of institutions that would spread his
message. As such, his twentyfive years
of extensive touring can be understood
only as a major organizational step.
These tours were not casual. They had
a triple object. He wanted to acquaint
himself with all the centres and organisations
of the prevalent religious systems so
as to assess the forces his mission
had to contend with, and to find out
the institutions that he could use in
the aid of his own system. Secondly,
he wanted to convey his gospel at the
very centres of the old systems and
point out the futile and harmful nature
of their methods and practices. It is
for this purpose that he visited Hardwar,
Kurukshetra, Banaras, Kanshi, Maya,
Ceylon, Baghdad, Mecca, etc. Simultaneously,
he desired to organise all his followers
and set up for them local centres for
their gatherings and worship. The existence
of some of these far-flung centres even
up-till today is a testimony to his
initiative in the Organizational and
the societal field. His hymns became
the sole guide and the scripture for
his flock and were sung at the Dharamsalas.
(3) Guru Nanak's gospel was for all
men. He proclaimed their equality in
all respects. In his system, the householder's
life became the primary forum of religious
activity. Human life was not a burden
but a privilege. His was not a concession
to the laity. In fact, the normal life
became the medium of spiritual training
and expression. The entire discipline
and institutions of the Gurus can be
appreciated only if one understands
that, by the very logic of Guru Nanak's
system, the householder's life became
essential for the seeker. On reaching
Kartarpur after his tours, the Guru
sent for the members of his family and
lived there with them for the remaining
eighteen years of his life. For the
same reason his followers all over the
country were not recluses. They were
ordinary men, living at their own homes
and pursuing their normal vocations.
The Guru's system involved morning and
evening prayers. Congregational gatherings
of the local followers were also held
at their respective Dharamsalas.
(4) After he returned to Kartarpur,
Guru Nanak did not rest. He straightaway
took up work as a cultivator of land,
without interrupting his discourses
and morning and evening prayers. It
is very significant that throughout
the later eighteen years of his mission
he continued to work as a peasant. It
was a total involvement in the moral
and productive life of the community.
His life was a model for others to follow.
Like him all his disciples were regular
workers who had not given up their normal
vocations Even while he was performing
the important duties of organising a
new religion, he nester shirked the
full-time duties of a small cultivator.
By his personal example he showed that
the leading of a normal man's working
life was fundamental to his spiritual
system Even a seemingly small departure
from this basic tenet would have been
misunderstood and misconstrued both
by his own followers and others. In
the Guru's system, idleness became a
vice and engagement in productive and
constructive work a virtue. It was Guru
Nanak who chastised ascetics as idlers
and condemned their practice of begging
for food at the doors of the householders.
(5) According to the Guru, moral life
was the sole medium of spiritual progress
In those times, caste, religious and
social distinctions, and the idea of
pollution were major problems. Unfortunately,
these distinctions had received religious
sanction The problem of poverty and
food was another moral challenge. The
institution of langar had a twin purpose.
As every one sat and ate at the same
place and shared the same food, it cut
at the root of the evil of caste, class
and religious distinctions. Besides,
it demolished the idea of pollution
of food by the mere presence of an untouchable.
Secondlys it provided food to the needy.
This institution of langar and pangat
was started by the Guru among all his
followers wherever they had been organised.
It became an integral part of the moral
life of the Sikhs. Considering that
a large number of his followers were
of low caste and poor members of society,
he, from the very start, made it clear
that persons who wanted to maintain
caste and class distinctions had no
place in his system In fact, the twin
duties of sharing one's income with
the poor and doing away with social
distinctions were the two obligations
which every Sikh had to discharge. On
this score, he left no option to anyone,
since he started his mission with Mardana,
a low caste Muslim, as his life long
companion.
(6) The greatest departure Guru Nanak
made was to prescribe for the religious
man the responsibility of confronting
evil and oppression. It was he who said
that God destroys 'the evil doers' and
'the demonical; and that such being
God s nature and will, it is man's goal
to carry out that will. Since there
are evil doers in life, it is the spiritual
duty of the seeker and his society to
resist evil and injustice. Again, it
is Guru Nanak who protests and complains
that Babur had been committing tyranny
against the weak and the innocent. Having
laid the principle and the doctrine,
it was again he who proceeded to organise
a society. because political and societal
oppression cannot be resisted by individuals,
the same can be confronted only by a
committed society. It was, therefore,
he who proceeded to create a society
and appointed a successor with the clear
instructions to develop his Panth. Again,
it was Guru Nanak who emphasized that
life is a game of love, and once on
that path one should not shirk laying
down one's life. Love of one's brother
or neighbour also implies, if love is
true, his or her protection from attack,
injustice and tyranny. Hence, the necessity
of creating a religious society that
can discharge this spiritual obligation.
Ihis is the rationale of Guru Nanak's
system and the development of the Sikh
society which he organised.
(7) The Guru expressed all his teachings
in Punjabi, the spoken language of Northern
India. It was a clear indication of
his desire not to address the elite
alone but the masses as well. It is
recorded that the Sikhs had no regard
for Sanskrit, which was the sole scriptural
language of the Hindus. Both these facts
lead to important inferences. They reiterate
that the Guru's message was for all.
It was not for the few who, because
of their personal aptitude, should feel
drawn to a life of a so-called spiritual
meditation and contemplation. Nor was
it an exclusive spiritual system divorced
from the normal life. In addition, it
stressed that the Guru's message was
entirely new and was completely embodied
in his hymns. His disciples used his
hymns as their sole guide for all their
moral, religious and spiritual purposes.
I hirdly, the disregard of the Sikhs
for Sanskrit strongly suggests that
not only was the Guru's message independent
and self-contained, without reference
and resort to the Sanskrit scriptures
and literature, but also that the Guru
made a deliberate attempt to cut off
his disciples completely from all the
traditional sources and the priestly
class. Otherwise, the old concepts,
ritualistic practices, modes of worship
and orthodox religions were bound to
affect adversely the growth of his religion
which had wholly a different basis and
direction and demanded an entirely new
approach.
The following hymn from Guru Nanak
and the subsequent one from Sankara
are contrast in their approach to the
world.
"the sun and moon, O Lord, are
Thy lamps; the firmament Thy salver;
the orbs of the stars the pearls encased
in it.
The perfume of the sandal is Thine
incense, the wind is Thy fan, all the
forests are Thy flowers, O Lord of light.
What worship is this, O Thou destroyer
of birth ? Unbeaten strains of ecstasy
are the trumpets of Thy worship.
Thou has a thousand eyes and yet not
one eye; Thou host a thousand forms
and yet not one form;
Thou hast a thousand stainless feet
and yet not one foot; Thou hast a thousand
organs of smell and yet not one organ.
I am fascinated by this play of 'l hine.
The light which is in everything is
Chine, O Lord of light.
From its brilliancy everything is illuminated;
By the Guru's teaching the light becometh
manifest.
What pleaseth Thee is the real worship.
O God, my mind is fascinated with Thy
lotus feet as the bumble-bee with the
flower; night and day I thirst for them.
Give the water of Thy favour to the
Sarang (bird) Nanak, so that he may
dwell in Thy Name."3
Sankara writes: "I am not a combination
of the five perishable elements I arn
neither body, the senses, nor what is
in the body (antar-anga: i e., the mind).
I am not the ego-function: I am not
the group of the vital breathforces;
I am not intuitive intelligence (buddhi).
Far from wife and son am 1, far from
land and wealth and other notions of
that kind. I am the Witness, the Eternal,
the Inner Self, the Blissful One (sivoham;
suggesting also, 'I am Siva')."
"Owing to ignorance of the rope
the rope appears to be a snake; owing
to ignorance of the Self the transient
state arises of the individualized,
limited, phenomenal aspect of the Self.
The rope becomes a rope when the false
impression disappears because of the
statement of some credible person; because
of the statement of my teacher I am
not an individual life-monad (yivo-naham),
I am the Blissful One (sivo-ham )."
"I am not the born; how can there
be either birth or death for me ?"
"I am not the vital air; how can
there be either hunger or thirst for
me ?"
"I am not the mind, the organ
of thought and feeling; how can there
be either sorrow or delusion for me
?"
"I am not the doer; how can there
be either bondage or release for me
?"
"I am neither male nor female,
nor am I sexless. I am the Peaceful
One, whose form is self-effulgent, powerful
radiance. I am neither a child, a young
man, nor an ancient; nor am I of any
caste. I do not belong to one of the
four lifestages. I am the Blessed-Peaceful
One, who is the only Cause of the origin
and dissolution of the world."4
While Guru Nanak is bewitched by the
beauty of His creation and sees in the
panorama of nature a lovely scene of
the worshipful adoration of the Lord,
Sankara in his hymn rejects the reality
of the world and treats himself as the
Sole Reality. Zimmer feels that "Such
holy megalomania goes past the bounds
of sense. With Sankara, the grandeur
of the supreme human experience becomes
intellectualized and reveals its inhuman
sterility."5
No wonder that Guru Nanak found the
traditional religions and concepts as
of no use for his purpose. He calculatedly
tried to wean away his people from them.
For Guru Nanak, religion did not consist
in a 'patched coat or besmearing oneself
with ashes"6 but in treating all
as equals. For him the service of man
is supreme and that alone wins a place
in God's heart.
By this time it should be easy to discern
that all the eight features of the Guru's
system are integrally connected. In
fact, one flows from the other and all
follow from the basic tenet of his spiritual
system, viz., the fatherhood of God
and the brotherhood of man. For Guru
Nanak, life and human beings became
the sole field of his work. Thus arose
the spiritual necessity of a normal
life and work and the identity of moral
and spiritual functioning and growth.
Having accepted the primacy of moral
life and its spiritual validity, the
Guru proceeded to identify the chief
moral problems of his time. These were
caste and class distinctions, the institutions,
of property and wealth, and poverty
and scarcity of food. Immoral institutions
could be substituted and replaced only
by the setting up of rival institutions.
Guru Nanak believed that while it is
essential to elevate man internally,
it is equally necessary to uplift the
fallen and the downtrodden in actual
life. Because, the ultimate test of
one's spiritual progress is the kind
of moral life one leads in the social
field. The Guru not only accepted the
necessity of affecting change in the
environment, but also endeavoured to
build new institutions. We shall find
that these eight basic principles of
the spirituo-moral life enunciated by
Guru Nanak, were strictly carried out
by his successors. As envisaged by the
first prophet, his successors further
extended the structure and organised
the institutions of which the foundations
had been laid by Guru Nanak. Though
we shall consider these points while
dealing with the lives of the other
nine Gurus, some of them need to be
mentioned here.
The primacy of the householder's life
was maintained. Everyone of the Gurus,
excepting Guru Harkishan who died at
an early age, was a married person who
maintained a family. When Guru Nanak,
sent Guru Angad from Kartarpur to Khadur
Sahib to start his mission there, he
advised him to send for the members
of his family and live a normal life.
According to Bhalla,8 when Guru Nanak
went to visit Guru Angad at Khadur Sahib,
he found him living a life of withdrawal
and meditation. Guru Nanak directed
him to be active as he had to fulfill
his mission and organise a community
inspired by his religious principles.
Work in life, both for earning the
livelihood and serving the common good,
continued to be the fundamental tenet
of Sikhism. There is a clear record
that everyone upto the Fifth Guru (and
probably subsequent Gurus too) earned
his livelihood by a separate vocation
and contributed his surplus to the institution
of langar Each Sikh was made to accept
his social responsibility. So much so
that Guru Angad and finally Guru Amar
Das clearly ordered that Udasis, persons
living a celibate and ascetic life without
any productive vocation, should remain
excluded from the Sikh fold. As against
it, any worker or a householder without
distinction of class or caste could
become a Sikh. This indicates how these
two principles were deemed fundamental
to the mystic system of Guru Nanak.
It was defined and laid down that in
Sikhism a normal productive and moral
life could alone be the basis of spiritual
progress. Here, by the very rationale
of the mystic path, no one who was not
following a normal life could be fruitfully
included.
The organization of moral life and
institutions, of which the foundations
had been laid by Guru Nanak, came to
be the chief concern of the other Gurus.
We refer to the sociopolitical martyrdoms
of two of the Gurus and the organisation
of the military struggle by the Sixth
Guru and his successors. Here it would
be pertinent to mention Bhai Gurdas's
narration of Guru Nanak's encounter
and dialogue with the Nath Yogis who
were living an ascetic life of retreat
in the remote hills. They asked Guru
Nanak how the world below in the plains
was faring. ' How could it be well",
replied Guru Nanak, "when the so-
called pious men had resorted to the
seclusion of the hills ?" The Naths
commented that it was incongruous and
self-contradictory for Guru Nanak to
be a householder and also pretend to
lead a spiritual life. That, they said,
was like putting acid in milk and thereby
destroying its purity. The Guru replied
emphatically that the Naths were ignorant
of even the basic elements of spiritual
life.9 This authentic record of the
dialouge reveals the then prevailing
religious thought in the country. It
points to the clear and deliberate break
the Guru made from the traditional system.
While Guru Nanak was catholic in his
criticism of other religions, he was
unsparing where he felt it necessary
to clarify an issue or to keep his flock
away from a wrong practice or prejudice.
He categorically attacked all the evil
institutions of his time including oppression
and barbarity in the political field,
corruption among the officialss and
hypocrisy and greed in the priestly
class. He deprecated the degrading practices
of inequality in the social field. He
criticised and repudiated the scriptures
that sanctioned such practices. After
having denounced all of them, he took
tangible steps to create a society that
accepted the religious responsibility
of eliminating these evils from the
new institutions created by him and
of attacking the evil practices and
institutions in the Social and political
fields. T his was a fundamental institutional
change with the largest dimensions and
implications for the future of the community
and the country. The very fact that
originally poorer classes were attracted
to the Gurus, fold shows that they found
there a society and a place where they
could breathe freely and live with a
sense of equality and dignity.
Dr H.R. Gupta, the well-known historian,
writes, "Nanak's religion consisted
in the love of God, love of man and
love of godly living. His religion was
above the limits of caste, creed and
country. He gave his love to all, Hindus,
Muslims, Indians and foreigners alike.
His religion was a people's movement
based on modern conceptions of secularism
and socialism, a common brotherhood
of all human beings. Like Rousseau,
Nanak felt 250 years earlier that it
was the common people who made up the
human race Ihey had always toiled and
tussled for princes, priests and politicians.
What did not concern the common people
was hardly worth considering. Nanak's
work to begin with assumed the form
of an agrarian movement. His teachings
were purely in Puniabi language mostly
spoken by cultivators. Obey appealed
to the downtrodden and the oppressed
peasants and petty traders as they were
ground down between the two mill stones
of Government tyranny and the new Muslims'
brutality. Nanak's faith was simple
and sublime. It was the life lived.
His religion was not a system of philosophy
like Hinduism. It was a discipline,
a way of life, a force, which connected
one Sikh with another as well as with
the Guru."'° "In Nanak
s time Indian society was based on caste
and was divided into countless watertight
Compartments. Men were considered high
and low on account of their birth and
not according to their deeds. Equality
of human beings was a dream. There was
no spirit of national unity except feelings
of community fellowship. In Nanak's
views men's love of God was the criterion
to judge whether a person was good or
bad, high or low. As the caste system
was not based on divine love, he condemned
it. Nanak aimed at creating a casteless
and classless society similar to the
modern type of socialist society in
which all were equal and where one member
did not exploit the other. Nanak insisted
that every Sikh house should serve as
a place of love and devotion, a true
guest house (Sach dharamshala). Every
Sikh was enjoined to welcome a traveller
or a needy person and to share his meals
and other comforts with him. "Guru
Nanak aimed at uplifting the individual
as well as building a nation."
Considering the religious conditions
and the philosophies of the time and
the social and political milieu in which
Guru Nanak was born, the new spirituo-
moral thesis he introduced and the changes
he brought about in the social and spiritual
field were indeed radical and revolutionary.
Earlier, release from the bondage of
the world was sought as the goal. The
householder's life was considered an
impediment and an entanglement to be
avoided by seclusion, monasticism, celibacy,
sanyasa or vanpraslha. In contrast,
in the Guru's system the world became
the arena of spiritual endeavour. A
normal life and moral and righteous
deeds became the fundamental means of
spiritual progress, since these alone
were approved by God. Man was free to
choose between the good and the bad
and shape his own future by choosing
virtue and fighting evil. All this gave
"new hope, new faith, new life
and new expectations to the depressed,
dejected and downcast people of Punjab."
Guru Nanak's religious concepts and
system were entirely opposed to those
of the traditional religions in the
country. His views were different even
from those of the saints of the Radical
Bhakti movement. From the very beginning
of his mission, he started implementing
his doctrines and creating institutions
for their practice and development.
In his time the religious energy and
zeal were flowing away from the empirical
world into the desert of otherworldliness,
asceticism and renunciation. It was
Guru Nanak's mission and achievement
not only to dam that Amazon of moral
and spiritual energy but also to divert
it into the world so as to enrich the
moral, social the political life of
man. We wonder if, in the context of
his times, anything could be more astounding
and miraculous. The task was undertaken
with a faith, confidence and determination
which could only be prophetic.
It is indeed the emphatic manifestation
of his spiritual system into the moral
formations and institutions that created
a casteless society of people who mixed
freely, worked and earned righteously,
contributed some of their income to
the common causes and the langar. It
was this community, with all kinds of
its shackles broken and a new freedom
gained, that bound its members with
a new sense of cohesion, enabling it
to rise triumphant even though subjected
to the severest of political and military
persecutions.
The life of Guru Nanak shows that the
only interpretation of his thesis and
doctrines could be the one which we
have accepted. He expressed his doctrines
through the medium of activities. He
himself laid the firm foundations of
institutions and trends which flowered
and fructified later on. As we do not
find a trace of those ideas and institutions
in the religious milieu of his time
or the religious history of the country,
the entirely original and new character
of his spiritual system could have only
been mystically and prophetically inspired.
Apart from the continuation, consolidation
and expansion of Guru Nanak's mission,
the account that follows seeks to present
the major contributions made by the
remaining Gurus.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Copyright © Harbans Singh "The
encyclopedia of Sikhism. "
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