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Baba Nand Singh Ji (1870-1943) was a Sikh saint who founded the Nanaksar tradition, a path of deep Naam Simran and reverence for the Guru Granth Sahib that grew from a small hut near Kalera village into gurdwaras across Punjab and the world. Born in Sherpur near Jagraon, he spent twelve years in meditation at holy places across India before settling at Nanaksar Kaleran, where his dera still stands as the tradition's main centre.

Who was Baba Nand Singh Ji?

Baba Nand Singh Ji, known to devotees as Nanaksar Kaleran Wale, was one of the most revered saints of twentieth-century Punjab. He founded the Nanaksar Kaleran sampradya, a tradition within Sikhism centred on the teaching of ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ ਦੇਵ ਜੀ: Naam Japna, Kirat Karo and Vand Chhakna, to repeat the Divine Name, earn an honest living and share with others. His life was spent in meditation, kirtan and sewa, and the gurdwaras that carry the name Nanaksar still follow the simple, disciplined way of worship he set down.

He never wrote books or held office. His influence came from his example: long hours of meditation, a life of few needs, and a deep respect for the Guru Granth Sahib as the living Guru. Thousands came to sit near him, and many stayed to serve.

Early life in Sherpur

Baba Nand Singh Ji was born on 8 November 1870, on the Puranmashi night of the month of Katak, in Sherpur village near Jagraon in Ludhiana district. His father, Sardar Jai Singh, was an artisan, and his mother was Mata Sada Kaur. As a child he was drawn to quiet places and meditation, and family accounts say that at the age of five he was found sitting cross-legged in deep meditation on the narrow bricked edge of a well outside the village.

As a young man he was trained in the family craft, then moved to Lahira Khana in Bathinda district to join the seminary run by Sant Wadhawa Singh, where he learned to read the Guru Granth Sahib. There he came under the influence of the Sikh mystic Baba Harnam Singh Ji of Bhucho, who set him on the path of meditation that would shape the rest of his life.

Twelve years of meditation

Baba Nand Singh Ji practised meditation for twelve years at places including Hazur Sahib in Nanded, Lahira Khana, Harappa and Bhirki. At Hazur Sahib he took on the humble sewa of carrying two pitchers of water from the Godavari river in the middle of the night for the ablution of the gurdwara. He left Hazur Sahib in about 1904 and adopted Sant Wadhawa Singh of Lehra Gaga as his teacher.

At his first meeting with Baba Harnam Singh Ji, he was told to repeat the first Pauri of Japji Sahib one hundred and fifty thousand times. He did so, and returned to his teacher years later having given himself wholly to the discipline. From then on he travelled widely, preaching the worship of the One God and the message of Guru Nanak, and he set up preaching centres called Thaths at Nanaksar Kaleran, Jharig Maghiana, Bhirki, Harappa, Montgomery, Jhorarari and Pauda near Dehradun.

Nanaksar: the dera at Kalera

The people of Kalera village invited Baba Nand Singh Ji to their village. On the way he stopped at a well between Kalera and Kaunke and made his camp there, and the villagers built him a small hut. That spot became his dera, now known as Nanaksar, near Kalera in Jagraon tehsil. The food for the langar was provided by the nearby villagers, a practice that continues to this day.

Nanaksar has one custom that sets it apart from most gurdwaras: no financial offerings are made by devotees in front of the Guru Granth Sahib. Everything is given as sewa, and the langar runs on what the surrounding villages bring. The tradition keeps the focus on the scripture and on the sangat, not on money.

What is special about Nanaksar gurdwaras?

Visitors notice the quiet first. The recitation of Gurbani goes on through the day, and the discipline of the dera is strict: early rising, long hours of kirtan and simran, and simple food. Baba Nand Singh Ji taught that the Guru Granth Sahib is to be treated as the living Guru in every detail, and devotees remember how, in the winter of 1938 at Baghanwala, he would not stay at a new centre until the scripture had been brought there, and then spread his own turban on the ground for the bearer to walk on while carrying it. That reverence still shapes how Nanaksar gurdwaras are run.

What did Baba Nand Singh Ji teach?

His sermons stressed two things above all: kirtan, the singing of the holy hymns, and simran, the repetition of the Divine Name. He taught that ਨਾਮ ਜਪਣਾ is the foundation of the Sikh life, and that everything else, honest work, sharing, humility and sewa, grows from it. He is remembered for wiping the feet and shoes of devotees himself, and for telling those who came to him in distress to put their trust in the Name.

He did not claim to perform miracles, and his own teaching said that no saint should. Devotees remember him instead for his stillness, his few words and his constancy: the same discipline every day, whether he was alone in a forest hut or surrounded by thousands.

The Nanaksar tradition today

Baba Nand Singh Ji died at Nanaksar on 29 August 1943, and his remains were consigned to the Sutlej river. He was succeeded by Baba Isher Singh Ji, who carried the tradition forward. Today Gurdwara Nanaksar Kaleran near Jagraon is the main centre of the tradition, and gurdwaras under the name of Nanaksar stand across Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Canada. Every one of them keeps the pattern he set: Gurbani at the centre, langar from the sangat, and no offerings placed before the Guru.