Guru Nanak ex­tols wom­an­hood and par­ity for gen­ders in his teach­ings

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On the oc­ca­sion of In­ter­na­tional Wom­en’s Day -8 March 2022, WSN shares this ar­ti­cle by pro­lific writer Saran Singh, who re­cently passed away. The vet­eran au­thor dwells on the teach­ings of Gur­bani re­lat­ing to women at home and in so­ci­ety. This was first pub­lished in The Spokesman Weekly, Guru Nanak Num­ber in 1985.

Guru Nanak’s best-known com­po­si­tion, yet await­ing to be trans­lated in some of the ma­jor world lan­guages -the Japji, is truly re­mark­able for its pro­fun­dity of thought in in­cred­i­bly aus­tere but ex­pres­sive dic­tion. In nine preg­nant phrases of the Mul Mantra -the pre­am­ble of Japji and Guru Granth Sahib, Guru Nanak spells out the ba­sic Re­al­ity of the Cre­ator, “There is but one God whose Name is Truth, He the Cre­ator is de­void of fear and en­mity, im­mor­tal, un­born and self-ex­is­tent, of boun­ti­ful Grace, He is at­tain­able through True Gu­ru’s guid­ance. “

This was first pub­lished in 
The Spokesman Weekly in 1985,
archived by Pan­jab Dig­i­tal Li­brary.

“We know so lit­tle about the per­son­al­ity of one who only five hun­dred years ago was ac­knowl­edged as Asi­a’s Prophet of Peace and Love.” How­ever, “what­ever has been handed down to us through his own hymns and through tra­di­tional Janam Sakhis is suf­fi­cient to es­tab­lish that he was a per­sona of ex­tra­or­di­nary spir­i­tual power, rare sen­si­tiv­ity and pro­found hu­man­ity.”

Most of Guru Nanak’s com­po­si­tions, in sim­ple lyri­cal verse and home­spun id­iom, are nev­er­the­less re­plete with philo­soph­i­cal ver­i­ties and so­cio-psy­cho­log­i­cal wis­dom dwelling, time and again, on the key ar­gu­ment that the ob­ject of life is not ma­te­r­ial wealth but the ir­re­press­ible urge to at­tune one­self to the Cre­ator and His Pur­pose to dis­cover one’s in­ner self and fi­nally to be­come one with the Di­vine. That his thought process has an un­canny re­sem­blance with what we call the sci­en­tific mode of
thought is ev­i­dent from much of his writ­ing. Ex­am­ine the di­a­logue with Pir Dast­gir at Bagh­dad:

“The uni­verse is be­yond hu­man thought, many galax­ies of count­less plan­e­tary sys­tems, some—like earth—hav­ing in­tel­li­gent be­ings, highly evolved spir­i­tu­ally. . . the goal is one.”

Or the suc­cinct story of the ori­gin of the Uni­verse:

ਸਾਚੇ ਤੇ ਪਵਨਾ ਭਇਆ ਪਵਨੈ ਤੇ ਜਲੁ ਹੋਇ
ਜਲ ਤੇ ਤ੍ਰਿਭਵਣੁ ਸਾਜਿਆ ਘਟਿ ਘਟਿ ਜੋਤਿ ਸਮੋਇ
ਸ੍ਰੀ ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ, ਅੰਗ 19

“When para­phrased, this means:

First, there was the true Be­ing; from Him came air, and from the air was cre­ated wa­ter and from wa­ter came the bios­phere —all sym­bol­is­ing His im­ma­nence.

3. This and many other writ­ings point to the fact, if, in­deed, it is nec­es­sary to do so,—that the great teacher had dwelt pro­foundly and sys­tem­at­i­cally on the com­plex prob­lems not only in­volv­ing the so­cial and moral val­ues but on the ul­ti­mate se­cret of the Di­vine Spirit. These eter­nal val­ues of Truth and Love and of the seek­er’s duty and de­vo­tion are the peren­nial prin­ci­ples which the seers of Satiyuga first dis­cov­ered in the dim dawn of his­tory; which the Bud­dha, Christ and Mo­hammed af­firmed in their own times and climes. These are the val­ues which are ever an­cient’ -and yet ever new!

4. Above all, Guru Nanak brought these val­ues as they were to the doorstep of the com­mon man; trans­lated them in the day-to-day metaphors, telling peo­ple —all men are equal-Na Koi Hindu, na Musalman.

5. In his own per­sua­sive and gen­tle way, he de­plored the ex­ploita­tion of the poor by the rich and made no se­cret of where his sym­pa­thies lay. Rather than raise a storm of con­tro­versy about the deep-rooted caste sys­tem, he sim­ply and coura­geously iden­ti­fied him­self with the so-called low caste. He said:

ਨੀਚਾ ਅੰਦਰਿ ਨੀਚ ਜਾਤਿ ਨੀਚੀ ਹੂ ਅਤਿ ਨੀਚੁ
ਨਾਨਕੁ ਤਿਨ ਕੈ ਸੰਗਿ ਸਾਥਿ ਵਡਿਆ ਸਿਉ ਕਿਆ ਰੀਸ
ਜਿਥੈ ਨੀਚ ਸਮਾਲੀਅਨਿ ਤਿਥੈ ਨਦਰਿ ਤੇਰੀ ਬਖਸੀਸ 43
                      -ਸ੍ਰੀ ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ, ਅੰਗ 15

In other words: “I have noth­ing to do with the high caste. I com­mune with the lowly and the lost God’s Grace is where the lowly and down-trod­den are cared for.”

6. Once, near Sialkot, dis­dain­ing in­vi­ta­tion to a rich man’s feast, Guru Nanak gladly dined with a low-caste car­pen­ter. Sum­moned to an­swer this in­sult, the Guru told the rich man that his food was “tainted” with the blood of the poor. In an­other con­text, Guru Nanak raised his voice against the plun­der and per­se­cu­tion of peace­ful cit­i­zens by the in­vad­ing armies of Babur, thus:

ਖੁਰਾਸਾਨ ਖਸਮਾਨਾ ਕੀਆ ਹਿੰਦੁਸਤਾਨੁ ਡਰਾਇਆ
ਆਪੈ ਦੋਸੁ ਦੇਈ ਕਰਤਾ ਜਮੁ ਕਰਿ ਮੁਗਲੁ ਚੜਾਇਆ
ਸ੍ਰੀ ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ, ਅੰਗ 360 

Then gave ex­pres­sion to his right­eous in­dig­na­tion by ad­dress­ing God thus:

ਏਤੀ ਮਾਰ ਪਈ ਕਰਲਾਣੇ ਤੈਂ ਕੀ ਦਰਦੁ ਆਇਆ 1
ਸ੍ਰੀ ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬਅੰਗ 360

Which means, 0 Lord, are you not moved to pity by the dread­ful suf­fer­ing of the masses?

7. He re­minded rulers of the day to prac­tise so­cial jus­tice, telling them of the in­ex­orable law of Karma. As you sow, so shall you reap. No one could es­cape the con­se­quences of his own ac­tions. He was amused at the folly of a man who con­cocted poi­son but ex­pected to drink sweet nec­tar:

ਬੀਜੇ ਬਿਖੁ ਮੰਗੈ ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤੁ ਵੇਖਹੁ ਏਹੁ ਨਿਆਉ 2
ਸ੍ਰੀ ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ, ਅੰਗ 474

Or ob­serve this:

ਐਸਾ ਜਗੁ ਦੇਖਿਆ ਜੂਆਰੀ
ਸਭਿ ਸੁਖ ਮਾਗੈ ਨਾਮੁ ਬਿਸਾਰੀ 1 ਰਹਾਉ
ਸ੍ਰੀ ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ, ਅੰਗ 222

That is:
“Strange is the para­dox of this world—
Every­one wants hap­pi­ness,
but for­gets God’s name.”
In an­other hymn, he warns:

ਹਕੁ ਪਰਾਇਆ ਨਾਨਕਾ ਉਸੁ ਸੂਅਰ ਉਸੁ ਗਾਇ
ਸ੍ਰੀ ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬਅੰਗ 141

In other words: To de­prive an­other of his right­ful wages, must be for­bid­den as firmly as the eat­ing of beef by a Hindu or the of eat­ing of pork by a Mus­lim.

8. For this gen­er­a­tion, and for this coun­try, there is a deep sig­nif­i­cance in what Guru Nanak taught his fol­low­ers. He stood for a pos­i­tive and dy­namic ap­proach to life—for the ac­cep­tance of duty and re­spon­si­bil­ity — duty to­wards fam­ily, to so­ci­ety, to the coun­try and in­deed the whole of hu­man­ity. His three-point mes­sage to the com­mon man is,

ਨਾਮ ਜਪੋ,
ਧਰਮ ਦੀ ਕਿਰਤ ਕਰੋ,
ਵੰਡ ਛਕੋ.
Ded­i­cate your­self to God
Earn an hon­est liv­ing
Share your wealth with oth­ers.

9. To the agri­cul­tur­ist —his mes­sage is:

ਧਰਮੁ ਭੂਮਿ ਸਤੁ ਬੀਜੁ ਕਰਿ ਐਸੀ ਕਿਰਸ ਕਮਾਵਹੁ
ਤਾਂ ਵਾਪਾਰੀ ਜਾਣੀਅਹੁ ਲਾਹਾ ਲੈ ਜਾਵਹੁ 8
ਸ੍ਰੀ ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ, ਅੰਗ 418

In sim­ple Eng­lish, this means:
“Prac­tice such agri­cul­ture
In the soil of Jus­tice plant the seeds of Truth
And ver­ily you shall reap a boun­ti­ful har­vest.”

10. One of the chief mer­its of Guru Nanak’s mes­sage is at once its earth­i­ness and its high thought. He of­ten used ver­nac­u­lar—the peo­ple’s lan­guage—to ex­press some of the most pro­found ideas. This was a rad­i­cal de­par­ture from the clas­si­cal Brah­manic lore with its ab­struse mantras, un­in­tel­li­gi­ble to the mass of peo­ple who had there­fore fallen easy prey to a web of su­per­sti­tion and empty rit­ual. As the medium of his mes­sage, he freely drew upon re­gional lan­guages —which, in­ci­den­tally ex­plains the rich va­ri­ety of his com­po­si­tions en­shrined in Guru Granth Sahib.

11. Early in life it was his am­bi­tion to seek out and con­verse with holy men and to at­tain the di­vine light. To ac­com­plish this, as the Bud­dha had done many cen­turies be­fore him, Guru Nanak left his wife and two chil­dren and set out on an Odyssey such as has sel­dom been equalled. From Sul­tan­pur in Pun­jab, he first went to Delhi, Varanasi, Patna, Ra­j­gir and as far as As­sam and Dhaka.

12. In the sec­ond trip he went north into the Hi­malayas, as far as the Mansarovar and, pos­si­bly, into Ti­bet where the name “Rim­poche Nanak” still lingers in tra­di­tion. His third great jour­ney was to South In­dia. through Kar­natak, all the way to Sri Lanka. How­ever the most cel­e­brated of his jour­neys was to Bagh­dad and the holy Mecca—where he left a mark as the Pir of Hind—the prophet from In­dia.

13. To the con­tem­po­rary gen­er­a­tion it should be a pleas­ant sur­prise to know that Guru Nanak re­stored to women their right­ful place in so­ci­ety. In the six­teenth cen­tury, the woman was re­garded ei­ther as an ob­ject of plea­sure or as a do­mes­tic slave kept be­hind a veil. A widow had the awe­some choice to com­mit Sati or live a life worse than death. Guru Nanak was much pained by this degra­da­tion of half the hu­man race. He af­firmed that woman as an equal part­ner of man—com­pe­tent in her own right to par­tic­i­pate in the con­gre­ga­tion and de­serv­ing of re­spect as a mother, sis­ter, or wife. He says in one shloka:

ਸੋ ਕਿਉ ਮੰਦਾ ਆਖੀਐ ਜਿਤੁ ਜੰਮਹਿ ਰਾਜਾਨ
ਸ੍ਰੀ ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬਅੰਗ 473

“How can you re­gard her as in­fe­rior,
of whom mon­archs are born ?”

14. The sweep of Guru Nanak’s sym­pa­thies is truly as­ton­ish­ing. He even found time to have a dig at the ways of bu­reau­cracy. In the clos­ing stan­zas of his well-known com­po­si­tion, Asa-di-Var, Gu­ruji says,

ਸਲਾਮੁ ਜਬਾਬੁ ਦੋਵੈ ਕਰੇ ਮੁੰਢਹੁ ਘੁਥਾ ਜਾਇ
ਸ੍ਰੀ ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬਅੰਗ 474

That is, the pub­lic ser­vant who not only pro­poses and ad­vises but also pre­var­i­cates, sim­ply vi­ti­ates his pro­fes­sion.

15. At an­other place, ad­dress­ing those in au­thor­ity he ex­horts them to do jus­tice and fear God, un­like the Qazi who–though sit­ting in the seat of a judge, en­gaged in the dis­pen­sa­tion of jus­tice in the name of Al­lah, yet takes bribe and gives de­ci­sions which are per­verse; Then jus­ti­fies them with ref­er­ence to the let­ter of the law and prece­dent!

16. It is this ba­sic hu­man­ity of Guru Nanak and his con­cern for the down­trod­den which makes his ap­peal so ir­re­sistible to­day. In­deed his teach­ings are not only rel­e­vant to the prob­lems of to­day, but also ac­quire a com­pelling ur­gency in our quest for the at­tain­ment of hap­pi­ness and even­tu­ally—the eman­ci­pa­tion of the soul—in­di­vid­u­ally as well as col­lec­tively —for this is mankind’s ul­ti­mate des­tiny.

Ti­tle photo: Cour­tesy: www.saldef.org

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