Guru Nanak Dev Ji

Guru Nanak Dev Ji (Nankana Sajib, April 15, 1469 − Kartarpur, September 22, 1539) was the founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten Sikh gurus. He is not only revered by Sikhs, but also by Hindus and Muslims in Punjab and throughout the Indian subcontinent.

• )) θ) (Gurū Nānak Dēv) in the Panjabi letter

According to the Nanakshahi calendar, created in his honour, Guru Nanak was born on the 2nd day of Sha-nichar-waar of the month of Vaisakh in the year 1 and died on the 8th soom-waar (Monday) of the month of Assu in the year 70.

Legends of the life of Guru Nanak

The exploits of Nanak's life are written in books known as Janamsakhis. It should be taken into account that the Janamsajis were all written after the death of Nanak, so they give different and even contradictory details about the life of said character.

Bhai Gurdas also wrote about Nanak's life in his vārs, although these were also written long after the Guru's death and are not exactly reliable. Sikhs, however, tend to believe more in Bhai Gurdas' version due to his prestige, known to deserve, according to Sikhism, blind trust in his honesty.

Hagiography

In the Janam Sākhīs the birth of Nanak is also told in detail. According to a legend written after Nanak's death, the astrologer who wrote his horoscope had already predicted that he would be revered not only by Hindus but also by Muslims.

Nanak was born in the village of Rāi Bhōi dī Talvaṇḍī, today known as Nanakana Sahib, 80 km west of Lahore (in present-day Pakistan). His father, Mehta Kalu, was a patwari, that is, a government accountant. Specifically, he worked for the Muslim owner of the town, Rai Bullar. He and his wife, Tripta Devi, had Nanak and his elder sister, known to the Sikhs as Nanaki. Nanak Mehta's parents were Khatri Hindus of the Bedi clan.

Legend has it that, at the age of five, Nanak begins to talk about spiritual topics. At age 7, his father sent him to the local school, but he soon dropped out to begin private classes and meditation.

As a young man, Nanak was fascinated by religion and his desire to explore the mysteries of life led him to leave home. It was during this time that Nanak is said to have met Kabir, a saint of the day revered by people of different religions.

Nanak retired to the forest after that and only spoke with the members of religious groups who went there frequently, some of whom were scholars of Hindu religious literature of the time, who traveled almost all of ancient India meeting the different teachers. famous religious people and telling their latest teachings.

Conversion

In Sikh tradition it is recorded that when Nanak was thirty years old (according to some books twenty-eight) he mysteriously disappeared. Some assumed that he had drowned in the Kali Bein River after one of his usual morning baths. However, Nanak reappeared three days later, constantly repeating the phrase "Nā kō hindū nā kō musalmān" ('there is no Hindu, there is no Muslim').

Travel

From that moment on, Nanak began to spread new teachings that advocated the end of Islam and Hinduism to create a new religion: what was the beginning of Sikhism.

Although the exact trajectory of his itineraries is disputed, he is recognized for having made four important trips, crossing thousands of kilometers.

His first journey was towards the northeast, crossing Bengal and Assam.

The second trip was towards the south, reaching Sri Lanka through Tamil Nadu.

The third trip was north, to Kashmir, Ladakh and Tibet.

Finally, his fourth journey was westward, reaching Baghdad and Mecca.

Family life

Nanak married Sulakhni, daughter of Mul Chand Chon, a rice merchant from Batala village, with whom he had two children. The eldest, Sri Chand was an ascetic and had a considerable number of followers, known as the Udasis. The youngest son, Lakshmi Das, on the other hand, lived a normal and ordinary life.

For Nanak, who believed in the ideal of rāj maim jōg (separation in civic life), his two sons were totally incapable of being gurus.

The three pillars of Sikhism

It was in Sultanpur that Nanak Dev would formalize the three important pillars of Sikhism:

• Practice the divine meditation directly (the simran) and sing the name of God (the naam japna).
• Being a master of home (i.e., not living outside the world, like Indian priests and hermits) and practicing the so-called kirat karni, which consists of earning money honestly, being well mentally and physically and accepting God's blessings and gifts.
• Share money within the community through collective consumption (named wand kay shako).

The books that deal with him narrate that during one of his adventures, Nanak arrived at Eminabad, a town where he had to spend the night. Two men lived in the town, one being a merchant by profession and very rich and the other, a very poor peasant. Nanak decided to spend the night at the peasant's house because he enjoyed his simple and lovely food. Guru Nanak was so amazed by the peasant's reception and affection that he decided to stay a couple more days.

The rich man wanted to show his economic potential and decided to invite the entire town for a dinner. Nanak was also invited, but he refused to go. The rich man asked him: "O Nanak, why do you not wish to come to my dinner? Am I not just like a poor farmer? Then Nanak was, practically forced by circumstances, to go to the dinner, but he brought with him a piece of food from the poor peasant's house.

Before anyone began to eat, Nanak stood up and acted in a way that caught everyone's attention: in one hand he took a piece of the poor peasant's food and in the other hand a piece of the food. of the rich man. Suddenly he squeezed the two pieces of food and it was seen that drops of milk came out of the poor man's food and drops of blood came out of the rich man's food. All the attendees were amazed.

The rich man became angry with Nanak and asked him what the purpose of that magic trick was. Nanak explained to him that the poor man's food was clean, the poor man worked honestly to obtain his profits. On the other hand, the rich man's food was not clean because his earnings were not thanks to honest work, the way he treated his employees was not fair and he drained their blood. The rich man was stunned by this response, and allegedly promised Nanak that he would never again mistreat his workers and that from then on he would work honestly with his own hands.

Other beliefs and contributions

Nanak Dev was already revered by Hindus and Muslims. However, at that time some of his beliefs were not very popular. Today all Sikhs accept them as their own.

Equality among humans

When slavery and discrimination (whether sexist, racial or between castes) existed as something normal in practically the entire world, Guru Nanak preached against them with phrases like the following:

1. "Look at the fraternity of all humanity as the highest order designated by the Yogis; conquer your mind and conquer the world."
2. "A same knowledge among all created beings."
3. "He who recognizes one God among all human beings never speaks of ego."

Nanak asked his followers to conquer their minds against the practice of evil, since, according to Nanak, all human beings have the light of God and, only by dominating one's pride can this light be seen in all.

Equality of women and men

In 1499, when the entire world did not offer any respect towards women, Guru Nanak elevated the position of women by distributing this message: “From woman is born man; within the woman, the man is conceived; with her the man commits and marries; The woman becomes her friend; through women, future generations are born; When his wife dies, he looks for another; to the woman he is tied. Well, why call her bad, kings are born from her. From women, women are born; Without the woman there would be no one. Only the true God has no wife” (p. 473).

The universal message for all human beings. All the religious leaders of that time had the custom of addressing only those who followed their religion. On the other hand, Guru Nanak broke this tradition and addressed all human beings:

"When a Muslim is merciful with all beings, only then can he be called Muslim" (p. 141).

"Oh, Nanak, without the true name [of God], what use does the mark have on the front of the Hindus, or their sacred cord?" (p. 467).

"Taking what belongs to another is like for a Muslim to eat pork, or for a Hindu to eat cow" (p. 141).

The four journeys

Guru Nanak made four great journeys, traversing all of India, the Arabian region and Persia, including visits to Mecca and Baghdad.

He gave all his speeches in front of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Muslims, which was new in those times. He used to give his speeches in temples, mosques or other places considered sacred in any of the religions of the time.

No matter where he went, Guru Nanak always spoke against religious rituals that he claimed contained nothing, such as pilgrimages, the caste system, the compulsory suicide of widows (the sati tradition) during their husbands' funerals. and dependence on books to learn about true religion. These were fundamentally the principles that went to define his general teachings.

Guru never directly said that they should follow him from a religious point of view; On the contrary, he encouraged Muslims to be good and true Muslims and Hindus to be good and true Hindus.

The village of Kartapur

After his last journey, Guru Nanak asked a rich follower to donate a large area of land on the banks of the Ravi River (in Punjab). There he built a village called Kartapur, where he taught continuously for fifteen years. Sikh followers from all over India moved to Kartapur so they could hear, sing and be with Nanak.

During this time, although all his followers were Hindus, Muslims or of their respective religions, they began to be known as the guru's disciples or as Sikhs. It is from this moment that his followers called Nanak guru (in the native language, teacher).

It was there, in Kartarpur, that Nanak introduced the concept of the common meal, in which the rich and the poor, the Muslim and the Hindu, the high caste and the low caste, would sit together and They ate together, working together fraternally and forming the entire town.

It was during these times that many leaders, sages and scholars from the Indian regions joined Nanak. Among them was Lehna, later known as Guru Angad Dev. Angad Dev and Nanak preached together since then.

One of Nanak's last prayers (still valid today for the Sikhs) is that anyone, regardless of their religion or caste, can go to any gurdwara (the name under which designated Sikh hospitality places) around the world to enjoy a hot meal.