Guru Nanakਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ

Early life

Guru Nanak was born in 1469 in the village of Talwandi, in the Punjab region - the town later renamed Nankana Sahib in his honour, now in Pakistan. He was born into a Hindu Khatri family; his father, Mehta Kalu, was the village revenue official, and his mother was Mata Tripta. His elder sister, Bibi Nanaki, was the first to recognise his spiritual inclination and remained his lifelong supporter. From childhood, Nanak showed little interest in worldly pursuits and spent his time in contemplation, questioning the rituals around him.

As a young man he was sent to Sultanpur Lodhi, where his sister lived with her husband, and found work as a storekeeper in the service of the local governor, Daulat Khan Lodhi. He married Mata Sulakhni and had two sons, Sri Chand and Lakhmi Das. Yet his spiritual restlessness grew. Sikh tradition records that after bathing in the river one morning he disappeared for three days, returning with the declaration that would define his mission: there is no Hindu, there is no Muslim. He gave away his belongings and set out to preach.

The journeys

Over the next two decades Nanak undertook a series of long journeys, called udasis, travelling across the Indian subcontinent and beyond. Sikh tradition describes four major journeys, taking him east to Assam and Bengal, south to Sri Lanka, north toward the Himalayas, and west through the deserts to Mecca and Baghdad. Wherever he went, he debated with yogis, pandits, qazis and Sufi saints, challenging empty ritual and preaching devotion to one formless God. His constant companion on these travels was Mardana, a Muslim rabab player whose music carried Nanak's hymns.

These journeys were not conquests but conversations. Nanak argued that truth could not be found in pilgrimage, fasting or bathing at holy rivers while the heart remained unjust. He rejected the caste system outright, insisting that all human beings stood equal before God. The hymns he composed during these years - direct, earthy, and in the language of the common people - would later form the foundation of Sikh scripture.

Teachings

Nanak's teaching centred on Ik Onkar - the belief in one universal, formless God. He summed the spiritual path in three principles that remain the core of Sikh practice: Naam Japo, meditate on God's name; Kirat Karo, earn an honest living through hard work; and Vand Chhako, share what you earn with others. He rejected idol worship, the authority of priests who exploited the faithful, and the division of society by caste or creed. Women, he insisted, were equal to men in spiritual life - a radical position in the fifteenth century.

His message was deliberately simple and practical. He told his followers to live as householders rather than renouncing the world, to work honestly, and to remember God in daily life. Congregational worship (sangat), the community kitchen (langar) where all sat together regardless of rank, and collective sharing (pangat) became the institutions through which his followers lived these ideals.

Kartarpur and later life

Around 1520 Nanak settled on the banks of the Ravi river and founded the town of Kartarpur - literally, the City of the Creator. There he lived as a farmer, working his own fields in the morning and leading the congregation in prayer in the evening. Kartarpur became the first organised Sikh community, where the practices of sangat, pangat and langar took permanent shape. It was here, too, that he made the decision that would secure the future of his mission: rather than appointing one of his sons, he chose his most devoted disciple, Lehna, as his successor, renaming him Angad - my own limb.

Guru Nanak died at Kartarpur in 1539. Tradition holds that when Hindus and Muslims among his followers disputed whether his body should be cremated or buried, the body had vanished, leaving only flowers - which both communities divided. Whether or not one accepts the story, it captures what Nanak meant to both communities: a teacher who belonged to everyone.

Legacy

Guru Nanak composed 974 hymns that are enshrined in the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh scripture. His founding of Kartarpur, his institutions of langar and sangat, and his uncompromising egalitarianism shaped not just Sikhism but the religious landscape of Punjab. Five and a half centuries later, his birth anniversary - Guru Nanak Gurpurab - is celebrated by millions, and in 2019 the Kartarpur Corridor opened to allow pilgrims from India to visit his final resting place. His central insight, that the divine is one and that honest work shared with others is itself worship, remains the living heart of the Sikh tradition.