THE GROWTH OF RESPONSIBILITY IN SIKHISM
GURU
NANAK 1469-1539
RENAISSANCE
OR GENERAL ENLIGHTENMENT
Guru
Nanak at his advent found his nation in
the depths of degradation. The Punjab,
which had once been the land of power
and wisdom, had, through successive raids
of the foreigner, become utterly helpless
and ruined, and lay like a doormat at
the gate of India. Its people were physically
and morally bankrupt. They had no commerce,
no language and no inspiring religion
of their own. They had lost all self-respect
and fellow feeling. It has become a maxim
now to call the Punjabis brave, social,
practical, and so forth; and we found
them recently fighting, thousands of miles
away from their homes, for the honour
of the men and women of France and Belgium;
but we forget that the same people, before
the birth of Sikhims, were content to
see their wives and children being led
away as so many cattle, without daring
to do anything in defense of them. They
had no sense of unity or organization.
When Baba Budha (He was
one of the first Sikhs of Guru Nanak and
lived up to the time of the Sixth Guru)
asked his father to drive away the invader,
who was destroying his fields, the later
could only shake his head and confess
his inability to do so. This is how Guru
Nanak describes the political condition
of the people in Asa-di-Var.
Looking
at the helplessness of his countrymen,
he discovered that moral degradation was
at the root of it all. When asked by his
companion why such a suffering had come
to the people, he replied "it is ordained
by the Creator that before coming to a
fall one is deprived of his virtue" (Asa,
1) He felt sure that, so long as
men were steeped in ignorance and corruption,
nothing could be done for them. He began
the work of education first: "Truth is
the remedy of all. Only truth can wash
away the sins" (Asa-di-Var,
1) Guru Nanak tried to free the
people from the bondage of so many gods
and godlings, and let them to accept one
Supreme God as the creator and sustainer
of all, no matter by what name they called
Him. "One should not recognize any but
the one Master" (Maru,
1). There were no incarnations,
no special revelations. Rama, Krishna,
Mohammed, Vishnu, Brahma, Shiva and all
other terrible names of yore were, as
it were, exercised by the Guru. Losing
all charms of superstition about them,
they came to yield only the plan meaning
for which they had been made. There were,
also, no books directly revealed by God.
All religious books were human creations:
Some good, other not so good. They were
the results of human attempts to interpret
the ways of God to man. In this way, he
placed all existing religions on a footing
of equality. No particular nation was
to arrogate to itself the name of God's
elect. All were God's people. He was the
common Father of all. Men were to love
one another as children of the same father.
He severely condemned the artificial divisions
of the caste system, which prevented people
from loving one another as equal.
Guru Nanak was the first prophet of India
who stepped beyond the Frontier in defiance
of the caste rules.
In pursuance of the same object, the Guru
condemned similar other customs as those
of wearing the sacred thread, offering
food to the Brahmins for the benefit of
the departed souls, and choosing special
forms of dress or programmes of life that
made invidious distinctions among men
and led them to hate one another. He also
exposed the superstitious ideas about
personal purity.
His general rules of conduct were very
simple and salutary, in as much as they
did not forget any new shackles in place
of the old ones, and left the people to
work out their social conscience themselves.
The same simple rule is given about dressing,
riding etc.
The principles laid down by Guru Nanak
were excellent and just suited to the
needs of the people. But the preaching
of principles however lofty does not create
nations.
Guru Nanak's way of preaching was such
that whatever he said became widely known
in to time. The earnest manner in which
he delivered his truths, coupled with
the strange habiliments in which he often
wrapped himself, made him a striking figure
in the commonplace surroundings of every
day life. He became universally known
as a man of God. His verses were taken
up by wandering faqirs and sung to the
accompaniment of feeds.
Best of all, he enjoined upon his followers
to open elementary schools in their village
so that wherever there was a Sikh temple
there was a centre of rudimentary learning
for boys and girls this system continued
up to very recent times, and may be seen
even now in certain villages.
In order to give a practical shape to
his ideas, Guru Nanak set a personal example
of pure life lived in the midst of the
world. In his youth he was a store keeper
under the government; and in spite of
daily charities discharged his duties
with a most scrupulous honesty. At the
same time, he was a perfect householder,
a good husband, and the best of brothers.
At last, after several years spent in
traveling and preaching, he settled down
as a successful farmer at Kartarpur.
He had done all this. But much had still
to be done before a people morally and
physically degraded could lift up their
heads and come into their own again. He
had provided them with the best of spiritual
out lift, which was abundantly sufficient
to enlighten and sustain individuals on
the path of duty but the religion which
he had founded was not to remain content
with the salvation of a few individuals.
It had far nobler potentialities in it.
It was to organize itself as a world force
and evolve a living and energetic society
for the work of saving the whole of mankind.
Guru Nanak had provided a strong and broad
foundation, but the edifice had to be
raised with the material of time and experience
which was yet to come.
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