Nānak, Gurū

Nānak, Gurū (1469–1539 CE). First Sikh Gurū, and founder of the Sikh religion. The sources of his life are limited: there are some hints in the Ādi Granth, otherwise the first vār of Bhai Gurdas and the hagiographic janam-sākhīs contain information.

At Sultānpur, probably in 1499, Nānak experienced God's call while bathing in the River Bein. After a mystical experience, reputedly of three days' duration, he reappeared, gave away his possessions and repeated, ‘There is neither Hindu nor Muslim’, probably meaning that the majority were not truly religious. He then devoted his life to preaching.

Nānak set out with Mardānā on a series of travels to many places (udāsī), including notable pilgrimage centres. In each place he taught the people, sang his hymns, discussed religion with Hindu and Muslim divines, and established a dharmsālā as a centre of worship.

Eventually Nānak settled in Kartārpur where followers gathered and observed a daily regimen of bathing, hymn-singing, and eating together in the Gurū-kā-laṅgar. Among these devotees was Lehṇā, later Gurū Aṅgad, whom Nānak designated his successor as Gurū, in preference to his sons. Thus the Sikh movement continued with a succession of human Gurūs beyond his death, which probably occurred in Sept. 1539.

Gurū Nānak's teachings, as recorded in the Ādi Granth, form the basis of Sikh theology. The Mūl mantra encapsulates Nānak's assurance that God is one, the creator of all, and immune from death and rebirth. He is formless and immanent as realized in the mystical union to which human bhakti (devotion) is directed. To refer to God, Nānak used many Hindu and Muslim names (e.g. Hari, Rām, Khudā, Sāhib), but especially Sat(i)nām, i.e. his Name is Truth, as opposed to illusion.

By meditating upon God's name (nām japan, nām simaran) the individual can master the wayward impulses of the man (mind) and so conquer haumai (egoism) and the five evil passions. But above all one must trust to the Gurū—the guide to salvation from the karmic cycle of rebirth—who discloses the śabad (word of divine manifestation). Nānak stressed the irrelevance of caste. Inner purity was what counted—not asceticism but purity amid impurity, spiritual detachment while shouldering the family responsibility of a grihasth (householder).

The Ādi Granth contains 974 hymns (including pauṛīs and śaloks) composed by Gurū Nānak. Of these, the most famous compositions are Japjī, Āsā kī Vār, Sodar, Āratī, and Sohilā, all repeated daily, and the bārah-māhā (in Tukharī, rāg).

Gurū Nānak's birthday is celebrated annually on the full moon of Kārttika (Oct.–Nov.) in accordance with the Bālā janam-sākhī, although scholarly opinion, based on the other janam-sākhīs, sets his birth in Baisākh (Apr.–May).

In popular iconography Nānak is represented as a robed figure with radiant face and flowing white beard, wearing a turban, and holding a rosary.