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Guru Nanak's Contribution Towards
Human Peace and Prosperity
Guru Nanak, as is well known, was a highly enlightened, dedicated, benevolent and universal Teacher of mankind. His life-long endeavour, noble exhortations and all-embracing teachings contributed much, therefore, to the thought and activity, peace and prosperity of humanity.1
Besides, “the combination of piety and practical activity which Guru Nanak manifested in his own life, he bequeathed to his followers, and it remains characteristic of many who own him as Guru today. At its best, it is a piety devoid of superstition and a practical activity compounded with determination and an immense generosity. "It explains much,” adds McLeod, “that has happened in the Punjab during the last four centuries and it explains much that can be witnessed there today.”2
Hence, the life, work and teachings of such a great Man and Master who, in the words of Cust, “by his actions and precepts has influenced the ideas and conscience of a large number of his fellow-creatures,3 both during his life-time and for centuries after his death, can never be devoid of interest. When that influence has not been owing to his wealth, rank or power, but simply to his own merits, that Man must be called truly Great; and, when we find that his motives were unselfish, that after a long life devoted to the instruction of others in the paths of virtue and moral purity, he died poor, delegated his office not to his children but to one of his disciples, whom he considered most virtuous, that Man must be considered truly Good, as well as truly Great.”4
Only a truly Good and great man could have begged from God, the Creator, such things to sustain himself, such powers to serve his fellow-creatures and such virtues to dwell upon His praise, as we find enumerated in his following appeal – an appeal the like of which we have yet to find elsewhere:
I beg from You, my Lord !
The alms of continence and truth as rice, compassion as wheat;
Good deeds as milk, content as butter;
And attainment of Your grace
As the receiving of chiarity in a leafy bowl.
Pray let the calf of my mind suck in poise the milk of the milch-cow
Of forgiveness and forbearance.
Please bless me with the cloth of Your praise and modesty.
So that I may ever dwell upon Your merits.5
The tenets and teachings of such a Man and Master met with the challenges not only from the moral and religious degradation of the natives but also from that of the political and cultural onslaughts of the aliens. They faced not only the situation that confronted his own age but also set a pattern for meeting with the same under such situations in times to come.
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Guru Nanak’s message, in fact, revolutionized human thinking and enthused a new spirit in human activity. It made the people conscious of their situation and position, duty and responsibility by exhorting them in inspiring and invigorating verses such as the following:
Let us deck ourselves with the silks of merits
And adopt our arena (i.e., the field of duty),
Sticking to our ideal steadfastly.6
He made them fearless by telling them, so clearly and authoritatively:
He who is immersed in the fear of God,
Becomes fearless.7
Reiterating his firm belief in the equality of all human beings and conceding their fundamental right to be free from all sorts of fear, oppression and tyranny, the teacher in Nanak assured them that –
By lodging the fear of God in the mind
All other fears (of the world) as also of the Yama are vanished from it.
So, what fear is left to frighten us any more?...
To be possessed of any fear other than God’s, is vain;
For, all other fears are only perturbation of mind.8
Guru Nanak, thus, freed human kind from all sorts of fears and fetters, mental as well as physical, social as well as political. He liberated them from the age-old shackles of mythology, ritualism, casteism, spirits, superstitions and the like, to such an extent that the holy compiler of his sacred writings in Guru Granth Sahib observed a little later that –
The egg-shell of doubts has shattered, and the mind is illuminated.
The master has cut off the fetters from our feet
And has thus freed us from the bonds.9
And this was what actually happened about five hundred years ago. “His revolutionary message threw into relief the universal truths of higher religion and the errors of misguided doctrines. He strengthened the national conscience by turning it once more towards buoyant realism. He roused the people to a sense of dignity of man as the creative genius behind world history and as builder of human destiny, culture and civilization.”10 He told people rather in challenging terms:
There is no joy or point, in just coming and going
If one comes into the world and passes out
Without accomplishing anything good and beneficial.
The grandeur of the Guru’s personality, farslightedness of his vision, strength of his spirit, vastness of his knowledge, intensity of his experience, piety of his life, purity of his actions, beauty of his hymns and universality of his teachings ushered in and organized, in the course of time, a new, conspicuous, most modern and ‘ever-green’ religion – the religion of love, light, service and social justice – in the world. He created a distinct notion and a new human order which played a distinguished and historic role in the past and has a still more prominent role to play in the future. Says Arnold Toynbee, the great historian of our times, “If human race survives its follies at all… Sikhs (i.e., the followers of Guru Nanak) shall surely be there on this planet as a vigorous, hardy and go-getting Homo sapiens.”12 The history of Sikhism and the prophesy of Toynbee go a long way to prove the fulfillment of the lofty wish once cherished by Harrison in 1908 in the following words: “We need a reformed education resting on a scientific philosophy, revised and purified domestic manners, a new series of social institutions, a reformed and new commonwealth. But, above all, we need a reformed religion – social in its origin, in its object and in its methods, human, practical and scientifically true.”13
It was, in fact, Guru Nanak and his enlightened teaching that gave rise to such a modern, universal and non-sectarian religion, five centuries ago, which is ‘social in its origin, in its object and in its metods’; which is 'human, practical and scientifically true’; and has generally been called the ‘house-holders’ religion and even an enlightened humanism. It was again Guru Nanak, the Divine Master, who vigorously pleaded that a householder was in no way less qualified and acceptable to God than a hermit; and that temporal and secular activity did not stand in the way of spiritual pursuit and salvation. Mentioning the distinguishing quality of the True Teachers, he, therefore, held:
Contemplation of the True Lord brings that illumination
Which enables one to remain unattached in the midst of worldly pleasures.
Such is the distinctive greatness of the True Master
That through his grace and guidance,
One can attain salvation even while living with one’s wife and children.
(i.e., while leading a normal domestic life)
This was certainly a very bold step, quite contrary to what his predecessors and other religious teachers of the time had ever thought of. Time and again, he emphasized that God was not only in heaven but was very much present on the earth itself, prevalent in Nature and enshrined in the very heart of every human being. According to him –
God created Nature and pervades it.15
God is hidden in every heart; and every heart is illumined by Him.16
By instituting the Nirmal Panth, that is, the Panth of truth or the Sikh Way of Life, “What Guru Nanak sought to accomplish was a regeneration of the decadent Indian people through bringing them back to abiding spiritual and moral values – the worship of the Supreme Being who is Uncreated and eternal as against the primitivism and polytheism prevalent in the land; to mould the individual life on the principle of the search for emancipation which means spiritual and moral purity; and to bring about a just and equitable social system as against the crying injustice of caste inequalities and passive submission to the tyranny of various kinds from those in power. This spirit of idealism was given by the Guru its ancient name of Dharma, whose pillars are daya (compassion, humanity), purity, humility, contentment, renunciation of worldly objectives and lures, and action in the way of God. Guru Nanak gave voice to the deep agony and suffering of the people and instructed them in the meanings of Dharma as pure and righteous conduct in the individual sphere and the wider context of human relations. To the dumb masses suffering from the tyranny of priest and feudal lords for millennia and then also religious persecution, he brought spiritual light, a sense of human dignity and the faith and courage to create a better world by sacrifice and suffering borne in the way of God.
While to the Hindu, the Guru gave an enriched and purified vision of spirituality, to the Muslim, he taught the essence of morality and humanity, as against the bigoted and narrow teachings of the priests of his faith. This vision of people permeated with the spirit of tolerance and brotherliness, and putting away the hatred born of creeds, was a unique nation-building effort in an age of manifold fragmentation of those who inhabited our land.”17 In the words of R C Majumdar, Guru Nanak’s “was the first and also the last successful attempt to bring together the Hindus and Muslims in a common fold of spiritual and social brotherhood.”18 Hence said Toynbee, paying him and the religion founded by him a glowing tribute for this glorious achievement, “The Sikh religion might be described, not inaccurately, as a vision of this Hindu-Muslim common ground. To have discovered and embraced the deep harmony underlying the historic Hindu-Muslim discord has been a noble spiritual triumph, the Sikhs may well be proud of their religion’s ethos and origin.”19
There is nothing hyperbolical or flattering, therefore, in what Kurt Leidecker said in 1961, while addressing the Sikhs of America on the occasion of their founder’s birth anniversary, “It is my belief that only India could have produced the Sikh and only Bharata could have given birth to Guru Nanak. What other country provided conditions such as permitted this great leader to be what he was and the Sikh community to practise what they believed? Could the West have played host to either?
Let us scan the cultural and political history of Europe and the time of the revered Guru Nanak. This is, let us briefly survey the Europe of the period AD 1469 to 1539. We can leave America out of this for the moment because it was only being discovered in 1492… India’s history, likewise, was edging forward from crisis to crisis owing to greedy hands stretching out towards her riches. But one of the brightest spots in that age, which gave us a Kabir, was doubtless the birth of Guru Nanak at Nankana Sahib in the Punjab… Europe may have painted well, printed well, translated well, sailed the seas well, and conquered and colonized well, but it was Guru Nanak who dreamed of universal brotherhood and sang his song of unity of all faiths to the accompaniment of his minstrel Mardana. His garments, too, betrayed his universal outlook as A Christina Albers put it in verse:
But why that motley dress the Master weareth,
Half of the Hindu, half of Muslim Type?
It was to show that he was both or neither.
The Truth Eternal does not rest on dress.
No Goan adventure was needed to introduce into India the concept of the Fatherhood of God. “Ek Pita ekas ke hum barik, tu mera gurhai”20, i.e., ‘there is only one Father of us all, and we are all His children’, said the great Guru and proclaimed it far and wide till it became the basic principle guiding your conduct to this day and wherever you are in your homeland, in Singapore, Hong Kong or in America… That is not only your stand; that you recognize as your obligation. At it is well in a world in which all values, even primary ones, are being assailed.
This is also so because this most modern world religion embodies the universal spirit of altruism, liberalism and tolerance to such an extent that its followers seek blessings for the peace, prosperity and welfare of everyone – irrespective of his caste, creed, colour, country or calling – in their daily personal as well as congregational prayer to God, concluding the same with the following couplet:
nwnk nwm cVdI klw, qyry Bwxy srbq dw Blw ..
Says Nanak:
May Your Name, Your glory, O God!
Be ever in ascendence!
May the whole humanity be blessed with peace
and prosperity in Your will, by Your grace.21
There lies, in fact, the greatness and distinctiveness of Guru Nanak’s contribution to human peace and prosperity, to the welfare of man and woman for all times to come.
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References and notes
1. The choosing and formal installation of Angad was the first step in the process which issued in the founding of the Khalsa, and ultimately in the emergence of a Sikh Nation.” (McLeod , Guru Nanak and the Sikh Religion , Oxford, 1968, p. 143.
2. Guru Nanak and Sikh Religion, op. cit., pp. 231-232
3. “There is no doubt that in his life-time, Nanak saved millions of human beings from committing sins and indulging in worldly vices”, Sinha S N in Guru Nanak, edited by Gyan Singh & published by the Publication Division, New Delhi, 1969, p xiii.
4. Cust, R N, Pictures of Indian Life, London, 1881, p 194
5. Arjun Dev, Guru (ed.), Guru Granth Sahib, Amritsar, 1604, Raga Prabhati, M 1, p 1329:
ਜਤੁ ਸਤੁ ਚਾਵਲ ਦਇਆ ਕਣਕ ਕਰਿ ਪ੍ਰਾਪਤਿ ਪਾਤੀ ਧਾਨੁ ॥
ਦੂਧੁ ਕਰਮੁ ਸੰਤੋਖੁ ਘੀਉ ਕਰਿ ਐਸਾ ਮਾਂਗਉ ਦਾਨੁ ॥
ਖਿਮਾ ਧੀਰਜੁ ਕਰਿ ਗਊ ਲਵੇਰੀ ਸਹਜੇ ਬਛਰਾ ਖੀਰੁ ਪੀਐ ॥
ਸਿਫਤਿ ਸਰਮ ਕਾ ਕਪੜਾ ਮਾਂਗਉ ਹਰਿ ਗੁਣ ਨਾਨਕ ਰਵਤੁ ਰਹੈ ॥
6. Arjun Dev, Guru (ed.) Guru Granth Sahib, op. cit, Raga Suhi, M 1, p 766: pihry ਪਟੰਬਰ ਕਰਿ ਅਡੰਬਰ ਆਪਣਾ ਪਿੜੁ ਮਲੀਐ ॥
7. Ibid., op. cit., Raga Gauri, M 1, p 223: BY ivc rhY su inrBau hoie ]
8. Ibid., op. cit., M. 1. p. 151:
ਡਰਿ ਘਰੁ ਘਰਿ ਡਰੁ ਡਰਿ ਡਰੁ ਜਾਇ ॥ ਸੋ ਡਰੁ ਕੇਹਾ ਜਿਤੁ ਡਰਿ ਡਰੁ ਪਾਇ ॥
ਤੁਧੁ ਬਿਨੁ ਦੂਜੀ ਨਾਹੀ ਜਾਇ ॥ ਜੋ ਕਿਛੁ ਵਰਤੈ ਸਭ ਤੇਰੀ ਰਜਾਇ ॥
ਡਰੀਐ ਜੇ ਡਰੁ ਹੋਵੈ ਹੋਰੁ ॥ ਡਰਿ ਡਰਿ ਡਰਣਾ ਮਨ ਕਾ ਸੋਰੁ ॥ page 151
9. Ibid., Raga Maru, M. V, p. 1002:
ਫੂਟੋ ਆਂਡਾ ਭਰਮ ਕਾ ਮਨਹਿ ਭਇਓ ਪਰਗਾਸੁ ॥
ਕਾਟੀ ਬੇਰੀ ਪਗਹ ਤੇ ਗੁਰਿ ਕੀਨੀ ਬੰਦਿ ਖਲਾਸੁ ॥
10. Trilochan Singh Guru Nanak’s Religion: A Comparative Study of Religions, New Delhi, 1969, p 5
11. Arjun Dev, Guru, Guru Granth Sahib, op. cit., Slok Varan te Vadheek, M. 1, no 24, p 1412:ਮਾਣੂ ਘਲੈ ਉਠੀ ਚਲੈ ॥ ਸਾਦੁ ਨਾਹੀ ਇਵੇਹੀ ਗਲੈ॥
12. Also rendered as: He who lives in agony, whatever he eats is illegitimate. Ibid., Raga Majh, M 1., p 142:ਜੇ ਜੀਵੈ ਪਤਿ ਲਥੀ ਜਾਇ ॥ ਸਭੁ ਹਰਾਮੁ ਜੇਤਾ ਕਿਛੁ ਖਾਇ ॥
13. Harrison, Frederic, National and Social Problems, London, 1908, pp 461-62:
14. Guru Granth Sahib, op. cit., Raga Dhanasri, M 1, p 661
ਸਚਿ ਸਿਮਰਿਐ ਹੋਵੈ ਪਰਗਾਸੁ ॥ ਤਾ ਤੇ ਬਿਖਿਆ ਮਹਿ ਰਹੈ ਉਦਾਸੁ ॥
ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਕੀ ਐਸੀ ਵਡਿਆਈ ॥ ਪੁਤ੍ਰ ਕਲਤ੍ਰ ਵਿਚੇ ਗਤਿ ਪਾਈ ॥
15. Guru Granth Sahib, op. cit., Raga Siri, m 1, p 84:ਕੁਦਰਤਿ ਕਰਿ ਕੈ ਵਸਿਆ ਸੋਇ ॥
16. Ibid., Raga Sorath, M 1, p 597: Gt Gt AMqir bRhmu lukwieAw Git Git joiq sbweI ]
17. Talib, Gurbachan Singh, Guru Nanak: His Personality and Vision, Delhi, 1969, pp. xvi-xviii.
18. Majumdar, R.C., in The History and Culture of the Indian People, Vol. VI, Bombay - 1960, 2nd ed, 1967, p 569.
19. Toynbee, Arnold in his ‘Foreword’ to UNESCO’s Selections from the Sacred Writings of the Sikhs, London, 1960, p 10
20. ਏਕ ਪਿਤਾ ਏਕਸ ਕੇ ਹਮ ਬਾਰਿਕ, Guru Granth Sahib, op.cit., Raga Sorath, M. V, p 611
21. Ardas, that is, the Sikh Prayer, its concluding verse.
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