Spiritual Masters of the World's Religions by Kennick Victoria;Sharma Arvind; & Arvind Sharma

Author:Kennick, Victoria;Sharma, Arvind; & Arvind Sharma [Kennick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 3408694
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2013-01-04T00:00:00+00:00

History of the Gurūs

First in the series of Sikh Gurūs was the great mystic Gurū Nānak (1469–ca. 1539). He appeared in human form during very difficult times, in which Hindus were being brutally oppressed and massacred by misguided Muslim rulers. As a child in a Hindu family, Nānak was often lost in contemplation of the Divine. His sister Nānakī reportedly heard heavenly music surrounding him when he sat in prayer.2 But he did not accept Brahmin ritualism. When a large ceremony was arranged in his childhood for him to be traditionally invested with the sacred thread, Nānak refused to wear it, explaining that he only wanted that sacred thread of praising God—the thread that would never wear out, never get dirty, never be lost. His preferred companions were the Hindu and Muslim ascetics who lived in the surrounding forest. Many days went by without his eating anything. Many were the nights that he spent in deep meditation, with tears of vairag (detachment from the world) and great longing for God alone. When a doctor was called to cure him, young Nānak explained his condition by singing:

Firstly I feel the pain of separation from God

And another pain is of the hunger for His meditation….

O ignorant physician, minister thou not any medicine to me….

The pain persists and the body's suffering continues.

Such a medicine produces no effect on me, O brother. (Gurū Granth Sāhib, 1256)3

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