SIKH GURU NANAK.

Guru Nanak.(1469-1539)

Guru Nanak was born in village Talvandi, Lahore.

At an age of 35 he had visionary experience in which he heard a voice

Ordering him to preach God’s name, serve him with prayer and

Spread teachings of true faith.

10^th November 2015 is calculated to be  the 547 birth-anniversary of Guru Nanak.

Let no man in the world live in delusion. Without a Guru none can cross over to the other shore.  

  The Guru is the Word, For all nectar is enshrined in the world Blessed is the word which reveal the Lord's name But more is the one who knows by the Guru's grace.   

Whoever, styling himself as a teacher lives on others, never bow before him. He who earns his livelihood by the sweat of Hasbro and shares it with others. O Nanak only he can know the way.  

God is one, but he has innumerable forms. He is the creator of all and He himself takes the human form.   

One cannot comprehend Him through reason, even if one reasoned for ages.  

The lord can never be established nor created; the formless one is limitlessly complete in Himself.   

The word is the Guru, The Guru is the Word, For all nectar is enshrined in the world Blessed is the word which reveal the Lord's name But more is the one who knows by the Guru's grace.   

He who shows the real home in this body is the Guru. He makes the five sounded word reverberate in man.   

Even Kings and emperors with heaps of wealth and vast dominion cannot compare with an ant filled with the love of God.  

As fragrance abides in the flower  
As reflection is within the mirror,  
So does your Lord abide within you,  
Why search for him without ?  

                            

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 hymn.  What little information there is about 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 sub-caste of the mercantile Khatri caste. The relatively high social rank of the Khatris distinguishes Nanak from other  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. 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 centers, 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 Babur 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.

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, 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. Ceylon 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  material, and the more important of these collections continue to be the basis of  biography of Nanak.