By Duncan Greenleese
Next year, it was in 1504, Bhai Jairam visited his relatives at Talwandi and agreed with Rai Bular, the village Zamindar, that Nanak could well be employed at Sultanpur with him. The idea of his son getting government employment delighted Kalu, and he sent him off gladly with his brotherinlaw. Jairam introduced Nanak to Daulat Khan, who appointed him a storekeeper; at last the young man devoted himself to his duties with honesty, zeal and efficiency, delighting everyone. Unlike most petty officials of the time, he was totally free from corruption and would not even improperly hold a pie of another’s money for a day. He also gave away most of his own salary to the poor.
At this time Mardana, a minstrel, came from Talwandi and joined Nanak as personal attendant. They loved each other from the start, and used to delight each other at night singing sweet hymns to God, Mardana playing the rebeq to accompany his friend, One Bhai Bhagirathi also came from Mailasim near Multan and stayed for a while with Nanak as a sort of disciple; his teaching life was beginning.
- The Call of Nanak (1507)
On 20th August 1507 came the day of destiny. After his morning bath in the river, Nanak sat for meditation and heard God’s call to give his life for world uplift, guiding men on the right path to Him. He at once resolved to obey the call; after three days he returned to the office, resigned his post, gave away all he had to the poor, and prepared to set out on foot. The Nawab did all he could to persuade him to stay, being deeply distressed to lose so good and so winning an employee, but others thought he had gone mad. One day, towards the beginning of September he spoke to the local Muslims, beginning, “there is no Hindu, no Mussalman!” This was after he first put on Hindu kashaya robes as a sannyasi. then he attended the mosque prayers with the Nawab and the local Qazi, when all prostrated at the call, he remained standing on his feet. This gave some offense and he had to explain to the Qazi, in whose face he had laughed direct, that there was no prayer as yet, for the Qazi’s mind had gone off to a baby filly of his, while the Nawab was thinking of buying horses in Kabul. They had both humbly to confess the fact! When Nanak again spoke in public to the Muslims, and they declared that he spoke as a real prophet. The Nawab’s storehouses were found to be full, so Nanak got the good man to give away everything in them freely to the poor.
- The First Missionary Journey (15071515)
After a brief and apparently uneventful visit to his parents at Talwandi, Guru Nanak went with his companion Mardana, dressed as faqirs or sannyasis, to Aimanabad. Here he was welcomed by a rich fellowcaste man, Malak Bhago, and invited to a feast; but he began his public ministry by deliberately breaking caste, going to the house of Lalo, a poor carpenter and a Sudra, and spending the night with him in bhajana, When Bhago next moming protested at this, the Guru told him the bread of the rich was full of the blood of the exploited poor. He then took a loaf from Bhago’s house and one from Lalo’s when he squeezed both, from the one came blood, from the other the milk of human kindness. Thus he showed how the coarse food of the poor offered with love is purer than the finest the rich can give in their pride. Bhai Lalo later became a distinguished Sikh.
They went together on their way to Hardwar for the Vaisakh full moon. Seeing the Hindus there throwing water to the east “for their ancestors”, he turned round and began to throw water in handfuls to the west. When asked what he was doing, he replied, “I am watering my dry fields at Talwandi.” They mocked at him as a fool, till he pointed out that if their water could reach their ancestors, his could certainly reach his fields, which were much nearer. Thus he made fun of certain superstitious rites, but he told others who were chanting God’s Name together, “It is true that if you take the Name with love you will not be damned.” He took fire from where a Brahmin was cooking food, and when they protested this had defiled the meal he replied, “It is already defiled by the evil thoughts in the Brahmin’s heart”. Some of the Brahmins there tried in vain to win him back to the Hindu fold.
On the road to the southeast the two travelers met a party of yogis, whom Nanak taught what is true religion, and they acclaimed him as a knower of the Real. Near ilibhit be sat under a withered pipul tree, and it was estored to greenness. They visited Ayodhya and Prayag and so came to Kasi (Banaras), where the Guru argued with various sectaries against idolatry and induced Pandit Chaturdas to give up worshiping the salagram, making him tooa Sikh. At Gaya he showed the foolishness of rejoicing at the birth of a child when in a few days the laughter tured to tears at the infant’s death. The Brahmin’s asked him to offer the usual pinda to his ancestors, but he refused to do any such thing, telling them what the teal Pinda ought to be. He stayed for four months at Patna with Salas Rai Jauhari, and then visited Gorakhpur, where Kabir was perhaps at the time he died at Maghar very nearby. After this they moved off into Assam, the far northeastern corner of India.
Somewhere in this region, at Kamarup, Queen Nurshah made several attempts to entice him into worldliness by her wiles, but was herself converted for her pains. We are told that in a lonely spot, “Kaljug”, i., the evil spirit of wordily desire, tempted him to give up his mission : “I possess everything,” said he; “say but the word and I will build you a palace of pearls, inlay it with gems and confer upon you the sovereignty of the East and West. Take whatever pleases you!” But what could the Guru do with wealth but give it away? I might only lead him to forget God’s Name, and that would be death for him! These two incidents seem to be connected, and both may well be allegorized versions of some temptation of the heart, like those which came to Jesus and Zarathushtra.
At one village in Bengal the wanderers were’ welcomed with insults and driven away; on departure, Guru Nanak blessed that village with all prosperity. Another village welcomed them with loving hospitality, and Mardana was amazed when his Master said the village would be broken up. When asked to explain, Nanak said, “When these people are scattered abroad they will save hundreds besides themselves by their piety.”
They traveled down the Brahmaputra, and then took ship for Puri whither Chaitanya had not yet come. When all stood for the evening arati in the great temple, Nanak remained seated and sang his own hymn telling how God is fitly adored by the whole of Nature. A certain Brahmin was boasting of his clairvoyant powers, so Nanak playfully hid the man’s waterpot, and all laughed while he vainly sought it everywhere.
They went on by sea or land to Rameswaram, he was wearing wooden sandals and a rope twisted on his head for a turban, a patch and streak as castemark and carrying a staff in hand. He defended himself from the criticisms of the Jains of the South and then satirized them mercilessly, and by a short poem now in the As a di Var converted the brutal ruler of some island on the way. From Rameswaram he crossed the sea to 2Ceylon: he made the garden of Raja Sivanabha here blossom miraculously and wrote his mystical treatise. Pransangali, leaving it with the Raja, who vainly tried to detain this. mysterious yogi at his court, Returning to India, the two wended their way along the west coast to the banks of the Narbada, where the Guru composed the Dakhani Oamkar at Siva’s temple and converted a party of thugs. They moved further west, visited Somnath and Dwaraka, where Krishna once reigned as King, and returned homewards through Bikaner. Probably it was on this desert journey that Mardana was distressed by thirst. The Guru said, “we must refresh ourselves with God’s Name. Take your rebeq and let us sing some hymns.” But Bhai Mardana protested he was far too thirsty to sing or play. Nanak produced some fruits for him, but told him not to eat them yet, he disobeyed, eating some while on the way behind his Master, and at once fell down unconscious, so that Gurudev had to cure him by a miracle. Then Mardana made two conditions for travel with his Master thereafter: he should feed him as he fed himself, and he should never notice what he was doing. Nanak agreed.
They came to Ajmer, and then visited the great Vaishnava devotee Bhakta Dhannaji at Pushkara; after this they came to Mathura and so to Brindavan. Here they watched the “Krishnalila” with its actors dancing wildly with simulated emotion, and then Guru satirized the hypocrisy of such a show got up as a means of collecting money from the devout.
At Delhi he raised a dead elephant to life, but when Emperor Sikandar Lodi bade him repeat the miracle for his amusement he let it die again, saying, “It is God alone who destroys and brings to life.” At the tomb of a Muslim saint in Panipat he was greeted with the usual “Assalam aleikum!” (The peace upon you!) but at once teplied “Salam Alekh!” (Homage to the Unseen!); the Sheikh there at the tomb at once went to meet this unusual kind of visitor and heard with great respect all he had to say.
He came to Kurukshetra in time for a great fair, where he shocked the orthodox pilgrims by solemnly cooking venison in their very midst. When they expostulated, he pointed out the absurdity of such superstitious in regard for the food of the belly and added that those who preached ahimsa often drank human blood in their rapacious greed. He taught them that hermit or householder would reach God through the Name if he followed one of the four paths; company of a saint, honesty and truth, humility and contentment or self-control.
On the homeward way he just visited his sister and her husband at Sultanpur, and then drew near his native village of Talwandi. First he sent Bhai Mardana to ask if his father were still alive, telling him not to speak of his own return, But Tripta at once guessed the truth and asked Mardana for her son, weeping; she followed him back to where the Guru was waiting. Once more she begged him to please her old age by living at home with her and taking to some trade, but he even refused the food and clothes she brought him in her motherliness, saying, “God’s word is food, and brooding on Him is raiment!” Then Kalu arrived with a horse to take the wanderer home in order to show him the new house, but Nanak would not do this; for it is not right for a sannyasi to reenter his family house having once gone out.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 22, 1989
