Light from Guru Nanak

Guru Nanak is one of the great figures in the spiritual history of the world. Not only did his teachings give rise to a new religion, but that religion—Sikhism—is noteworthy because of the depth of its teachings and its genuine wish to live peacefully with those of other faiths; there is no agenda to criticise, condemn or convert. The depth is grounded in the conviction that God is the essential reality in the universe and is present and discoverable in all human beings. The universal outlook is inspired by Nanak’s realisation that Truth transcends differences of sect and creed, and that what matters most is our inner communion with the Divine.

Nanak was born in 1469, in a small village in the Punjab, not far from Lahore. He died in 1539, so that the last twenty years of his life coincided, in Europe, with the Reformation. As regards the details of that life, we have no reliably factual biography but a collection of stories aimed at imparting moral or spiritual lessons rather than historical facts. And so we find him as a boy of nine causing amazement by the things he told his schoolteacher about God, prompting the teacher to regard him not just a special boy, but as a divine incarnation. His great illuminating experience, some years later, is said to have happened when he was taking his purifying bath in the local river. Evidently he submerged himself in the water and was not seen again until three days later! Thus most of the stories contain an element of the incredible, which devotees may be at home with, but which historians ignore.

In the experience referred to, Nanak is said to have realised the immediacy of God as all-in-all, an experience which was permanent and which fulfilled all his higher longings. Was this self-realisation? Nanak’s teachings emphasize bhakti—devotion, self-purification, meditation and service, more than the self-knowledge proclaimed in the non-dual tradition. But a teacher may choose to moderate his or her light for purposes of instruction. And in his poems, which form the core teaching of the Sikh scripture, the Adi Granth, knowledge of God is equated with true Self-knowledge. Here are just a few statements drawn from the first hundred of its 1400 pages:

Follow the Guru’s teachings and recognize your own Self; the Divine Light of the Lord’s Name shall shine within.

Prays Nanak, what is the nature of the spiritual people? They are Self-realized; they understand God.

Those who meet the True Lord are not separated again; they come to dwell in the home of the Self deep within.

I searched and searched, and found God… Through Self-realization, people dwell within the home of their inner being; egotism and desire depart.

The same realisation results in the transcendence of duality, a point found on almost every page of the Adi Granth:

In duality, no one has ever found peace…

When egotism and duality are eradicated, one intuitively merges in peace.

Meditate in remembrance on the One Lord; do not be in love with duality.

The duality of Maya dwells in the consciousness of the people of the world… Whom should I call the second, when there is only the One? The One Immaculate Lord is pervading among all.

The illusion of duality is easily and totally removed… In peace and poise, they meet and merge with the Supreme Lord God.

Coming back to Guru Nanak’s life, it would seem that after his great experience, he was prompted to preach—not necessarily to form a new religion, but to share the Truth as he saw it. He sought to foster harmony between different religions by stressing their common purpose. That purpose is to awaken to the reality of God in our own being and thus realise complete peace, happiness and understanding. So he left his family and took to the road. It is said he had one companion, Mardana, who was a Muslim musician, and another young man named Bala, who was a Hindu. In the stories, sometimes just one of the two is mentioned, sometimes both. Even the composition of this band of three symbolises the underlying unity of different faiths.

We have no reason to doubt that Nanak travelled extensively for many years. The stories find him giving teachings and winning hearts in places as far afield as Mecca and Assam, Ceylon and Tibet. And each place provided suitable anecdotes that confirm his spiritual authority. Typical is the occasion when he agreed to participate in the Muslim ritual prayer together with the ruling Nawab and the religious leader, the Qazi. The arrangement was that he would make the prostration after each of them had made theirs. But to everyone’s dismay he remained standing and did not prostrate himself in prayer at all. He was challenged by the Qazi, and said: ‘I did agree to make my obeisance after you had attended to your prayers. But you didn’t pray at all.’ ‘What do you mean? Of course I prayed.’ Nanak persisted: ‘I knew you were thinking of other things. Your horse, a mare, had recently given birth, and you are worrying about the welfare of the foal.’ Turning to the Nawab, he pointed out how he too had been engrossed in worldly cares during the prostration.

There are many such stories illustrating the triumph of inspirational power as expressed through the Guru. But he always denied such powers, saying that all power comes from God.

Nanak eventually returned to his own region and settled, evidently doing some farming and freely providing food for the poor. He also encouraged a communal way of life, based on mutual aid, cooperation and fraternal love.

A distinctive feature of Nanak is that he gave teachings in the form of poetry and songs. This carried on a traditional way of instruction in that part of the world. Here are some short poems that typically transmit his spiritual convictions and methods.

O man, know this to be truth:
The world is a dream,
Any moment it may pass away;
Thou hast built a house of sand,
How can it endure?
All this is Maya.
O simpleton, why art thou entangled in delusion?
Wake up, wake up, before it is too late!
Worship the supreme One
Says Nanak: I have placed before thee the remedy

To bring order out of the chaos of the intellect.
O ascetic, the mind is elusive;
It hates discipline.
Agitated by desires, it knows no rest.
Anger, dark guest, dwells in it,
So that it forgets what is good.
The jewel of true knowledge
Has been stolen by attachments,
Leaving it without hope.
There is no peace,
Despite the efforts of the yogis
And the theories of the learned,
Until Hari shows compassion
And confers His grace.

The next two poems show that, for Nanak, the role of the spiritual teacher (Guru) is pivotal:

The omnipresent ever-taintless One is within you.
As fragrance in the flower,
Reflection in the mirror,
So is Hari (God) in you;
O friend, seek Him there.
The Guru teaches that the same Hari
Is both within and without.
O Nanak, without knowing your Self,
The taint of illusion abides.

Every plant has fire concealed within;
Butter is hidden in milk.
In the high and the low the essence is the same.
O holy man, He dwells in every body.
He fills the whole and the part,
The water and the earth are His abode.
Nanak says: My Guru has given me mystic vision,
And I see the taintless unchanging One in all.

Let us briefly consider a few important points that recur in Nanak’s teaching. It might be asked: ‘What is this God that he refers to in his songs?’ In answer we could say he certainly believes—or rather knows—that there is a deeper and eternal reality hidden within and behind this world of appearances and continuous change. This deeper reality is the source of all value: that is to say, it is the home of all truth, beauty, peace and bliss. In his poems he refers to it as an inexhaustible treasury. It is so superior to what we can obtain through sense experience that words cannot do justice to it. Yet this God, this reality, can be discovered directly in our inner being, in the depth of our mind.

In the mind are the jewels of the Name,
its pearls, rubies, and diamonds.
The Name is the true merchandise, the true wealth,
deep down in every heart.
If the grace of God, the precious One, is upon a person,
then with the Guru’s aid, he obtains the divine Name.

The purpose of life is to make this discovery and to live in its light. It follows that the essence of religion is not in the outer ceremonies and rules, but in the inner quest to discover what the mystics sometimes call ‘God within’.

How do we make this discovery? It is by means of a meditative enquiry into our own nature. What does a meditative enquiry involve? The stilling and purifying of the mind. Purifying the mind means curing the mind of its habit of always thinking about objects and objectives based on our earthly life. It is to free our mind from the echo chamber of self-centred thinking. What is wrong with such habitual trends of thought? They consolidate our sense of limited individuality and hinder us from realising that deeper and eternal reality that ever awaits discovery at the core of our nature.

But how may we free ourselves from the rule of habit, particularly as regards the way we think? We can learn how to replace the old opinions and prejudices by a new kind of thought. Where does this new kind of thought come from? The new thoughts have their origin in the eternal wisdom of mankind. This wisdom is found in inspired writings and in teachings given by illumined sages. Such wisdom may not be apparent on every page of our source material, so we have to be discriminative. Look out for, and make use of the best content—the wisest, the most large-hearted, the teachings that point to that in us which is infinite and perfect, and how to uncover it.

Nanak has a name for this kind of thought: gur-mukh, which literally means guru-facing thought. We might call it: ‘Thoughts that open a way.’ And this kind of thought, drawn from sources of wisdom and true insight, is in contrast to the self-centred activity that normally shapes the human mind. As regards this habitual self- absorbed thinking, Nanak also has a name for it: ‘man-mukh’ —literally, mind facing, ‘man’ referring not to the English male gender, but derived from the Sanskrit ‘manas’ and in this context indicating the mind in the broadest sense. In practical terms man-mukh is our mind’s tendency to lose itself in cares, desires, hopes, fears, calculations, resentments and so on. All these things centre on our sense of limited individuality, and strengthen it. The same tendency is invariably wedded to our self-will—which is often so deeply embedded in our mentality that we hardly know we are being propelled by it.

But this state of mind is not inevitable, nor is it final. Our mind can be matured and transformed into the altogether higher mode of being and expression that Nanak calls gur-mukh. We have to consciously strive to spiritualise our mind, and Nanak points to the time-honoured, traditional methods for our inner advance. One is meditation. Another is repetition of what he calls the Name—a holy word or phrase indicating the nature of that deeper reality. We could call it a name of God. Though Nanak speaks of the Name, he seems not to be dogmatic about which name in particular. In his teaching, several names appear, including Rama, Hari and Har (=Shiva) from the Hindu tradition, and Allah, Khuda and Sahib used in Islam. He also reveres the holy syllable OM. It has been said that Nanak’s favourite names were Sat-Kartār (True Creator) and Sat-Nām (True Name). But always the Name is an indicator of the supreme and nameless reality, and its significance is comparable to that of the Word at the beginning of St John’s Gospel—‘Word’ being another revered term frequently used by Nanak. To repeat such a Name and hold it in mind introduces an influence that is pure, transformative, and infinitely superior to the mind’s usual diet.

My mind is pierced through by the Name of the Lord.
What else should I contemplate?
Focusing your awareness on the Word, happiness wells up.
Attuned to God, the most excellent peace is found.
Chant the Name of the Lord, O my mind;
it will bring you eternal peace, day and night.

The words ‘O my mind’ lead us to another subtle and potentially liberating method for rendering our mind ‘gur-mukh’. This method we might call ‘intelligent self-tutoring’. The call ‘O my mind’ is found throughout the Adi Granth, followed by instructions (to oneself) in what to avoid and discourage, and what to foster and pursue. We too are meant to emulate this form of self-training, or self-guiding. When Nanak addresses his mind in this way, he is showing us how to observe our own mental activity objectively— impersonally, as it were. This in turn prepares us to withdraw our sense of identity from the mind to the conscious power that knows the mind from a more inward standpoint. This withdrawal and inward supervision empowers us to make the recommended changes. Some references give an idea of the many-sidedness of this technique:

O my mind, vibrate and meditate forever on the Lord, with single-minded love. He is contained deep within each and every heart. He is always with you, as your Helper and Support.

O my mind, attach yourself to the service of the True Guru. Whatever is seen, shall pass away. Abandon this reliance on intellect.

Meditate on the One, O my mind, who is the Support of all.

O my mind, day and night you are always full of wishful hopes. Serve the True Guru and your emotional attachment shall be totally burnt away. Remain detached within the home of your heart.

Listen, O my mind, my friend, my darling: now is the time to meet the Lord. As long as there is youth and breath, give this body to Him. Without virtue, it is useless; the body shall crumble into a pile of dust. O my mind, earn the profit before you return home. Let the fire of egotism be extinguished.

O my mind, focus your consciousness on the One. Without the One, all entanglements are worthless; emotional attachment to Maya is totally false.

Be still, O mind, and you shall not suffer hurt. Sing His praises, you shall enter into supreme tranquillity and taste the ultimate sweetness. In this way you will be fearless and find fulfilment.

If we apply such methods, with interest and love, the true nature of the indwelling reality will be revealed to us and we will, so to say, realise that God is the all-in-all of experience. We will be wholly satisfied, no longer itching with unfulfilled longings or ongoing resentments, and hence, the force of our desires will not be productive of further bondage.

We mentioned interest and love. Nanak emphasises love, or bhakti, and he sees the key to liberation in this redirection of human emotion. Human beings are naturally loving beings, and love is the theme of most popular song-lyrics. There are also higher forms of love that are progressive and free from the heartache and anxiety that often accompanies our romantic adventures. This is the love that liberates—bhakti—the love taught by Guru Nanak and extensively taught in the Bhagavad-Gita. For if our mind is filled with the love of Truth, love of the Word or love of the True Name, the knowledge of Truth, the higher Self-knowledge, will dawn irresistibly.

Those who take the Truth as their food and the Truth as their clothing, have their home in the True One. They constantly praise the True One, and in the True Word they have their dwelling. They recognize the Lord, the Supreme Soul in all, and through the Guru’s teachings they dwell in the home of their own inner Self. They see the Truth, and they speak the Truth; their bodies and minds are True. True are their teachings, and True are their instructions.

Nanak was inspired to present his teachings—to share what had been revealed to him—in an independent way. His presentation was not tied to the form of religious expression typical of the Hindu or Moslem faiths of his day. He had grasped the essential message of self-awakening hidden at the core of both faiths, and placed this interior approach far higher than the outer expressions and rules that so often eclipse the true spirit of the faith. He knew that spiritual knowledge is not the exclusive property of any one group or sect. Still less is it dependent on particular rituals, such as pilgrimages and bathing in holy rivers. The divine presence is to be discovered in the depths of our quietened mind.

Come, why do you go to the forest to do your searching?
The taintless one ever abides in all,
And has certainly entered within you…
O friend, conduct your search within the confines of your own being.

Let us end with three short anecdotes that show Guru Nanak imparting spiritual insights.

Once, while in the company of a rich man, he reached into his robe and produced a needle. He said: ‘Dhuni Chand, take this needle, and when we meet in the afterlife, give it back to me.’ Dhuni said: ‘But master, how can I do that? We don’t take anything with us when we leave this world.’ And the Guru said: ‘That is the truth. So while you own these great riches, make a generous and benevolent use of them.’

On another occasion, the Guru knocked at the door of a disciple named Lalo, a carpenter, who could be heard hammering in his workshop. But Lalo did not rise immediately—he carried on with his hammering, and then after about five minutes came to the door. The Guru said: ‘Why did you take so long?’ ‘I was busy.’ ‘Doing what?’ ‘Mending wooden pegs for the walls’. And Nanak repeated the words: ‘Mending wooden pegs.’

One interpretation of this story is that in life the higher promptings towards spiritual peace, freedom and wisdom, do knock at the door of our heart and make their presence felt within us, often unexpectedly. But are we ready to respond instantaneously to that prompting?

When Nanak was dying, it is said that his Hindu disciples sought permission to arrange a cremation, while his Muslim disciples wished him to authorise a burial. He left that particular question open, saying: ‘Let each group bring flowers, placing them on either side of the body. Otherwise, do what you like—but keep the flowers fresh.’

It was the final lesson of his teaching—not to waste energy in quarrels about religious procedures, but to keep ever fresh one’s spirit of devotion, faith, equanimity and inner quest. In this way, the mind will transcend duality and enter the freedom of enlightenment.

A.H.C.