Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
280child would be a great king or a great ascetic. The three Wise Men followed a bright
star to honour the baby Jesus, born in a stable in Bethlehem. And just as that
stable was marked by the bright Star of Bethlehem, the humble mud hut in whic h
Nanak was born was flooded with light at the moment of this birth. The gifted and
wise in both the celestial and terrestrial regions rejoiced at the momentous event
and bowed to the exalted spirit, which had adopt ed bodily form in fulfillment of the
Divine Will. But unlike the ‘virgin’ births of Sakyamuni and Jesus, Nanak had a
normal birt h. The midwife Daultan attests to Mother Tripta’s regular pregnanc y and
birt h. That Tripta’s body is entrusted to a Muslim Daultan symbolizes yet another
signific ant fac t: the respec t and the c lose c onnec tion Nanak’s family had with the
adherents of Islam. The Janamsakhis show Tripta happily holding the baby in her
arms, while Daultan proudly and exc itedly reports that there were many c hildren
born under her c are, but none so extraordinary as baby Nanak. Affirmation of the
natural powers of c onc eption, gestation and birth underlie their rejoic ing...
When he grows up, Nanak bec ome disc ontented with the existing norms. He is
in c onflic t with his father, who want his only son to suc c eed both financ ially and
soc ially. The young Nanak does not like formal sc hooling. He has a contemplative
personalit y and spends most of his t ime out side, t ending t he family’s herd of c at t le,
c onversing with wayfaring saints and Sufis, and devoting this time to solitude and
inward c ommunion. Nanak is c lose t o his sist er, Nanaki. When he grew up, he went
to live with Nanaki and her husband Jairam in Sultanpur, and worked at a loc al
groc ery shop. Lat er, his marriage was arranged with Sulakhni, and they had two
sons, Sri Chand (b.1494) and Lakhmi Das (b.1497).
It was at Sultanpur that Nanak had a revelatory experienc e into the oneness of
Realit y (analyzed below). As the Janamsakhis rec ount, with his proc lamation ‘There
is no Hindu, there is no Musalman’, Nanak launc hed his religion mission. Thereafter
he traveled extensively throughout India and beyond – spreading his message of
Divine unity, whic h transc ended the stereotypic al ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’ divisions of
the time. During most of his travels, his Muslim c ompanion Mardana played the
rabab while Guru Nanak sang songs of intense love addressing the ultimate One in
spoken Punjabi. The direct and simple style of Guru Nanak’s teaching drew people
from different religious and soc ial bac kgrounds. Those who ac c epted him as their
‘guru’ and followed his teac hings c ame to be known as Sikhs, a Punjabi word whic h
means ‘disciple’ or ‘seeker’ (Sanskrit shishya; Pali sekha).
Guru Nanak eventually settled in Kartarpur, a village he founded on the banks
of t he River Ravi. A c ommunity of disc iples grew around him there. Engaged in the
ordinary occupations of life, they denied ascetic practices and affirmed a new sense
of family. T heir pat t ern of seva (voluntary service), langar (c ooking and eating
irrespective of caste, religion or sex) and sangat (congregation) created the
blueprint for Sikh doc t rine and prac t ic e. In his own lifet ime, Nanak appoint ed his
disc iple Lahina as his suc c essor, renaming him Angad (‘my limb’). Guru Nanak died
in Kartarpur in 1539.
T his biographic al framework is drawn up in mirac ulous det ail. The Janamsakhis
depic t sc enes in whic h dreadful and dangerous elements of nature either protec t
Nanak (suc h as the c obra offering his shade to a sleeping Nanak) or are c ont rolled
by him (with his outstretc hed palm, Nanak stops a huge roc k that was hurled at
h im). They depic t his divine c onfiguration: at his death, the shroud is left without
the body; flowers are found instead of Guru Nanak’s body; and both Hindus and