Guru Nanak

Guru Nanak (born April 15, 1469, Rai Bhoi di Talvandi [now Nankana Sahib, Pakistan], near Lahore, India—died 1539, Kartarpur, Punjab) was an Indian spiritual teacher who was the first Guru of Sikhism, a monotheistic religion that combines Hindu and Muslim influences. His teachings, expressed through devotional hymns, many of which still survive, stressed salvation from rebirth through meditation on the divine name. Among modern Sikhs he enjoys a particular affection as their founder and as the supreme master of Punjabi devotional hymnody.

Life

What little information there is about Guru Nanak’s life has been handed down mainly through legend and tradition. There is no doubt that he was born in 1469 in the village of Rai Bhoi di Talvandi. His father was a member of a subcaste of the mercantile Khatri caste. The relatively high social rank of the Khatris distinguishes Nanak from other Indian religious reformers of the period and may have helped promote the initial growth of his following. He married the daughter of a Khatri, who bore him two sons.

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For several years Nanak worked in a granary until his religious vocation drew him away from both family and employment, and, in the tradition of Indian religious mendicants, he embarked on a lengthy journey, probably traveling to the Muslim and Hindu religious centres of India, and perhaps even to places beyond India’s borders. Neither the actual route nor the places he visited can be positively identified.

References found in four of his hymns suggest that Nanak was present at attacks that Bābur (an invading Mughal ruler) launched on Saidpur and Lahore, so it seems safe to conclude that by 1520 he had returned from his travels and was living in the Punjab.

The remaining years of his life were spent in Kartarpur, another village of central Punjab. Tradition holds that the village was actually built by a wealthy admirer to honour Nanak. It was presumably during this final period that the foundations of the new Sikh community were laid. By this time it must be assumed that Nanak was recognized as a Guru, an inspired teacher of religious truth, and that, in accordance with the custom of India, disciples who accepted him as their Guru gathered around him in Kartarpur. Some probably remained as permanent residents of the village; many more made periodic visits to obtain his blessing. All of them listened to the teachings expressed there in numerous devotional hymns intended for communal singing, many of which survive to this day.

The actual year of Guru Nanak’s death is disputed, tradition being divided between 1538 and 1539. Of these two possibilities, the latter appears to be the more likely. One of his disciples, Angad, was chosen by Nanak as his spiritual successor, and following Nanak’s death he assumed the leadership of the young Sikh community as Guru Angad.

In view of the size of the following that Nanak attracted, numerous anecdotes concerning the deeds of the Guru began to circulate within the community soon after his death. Many of these were borrowed from the current Hindu and Muslim traditions, and others were suggested by Nanak’s own works. These anecdotes were called sakhis, or “testimonies,” and the anthologies into which they were gathered in rough chronological order are known as Janam-sakhis. The interest of the narrators and compilers of the Janam-sakhis has largely concentrated on the childhood of Nanak and above all on his travels. Among the earlier traditions are tales of visits he is supposed to have made to Baghdad and Mecca. Sri Lanka is a later addition, and later still the Guru is said to have traveled as far east as China and as far west as Rome. Today the Janam-sakhis offer a substantial corpus of hagiographical material, and the more important of these collections continue to be the basis of “biographies” of Guru Nanak.

Doctrine

Guru Nanak’s message can be briefly summarized as a doctrine of salvation through disciplined meditation on the divine name. Salvation is understood in terms of escape from the transmigratory round of death and rebirth to a mystical union with God. The divine name signifies the total manifestation of God, a single Being, immanent both in the created world and within the human spirit. Meditation must be strictly inward, and all external aids such as idols, temples, mosques, scriptures, and set prayers are explicitly rejected. The Muslim influence is relatively slight; the influence of Hindu mystical and devotional beliefs is much more apparent. Always, though, the coherence and beauty of Guru Nanak’s own expression dominates early Sikh theology.