Guru Nanak Dev
Guru Nanak Dev (15 April 1469 – 22 September 1539), was the founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten Gurus of the Sikhs. He is revered not only by Sikhs, but also Hindus and Muslims in the Punjab and across the Indian subcontinent
The Janamsakhis recount in minute detail all the circumstances of the birth of the guru. They claim that at his birth, an astrologer who came to write his horoscope insisted on seeing the child. On seeing the infant, he is said to have worshipped him with clasped hands. The astrologer is said to have remarked that he regretted that he should never live to see young Nanak's eminence, worshipped as he should be alike by Hindus and Muslims, and not merely by Hindus
At the age of five years Nanak is said to have begun to talk of divine subjects, and to have fully understood the meaning of his language. When Nanak was seven years of age, his father enrolled him at the local village school.
Nanak left school early after he had shown his scholastic proficiency. He then took to private study and meditation
Sikh tradition states that at the age of thirty, Nanak went missing and was presumed to have drowned after going for one of his morning baths to a local stream called the Kali Bein. Three days later he reappeared and would give the same answer to any question posed to him: "There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim" (in Punjabi, "na ko hindu na ko musalman"). It was from this moment that Nanak would begin to spread the teachings of what was then the beginning of Sikhism. Although the exact account of his itinerary is disputed, he is widely acknowledged to have made four major journeys, spanning thousands of kilometres. The first tour being east towards Bengal and Assam, the second south towards Ceylon via Tamil Nadu, the third north towards Kashmir, Ladakh and Tibet, and the final tour west towards Baghdad and Mecca.
Nanak was married to Sulakhni, the daughter of Moolchand Chona, a rice trader from the town of Batala. They had two sons. The elder son, Sri Chand was an ascetic and he came to have a considerable following of his own, known as the Udasis. The younger son, Lakshmi Das, on the other hand was totally immersed in worldly life. To Nanak, who believed in the ideal of raj mai? jog (detachment in civic life), both his sons were unfit to carry on the Guruship.
|