By Duncan Greenleese
On the homeward way he just visited his sister and her husband at Sultanpur, and then drew near his native village of Zalwandi. 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. His father tried even to tempt him with a new wife, but he replied that God’s choice of Sulakhni was best and that tie would endure till death. Then Tripta tried to order him to come home and earn a respectable living, while Kalu reproached him for neglecting them for twelve years past; he sent his parents’ home alone, telling them they would soon be consoled. And so they were, when they saw what their son had become, the Guru of thousands of men and women of every class.
Nanak then went to Lahore as the guest of the rich Dunichand for his father’s sraddha ceremony, and took the occasion to discourage all such rites and to convert the ruler to Sikh ways of life. At Pathandi he converted many Pathans, and then visited his wife and sons at Batala on the Beas River; to his uncle he foretold that Babar would shortly conquer the Pathan kingdoms in India. At last, after eight years constant wandering and at the age of 46, he settled on the site of Kartarpur in January 1516 and consoled his old parents by bringing them to live with him there quietly for nearly two years.
- The Second Missionary Journey (15171518).
The travelers resumed their wanderings late in 1517 by crossing over to Uttarkhand, where the Guru argued with a group of siddhas and yogis, again describing for these what true yoga means. Then they paid a short visit to Kartarpur to console the Guru’s parents, and after visits to Pasrur and Eminabad they went up to Sialkot.
Here one Pandit Brahmdas visited the Guru, with a pile of Sanskrit books in one hand and an idol hanging on his breast, and twitted the Guru for wearing leather and a Tope and for eating meat. Nanak made no direct reply, but burst into an ecstatic hymn on God and the Guru and the wonders of creation. The Pandit was pleased, but his pride kept him from surrendering so soon. The Guru sent him to four faqirs who would show him a guru to his taste; the faqirs sent Brahmdas to a temple, where a woman gave him a sound shoebeating. This, the faqirs told him, was his real guru, and her name was Maya, worldliness! Cured of his pride, the Pandit hastened back to Nanak and made a full surrender at his feet.
The Guru then visited Srinagar and crossed the mountains to Mr Sumeru, where he had a certain mystical experience among the great siddhas of that remote Himalayan summit. They welcomed him among them as one of their own. Returning to Sialkot, he sent Mardana to purchase a farthing of truth and a farthing of falsehood. He found there an old friend, Mula Khatri, who said, “Life is a lie and Death is the truth.” When the Guru came to Mula’s house his wife hid him away lest he be converted and join the pilgrims, lying that he was not at home. As he lay hidden there in the house, a snake bit him and he died. Death was indeed the truth for him.
At Mithankot they visited Sheikh Mian Mitha, a noted Muslim saint, and the Guru had with him a verse contest convincing him that God alone is true and no prophet or saint can be named along with Him; As the Sheikh fell at his feet in reverent delight, Nanak fell into a trance of ecastic love and uttered one of his divine hymns. From here they returned home to Kartarpur.
- The Third Missionary Journey (15181521)
Wearing blue robes, the Guru set out for his last long journey with Mardana once again, and went straight to Pakapatian the abode of Sheikh Ibrahim, the heir to Sheikh Farid and himself also a great Sufi saint. The Sheikh scolded Nanak for wearing secular clothes even while he lived as faqir, to which he replied, “God is all I have, and He is everywhere, even in these clothes!” The two then competed in verse gradually leading each other up to the sublimest heights of philosophic beauty, and so they passed the whole night in delightful spiritual:companionship. In the moming a peasant brought them milk, and when he took away the bowl it had tumed to gold and was full of golden coins, Nanak was pleased with this holy man, and as he went his way punned on his name, saying, “Sheikh Ibrahim, god (Brahm) is in you!”
Before he left Pakapattan, however, the Guru made a copy of Sheikh Farid’s slokas, many of which are now included in the Granth Sahib.
By way of Tulambha The pair moved on through South Punjab towards the Bhawalpur State. Perhaps this was when the Guru visited a notorious robber who thought he would be an easy victim. But by a few verses Nanak showed that he knew the murderous intention, and he begged for pardon. The Guru replied, “forgiveness in God’s Court is gained only after an open confession and full amends done for the wrong.” The robber at once confessed all his many murders and dacoities, gave away all his illegal gains to the poor, and under the name of Sajjan became a famous Sikh missionary in all those parts.
They went to Surat, and from there took pilgrimship to Jeddah, and thence went up to Mecca, the holy city of all Muslims. He was roughly awakened from sleep here with his feet pointing towards the holy Ka’ba and was well scolded; he apologized quietly and asked the man to turn his feet anywhere he could where God was not. He often gave the Call to Prayer here, and used to play with the children in the street, being followed about by them much as the Prophet Hazrat Muhammed was in his time. People noticed that there was always a cloud shading his head during the heat of the day.
From Mecca, the two went on to Medina, where the Guru vanquished the Qazis in argument, though we must remark that the Muslims of these parts seem to have been surprisingly tolerant to him; such a miracle could hardly occur in our own days, for travelers like these would barely escape with their lives. They proceeded to Baghdad where Guru Nanak gave a new Call to Prayer, changing the words of the Creed while acting as muezzin. The people asked him to what sect he belonged; his answer was: “T reject all sects, and only know the One God, whom I recognize everywhere. I have appeared in this age to show men the way to Him.” Then he repeated the Japji to them, so we are told, and when the son of their “high priest” challenged the reference to “many heavens and underworlds” he gave him a vision of some of these.
Crossing the Iran plateau, they next went to Balkh, for many years the home of the Prophet Zarathushtra, and then on to Bukhara in Central Asia. So they worked their way round by Kabul to Peshawar where the Guru argued with yogis at the temple of Gorakhnath. Descending to the plains, at Hassan Abfdal, a noted Muslim center, he was forced to dig a small well for himself, and this drew away the water from a rather selfish “saint” one Bawa Wali, living higher up. Wali threw a hill at Nanak, who protected himself with his right arm and left the mark of his hand Panja Sahib on the hill.
By way of Bhera Shahu and Dinga, he came to Eminabad, immediately after Babar’s invasion of the Punjab. All was in confusion; Pathan and Hindu houses alike were robbed and bumed to the ground, women were driven along shrieking and weeping. Nanak made a pathetic poem about their sufferings. The pair were imprisoned under Baba’s officer, Mir Khan and made slaves. Nanak had to carry loads on his head, Mardana to sweep with a broom or lead a horse. The officer saw the loading floating a cubit above the Guru’s head, while Mardana played the rebeq and the horse meekly followed him. He reported the wonderful sight to Babar, who came to see it for himself. He found Nanak feeding com to a handmill and singing some hymn while the mill tured itself. He prostrated before the Guru and offered him a boon. Nanak asked only for the release of all Saiyidpur captives, but these would not go free unless he too joined them. Nanak sang a doleful lament in a anyone there hatrance, being deeply moved by the sufferings of the poor people. He went back boldly to Babar’s camp and boldly sang to the prisoners held there; Babar offered him a drink of bhang, often used by “yogis” but he again fell into ecstasy and the whole body began to shine. On his request Babar set all his prisoners free and even clothed them in robes of honor, in return for which generous act the Guru promised, “Your empire shall remain for a long time,” He stayed three days with the Emperor, but refused to accept anything for himself and firmly refused even to think of embracing Islam. When Babar asked him for advice, Nanak told him to rule the people with justice and mercy, and this in fact during his short reign he did. Thus Guru Nanak saved India at that time from much misery which the invasion must have otherwise caused to her.
After this long journey in foreign lands and his useful contact with the Moghul conqueror, Guru Nanak settled down quietly to live in peace at Kartarpur almost for the whole of the rest of his days.
The Guru now put off his weird costumes and dressed himself as an ordinary householder of the day. He regularly preached to the great crowd who came out daily to see him, teaching all to live in the world and work, while at the same time thinking of God always and praying for nothing but His grace. His strong personal attractiveness, his lovable ways and playful sense of humor, his persuasive words and simplicity which came out of the heart of his own all-embracing love went straight to the heart of all his hearers, he seemed to draw the poor and sorrowing especially to his arms. He taught all to drop meaningless outer forms and complications, to cling to the very simple essential Truth, to abandon caste and all other forms of egoistic pride, and to seek refuge only in the Name. His great courage in so boldly speaking out open criticism of Islam and Hinduism wherever he went shows us that he was no milk and water moon baby but a true predecessor of that great hero Guru Gobind Singh. Yet his lively speech, “radiated love and faith and attracted men as light gathers moths,” says Puran Singh.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 29, 1989
