By Jagdeesh Mann

 

Each year, approximately 4 to 6 weeks before Christmas, thousands of British Columbians commemorate the birth of another enlightened saint, one born significantly further from our shores than Bethlehem.

The penultimate full moon of 2012 falls on November 28th, a date that marks the annual Gurpurab, or the birth of Guru Nanak Dev ji.

Indo-Canadian households across the Lower Mainland and Canada will be attending their community gurudwaras to mark the birthday of the founder of the Sikh religion. The celebrations will be as subdued and modest as Christmas can be lavish.

Families attend a special prayer reading that falls annually on this late Autumn full moon. Sikhs from across Canada, the UK, Asia and India, share in religious meditation and mark family bonds, returning to the basics to recognise the life of man who was anything but ordinary.

Guru Nanak, or Nanak Bedi by his family name, was born in 1469 in a village that is located now in modern-day Pakistan.

At approximately 500 years old, Sikhism is arguably the youngest organised religion in the world – its recognised birth year of 1499, according to the eponymous Nanakshahi calendar, comes 7 years after Columbus stumbled upon America.

Over his seventy year life, Baba Nanak, as he is affectionately known, became India’s religious iconoclast.

While simultaneously in Europe, Martin Luther was initiating the Protestant Reformation by railing against the bartering of Catholic indulgences, Guru Nanak was agitating for social rebellion in India.

He fought for universal human rights against the plutocracy of medieval India. It was an era of kings, nobles, feudal servants, and slaves – a time when equality of all people was anything but self-evident.

His advocacy for egalitarianism in the face of India’s harsh caste system was as scandalous as Christ’s call to ‘love thy enemies’ from the infamous Sermon on the Mount.

On an individual level, he encouraged people to seek truth through meditation upon god’s name and essence. Repetition of religious rituals were as empty to Nanak when it came to righteous living as earning for oneself, (kirt kamaee), and sewa – giving back to one’s community – were necessary for it.

Over his lifetime, Nanak inscribed his spiritual views through poetry that today forms the core of the Guru Granth Sahib – the Sikh scriptures or holy book at the centre of gurdwaras, or Sikh temple. True to his humanistic ideals, Nanak also published the poetry of a dozen other sages, from various faiths such as Hinduism and Islam, in the Sikh Granth.

An analogy, unthinkable even in though given centuries of religious warfare, would be for the Bible to include passages written by Muslim saints. Truth for Nanak, a radical force, was not confined to within the borders of any one faith - an unsettling message for any orthodoxy.

This singular decision, to transcend religious boundaries and create a movement based on universal humanism, gives Sikhism its defining characteristic of being an open and non-proselytising faith. Five centuries after the first Sikh congregations started gathering, anyone from any religious background is permitted to attend a Sikh temple – there is no expectation to convert.

Despite Sikhism being the fifth largest organised religion in the world with temples across Canada, the US, UK, Asia and India, little is known, however, of Guru Nanak and his legacy outside of Sikh communities.

And as intuitive as Nanak’s vision is of all humans being equals in one universal family, his ideals are still far from realised.

In a world of open borders and mass immigration, Nanak’s message is more relevant than ever.

In multicultural cities like Vancouver, Nanak’s path demands that we step out of our comfort zones, social cliques and cultural nooks – something socially-aloof Vancouverites chafe against. His vision encourages us to build shared spaces and communities that cut across ethnic, religious and cultural lines.

Ironically, it seems the teachings of a 15th century sage from India hold the lessons required for us to become better Canadians.

 

 

Historical events in Guru Nanak’s lifetime

 

April 15, 1469 - Guru Nanak is born

1480 - Nanak now 11, refuses to tie Hindu sacred 

1481 - Feeds holymen, teaches ‘Sacha Sauda’

1482 - Portuguese traders build first slave outpost in Africa 

1485 - Meets travelling companion Mardana

1487 - Marries Mata Sualhni

1491 - Birth of first son Sri Chand

1492 - Christopher Columbus lands in America

1495 - Jews expelled from Spain

1496 - Birth of second son Lakhmi Chand

1497 - John Cabot reaches Newfoundland

1498 - Vasco da Gama sails to India

1499 - Nanak goes missing for 3 days, has mystical experience. Proclaims “there is neither Hindus or Muslims, God is neither.” Nanak is declared a Guru and Sikhism is born.

1500 - Begins first ‘Udasi’ or travels (7years), visits ancient Hindu city of Benaras

1506 - Begins 2nd Udasi (7years), goes to Sri Lanka

1514 - Copernicus declares the Earth revolves around the sun

1514 - Begins 3rd Udasi (5years), goes to Kashmir, Nepal and Tibet

1517 - Martin Luther starts Protestant Reformation

1519 - Begins fourth Udasi (3years), goes to Baghdad and Mecca

1520 - Babar attacks India - Mughal Empire founded

1521 - Cortes conquers Aztecs

1522 - Founds town of Kartarpur, builds first Sikh gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib

1523 - Begins fifth Udasi for 2 years, travels in Punjab.

1535 - Jacques Cartier lands in Montreal

Sept 22, 1539 - Nanak dies in Kartarpur, appoints Bhai Lehna as sucessor.

1574 - Golden Temple built

 

Photo credit Chandra Bodalia