Guru Nanak is quoted as saying that he had come to the world in search of Truth. What this research paper intends to do is give a historical biography of Guru Nanak and the Truth he was referring to. Moreover, this paper seeks to find out where his journey for Truth ultimately led him, and what we, as a society, can learn from this journey.

If something is to be gained from reading this article/research paper, I hope it’s more then some student somewhere getting some benefit when having to write a research paper on some religious topic.

Spark.

Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh (1992) states that Owen Cole has traced the source of the term “guru” to the Aiteraya Upanisad and the Kulnarnava Tantra. “Gu” signifies darkness and “ru” is that which restrains it; “so a guru is a restrainer of ignorance.” This understanding is shared in the Janam-Sakhi text: “via the Guru, the light, the ontological basis of all, becomes visible.” Nanak is thus charged to deliver the message bequeathed to him through the vision. For the next twenty-four years Guru Nanak traveled throughout India and beyond, spreading the Divine Word (p. 341).

INTRODUCTION
In order to research the life and teachings of Guru Nanak, we must focus on analyzing the data relating to the personality and the man that was Guru Nanak and not so much the Sikh religion that follows him today. More specifically, we must look into some of the primitive thoughts and teachings that surrounded Guru Nanak in his time. Finally, we must attempt to relate Guru Nanak’s theology to today and note its relevant influence.

Literature Search Process
In order to research the life of Guru Nanak with a thorough and complete analysis we must look beyond the standard texts that are written about his life and teachings, and look deeply into what religious scholars have written and interpreted. The scholars are the knowledgeable experts on the subject, as they have spent years applying a historical analysis and a systematic study to Guru Nanak’s life, with the intent of merging the two into a description of what truly went on during Guru Nanak’s life.

By beginning with a general search through Google.com, search terms such as “Guru Nanak,” and “Nanak” sufficed to find relevant information. As the research paper became more focused, the search terms included began to focus on “Guru Nanak’s influence.” Google further revealed the sources to which scholars study and interpret. From here, the research revealed that the life of Guru Nanak is written in a set of books called the Janam-Sakhis. The research also revealed a set of prominent religious scholars for Sikhism. Further research was done through finding books and scholarly articles via my Public Library and my University books database. The online database that was used exclusively was JSTOR; the scholarly journal archive. More specific search terms at this point included “Janam-Sakhis” and “Nanak Sufi influences.” Once the names of some prominent authors had been found, they too were included in the searches. For example, searching for “W.H. McLeod” through The Public Library book database was crucial in finding one of the most thorough analyses on the life of Guru Nanak. The primary concern of the research process then became to locate the application of what has been said about Guru Nanak through the standard religious texts and apply it to any scholarly interpretation and historical analysis.

Throughout the analysis of the source material, care was taken to not only observe what the authors said about the life and teachings of Guru Nanak, but to also research the impact that he had. Accordingly, the structure of this paper is divided into three sections. The first section concerns the discussion of the life of Guru Nanak as far when he was born and into what kind of society he was born. The second section focuses on the core teachings of Guru Nanak and to what extent he was influenced by the two major religions of the time: Hinduism and Islam. An emphasis is made on correlating what may have influenced his thought at the time. The third section aims to take the life and teachings of Guru Nanak beyond their normal constraints, and attempts to apply what he believed to today’s society.

SECTION ONE / THE LIFE OF GURU NANAK
In this section the primary concern is to discuss where the standard biography of Guru Nanak comes from and what it has to say about the life of Guru Nanak as a person. A secondary concern is to understand to what extent the Janam-Sakhis tell the truth behind the personality of Guru Nanak.

The Janam-Sakhis and Myths
The story of Guru Nanak’s life is told through a set of books called the Janam-Sakhis, which literally translates into ‘birth stories.’ The stories that make up the Janam-Sakhis tell, in short narratives, the story of Guru Nanak’s birth and his upbringing in a small village southeast of Lahore. They also tell of his realization and exposure to the Ultimate Reality, and of his journeys and how he eventually settled down in a small community named Kartapur (Singh, 1992, p. 341). Some of the stories tell of Guru Nanak’s birth in 1469 A.D., in Talvandi, in the Lodi Empire at the time. According to Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh (1992), the Janam-Sakhis also tell us that his father was an accountant, and that Guru Nanak often spent most of his time outside conversing with Sadhus and Sufis. They also tell of how he devoted a significant amount of time to solitary reflection (p. 332). Moreover, the Janam-Sakhis tell of Guru Nanak’s move to Sultanpur where he and his father were given employment by Daulat Khan. The Sakhis then go into the telling of Guru Nanak’s journeys from Sultanpur: his first journey, accompanied by Mardana, to the eastern parts of India, including Delhi; his second journey to Ceylon; his third journey to Kashmir and Mount Sumeru, and his forth journey west to Mecca (McLeod, 1968, p. 64). The majority of these journeys have a myth or legend attached to them. For example, when Guru Nanak enters Medina, he camps outside the city and utters a call to pray: this causes the city to become silent; the town’s old Muslim holy man, or pir, comes to see what is going on and seeks a few credentials from the newcomer. Guru Nanak is thus asked to provide enlightenment and the Janam-Sakhis reveal that Guru Nanak takes the pir’s son and “ascends [into the air with him,] and in the twinkling of an eye, reveals to him the multitude of heavens and the underworlds” (McLeod, 1968, p. 35). Another myth story within the Janam Sakhis is when Guru Nanak travels to Mecca: a cloud follows him there and provides the city with fresh water upon his arrival. Further, when Guru Nanak sleeps with his feet facing a niche in a mosque indicating the direction of Ka’bah, or a mihrab, a public official (qazi) asks him for a prompt explanation. He asks for Guru Nanak to move his feet to a position that does not point in the direction of where God is. To the qazi’s amazement, the mihrab moves with Guru Nanak’s feet (p. 123). Ultimately, the central features of the myths projected in the Janam-Sakhis include Guru Nanak’s intensely revealing experiences, responding in creative and joyous poetry, and “formulat[ing] his conception and perception of Ultimate Reality as total unity” (Singh, 1992, p. 341).

The Janam-Sakhis and Scholarly Review
According to W.H. McLeod (1968), a leading scholar in the study of Sikhism, there are only three Janam-Sakhis that can even be considered as remotely telling a story of Nanak that does not end up “underscor[ing] the importance and uniqueness of the birth and life of Guru Nanak in terms of the personal beliefs and [the learnt tendencies] of their authors” (p. 8). McLeod is careful not to overemphasize the Janam-Sakhis in terms of telling the story of Guru Nanak as he believes an overemphasis on what they have to say causes a “misrepresentation of Guru Nanak and his ultimate message” (p. 8). McLeod’s primary concern is to find the “functional truth” behind the Janam-Sakhis, as he unfavorably accepts that there is nothing better from which to build a biography of Guru Nanak. Now, there are six different books that make up the Janam-Sakhis. McLeod states that the only essential ones are Bhai Gurdas’s Var 1, the Mirharban Janam-Sakhi, and the Puratan Janam-Sakhi. Bhai Gurdas’s is considered a contemporary of the later Gurus and a devout Sikh. He told “less of the miraculous” (p. 29) shortly after Guru Nanak’s death. The miracles that McLeod refers to are all the mythological stories that make up a majority of the Janam-Sakhis. He points out that they serve their own functional purpose in the Sikh religion, but do little to help provide a historical overview on the real life of Guru Nanak. For example, the story of Guru Nanak moving the mirhab with the movement of his feet does little to help one understand when Guru Nanak went to Mecca and for how long. McLeod actually creates criteria in which he uses a chronological listing of all the different Janam-Sakhis and eliminates the stories that do not serve a functional purpose. He seeks to fuse the various stories together and form a collective overview of the true personality behind Guru Nanak. He succeeds by removing the impossible stories and by keeping some of the possible ones. What McLeod comes up with is that Guru Nanak may have been born in 1469 A.D, and that he experiences a sense of divine calling while working under Daulat Khan in Sultanpur. From here, McLeod can be sure that Guru Nanak goes traveling and this traveling must have ended around 1520 A.D. This is around the time that the village of Kartaphur was built. Kartaphur is where Guru Nanak would spend the rest of his life, where a community of disciples grows around him until his probable death in September 1539.

SECTION TWO / THE TEACHINGS OF GURU NANAK
In this section, the primary concern is to discuss what is revealed through researching Guru Nanak’s teachings and thoughts. The secondary concern is to understand from whom Guru Nanak may have been influenced, and within what historical context we can draw conclusions about his teachings.

Teachings and Thoughts
It can be said that Guru Nanak’s thoughts and teachings concern themselves with questioning and finding answers to the point of all life and to the point of all religion (McLeod, 1968, p. 148). Guru Nanak was mostly a mystic; aimed at creating a spiritual life and wanting everyone around him to share his “joy and wonder at the vastness of [God’s] creation” (p. 148). Guru Nanak eventually came around to “diagnos[ing] the illness of his age:” he concluded that nobody really loved his or her religion (Mansukhani, 1969, p. 2). Moreover, his mission of sorts, concerned the whole human family (p. 52). He did not generalize people based on their caste, creed, color, or religion; he merely stated that “there is no Hindu [and] there is no Muslim[;] there is only man” (p. 52). His belief was that these definitions, or classifications, were “man-made and unacceptable to God” (p. 52). Now, Guru Nanak’s God was one in which “the meaning and purpose of all human existence [is] centered[. More specifically, it is] centered around the divine existence of the Eternal One: He who creates, sustains and destroys” (McLeod, 1968, p. 150). Guru Nanak mainly expressed himself through poetry and a love for the Formless One. According to Dr. Gobind Singh Mansukhani (1969), Guru Nanak taught three major things: the first being the Middle Path, where one exists between a high level of self-discipline and pleasurable level of indulgence; second, he stressed the principles of mankind; third, Guru Nanak opened for men the “spiritual highway to salvation” through the discipline of the Name (p. 5). This Name is also referred to as the One, the Formless, God, and the Ultimate Reality. These all point toward the same thing: everything inside and outside of us. McLeod (1968), in Guru Nanak and the Sikh Religion, gives an example Guru Nanak’s reference to the One: when Guru Nanak is asked “who is your Guru? he of whom are you a disciple?” his response is “the Word is the Guru and the mind continually is the disciple. By dwelling on the Ineffable One, on Him, the eternal Guru, I remain detached. It is only through the Word that I dwell on Him and so through the Guru the fire of [the ego] is extinguished” (p. 199). McLeod points out that Guru Nanak is using the term Guru in all three senses here. Ultimately, the “pursuit of Truth, and so of salvation, was for Guru Nanak mankind’s paramount concern” (p. 199). He did not concern himself with saying that he had brought a message from God, but that the message of the Guru was, in essence, God. Furthermore, McLeod looks deeper into the teachings of Guru Nanak and makes sure to note that any research done by him is not entirely based on the theology of Sikhism, but on the theology of Guru Nanak” (p. 5). His further research into Guru Nanak’s theology reveal that the Hukam, or the divine order, played an essential part in the teachings of Guru Nanak.The Hukam is most like the universe that exists all around us; it is “beyond describing, [but] all forms [are] created by it” (p. 200). According to McLeod, Hukam is a “constant principle [that] signifies the divinely instituted and maintained principle [which] governs the existence and movement of the [entire] universe” (p. 207).

From Whom and From Where
Guru Nanak had six paths in which the goal at the end of the path was a union with God. McLeod (1968) describes this path as being, first, the interior religion: the emphasis on religion as an inward experience; second, loving devotion to God: love is the basic expression of religion; this is similar to the Bhakti movement within India at the time; third, nam simaran: the loving of the Name and not just simply the repeating of it; forth, natural results: a movement closer to God through meditation and to the final absorption of the man into Him; fifth, the ascent to higher and higher levels of understanding and experience, and lastly, the Ultimate: the blending of the individual light in the Light of God. This merging, or becoming at One with All There Is, is difficult to distinguish from some other teachings at the time; from Nath yogi’s and from some Sufi sources (McLeod, 1968, p. 207-226). Many scholars have indeed brought this up before; McLeod’s The Influence of Islam Upon The Thought of Guru Nanak seeks to look into what conclusions we can draw, if any, about an Islamic or Hindu influence upon Guru Nanak’s teachings and thoughts. Also, Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh (1992) analyzes McLeod and points out that his main suggestion is that Guru Nanak’s thoughts were “strongly influenced by the Sant or Nirguna tradition of Northern India” (p. 342).

The Sant Tradition, according to McLeod (1968), was a combination of traditions which drew influence from Vaisnava Bhakti (divine love directed to one of the ancient incarnations of Visnu), tantric-yoga similar to the Nath sect of yogis, and Sufi orders. Singh (1992) states that McLeod does not emphasize the marginal influence of the Sufi order, but asserts that “it was this Sant tradition which provided the basis of Guru Nanak’s thought” (p. 342). Looking further into the actual writings of McLeod reveals that, yes, even though he believes that the most striking feature of Nanak’s religious environment throughout his life was that of the Bhakti movement, it “should not imply any denial of the originality of Guru Nanak’s thought” (McLeod, 1968, p. 316). His analysis goes deep into relating the specific teachings of Guru Nanak with those of Punjabi Sufi’s at the time, with whom the author points out were different from the Classical Sufi’s such as Junaid, Hallaj, Ghazali, and Rumi. McLeod also points out that if “this particular type of Sufism exercised an influence upon Guru Nanak, it would [have been] a mediated Sant influence rather than a distinctively Sufi contribution” (p. 317). For example, Guru Nanak’s discipline doctrine of nam simaran, as noted above, does not correspond to the Sufi technique of dhikr, or the repetition of the name Allah. Moreover, Guru Nanak’s doctrine of Hukam, discussed in the previous section, is obviously an Arabic word; however, that which it expresses is not (p. 313). It is obvious that within the society that Guru Nanak lived, he would have come across many different types of religious figures and ideas. So, it can be said that Guru Nanak was able to take what was around him and express it in a way that was unique to him.

SECTION THREE / THE INFLUENCE OF GURU NANAK
The primary concern of this section is to discuss the research into what extent Guru Nanak’s teachings were followed by his disciples, and to what ultimately became of his thoughts. A secondary concern is to attempt the application of Guru Nanak’s ideas of life to today’s society.

Where Did Guru Nanak’s Message Go
According to P. S. Grewal (1983), after Guru Nanak’s death, Sikhism did not really emerge as an organized religion (p. 20). He describes it as best being a sect. However, it is clear that Guru Nanak had an inclination to perpetuate this sect when he appointed Angad as his successor (p. 22). By the time of Guru Nanak’s death, he had gathered many disciples and it is within this following that his numerous compositions were kept and preserved. McLeod (1968) concludes that it could not have been very long after Guru Nanak’s death before his teachings we committed to writing; Guru Amar Das was the main Sikh guru from 1552 until 1574 and prepared compositions which were later used by Guru Arjan to compile the Sikh Adi Granth, or the Guru Granth Sahib (McLeod, 1968, p. 5). Ultimately, what happened was that Guru Angad began doing things that accelerated the process of moving Guru Nanak’s teachings from influencing a small gathering of disciples to providing a community with its own distinct characteristics. Now, it is important to note that Guru Nanak taught mainly to reject ritualism, ascetic practices, idol worship, and other forms of superstition, as they were irrelevant to his idea of salvation (Mansukhani, 1969, p. 56). However, it was Guru Amar Das, who after succeeding Angad in 1552, set about moving Sikhism, as it became to be known, further away from Hinduism. This in turn “strength[ened] the sense of fraternity among his followers” and provided Sikhism with an organized religion that evolved various Hindu symbols, customs, and institutions (Grewal, 1983, p. 22). Thus, moving away from Guru Nanak’s teachings that in order to find Truth one must reject ritualism, symbols of subordinate status, and other forms of superstition. Moreover, as Sikhism grew larger, it was further divided and eventually masands, or religious agents of the Guru, were put in every city so that they could collect tribute and offerings from the various Sikhs (Grewal, 1983, p. 24). Basically, a “regular system was devised whereby each Sikh had to pay a compulsory levy [up to] one-tenth of his income to the Guru’s agents” (p. 24). It seems as though this is the point in which Guru Nanak’s true teachings get lost in the mix, and the Guru system becomes not a way of perpetrating Truth and spreading Guru Nanak’s teachings, but a “hierarchy [system] of [having] intermediaries between the Guru and his followers; [much like a] feudal hierarchical system of authority and privilege” (p. 24). Basically, Guru Nanak believed that a man’s attachment to material things in the world such as wealth and status led him to a corrupt and dishonorable state. Ultimately, the system of Guru hierarchy went against what Guru Nanak had taught: he is known to have said that “the world is seen as something impermanent though real, [and that] ‘worldly’ attachment is thus [detrimental] to the realization of the Truth” (p. 20).

Nanak’s Relevance For Today
Dr. Gobind Singh Mansukhani (1969) writes that Guru Nanak was a prophet of freedom and that he “liberated men’s minds from the clutches of priests and politicians, [helping them] shake off their fear-complex and to think for themselves” (p. 8). Within today’s society, the media bombards the population with fear on a global scale: the fear of terrorism, the fear of “them,” the fear of a Muslim “jihad,” and basically, the fear of anything that those in control of the media chooses. It is a society with an ever-increasing sense of separation between people and cultures; through wars, such as the War in Iraq, the Afghanistan War, and even the continuous war perpetuated by I* on P*. In the west, these wars are likened to “Holy Wars” against an unseen enemy who is portrayed as being extremely different from the rest of us. What we can learn from Guru Nanak can be found in his proclamation that “the depth of a religion lies in its spirit, [and not in its] form” (Mansukhani, 1969, p. 54). Basic religious intolerance arises from a lack of understanding of the spirit of religion and also from a false sense of pride. Mansukhani writes that it was Guru Nanak’s “challenge to the orthodoxy of [his] age [to] bring people closer [together]” (p. 56). Just like in today’s society of political scandals, torture scandals, and class differences, Guru Nanak, in his time noted that “the leaders of society had become politically corrupt, morally unprincipled and socially exclusive and arrogant” (p. 56), and that man’s developments depend on his thoughts and actions. Basically, there are no chosen people and there are no people specially favoured by God. Man is largely responsible for his own progress and his own downfall. It is essential then to look into the message behind Guru Nanak, and use it to find a level of peace within ourselves and within our society today. In the time of Guru Nanak, he was only exposed to two major religions: Hinduism and Islam. In today’s time, however, we live in a globalized society and we are exposed to all of the major religions. So, we must look into what Guru Nanak meant when he said that “there is no Hindu and there is no Muslim,” and we must understand that there is no Christian, there is no Jew, there is no Hindu, there is no Sikh, and there is no Muslim: there is only us and our individual paths to Truth.

CONCLUSION
From the beginning, this research paper set out to discuss the life and teachings of Guru Nanak and attempt to apply what he thought to today’s society. We focused on the standard texts that reveal Guru Nanak’s life, the Janam-Sakhis, and their thorough interpretations by prominent Sikh scholars such as W.H. McLeod. Moreover, we went looking for what Guru Nanak’s actually taught, and we discussed the extent to which his thoughts and teachings were similar to the contemporary ones of his time. Further, our research led us to trace the movement of Guru Nanak’s teachings after his death, and we ultimately connected the problems that he saw in his time to the problems we see in our time. Overall, what we have discussed shows that even though researching Guru Nanak may reveal mythological stories and other religious influences throughout his teachings, the functional truth to the fantastical stories and to the extent of his influence still exposes us to the truth behind Guru Nanak: his influence remains highly relevant even today.

WORKS CITED

Grewal, P.S. (1983). Nanak’s doctrine and the feudalisation of the Sikh gurudom. Social Scientist, 11(5). Retrieved February 26, 2008 from JSTOR Scholarly Database.

Mansukhani, G.S. (1969). Guru Nanak: the apostle of love. New Delhi: Hemkunt Press.

McLeod,W.H. (1968).The influence of islam upon the thought of Guru Nanak. History of Religions, 7(4). Retrieved February 26, 2008 from JSTOR Scholarly Database.

McLeod, W.H. (1968). Guru Nanak and the Sikh religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Singh, N.G. (1992).The myth of the founder: the janamsakhis and sikh tradition. History of Religions, 31(4). Retrieved February 22, 2008 from JSTOR Scholarly Database.

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