India celebrates the birthday of Guru Nanak Dev ji, the founder of Sikhism and the first of the Sikh Gurus born in 1469 at Nankana Sahib.
This is the 553rd birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev Ji. Guru Nanak was born at Rāi Bhoi Kī Talvaṇḍī Village (present-day Nankana Sahib, Punjab, Pakistan) in the Lahore province of the Delhi Sultanate, although according to one tradition, he was born in the Indian month of Kārtik or November, known as Kattak in Punjabi.
It is believed that Guru Nanak’s birth was a mark of divinity. His birth anniversary is celebrated worldwide on the day of Kartik Purnima as per the lunar calendar. He was one of the ten celebrated Sikh gurus who helped in shaping Sikhism, and the day is marked with joy, laughter, and festivities. This year, the auspicious day falls on November 19.
On this day, devotees around the globe offer prayers, including at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, which celebrates Gurpurab with joy and gusto. It starts with ‘Akhand Path’, the gurdwaras recite 48-hour long, non-stop verses from the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of the Sikhs. Traditions around the day also include carrying palanquins in Nagar Kirtan processions.
About Gurū Nānak and His Teachings:
Gurū Nānak was born on 15 April 1469 and died on 22 September 1539, the founder of Sikhism and is the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. His birth is celebrated worldwide as Guru Nanak Gurpurab on Katak Pooranmashi (‘full-moon of Kattak’), i.e. October–November.
Guru Nanak is said to have traveled across India and Asia teaching people the message of ik onkar (one God’), who dwells in every one of His creations and constitutes the eternal Truth. With this concept, he built a unique spiritual, social, and political platform based on equality, fraternal love, goodness, and virtue.
Nanak’s words are registered in the form of 974 poetic hymns, or shabda, in the holy text of Sikhism, the Guru Granth Sahib, with some of the major prayers being the Japji Sahib (jap, ‘to recite’; ji and sahib are suffixes signifying respect); the Asa di Var (‘ballad of hope’); and the Sidh Gosht (‘discussion with the Siddhas’). It is part of Sikh religious belief that the spirit of Nanak’s sanctity, divinity, and religious authority had alighted upon each of the nine subsequent Gurus when the Guruship was devolved onto them.
Family and Early Life
Nanak’s parents, including father Kalyan Chand Das Bedi and mother Mata Tripta, were both Hindu Khatris and employed as merchants. His father was the local patwari (accountant) for crop revenue in the village of Talwandi.
According to Sikh traditions, the birth and early years of Guru Nanak’s life were chronicled with many events that demonstrated that Nanak had been blessed with divine grace. Commentaries on his life give features of his spiritual consciousness from a young age. For instance, at the age of five, Nanak is said to have voiced interest in divine subjects. At age seven, his father enrolled him at the village school, as per custom. Notable lore recounts that, as a child, Nanak astonished his teacher by describing the implicit symbolism of the first letter of the alphabet, resembling the mathematical version of one, as denoting the unity or oneness of God.
Other stories of his childhood refer to strange and miraculous events about Nanak, such as the one witnessed by Rai Bular, in which the sleeping child’s head was shaded from the harsh sunlight by, in one account, by the stationary shadow of a tree or, in another, by a venomous cobra.
As a young man, Guru Nanak married Sulakhani, daughter of Mūl Chand and Chando Raṇi, married on 24 September 1487, in the town of Batala, and had two sons, Sri Chand and Lakhmi Chand. Guru Nanak lived in Sultanpur until c. 1500, which would be a formative time for him, as the puratan janamsakhi suggests, and in his various allusions to governmental structure in his hymns, most likely gained at this time.
Final Years
Around the age of 55, Nanak settled in Kartarpur, living there until his death in September 1539. During this period, he went on short journeys to the Nath yogi center of Achal, and the Sufi centers of Pakpattan and Multan. By the time of his death, Nanak had obtained several followers in the Punjab region.
Guru Nanak appointed Bhai Lehna as the successor Guru, renaming him as Guru Angad, meaning “one’s very own” or “part of you”. Shortly after proclaiming his successor, Guru Nanak died on 22 September 1539 in Kartarpur, at the age of 70. Mysteriously, Guru Nanak’s body was never found. When the quarreling Hindus and Muslims tugged at the sheet covering Nanak’s body, they found instead a heap of flowers. Symbolically, Guru Nanak’s faith would flower into a religion known as Sikhism.
Travels: The 4 Udasis and other locations visited by Guru Nanak
During first quarter of the 16th century, Nanak went on long udasiya (‘journeys’) for spiritual pursuits. A verse authored by him states that he visited several places in “nau-khand” (‘the nine regions of the earth’), presumably the major Hindu and Muslim pilgrimage centres.
Some modern accounts state that he visited Tibet, most of South Asia, and Arabia, starting in 1496 at age 27 when he left his family for a thirty-year period. These claims include Nanak’s visit to Mount Sumeru of Indian mythology, as well as Mecca, Baghdad, Achal Batala, and Multan, where he would debate religious ideas with opposing groups.
In 1508, Nanak visited the Sylhet region in Bengal. The janamsakhis suggest that Nanak visited the Ram Janmabhoomi Temple in Ayodhya in 1510–11 CE.
The Baghdad inscription remains the basis of writing by Indian scholars that Guru Nanak journeyed in the Middle East, with some claiming he visited Jerusalem, Mecca, Vatican, Azerbaijan and Sudan.
There are unusual claims about his travels, as well as claims such as Guru Nanak’s body vanishing after his death, are also found in later versions and these are similar to the miracle stories in Sufi literature about their pirs. Other direct and indirect borrowings in the Sikh janamsakhis relating to legends around Guru Nanak’s journeys are from Hindu epics and Puranas, and Buddhist Jataka stories.