Guru Nanak - The Divine Person

In Talwandi, a village in the Sheikhupura area, 65 kilometres west of Lahore, Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji was born into a Hindu family in 1469. Both his mother Mata Tripta and father Mehta Kalu were from the merchant caste. In the Talwandi village, his father worked as the patwari, or local accountant. Bebe Nanaki, his lone elder sister, was the person he was closest to..

The village, now in Pakistan, is known as Nankana Sahib. The boy's name was Nanak, and he was well known as Guru Nanak Dev.At the age of five, he developed an interest in spirituality and topics related to the holy.

He enrolled in the village school at the age of seven. He was incredibly smart and picked up the letters quickly.At the age of 14, he tied the knot in 1487 and was blessed with a son in 1491 and another in 1496. At the age of sixteen or so, Guru Nanak took up the task of appointing an official to oversee the stocks of Sultanpur's Muslim ruler, Daulat Khan Lodhi, in 1485, at the request of his brother-in-law. It was there that he met the elderly Muslim minstrel Mardana, also known as Miri.

He and Mardana had a morning swim in the Kali Bein, also known as the Black River. He entered the river and vanished below the surface. Everyone thought he had drowned in the river as he was nowhere to be found.

He told everyone he had been brought to God's court when he miraculously emerged from the river three days later. This encounter gave him a spiritual awakening and made him fully enlightened. After that, he was referred to as "Guru Nanak" by others.

Nanak's father provided him money to make purchases and attempted to encourage him to get involved in business. Nanak used all of the money to feed the hungry and homeless, rather than purchasing the supplies needed for the business.Even as a small child, he was deeply spiritual and philosophical, and he disapproved of idolatry.He quickly abandoned his job after losing all interest in material things like family and career. He informed his family that God had summoned him to convey His divine word and that he had to follow the Almighty's wishes, leaving his wife and kids in the care of his parents.

Lakshmichand and Srichand were the names of Nanak's two sons. Srichand established the Udasis sect of ascetics after giving up on the world. The Udasis had long hair and beards. It was totally forbidden to use a razor on any area of the body. Lakshmichand rose to become a global man. With his wife, he had two boys.

Nanak distributed his belongings to the underprivileged after quitting his job. He dressed like a fakir and lived in the jungle. He engaged in rigorous meditation and extreme austerities. He performed moving songs. All of these are compiled and kept safe in the Adi Granth, the Sikhs' holy book.

He preached everywhere for twenty-five years of his life. During this time, he wrote a lot of his hymns. He travelled far and wide with Mardana, bringing the divine message of compassion and peace to all people. Despite the lack of precise records of his trips, it is thought that between 1500 and 1524, he undertook at least four significant voyages totaling over 28,000 kilometres.They serve as persuasive reactions to the events and circumstances he encountered as well as solutions to the main theological and social issues of the day. A few of the hymns describe conversations with Yogis in Punjab and other places. He disapproved of their lifestyle choices and their religious beliefs.. He studied other religions, including Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism, while on these travels.

After completing his tours, he eventually made his home as a peasant farmer in the Punjabi village of Kartarpur. The third and the three succeeding Gurus were close and devoted companions of Bhai Gurdas, the writer of the Guru Granth Sahib. He was born twelve years after the passing of Guru Nanak, and he enlisted in the Sikh mission at an early age. He rose to become the Gurus' principal missionary agent.Bhai Lehna as his heir apparent. After the death of Guru Nanak, Lehna was called "Angad" and recognised as the second Sikh Guru.

Major works:-

• With almost 30 million followers, Sikhism is currently the fifth-largest organised religion in the world and was founded by Guru Nanak. In order to emphasise the need of equality and sharing among all people, he also instituted the Langar system, or communal kitchen.

• In addition to tending to his farm, the Guru persisted in his mission and sermons. His adherents were referred to as Sikhs or Nanak-panthies across the nation. Dharamsalas were the locations of Sikh congregations and religious assemblies of his adherents. Additionally, the impoverished were fed at these locations. All Sikh homes eventually transformed into Dharamsalas.

• The ‘Japji’ and ‘Sohila’—the morning and the evening prayers composed by Guru Nanak .

• By making the Sanskrit characters simpler, Guru Nanak created the Gurumukhi characters. Gurumukhi contains the Sikhs' sacred Granth. The Sindhis and Sikhs both adore it. There is a Granth Sahib at every Gurudwara. The hymns of the first five Gurus are found in the sacred Granth, sometimes referred to as the Adi Granth. The fifth Guru gathered them all, put them in order, and combined them into a single book known as the Guru Granth Sahib. A few verses from Kabir's and other modern Vaishnavite saints' hymns are included. Afterwards, the tenth Guru added the songs of the ninth Guru to the holy Granth. The corpus of Guru Nanak's works is enormous.

In one of his songs, Nanak provides a lovely summary of his teachings, which goes like this:—

Love the saints of every faith:
Put away thy pride.
Remember the essence of religion
Is meekness and sympathy,
Not fine clothes,
Not the Yogi’s garb and ashes,
Not the blowing of the horns,
Not the shaven head,
Not long prayers,
Not recitations and torturings,
Not the ascetic way,
But a life of goodness and purity,
Amid the world’s temptations.

For those who follow Guru Nanak, the mantra is "Vahe Guru". Another significant mantra to recite is: "Ek Omkar Satnam Karta Purkh Nirbhav Nirvair, Akalmurat Ajuni Savai Bhang Gur Parsad—God is but one, His Name is true, He is the Creator, He pervades the whole universe, He is without fear, He is without enmity, He is immortal, He is birthless, He is self-born and self-existent, He is the remover of the darkness (of ignorance) and He is merciful" . The Lord never ends. He is without beginning or end.

Guru Nanak passed away in 1538 A.D. at the age of 69.