Guru Nanak Dev Ji

 

II

Guru Nanak Dev Ji

First and foremost contributor to Holy work is Guru Nanak Dev ji also known as Baba Nanak, who founded Sikhism as he was the first of the ten Gurus of Sikhism. He was born on April 15, 1469 A.D at Rai Bhoi ki Talwandi ( present day Nanakana Sahib in Pakistan) in Lahore province of Delhi Sultanate. He was born in a Khatri Punjabi Clan like all Gurus, specifically being a Khatri Bedi. His parents were Kalyan Das Bedi ( shortened to Kalu Mehta) and mother Tripta ji were Hindu Khatris. His father was a local patwari (revenue official) for the village Talwandi, founded by Rai Bhoi. Name of Nanak’s grandfather was Shiv Ram Bedi and great grandfather’s name was Ram Narayan Bedi. His life was marked with many events that suggested that he had been blessed with divine grace. Even at the tender age of 5 years he had voiced interests on divine subjects. At the school he astonished the teacher by describing the implicit symbolism of the first alphabet of the language resembling the mathematical expression of one as denoting unity or oneness of God. One incident was witnessed by Rai Bular (present landlord of Talwandi village) that Nanak was sleeping under a tree and his head was covered from the harsh sunlight by the stationary shadow of the tree and by a venomous Cobra snake in another story. Nanak’s elder sister was Nanki who was five years older to him. She was married to Jaya Ram who was an employee of at Modikhana a store house to collect revenues in the form of commodities in the service of Delhi Sultanate at Sulatanpur Lodhi for Lahore governor of Sultanate Daulat Khan. She took Nanak with her and Jaya Ram got a job for him at Modikhana. At the age of 18 years he was married to daughter of another patwari Mul chand named Sulakhani in the town of Batala in 1487 and had two sons Baba Sri Chand ji ( founder of Udyasin sect) and Baba Lakshmi Chand ji. He stayed in Sultanpur till 1500 A.D During the first part of 16 th century he undertook four long journeys, along with his two companions Baba Bala and Baba Mardana, known as Udyasins in which he visited places like Tibet, most of the South Asia including Sri Lanka, and Arabia and Jaganath Puri and Assam in the east. He also visited Mt. Sumer, Mecca, Baghdad, Achala Batala, Sylhet in Assam and Multan. At the age of 55 years he settled down at the town of Kartarpur and lived here till his death in 1539. He appointed Bhai Lehna as his successor as Guru Angad Dev ji. His contribution to the Holy Granth is in the form of some major prayers like Japji Sahib, Asa Di Var, and Siddh Gosht. He has composed verses intended to be sung in nearly 19 ragas namely - Raga Asa, Sri Raga, Majh, Gauri, Bihagra, Vadhans, Sorath, Dhanasari, Tilanga, Suhi, Bilawal, Ramkali, Maru, Tukhari, Bhairav, Basant, Sarang,Malha and Prabhati.

Rag Asa

What kind is Your Gate, what kind Thy Abode, O’ Lord,

where sit You, and Supports us all ?

There play to You myriads of players a myriad tunes,

And Sing to Thee myriads of heavenly Singers in a myriad measures.

Sri Raga

Hark, my dear friend, Unite with thy Lord:

Now, now is the time.

The body remains only till it is in bloom and one breathes.

Without Merit, it is all vain, dust returning to dust.

Raga Majh

All are Imbued with the Word, by His Will,

And called to the True Mansion, the Lord’s Court.

O You the True and Kindly Lord of the poor,

By Your Truth is our mind satiated.

Raga Gauri

The Fear of the Lord Reveals to us our self and it drives out all other fears;

Vain is that fear which makes us afraid all the more.

Without You, O’ Lord, I have no other refuge;

(For) all that happens is in Your Will.

Raga Bihagra

Nanak: the Kali age gives birth to the goblins:

The woman is their master, and their progeny is also their like.

The Hindus have strayed from the Path, they go the wrong way.

And as Narada instructed them, so worship they( the image of God).

They are Blind and Deaf: for they are enveloped by Darkness.

And worship they the stones, these stocks and stones,

knowing that the stones themselves sink: so how can they Ferry anybody Across ?

Raga Vadhans

For the addict nothing equals an intoxicant; for the fish, nothing equals the water.

But he who is imbued with the Lord,he loves all.

Sacrifice am I to Your Name,O’ my Lord

You, my Master,are the Fruitful Tree: Your Name is Nectar-sweet.

And whosoever tastes You, the taste is satiated, and I am a Sacrifice unto him.

Raga Sorath

Let your mind be the farmer, Good Deeds the farming, and your body the farm:

And let Effort(in the way of God) irrigate your farm.

Let the Lord’s Name be the seed, and Contentment the furrowing,and let the fence be of Humility.

And, if you do deeds of Love, your seed will sprout and Fortunate will then be your home.

Raga Dhanasari

The body is the paper, the Mind what is writ on it.

But the fool reads not the Writ inscribed in the Mind.

It is in the Lord’s Court that the Writ of three kinds is forged.

And lo, the False one is of no account to anyone.

Raga Tilanga

My body’s (cloth) is Mercerized by Maya, and is Dyed in the colour of Greed.

Then how can my Lord like this my Skirt, and accept me as His Bride on His Joyous Bed ?

I am a Sacrifice unto the Beneficent ones, who utter Your Name, O Lord:

Yea, they who utter Your Name, unto them I am a Sacrifice a myriad times.

Raga Suhi

One washes the vessel and disinfects it with incense before one gathers milk in it.

Yea, the milk is of the Deeds; our conscious Mind the ferment,and the milk is curdled

through Disinterestedness ( in the result).

Dwell you on the One Name of the Lord: for all other works are fruitless and vain.

Raga Bilawal

Through the Wisdom of the Guru, my Mind is Attuned to the Lord in a state of Equipoise.

And, Imbued with the Lord’s Love, my Mind is satiated.

The Egocentrics are strayed by Doubt, like mad.

How can one find Peace without God and not Realise Him through the Guru’s Word /

Raga Ramkali

The Guru’s Wisdom is my horn;and the Word enshrined in my Consciousness I Sing

and lo, the people hear! And making the begging bowl of my gown(body)

I in gather Lord’s Name. O friend. Gorakh! The Support of the Earth, is ever Awake.

Yea,He alone is Gorakh who sustains the world and takes no time in doing what He seeks to Do.

Raga Maru

The Bride is Purblind and Mute, being led by the Other; yea, the sense of Evil,

And wears she the trousseau of Lust and Wrath. The Lord is within her Home,

but she Knows not Him, nor His Poise, and so she sleeps not (with Him) in Peace.

Raga Tukhari

Deluded by Doubt, the Bride regretted in the end.

Yea she slept through, abandoning her Spouse and Knowing him not,

she was beguiled by Vice, for she passed her Night without her Lord.

And by Lust, Wrath and Ego she was destroyed and was in Pain.

Being intoxicated with selfhood when the Swan soul flew out, in the Lord’s Will,

her dust mingled with the dust. Nanak. Bereft of True Name the Bride was deluded and

regretted in the end.

Raga Bhairon

The eyes see not, the body has withered: yea, age has overpowered man and lo he awaits death.

But knows he not that neither beauty, nor love, nor taste lasts,

then how is one to be released from the Yama’s Noose.

O man, Contemplate your God, for, your life is passing

And one is not Released without the True Word, and one’s life goes waste.

Raga Basant

O my mates, listen to me with love; My Loved God is of Incomparable Beauty and

Abides ever with me. Unknowable is He; then how is He known ?

It is the Guru who Reveals His Presence within me. Come, let’s be together; O my mates

and cultivate the Virtues of our God; and then the Lord Sports with His Brides, yea searching

our Within, through the Guru’s Word, the Mind Believes.

Raga Sarang

My Loved Lord is near at hand, not far; Yea,ever since my Mind was Pleased with the Guru’s Word,

I Attained my God, the Mainstay of my vital breath.

This is how the Bride meets with her Spouse, and is beloved of Him,

Yea, Reflecting on Guru’s Word, I am rid of the sense of my colour, caste and tribe.

Raga Malhar

The Bride, who knows not the Love of the Spouse, wails incessantly; her body is never in Bloom :

She is devoid of hope, chained to her Karma, and without the Guru is starved by Doubt.

O Clouds rain incessantly, for my Love Ha come into my Home.

I am a Sacrifice unto the loved Guru who has brought my God in my heart.

Raga Prabhati

Through Your Name, O God, is one Ferried Across, and Honoured and Worshipped:

Thy Name Embellishes man with Glory; yea, it is the (only) object of an Awakened Mind.

Through Your Name, does one’s name gather Repute all over:

Yea, without Thy Name, one is of account to no one.