Guru Nanak Ji was the pioneer, enunciating the cause of Inter-Religious Peace and Harmony. His Tenets emphasize upon truthful living, humility, liberty, equality, justice, compassion, honest earning, serving the needy selflessly and protecting the weak and the meek. All this, he said would be tantamount to a Divine Life and real, true, actual worship and attainment of God and fulfillment of the purpose of human-birth. Guru Nanak was on a Divine Mission. He was a Spiritual Maestro, a Renaissance-Man, a Crusader for Interreligious Amity, an extraordinary social-reformist much ahead his era and yet he utters the absolute TRUTH that “he is, what he is, ONLY because of the Gracious Mercy of The Almighty and he is nothing without GOD”. In other words, Divine Guru is teaching humanity to embrace humility, by refraining from self aggrandizement.
GURU NANAK, the Enlightened one says there is ONLY ONE OMNISCIENT, who is always there, here and everywhere for all and OMNIPRESENT in all. The Divine Guru says GOD can be realized by humans in different ways and GOD is worshipped and known by innumerable HOLY NAMES, as per the experience of the devotee. GOD existed from time immemorial, before the Prophets were born and before the Scriptures and Religions. GOD is the ETERNAL energy, power, origin and source of every creation. After the Divine-Merger of the Prophets, GOD granted immortality to the Prophets because they disseminated the REAL TRUTH about the TRUE ONE. Guru Nanak Ji was the pioneer, enunciating the cause of Inter-Religious Peace and Harmony. His Tenets emphasize upon truthful living, humility, liberty, equality, justice, compassion, honest earning, serving the needy selflessly and protecting the weak and the meek. All this, he said would be tantamount to a Divine Life and real, true, actual worship and attainment of God and fulfillment of the purpose of human-birth. Guru Nanak reformed several tyrannical rulers, vociferously advocated human rights and women’s rights, brought about social revolution, by speaking out against slavish mentality, superstitious beliefs, hollow ritualistic practices, religious bigotry and suppression of the downtrodden social and economic classes. For over a thousand years, India was invaded by a small bunch of horse-riders, from Mongolia, Persia, Afghanistan, and other regions. Taimur, Ghazni, Ghori, Nadir Shah, Abdali, Durrani, Babar, Sher Shah Suri are only a few of those invaders, who plundered Hindu Temples, looted gold, took women and children as slaves, killed all and sundry who crossed their path.
And then, in Circa 1469, appeared a man on earth, the likes of whom are seen, once in a millennium. GOD sent GURU NANAK, The Divine Preceptor of ONENESS of humanity and the epitome of humility to HEAL humanity. He was blessed by The Creator, to win the hearts of all, and to bring about massive transformation, wherever he went. The Divine Preceptor traversed various continents, 27000 miles in 25 years of his 70-year sojourn on this planet, fostering Goodwill amongst races, cultures, religions.
Two of the ten Gurus had to take up arms, to protect the masses from the extreme persecution and tyranny of the ruling elite. The sixth Guru Hargobind Sahib Jee and the tenth Guru Gobind Singh Jee, with their disciples were the Saint Warriors. The fifth Guru Arjan Sahib Jee and the ninth Guru Tegh Bahadur Jee embraced martyrdom, for refusing to follow the diktat of the barbaric regime. Such events forced the sixth and tenth Gurus to raise a martial force, the army named The Khalsa. Guru Nanak Jee enunciated the Divine Tenets thus : “Human interactions must be replete with *Divine-Love & Godly-Light*, Lifelong-Learning, Humanitarian-Service, Spirit-of-Sharing, Peace, Amity, Goodwill, Tolerance, Harmonious Coexistence, Acceptance and Understanding. He traveled far and wide, to have discussions with Saints professing divergent faiths and he collected their spiritual poetry to be included in The Scripture, Guru Granth Sahib Ji, much later, by his fifth embodiment, Guru Arjan Sahib Ji.
Guru Nanak Sahib Jee says : “I do not know how and what to speak. I utter only that, which YOU, O’ GOD, command me to churn out”. Guru Sahib says GOD is the bestower of ALL BLESSINGS. Guru Nanak claims NO credit, whatsoever and says, “the earth is ONE global family and all creatures and creations come from OUR CREATOR, The Only Omniscient One”.
To me, the most significant element of the Divine Persona of Guru Nanak Ji is the HUMILITY factor. Guru Sahib says : “O’ GOD, I am a beggar at the gate of Your Palace. I am a minstrel singing at Your Door. Forgive this ignorant one, as I have committed innumerable sins. I am a slanderer, a fraudster, a liar, a schemer, a lustful being. Therefore, my Supreme Master, please pardon this sinister creature, by not taking into account my sins, for if accounting is done, I would not stand even an iota of a chance, to be pardoned. So, I seek Your Mercy”. Due to such inherent humility, the SOUL, which was named GURU NANAK, was endowed with Divine Wisdom, by GOD.
Guru Nanak was on a Divine Mission. He was a Spiritual Maestro, a Renaissance-Man, a Crusader for Interreligious Amity, an extraordinary social-reformist much ahead his era and yet he utters the absolute TRUTH that “he is, what he is, ONLY because of the Gracious Mercy of The Almighty and he is nothing without GOD”. In other words, Divine Guru is teaching humanity to embrace humility, by refraining from self aggrandizement
To say that Guru Nanak was the “Founder of Sikhism” would be a travesty of the larger truth. His reach and depth of thought was expansive as the unfathomable ocean and limitless sky. Similarly, the Divine teachings of Sree Ram Chandra , Sree Krishna, Moses, Jesus, Hazrat Mohammed, Gautam Buddha, Tirthankar Mahavir and all Prophets are for the entire humanity and not merely for those who say they are the followers of a particular Prophet. All Prophets were expansive in their Vision & Mission, whereas the disciples have limited them in a House of Worship and have started asserting the supremacy of one Prophet over others. The Prophets invested their life for Unification but the followers started discrimination. The PROPHETS are in absolute PEACE with each other and enjoy Ultimate Communion with GOD. Guru Sahib taught humanity to deal in the True Business of making concerted endeavors towards fostering Peace, Equality, Liberty, Justice, Compassion, by shunning all varieties of discrimination, domination, bigotry, tyranny, bias and prejudice.
Guru Nanak says “Do NOT worship me, I am not GOD. If you so desire, then follow my humble advice to lead a Pure, Holy, Pious, Divine Life and this, in itself, shall be tantamount to realizing and attaining GOD, residing within you and in everyone. Do not brag about ANY intellect, talent, knowledge, education, comfort, luxury, power, authority, beauty, courage, ALL of which you have received from GOD, as a GIFT. Always remain humble and learn, as the term ‘SIKH‘ denotes ‘a learner for a lifetime’ and share this knowledge with all. Earn honestly, serve selflessly, share compassionately. Remember GOD and shun cruelty and domination. Remember that NOTHING belongs to us, not even LIFE, which we have received on a LEASE-basis. Remember that DEATH could be lurking round the corner, waiting to strike, the very next moment. By cultivating such thought, we would refrain from harming anyone”.
Imbibing such attributes would be real service to GOD, worshipping GOD, becoming GOD; not actually GOD, but feeling like GOD and feeling GOOD about the journey. The soul MUST return to The Origin, in the pristine, sublime form, just as it was, when it attained this human Body-Temple. By LIVING and LOVING thus, The SOUL (Aatma) would enjoy eternal communion with ‘The Parent-Soul’, GOD (Param-aatma). Living thus, is the Real, True Purpose of life. This is Mukti, Moksha, Nirvaan, Liberation, Salvation, Redemption, Emancipation. This is what can be termed as the Final, Absolute, Ultimate and True Destination, to arrive at which this Soul donned this human body-attire. Humans have the heart, with the emotion of empathy and compassion or hatred and violence, and the brain decides accordingly, asking the hands to take action and implement, execute the plan, either compassionate or evil-minded.
Sree Guru Nanak Sahib Jee says : “There is One Light of Our Creator pervading in the entire Creation and in all Creatures”. The Divine Guru commands : “I am a mere speck of dust, at the feet of the Holy Saints and True Devotees of GOD. A disciple can rise to be the Guru”. And he, actually, bowed before his successor, while anointing him The Guru, and so did all successive nine Gurus, when their successor was anointed.
(The author is a recipient of the Ambassador For Peace Award, from the Interreligious International Federation for World Peace N.Y., Affiliated to the United Nations. As the President of ‘Aspirations & Expressions’, he is the Initiator of ‘1GOD1humanity’ Accolades & ‘Guru Nanak Benediction’ Awards, presented to Honorees from ALL Religions, Cultures, Races, for their Endeavors towards a Divine Humanity.
He can be reached at Amar1Ujagar1Pritam@gmail.com
www.1GOD1humanity.org/events)