Guru Nanak Jayanti: 12th November
Remembering the Divine Soul
There are many stories related to the divine connections of Guru Nanak with the Almighty. His main teachings and realization are said to have begun when he reached the age of 30, around 1499. In year 1499, Guru Nanak disappeared for three days, leaving his clothes by the bank of a stream called Kali Bein. When he returned, he remained silent for a while before pronouncing he had received a vision of God’s court and had returned to lead people to this divine nectar.
Guru Nanak taught that God was beyond religious boundaries and external definition. He said he would follow neither the Muslim or Hindu religion, but just God’s path. He taught ‘there is no Muslim, no Hindu’. This was of social significance because of the political and social conflict between Islam and Hinduism at the time. During his lifetime, Guru Nanak attracted followers from the Hindu, Muslim, and other religious traditions.
He taught his followers three basic religious principles.
1. Selflessness– sharing with others, and giving to those who are less fortunate. But, also a selflessness of attitude – avoiding the pitfalls of egoism, pride and jealousy.
2. Earning an honest living– living without deceit, exploitation or fraud.
3. Naam Japna– Meditating on God’s name and repeating a mantra. Through the repetition of God’s name, Guru Nanak taught that a follower could free himself from all the worldly affairs. However, Guru Nanak taught it was not just enough to repeat a mantra mechanically, but with selflessness and real zeal.
To avoid the pitfalls of ego, Guru Nanak shared the following traits of a Guru – someone who could lead the seeker to avoid egoistic choices. By following the teachings of someone else, it helps to cultivate a spiritual attitude of devotion and discipline. His teachings also had profound social implications. Guru Nanak always stressed the inner spiritual awakening.
A true Guru meets His disciples in the strangest of circumstances. This is also true with Guru Nanak and one of His disciples. One day, when Guru Nanak Dev Ji was a child, he accidentally went to another street. He noticed a lady sitting in the verandah of her house, crying loudly. Guru Nanak went inside and asked her why she was crying, and then he saw a newborn baby in her lap. The woman answered him sobbing, “This is my son, I am crying at his fate. If he was born somewhere else, he would have lived for a few more days. But he is born in my house, and now he is going to die”.
Nanak asked, “Who told you he is going to die?” She then revealed that all the children she bore before the newborn died and hence he will too. Guru Nanak took the baby in his hand and said, “He is going to die right? Then you give him to me.” The woman agreed, and Nanak named him Mardana. He gave the baby back and said, “Now he is mine, but you keep him with you. When I will need him, I will take him along”. Guru Nanak left the house and the newborn survived. The baby grew up to become Guru Nanak’s closest friend and disciple, Mardana, serving till his death.
Another such incident is equally astonishing. Once Guru Nanak, together with Mardana and Bala traveled together to Kashmir. They came to the city of Sri Nagar. There the people knew who he was because of his grace and his light. The people were very happy and blessed to sit with him and learn from him. In that city there was also a Pundit named Brahm Das. He was very learned and through his devotion to the goddess he had gained yogic powers. When he heard that a great Guru had come to town he thought, “I don’t think I will be that impressed with this new-comer. It is I who has great knowledge and supernatural powers. I will show him my skill. Sitting on this carpet I will fly over to where he is and there is no doubt that he will be totally impressed when I arrive.”
Sure enough, he got on his carpet, levitated up and flew to where a large crowd had gathered around the Guru. Everyone seemed happy. He looked and looked but he couldn’t see Guru Nanak anywhere. He landed and asked the people, “Where is this ‘Guru’?” The Guru, with his sweet voice and beautiful face, was sitting right there, but the Pundit could not see him. The people were surprised and said to the pundit, “He’s sitting right in front of you!” But the pundit couldn’t see the beauty right in front of him. He tried to fly his carpet away but… it didn’t work. None of his tricks worked and he had to walk back on foot carrying his carpet under his arm.
Later he asked his servant, “Was the Guru really there?” “Oh yes he certainly was, he was so kind and beautiful and we all had a great time!” Everyone else seemed to understand and be filled with happiness but the learned pundit was confused, “Well if he was there, than why couldn’t I see him?!?” He was shocked when he heard the reply, “It is because of your pride that you could not see him.”
So the next day the pundit humbly walked on foot to meet the Guru. This time he did see the Guru among the crowd. The pundit bowed before the Guru, who is a friend to all. The Guru said, “Come sit over here.” Pundit Brahm Das sat next to the Guru and asked, “Respected Guru, when I came here yesterday… why couldn’t I see you?” The Guru said, “How could you see in such extreme darkness?” “Darkness? But it was broad daylight when I came here yesterday!” The Guru replied, “Is there any deeper darkness than pride?” These words struck the pundit, “Because you can fly you think you are so great. Look around, the birds can fly, the insects can fly. Do you want to be like them?”
The truth struck his heart and the pundit said, “Please forgive me, I see your wisdom great Guru. I have read sacred books and gained super powers but I’ll admit… I have not found peace and happiness. Please tell me how I can touch the feet of the Creator.” The Guru explained to him, “You worship Gods and Goddesses and just like humans they are temporary. You have followed men of great knowledge and you have become lost in that knowledge. That kind of knowledge which increases the darkness of ego, will not help you. Words are only meaningful when they are true and you live the truth they represent. All words are just symbols. Look within yourself and see the truth.”
An equally interesting story of Guru Nanak and a disciple goes this way. There was a kingdom at the southern tip of India, an island kingdom called Ceylon. At this place, lived a very rich king and he wanted to know more about God, and he had heard of Guru Nanak. His friend had told him about Guru Nanak. Saying, “A holy man with sacred knowledge is sharing some very deep experience with people. He says that if you can’t see God in all, you can’t see God at all. His name is Guru Nanak and he shares with everyone.” And the king said, “That is just the person that I would like to learn from. How can I meet him?” The friend replied, “If you pray very sincerely with just love in your heart I think surly he will come.” So the king created a beautiful garden with lots of big trees, shade and had all the flowers in it. And he began to pray every day, pray for Guru Nanak to come.
Well of course people heard of this garden, heard of this rich king, and so some people came to answer his prayer, they thought. However, the king was able to make out that these people were not Guru Nanak and one day he decided, “Well I can’t waste my time coming down and checking all these people out anymore. I will create a test for them.” So the king started to test these people by sending the most beautiful girls of his court to lure these people. If these people were to pass the test, then only the king would come to meet the person. Many people came to the garden and all of them fell prey to these young and beautiful girls. The king got disheartened and lost his hope and decided, “I’m not going to bother with this anymore! The Guru doesn’t seem to care, I guess he’ll never come. No more testing people, it’s a waste of money, from now-on, no one is allowed in my garden anymore.”
And the months went by, and the years went by, and the king got very disappointed and sick of it all. He neglected his garden, he didn’t take care of it anymore, and the weeds grew up and the trees grew weak. However, one day when Guru Nanak was in the very south of India and decided to visit Ceylon. When he got to the city where the king lived, he went straight to the garden. A miracle happened and the dead and neglected garden came back to life. All the flowers blossomed, the trees gain all the greenery, birds started singing. Guru Nanak sat under one of the beautiful trees, Mardana began to play, and Guru Nanak began to sing of God’s Love.
Someone walked by and looked into the garden and was left totally amazed. He ran quickly to the king and said, “My lord! You must see. It’s amazing! Someone has come and your garden looks beautiful again.” The king replied, “Every time another holy man comes, everyone gets excited. I’m not impressed, call my dancing girls. ” So the dancing girls were sent to the garden. However, looking at the divine aura of Guru Nanak they forgot their tricks and fell into the holy feet of Guru. The man went by the gate, again, and he was totally amazed he could not believe his eyes. He ran quickly to the king and narrated what he saw. And the king replied, “Well, I better go.”
And he went to the garden, but when he got there the gates were closed and he could not open the gates, he could only look through, and he knew he could hear the music, he could hear the singing, he could hear the Guru’s beautiful voice, he could see the light. He could see the dancing ladies siting gracefully as the grace of God, at the Guru’s feet but he could not get in and he knew that this must be Guru Nanak. And the king said, “Oh! I closed my gates, I closed my hospitality to guests. I even closed my heart. I closed my prayers, I closed the most important thing, I closed my faith in the Guru. Now I am being closed out. I’m getting what I deserve. But seeing the Guru and not being able to be with him is like torture. Oh God, I pray, please forgive me. All I want is to see the Guru.”
And then he felt so ashamed in his heart that he forgot about the Guru, that he had lost his faith that the Guru would come and he tricked so many people. Tears started to flow from his eyes, making his heart pure again. Suddenly, the gates were open and he rushed into the holy feet of Guru and started begging for forgiveness. The king said, “Forgive me Guru Ji, I am the biggest fool of all. I doubted you, I was just trying to test you, please forgive me. Please, please forgive me.”
These are few incidents that have been shared here to show the greatness of Guru in life. Very often we disciples tend to test the Guru, test His greatness and doing so drags us further down into the swamp of sufferings. Such acts are condemned for a true disciples. A true disciple is one who never loses faith in the Guru, no matter how testing times are ahead. Definitely the Guru will come to the rescue as the Guru cannot see His disciples in pain. Sharing a preaching from Guru Granth Saheb Ji here
Apne gam ki numaish na kar,
apne nasib ki ajmaish na kar
Jo tera hai vo tere pas ayega,
har roz use pane ki khwahish na kar.
Don’t exhibit about your sorrow,
Don’t feel miserable for your ill luck
If something is meant for you, it will come to you on its own
Don’t suffer wanting it everyday
It is mandatory to obtain Guru Diksha from Revered Gurudev before performing any Sadhana or taking any other Diksha. Please contact Kailash Siddhashram, Jodhpur through Email , Whatsapp, Phone or Submit Request to obtain consecrated-energized and mantra-sanctified Sadhana material and further guidance,
