Guru Nanak, Peace Guru

Guru Nanak is the founder of Sikhism. There are many wonderful stories about him. (You might want to find the book, Guru for the Aquarian Age if you’re interested in reading more.) Last Friday was Guru Nanak’s birthday - . I was thinking about him the other day. He was born in northern India (in a part of the Punjab now in Pakistan) at a time when the Moslems were marauding, conquering India. They were converting people to the Moslem faith “by the sword”. Guru Nanak began traveling around with two musicians, signing the praises of his experience of the Divine. One of the musicians was a Moslem, the other a Hindu. Nanak, though raised a Hindu, sometimes dressed as a Moslem, sometimes a Hindu. He had many beautiful messages as he sang. The heart of his teaching was “There is one God”, called by many different names. Meditate on the Name of God (whichever name you like) every day, with every breath. He was a mystic, teaching how to have direct experience with the Divine.

He traveled all over India and the Middle East. At one time, while meditating on the banks of a river with some devotees, he walked into the river, disappearing in the water and didn’t come out. His followers panicked, thinking he was dead, washed away in the river. After 3 days (Aren’t there stories of other holy people being dead for 3 days and then returning. This fascinates me.), he walked out of the river, sat down and recited a prayer poem – Japji (literally, ‘beloved meditation’). This prayer is now recited every morning (as we walk out of the river of sleep) at the birth of a child (to be the first sounds an infant hears) and other significant beginnings. Yogi Bhajan said that this prayer tunes the mind to the Cosmos in poetic vibration, establishing the mystic vision of Nanak in the consciousness. I think this is true. It certainly is a beautiful sound current in the early predawn hours (Amrit Vela)

Just one more of my favorite Guru Nanak Stories: While in Mecca, he was sitting, talking with a Moslem priest. His feet were pointing toward a Mosque. The priest became angry, telling Nanak to not point his feet toward the house of God. Nanak’s response was to ask the priest to please move his feet to a direction where God does not dwell. In his mystic vision, every aspect of the creation is an expression of the Divine.