This coming November 1992 Sikhs will celebrate the 523rd birthday of our Lord Guru Nanak In Gurdwara’s invariably one can expect speeches dwelling on Nanaks life his message of brotherhood love peace equality justice and fatherhood of God to all mankind. Whereas in selective Hindu Temples there will be a different kind of celebration honoring the Guru for his sublime teachings of the traditional Hindu message. They will talk of the great Bhakti movement that gave birth to Nanak who in tum unleashed the “latent Gospel” to the surface of Hinduism the best that can be.

It is true few Sikhs in the past have jumped ahead of their Hindu counterparts to prove Guru Nanak a Hindu the best ever that lived. If Nanak was indeed a Hindu as alleged then often repeated mantra like Hindu dingdong chitchats are hardly a tangible proof. But what if Nanak wasn’t a Hindu? For many honorable Sikhs this controversy isn’t even worthy of a debate they know intuitively Nanak wasn’t a Hindu But on the other side we perpetually hear the Hindu claim on Nanak doesn’t go away; rather it gets stronger year by year. Even a highly respectable correspondent Mr. Ved Mchta wrote: “Guru Nanak (14691539) was a Hindu….nine subsequent gurus were all Hindus…all the gurus belonged to the same Hindu warrior caste…”Letter from New Delhi. The New Yorker 61:6170 $21985.

How can Sikhs tackle this problem rationally? The fact is our labor of yesteryears amounted to less than zeros to say the least. I propose a different strategy. Face this issue head on particularly laying stress on matters Hindus know the least or even shirk discussing Hinduism. Concentrate on the following mundane questions such as: What is Hinduism? Define a Hindu? What evidence is there to calm Guru Nanak as one of Hindu? I must confess such direct questions would not be welcomed with open arms but that’s the nature of the game Sikhs must learn to master. I demonstrate in print that Nanak was no Hindu I have reached that conclusion only after analyzing all l gathered from the Hindus; exhausting numerous hours reading and interpreting the Hindu literature.

Hindus generally evade questions on Hindu & Hinduism. Their answers if they do answer amount to one word in the end nothing As it turned out in all the traditional Hindu scriptures the word HINDU is not even recorded. After digesting much of the throwaway Hindu literature I accumulated deviating versions on the birth of the word Hindu.

  1. The name “Hindu” was originally given by the Malechhas who felt the name Hindu was appropriate to these newly discovered strangers. To Malechhas the word Hindu meant thief These strangers reciprocated to those foreigners (Christians & Moslems) by them Malechhas which meant “polluted and of bad intellect.”

b The word “Hindu” is a Persian word that meant “River people.”

  1. The word “Hindu” is derived from Sindhu. The narration; There is a river in Pakistan called Sindhu. The Moslems pronounce “s” as “h” so instead of calling sindhu as sindhu they called it Hindu. The inhabitants of this river Hindu were then called Hindus.
  2. The word Hindu is a combination of sindhu plus indu.
  3. The word Hindu originated from Sindhu. Later on Sindhu was corrupted to Hindu.

If words do mean for what they stand for then we know Nanak wasn’t possibly an indu sindhuy river or even a thief Therefore from that simplistic approach Nanak couldn’t possibly be a Hindu. But taking a simplistic approach will not satisfy the often complex minded Hindus. Their way of sucking Nanak into a Hindu fold is pretty complicated and well planned The Sikh response deserves to be educated well researched and direct I have extracted a great deal of information from the Hindus.

FAMILY BACKGROUND THEORY: They claim Guru Nanak was born in a Hindu family His father’s name was Mehta Kalu which happens to be a Hindu name. The logic being: If one is born in a Hindu family there is no way out If your dads (or family’s) name sounds Hindu then you arc also a Hindu Period.

It is true Nanak was born in a Hindu family But any attempt to insinuate further solely on that piece of information to picture Nanaks own religion is nothing short of being foolish. No one is born in to a religion. Yes an infant is programmed into a particular religion In Nanaks case his family tied but failed miserably. How can dads (or families) name provide a link to a child’s religion? Nobody knows. What is a Hindu name? To say the least there is no such thing in the Hindu scriptures that can shed any light on a “Hindu name.”

GEOGRAPHIC THEORY: The belief “Hindu geographical birthright” is rampant among Hindus Since Nanak was born in India that in itself is a mark of Hindu many learned people will argue. But Nanak was born at a place located in Pakistan and not in India. One Hindu a professional engineer Contested me quite passionately that Pakistan was one time a part of India. Therefore he claimed anyone born in Pakistan in a historical geographical sense is a Hindu. These days Jesus Christ is also being portrayed as a Hindu since it is alleged he spent the missing years of his life in India; and what he learned from Hinduism he taught to his apostles! It goes even further Long ago (means prehistoric) the whole world was Hindu. Some fanatic Hindus I have come across jump to the edge believing the entire world’s population is nothing but Hindu.

REINCARNATION (AVTAR) THEORY: Utilizing the fertile brain the lubricating tongue and sweet talk Hindus assert: Ram and Guru Nanak are the same. Ram that is Lord Rama Chander later on in his other incarnations came back as Guru Nanak. How accurate is this reincarnation theory? One has to explore the Vaisnava School of Hinduism that extols various often contradictory incarnations Of Vishnu. The Varuha Purana mentions 10 avatars the Bhayavata Purana 22 the Ahirbudhnya Samhita 39 and Rupamandana 24 In recently cars the 10 avatars of Matsya Purana are prominently displayed in giveaway Hindu literatures. In brief they are:

1st Reincarnations is Matsya born as a golden fish with a mission to save the Vedas.

2nd Reincarnations is Kurma born as a tortoise with a mission to hold the Mandana hill on his back.

3rd Reincarnations is Varatha born as a boar with a mission to save the earth planet from the water of devastation.

4th Reincarnations is Narasimha born as man-lion with a mission to kill Hiranykash

5th Reincarnations is Vamanadeva born as a dwarf with a mission to cover the universe with two steps

6th Reincarnations is Parasurama Mission to clear the earth of Kshatriyas 21 times in succession in defense of Brahmins.

7th Reincarnation is Rama Chander This is Vishnus first Opportunity to look at least decent a normal human being. Ram being the god of apathy is exiled his wife Sita is kidnapped. Ram fought war with monkeys help to win back Sita who in tum had to prove her sexual purity by going through a burning fire. Sita gets pregnant Ram throws her out of the kingdom. She gives birth to twins who on later date fought war against Ram. This is Rama Rajyawar upon wars. Ironically even Ram didn’t know he was Hindu the word didn’t exist then.

8th Reincarnation is Krishna. He starts as a butter thief and kills his demon uncle at an early age. As a young man he possesses 16108 wives innumerable mistresses and fathered 180000 sons. As a grown adult Krishna gets involved in family feud words of warmongering lead to a war killing millions of people. In short Krishna is the god of lust with his sermon on the battlefield.

9th Reincarnation is Buddha Vishnu incarnated as Buddha 1s not consistent with his earlier deeds by being nonviolent high ethics and atheistic. But there is a twist to this unique incarnation discussed as you read further.

10th Reincarnation is Kalkin described as a horse or a horse headed man is yet to come.

Nothing comes cut and dry in Hinduism I have come across some long never ending but hardly controversial lists of the Vishnus pedigree after the 9th incarnation-minor incarnations if you will OF all the conflicting lists that are available the name Guru Nanak is conspicuously missing. Caitanya Mahaprabhu (Nanaks contemporary) is generally acknowledged as Vishnus Avatar. And that too in a prolonged twisted way by way of Krishna a reincarnation of an already incarnated Vishnu. For those who love relatively modern exotic Vishnu varieties Agha Khan (1850s) a Moslem was considered Vishnu Avatar by many of his followers. The devout Hindu followers of Bhagwan Rajneesh (1980s) considered him as the latest VishnuKrishna Avatar For those who love to contemplate I may add Fish the 1st incarnation in Matsya Purana stands on the vertical incarnation scale number 10 in accordance with that of Bhagavata Purana; while Buddha described as the “embodiment of delusion” is the 21st Avatar. 1 might as well confess my favorite is the 13th which is Mohini A vatar of Vishnu as a woman seducing among others (guess who?) Shiva. If you still insist more data concerning Vishnu and Company prefer you to Linga Purana where for instance both Brahma and Vishnu fornicated with Durga right in front of her husband Shiva. I will spare the readers the details.

O my fellow Sikhs followers of Guru Nanak followers of one loving God can you fathom even in your wildest dreams loving Nanak as one pedigree of Vishnu? Vishnu Rama Nanak incarnation axis is a nifty story crafted to fraud innocent Sikhs. Similar in motive though more vicious Hindus committed holy fraud against Buddhists and Moslems as well. Even some Hindu scholars have expressly stated that Buddha’s induction into the Hindu scriptures as an Avatar of Vishnu was for the purposes of deceiving and destroying the Buddhists. As for deceiving the Moslems Brahmins wrote Allah Upanishad (after all Upanishads comes with motives). The One God of Moslems together with His prophet Mohammad was admitted to the Hindu pantheon. Readers might like to know Nanaks own views of Avatars. There are verses in Guru Granth repudiating Avatars For example:

(a) Nanak in Ram Kali Ki War describes Vishnus Avatars as feeling miserable like ordinary men on account of vicissitudes of life. “If Ram had been God he would not have lost his queen Sita; he would have healed himself his half-brother instead of calling Hanuman.” Adding further “Hindu Trinity of gods as diseased persons who are weeping in agony.”

(b) Guru Gobind Singh wrote in Gyan Prabodh “O God they who are known as 24 Avataras have not found a trace of Thee. Brahma Vishnu and Siva what are these wretched beings.”

SIKH _ SCRIPTURAL THEORY; While attempting to prove Nanak a Hindu one educated Hindu revealed “precisely because Nanak wrote the word Ramon every page of Guru Granth.” For that matter I have often heard bold announcements manufacturing a case owning to the presence of many of so called Hindu names in Sikh scriptures thus extrapolating Nanak and his teachings are of Hindus The calling of Ram in Guru Granth (incidentally not on every page) or for that matter any other name for God by the Sikh Gurus requires a better explanation. Professor Sher Singh analyzed this issue and answered convincingly He wrote:

“Guru Nanak says there is no real name of God. All names that exist in different languages are derivative or functional. The real name of God is only the concept of expressing His all-pervasive reality and the concrete truth of His existence. This absolute truth is expressed by the word “Satnam” It is not the letters or the sound Symbols which have q meaning Near God but it is a mental content of the heart which is a means of Communion with God. It was this truth which did not make Guru Nanak prejudiced in favor of or against any name of God occurring in any language. Any name that he could recall was in the use of these names In Hindu literature. There are names that originally stood for gods goodness and avatar as Guru Nanak and other Gurus used all those names for One Supreme Being. No importance of whatsoever is attached to Gurus using so called Hindu names because he was equally open minded to use Islamic names for God.”

In this respect similarly the Prophet Mohammad adopted the word Allah for God since the Arabian tribes used Allah in their worships. So much so the word *God was borrowed one time from the Teutons. Of course today God is a common usage; even Hindus use this word routinely. In Guru Granth Ram is a name of God and not of Ram Chander. Whenever Guru refers to Ram in the latter sense he considers him as ordinary mortal being. For any good listener or reader of Guru Granth it is never a difficult task to distinguish one Ram from the other. Take for example the hymns of Guru Tegh Bahadur (the 9th Nanak) in Guru Granth. The word Ram occurred numerously. Only one time the 9th Guru used the word Ram in reference to Ram Chander Ram gayo Ravan gayo. In this case Ram Chander is in cognate with his contemporary Ravana an association rendering anyone to distinguish with case which Ram in question In Nanaks Jap Ji (the first seven and one half pages of Guru Granth) the word Ram occurred twice referring God only.

HISTORICAL _ BACK GROUND THEORY; The argument being: Before or at Nanak” historical time period there existed: only Hindus and Moslems. There were no Sikhs; the implication being Nanak and his Sikhs are therefore Hindus. Convenient isn’t it! Nanak by the grace o God gave birth to a new religion and he himself had quite a few followers To say there were Sikhs at Nanaks time is nothing short of a holy lie It is correct before Nanak there were no Sikhs Are Hindus assuming everyone then was Hindu including the Moslems Buddhists Jains and others? Either the history is being molested here in mass or simply the Hindus have no historical notion of the past.

SWORD THEORY: Among the educated Hindus this theory has gained considerable momentum. The talk goes something like this: Sikhism was in real started by Guru Gobind Singh as he was the only guru who picked up the sword. All gurus before him [Gobind Singh] never touched the sword and therefore they were all Hindus including of course Nanak Convenient as it may seem these Hindus forget the load of armentarium mounted on their gods and goddesses. Nevertheless I find this theory rather undermining the intellectual curiosity and reasoning process largely as a result of constant propaganda. Some Hindus are in the process of swallowing while others have already digested this sword speculation.

HINDU __LIFESTYLE THEORY: A few years ago a group of Hindus stated to me “Guru Nanak lived like a Hindu.” When asked how? They replied in silence Nanaks way of living should be judged and contrasted to what Hindus commonly practiced in the 15th century. Popular Hinduism of that time was confined to:(1) bizarre forms of eating and drinking (2) peculiar ways of bathing and painting of the forehead (3) worship of gross idols and pilgrimages to Ganges & other places (4) obedience to Brahmins and lavishing gifts on them (5) prohibitions on 6 ocean-crossing (6) the caste system with its triad caste reincarnation & Karma and (7) gross human rights violations including infanticide and suttee. This list may not be exhaustive but sufficient. Guru Nanak was unique from the very beginning and never lived his life according to the prevalent Hindu rules of the time. Rather his daily way of life was in accordance with God’s word; since God installed Nanak as Guru. Professing no intention to belabor it may not be out of place to remind the readers that Guru Nanak’s fundamental teachings are diametrically opposite to the Hindu teachings. The Hindu practices were so much entrenched that even by the time British made their way to no body’s surprise the Hindu practices remained unchanged.

What about Mr. Ved Mehtas assertion described earlier? Let’s put the record straight. Out of 10 Sikh Gurus only the first four were born to Hindu families. The rest of the Gurus were born to Sikh parents. Of the first four Guru Anged and Guru Amardas were the only ones who skilled Hindu dharma in daily life but that too without showing ever a glimpse of warrior Kshatriya caste in their blood. Their Hindu way of living came to an end once they were initiated into Sikhism Why do so many Hindus concentrate obsessively on Nanak? What purpose will it serve to tum Nanak into a Hindu? I propose two theories that may possibly answer:

  1. Dilution of Nanaks Divinity: Nanaks unique divineness and his mission to mankind at large poses a problem to a Hindu mindset Three approaches have acquired a ritual shape to overcome Nanak. First perhaps direct is to simply debunk Nanak and the religious truths God bestowed upon him. Second more insidious is to make Nanak look like a Hindu god thereby insuring Nanak a respectable place in the Hindu Hall of Fame the Hindu pantheon. Third more dangerous to elevate other Hindu males to Nanak like Person Guru status and speak of them with the same reverence Sikhs normally attribute to Guru Nanak.
  2. To absorb Sikhism: The easiest way to sip Sikhism into Hinduism is to sabotage Sikhism’s center of gravity. Guru Nanak’s singular divine background after all is the center of gravity on which entire Sikhism rests. Any serious attempt to shake that foundation will effectively demolish Sikhism and its identity among the world religions. Even though the Hindu pantheon suffers from _ overcrowding pulling Nanak into it if successful would be a great reward. With a benefit of hindsight if past and present are any clue to the future Sikhs have a cause to be concerned.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  1. Alain Daniclou Hindu Polytheism. New York; Pantheon Books; 1964.
  2. Abbe J.A.Dubois. Hindu Manners Customs and Ceremonies. Translated & edited by H.K.Beauchamp. 3rd edition; Oxford Clarenden Press 1959
  3. J.N.Farquhar. A Primer of Hinduism London: Oxford University Press 1912.
  4. John PJones. India Its Life and Thought. New York:Macmillan 1915
  5. A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The Bhagavad Gita Asltls. New York: Collier Books 1968.
  6. A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Sri Isopanisad Los Angeles: BBT 1974
  7. A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Srimad Bhagavatam. Los Angeles: BBT 1975.
  8. Edward Rice. Captain Sir Richard Frances Burton. New York: Harper Perennial 1991.
  9. Sher Singh. Philosophy of Sikhism. Amritsar: Secretary Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee 1944

Article extracted from this publication >> November 20, 1992