The Book of Nanak

by Navtej Sarna

  Nanak once again returned to Talwandi to the extreme joy of his ageing parents. Rai Bular was in his last days and Nanak’s presence at his bedside proved to be a source of great peace and comfort. Then, probably in the year 1515, Guru Nanak returned to Sultanpur.

  And Then He Climbed Sumer . . .

  Sultanpur had strong claims on Guru Nanak—the love and affection of sister Nanaki and her husband, Jairam, the high regard of Governor Daulat Khan Lodhi, the memories, friendships and attachments founded in the years he had worked and meditated there. But Guru Nanak’s wandering days were not yet over. Probably in the summer of 1517, he set out once again with Mardana, this time to the north.

  But before he left for the mountains, he made a trip to Majha, the area of Punjab that lies between the rivers Ravi and Beas. A piece of land on the bank of the Ravi attracted his attention and he decided to make that his eventual home. According to one version, it is said that one of his disciples Ajita Randhawa, along with some other farmers, pledged that piece of land to the Guru. Here, probably in the beginning of 1516, Guru Nanak founded the community that he called Kartarpur, the city of the creator.

  The news of the Guru’s presence at Kartarpur spread fast. People of all creeds, castes and ranks—Hindus and Muslims, yogis, householders, noblemen and ordinary peasants—came to seek his blessings. Among the people who came there was a wealthy man called Karoria, or figuratively speaking, one who is worth ten million rupees. He was troubled by the thought that Nanak was trying to misguide both Hindus and Muslims, and decided to go to Kartarpur to stop the activities of Guru Nanak. But when he mounted his horse, the horse would not move. When he tried again the next day, he could not see anything. The people around him told him that Nanak was a great pir, and that the nobleman should take his name with reverence. Karoria began to praise the Guru, but when he sought to mount his horse again and ride towards him he was blinded and fell from the horse. Thereafter, Karoria proceeded on foot towards the Guru, and falling at his feet, received his gracious blessings. Karoria became one of the disciples who helped Guru Nanak in settling Kartarpur. Ultimately as the settlement expanded, the Guru’s parents and family, along with the family of his companion, Mardana, came to live in Kartarpur.

  For the journey to the north, Nanak dressed differently, perhaps keeping in mind the extreme weather he was to encounter. He wore leather on his feet and on his head, and wound a rope around his body. Guru Nanak travelled widely in the Himalayas and several scholars have constructed possible routes that he could have taken, based on the local traditions still extant in the mountains and the gurdwaras that have been founded down the centuries. The route taken by Guru Nanak may vary from scholar to scholar but legend has traced his footsteps to Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim, Ladakh and even Nepal and Tibet. The central event of the third udasi is the visit to Mount Sumer, recorded by all the janamsakhis and by Bhai Gurdas. Mount Sumer is none other than Mount Kailash, the venerated abode of Shiva and Parvati.

  The long and arduous journey began by crossing the Sutlej near the camp of a venerated pir, Budhan Shah. A town called Kiratpur was later founded at this place by the sixth Sikh Guru, Hargobind. Today, Kiratpur is a small peaceful settlement at the entrance to the Shivalik hills where the Sutlej flows gently among vast open fields. The Guru’s climb through the mountains took him to Rawalsar, Kangra, Mandi and Kulu. Guru Nanak is also believed to have visited the settlement of Manikaran, in the narrow valley of the choppy Parbati river. There, in the old gurdwara, the langar, or the food of the community kitchen, is cooked not on any fire but in the steam that rises from the boiling hot springs at the very edge of the ice-cold river. Local tradition also says that Nanak passed over the Chandrakhani pass and went down to the village of Malana in a steep rock bowl, the home of an ancient community that generally does not welcome outsiders.

  Guru Nanak then travelled through the dramatic and barren stretches of Spiti Valley. He traversed the Shipki-la pass and then moved towards the Lipu Lekh pass to enter the region of Gangotri and Kedar Kshetra. From here he followed the ancient routes that have led pilgrims for centuries to the lake Mansarovar, the source of the Sutlej, at the feet of the holy mountain of Kailash. Mount Kailash stands at 22,000 feet above sea level and pilgrims take almost three days to perform its circumambulation. Among Mount Kailash and the crystal-clear waters of Mansarovar and Rakas Tal is based the famous meeting of Nanak with the eighty-four Siddhas, among them the ancient Gorakhnath, Machendranath and Charpat Nath, or perhaps the successors of these famous ancient souls, who had meditated deep and long and possessed great power and wisdom.

  In Bhai Gurdas’s version of the meeting, the Siddhas expressed amazement at seeing Nanak. ‘O youthful one! What power brings you to these heights? Who is it that you worship?’

  ‘The eternal lord alone,’ replied Nanak.

  The Siddhas asked him how the world below was faring. Guru Nanak made no secret of what he felt. He told them that darkness, sin and injustice had taken over the world. Corruption was rampant; the fence itself had begun to eat the crop. The wise Siddhas had escaped into remote caves. Who then would redeem the world?

  The Siddhas argued that it was not possible to be part of the world and follow the path of meditation and spirituality. Nanak replied that one had to be ‘as a lotus in the water that remaineth dry’. One had to meditate on God’s name and remain unaffected by the world.

  Attempting to lure Nanak from his path so that he may join their fold, the Siddhas asked him to bring water in a yogi’s bowl from the lake. When he reached the lake he found rubies, diamonds and other precious stones in the water. He went back empty-handed and told the Siddhas that the lake had no water in it. When they came down to check, it was true. The lake had indeed dried up. The ancients recognized Nanak’s genius and acknowledged him as a spiritual master.

  After this the Guru travelled widely in Tibet as is manifested by strong local traditions. In fact there is a view that some Buddhists revere Nanak as an emanation of Lord Padmasambhava or the Bhadra Guru. Rewalsar is holy to both Sikhs and Buddhists, and Buddhist lamas can often be seen travelling to Amritsar to honour Rimpoche Nanak (the reincarnate one).

  According to some local legends and accounts, Nanak went further east—into Sikkim and Nepal. In Nepal, Nanak want to Janakpur, the fabled birthplace of Sita. He moved along to the Dhomri fort and preached the worship of one God at the fair of Brahmkund. Ultimately, Nanak rishi, as he was known in Nepal, arrived at Kathmandu and stayed near the Pashupatinath temple on the bank of the Bhagmati river. Singing hymns to the tune of Mardana’s rabab, Nanak captivated the people of Kathmandu, including the king. Even today, a gurdwara with the impression of the Guru’s feet stands on a hillock in the city. Nanak’s journeys in Nepal took him to the several major temples of the Hindu kingdom and possibly to the Thyangboche monastery which is picturesquely placed at the base of Mount Everest. In Sikkim, a huge boulder in the village of Chung Thang, at the confluence of the Teesta and Lachung Chu high above the churning Teesta river, is said to mark the place where Rimpoche Nanak Guru stopped in his travels before moving on to Chumbi Valley of Tibet. The boulder was thrown at him by a demon but only fell at the Guru’s feet. The Guru’s footprints can be seen in the rock and the boulder is known as ‘Pathar Sahib’. His footprints are also preserved at the Lachen Monastery on the way to Gurudongman Lake. Legends of his travels abound in this area and there is even a gurdwara called Nanak Lama Sahib.

  On his return from Tibet, Nanak entered Ladakh from the Chasul pass and rested at the Hemis Gompa, where a stone still marks the place of the Guru’s repose. Passing through Leh, he took the path to Kargil. On this road is a rock with the impression of the head and torso of an ogre said to have been chastised by the Guru when it tried to frighten his companions. The impression of the Guru�
��s footsteps can be found in Skardu in Baltistan and in Srinagar in the Kashmir Valley where he visited the temple of Sankaracharya. Guru Nanak also visited the Amarnath caves, scene of the traditional Hindu pilgrimage, and preached his message to devotees who were performing the traditional Amarnath yatra. Gurdwara Mattan Sahib commemorates his visit to Amarnath. It was near the town of Mattan, forty miles to the east of Srinagar, that he met Pandit Brahm Das. During the ensuing dialogue, the learned pandit, armed with two camel loads of Sanskrit books, questioned Nanak closely and attacked his manner of dress. Nanak then led him into a discussion of creation and the existence of the true lord before creation. According to Puratan janamsakhi, Nanak brought home to Brahm Das the emptiness of maya in a rather unique way. Though Brahm Das had ostensibly understood Nanak’s teachings and agreed to follow the path of God, his heart was not yet fully convinced. One day Guru Nanak asked him to take a Guru. ‘Where should I find one?’ asked Brahm Das. Nanak pointed towards a hut where four faqirs lived. When Brahm Das went there, the faqirs pointed towards a temple where he should go to seek a Guru. When Brahm Das reached the temple, he was severely beaten with a shoe by a woman who was guarding the temple. Brahm Das went back to the faqirs and told his pathetic tale to them. ‘That was Maya,’ they said, ‘she is your Guru.’ Brahm Das then came and fell at Nanak’s feet and threw away his load of books.

  Now Guru Nanak passed through Jammu and headed homewards. At Sultanpur, his doting sister Nanaki passed away suddenly, and three days later, her husband, Jairam, too succumbed to a fever. There was little in Sultanpur to hold him back, and Guru Nanak soon set off on his fourth great journey, this time to the Muslim countries that lay to the west of India.

  And Then the Baba Went to Mecca . . .

  For this journey to the Muslim countries, Nanak adorned a blue dress, and in the manner of a Haji, carried with him a staff, a book, a cup and a prayer rug. He was accompanied by Mardana as before. Once again Guru Nanak reached Multan and then the town of Sukkur on the western bank of the Indus. Crossing the Habb river, Nanak moved into Baluchistan where he paid a visit to the famous shrine of Hinglaj, tucked away between mountain ranges and dedicated to the Hinglaj Devi, also known as Bibi Nani to Muslims and Parvati or Kali to Hindus. He held a discourse here with Vaishnavite ascetics who were confounded by his manner of dress and could not make out to which faith he paid obeisance.

  Coming down from the hills, he joined a group of pilgrims and set sail for Mecca from the port of Miani. Passing the port of Aden, the pilgrims probably disembarked at the port of Al Aswadh on the Red Sea, off Jeddah, from where Mecca was not too far. Joining a slow moving camel caravan of pilgrims performing the holiest journey of their lives, Guru Nanak and Mardana crossed forty miles of desert wilderness to reach that ancient town.

  As night fell in the holy city, Guru Nanak laid down to rest with his feet pointing towards the Ka’aba. When Rukn-ud-din, the Qazi came to the shrine to say his evening prayers, he saw the pilgrim sleeping in that fashion and berated him, ‘Why do you commit such infidelity? Do you not know that there is the house of God, the Ka’aba? How dare you point your feet in that direction?’

  Nanak replied, ‘Then O Qazi, point my feet in the direction where there is no God.’

  The Qazi held Nanak’s legs and turned his feet around. But to his amazement, say the janamsakhis, he found the Ka’aba turning around too. No matter what direction he would point Nanak’s feet, the Ka’aba too would turn. Guru Nanak had made his point. God, the creator, is omnipresent.

  Thereafter, the wise men of Mecca, the Qazis and the Mullahs, the pilgrims and the devotees, gathered to discourse over religious issues with Nanak. They questioned him about the relative merits of Hinduism and Islam. According to Bhai Gurdas, Nanak replied that without good action, all were doomed. Without good deeds, the external guises would not stand up in God’s court; they would be washed away like the colour of the kasumbha flower is washed away by water. Though Ram and Rahim were one, the true God had been forgotten and the world was being led by the devil.

  Nanak and Mardana then headed to the second holy city, Medina, where news of Nanak’s discourses in Mecca had already reached before them. Here too Nanak held religious discussions with learned Imams.

  Though some accounts claim that Nanak went on to visit Palestine, Syria and Turkey, it is more generally accepted that from Medina, Guru Nanak turned eastwards and walked across the blazing sandy wastes to Baghdad on the banks of the Tigris river. An inscription in stone discovered in the city by a Sikh army officer during the First World War appears to mention the Guru’s name.

  Baghdad was then a great centre of Islamic learning, art and culture. On the outskirts of the great city, in a graveyard, Mardana strummed the strings of his rabab in holy melody and Nanak sang holy hymns. In the orthodox Islamic setting this was considered a sacrilege, but when the townspeople came out to throw stones at the itinerant infidel, Nanak concluded his prayers with the call, ‘Sat Kartar’ in a divinely captivating voice and the crowd was stunned into silence.

  The Pir-e-Dastgir of Baghdad came out to meet Nanak and inquired what faith he belonged to and what sect of faqirs he came from. It was Mardana who replied, ‘Nanak has come to this world in Kalyug, the horrible cosmic age. He has rejected all faqirs except the supreme being, who is all pervasive—in the heavens, the earth and all four directions.’

  During his stay in Baghdad, the Guru also met another pir known as Bahlol who had several discourses with him. Finally, Bahlol and his son became followers of Nanak. The devotion of Bahlol to Nanak is expressed in a beautiful poem written in the twentieth century by an itinerant Hindu monk, Swami Anand Acharya, after visiting the legendary place of the meeting. To quote just a couple of verses from this poem:

  What peace from Himalaya’s lonely

  caves and forests thou didst carry

  to the vine-groves and rose-gardens

  of Baghdad!

  What light from Badrinath’s snowy

  peak thou didst bear to illumine

  the heart of Balol, thy saintly

  Persian disciple!

  Eight fortnights Balol hearkened to

  thy words on life and the Path

  and Spring Eternal, while the moon

  waxed and waned in the pomegranate grove

  beside the grassy desert of the dead . . .

  —Sri Ananda Acharya: ‘On reading an Arabic

  inscription in a shrine outside the town of

  Baghdad, dated 912 Hejira’ in Snowbirds,

  London, Macmillan 1919.

  Guru Nanak stayed in Baghdad for about four months. A shrine in Baghdad, also known as the tomb of Bahlol, marks the visit of Guru Nanak and his association with Bahlol.

  From Baghdad, the Guru probably entered Iran through the traditional route that passed through Kermanshah and has been followed for centuries by Muslim pilgrims visiting or returning from Karbala and Najaf. The exact route that Nanak and Mardana followed has been covered up by the passing centuries but local traditions lead us to believe that they probably passed through Tehran, Isfahan and Mashad, where Nanak held discussions with top Shia leaders. From there he went along the Amu Darya and reached Bukhara, and thereafter continued the journey through Afghanistan, visiting several places including Balkh, Kabul, Kandahar and Mazar-i-Sharif before crossing back into India through the Khyber pass. In Peshawar, at a place called Gorakhatri, Nanak had a discourse with the yogis of the kanphata sect.

  When they had crossed the Indus and were passing the town of Hassan Abdal, Mardana was overcome with fatigue and thirst. On the top of a nearby hill lived a Muslim saint, Baba Wali Kandahari who guarded a reservoir of fresh water. When Mardana told Wali that he was accompanying Nanak, another exalted pir, Wali Kandahari refused to give him any water, saying that if his master was so powerful, he should
be able to give Mardana some water. Mardana went back to Guru Nanak and related what had transpired. Nanak told him to go back and beseech Wali again. Mardana did so but his efforts failed to move the adamant Wali. Guru Nanak then asked Mardana to lift a small stone from the hillside. As Mardana did so, a spring of fresh water gushed forth. Mardana drank to his heart’s content. The new spring however began to drain Wali’s reservoir on top of the hill. In anger, Wali is said to have hurled a boulder at Guru Nanak. The Guru stopped the boulder with his outstretched palm, leaving the impression of his hand on the rock. This rock, the bubbling spring and the legend of Wali Kandahari are preserved at the venerated Sikh gurdwara at Panja Sahib.

  Towards the end of 1520, Babar’s murderous hordes came charging into Punjab for the third time. They first moved towards Sialkot and that major town succumbed to the invaders without a fight. They then turned their edgy horses towards Saidpur, and sensing defiance, began to sack the town. Guru Nanak was at that time returning from his fourth udasi and had reached Saidpur to meet his old disciple, Lalo. He saw the cruelty of Babar and his men, and the intense suffering of the innocent people, men and women, Muslims and Hindus alike. The pain in his soul found its way into the Babar Vani, the beautiful poetry of protest and pain that is now contained in the Granth Sahib.

  The Puratan janamsakhi relates a meeting between Babar and Guru Nanak though the Babarnamah does not have any mention of such a meeting. According to the janamsakhi, Nanak and Mardana were captured by Babar’s forces and taken to prison. Nanak was asked to carry a load and Mardana to lead a horse. But the soldiers noticed that the load carried itself and the horse followed Mardana of its own free will. In the prison, like the other prisoners, the Guru too was given a mill and asked to grind corn. The guards saw that as the Guru meditated, the mill turned of its own accord. When this was reported to Babar, he came to see the faqir. It is said that the invader touched the Guru’s feet and offered gifts to the dervish. But Guru Nanak refused to take anything. He instead asked Babar to release all the prisoners and return their property to them. Babar complied, and from Saidpur Nanak moved on to Kartarpur.