Sovereign Panth of Guru Nanak Sahib
15th century Europe saw the start of the age of exploration and discovery leading to the New Age of science and technology. At the same time, thousands of miles away, Guru Nanak Sahib (1469 &ndash 1539) started His socio-political revolution in Punjab, the Land of Five Rivers, in the north-western Indian subcontinent.
This was the time when there was a revolutionary change in religious, social, economic and political thought. Religious blind faith began to be challenged by science. Guru Nanak reconciled the questioning approach of science with matters of faith to respond to the challenges of Kalyug, the age of spiritual decline. The priestly class exploited the ignorant people while the cruelty of authoritarian rulers had no bounds. Guru Nanak challenged both, the priests and the rulers.
The invasions and migrations from the north-west made Punjab the meeting point of many peoples and cultures. Anticipating the rapidly changing human condition, Guru Nanak Sahib set new goals for spiritual advancement while empowering the ordinary people to achieve new social and theo-political goals. His stress was on living this human life to the full while serving the Timeless Creator Being. Lust, anger, greed, attachment and egotism are the causes of human mental and physical suffering in Kalyug and need to be controlled through Naam (God-remembrance). He also had a powerful ecological message in His Gurbani.
Quite uniquely amongst the founders of world religions, Guru Nanak took his questioning approach to religious centres far and wide. He questioned their practices and gave his own convincing answers suggesting best practice based on truthful conduct.
According to Bhai Gurdas, the Muslim ulama, the brahaman, the yogi, the sidh, the monks etc were misleading humanity. The Guru felt the need for a new whole-life system with a socio-political objective of a just regime in which no one inflicted pain on another. Fifth Nanak, Guru Arjan, referred to this regime as halemi raj. Discrimination under any pretext is rejected by Sikhi. The Guru exhorted his Sikhs to be prepared to make supreme sacrifices to work towards such an ideal human society.
He exposed the hypocrisy of the opt-out eastern systems which led to societal divisions and wasted lives. Instead, He extolled the virtues of responsible family life centred on doing own duty (dharam) according to relationships.
His started the Nirmal Panth, the path of truthful living. His liberating ideology was taught in the common language of the people. His Message reached far and wide The three pillars of Sikhi are : constant God awareness (Naam japna), honest living (kirit karni) and sharing with those in need (wand shakna). Guru Nanak brought together the external and spiritual lives of human beings under one theo-temporal discipline. Later, victory of the cauldron, symbolic of common kitchen and sharing way of life defended by the sword of the Khalsa (Degh-Tegh Fateh) became the Sikh slogan.
The continuity of the Panth of Guru Nanak was assured through nine successor Guru persons during a tuition period of over 200 years. They carried the same Light (Jote) and used the same methodology (Jugat) of Guru Nanak and showed the way to the Sikhs by own example. Thus, the Guru is One in Sikhi and resides in the Shabd (Word) Guru in Sri Guru Granth Sahib.
In response to external existential challenges to Sikhi today, it is a matter of satisfaction that many next generations young Sikhs are researching and re-discovering the sovereign Panth of Guru Nanak Sahib.
For full article: https://www.sikhmissionarysociety.org/sms/smsarticles/advisorypanel/gurmukhsinghsewauk/gurunanakssovereignpaththenirmalpanth/
Gurmukh Singh OBE
Principal Civil Servant retd (UK)