Guru Nanak Jayanti: Things to know about Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism
Digital News Guru Desk: Today on 27 November 2023, the day marks the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak is celebrated as the Guru Nanak Jayanti among the people of Sikh religion residing in any part of the world.
Guru Nanak, the first spiritual Guru of Sikh and the founder of the Sikh religion. The Guru Nanak Jayanti is also called as Guru Purab which today marks the 554th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak which is celebrated on the ‘Kartik Purnima’ ( full Moon day) every year. It is one of the prominent festival of Sikh religion which they celebrates by reading their holy book ‘ Guru Granth Sahib’ in the Gurudwara, reciting the hymns, candles are lit in the houses of the people and in the streets.
Early Life of Guru Nanak
Guru Nanak Dev was born on the 15 April 1469, Rai Bhoi ki Talwandi currently Nankana Sahib in Lahore (presently Pakistan). His father’s name was Mehta Kalu who was an accountant for crop revenue and mother’s name was Mata Tripta and he had one sister also who was five years older than him named Bebe Nanaki .
He was born in the Hindu family and his birthday is celebrated on Kartik Purnima. He was married to Mata Sulakhani and given birth to two sons named Sri Chand and Lakshmi Chand. From his childhood he was different from the other childrens. There was one companion of Guru Nanak Dev whose name was Mardana, a Muslim by birth but he became one of the first disciple of Guru Nanak Dev and became first Sikh by converting his religion into the newly established religion ‘Sikhism’ by the Guru Nanak Dev Ji.
The Spiritual Journey of Guru Nanak
The Guru Nanak Dev Ji was very different child from the other childrens as he always played different games, spent most of his time in meditation. He was eager to get the divine knowledge about God and salvation. He was born in the Hindu family where discrimination was prevailing in the society, there was caste hierarchy existing and many more. But Guru Nanak opposed all types of discrimination on the basis of caste, creed and nationality.
He believes that there is only one God and every individual has the right to worship that God. He believed in the idea of oneness so he gives “Ek Onkar” which means that “There is only one God or one Creator” and founded a new religion “Sikhism”. In his spiritual journey, he was enlightened at the age of thirty and then he started traveling across the Indian subcontinent to preach the peace and brotherhood. Guru Nanak appointed his successor ‘Guru Angad’ and he died in 1539 at the age of seventy.
About Guru Granth Sahib:-
The Guru Granth Sahib is the holy book of Sikh which is also called Adi Granth. The book was compiled by the ‘Guru Arjan’ the fifth guru of this religion in August 1604. The book is written in the ‘gurumukhi script’ and contains teachings of various gurus, such as- Guru Nanak, Guru Angad, Guru Amar Das, Guru Ram Das, Guru Arjan and Guru Tegh Bahadur.
Initially the book was kept inside the Golden Temple in Amritsar on September 1604. The book also contains teachings of Hindu saints like- Ramananda, Kabir and Namdev and many more and one Muslim Sufi saint- Sheikh Farid.
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