Guru Nanak Sahib 548th Birth An­niver­sary Spe­cial: The best way to know the work of Guru Nanak is to be a trav­eller as He was. The learned au­thor trav­els to the far­thest cor­ner of Cen­tral In­dia in Omkaresh­war, Mad­hya Pradesh, trac­ing the foot­steps of Guru Nanak and shares with read­ers why Guru Sahib trav­elled there and what he preached.

Trac­ing the steps of Guru Nanak, my wife and I vis­ited the his­toric Gur­d­wara Omkaresh­war last month, trav­el­ling by road through the green rich hilly ter­rain and meet­ing Van­jara Sikh youth along the way at an­other small Gur­d­wara serv­ing the ma­jor­ity Van­jara pop­u­la­tion there. In­ter­est­ingly, one of the lo­cal Van­jaras was elected as a key mem­ber of a po­lit­i­cal party. 

Won­der­ing how Guru Nanak trav­elled to the re­motest parts of the hin­ter­land in In­dia, walk­ing on foot, we could only ad­mire and bow to the spirit of the First Mas­ter. A lo­ca­tion like Omkaresh­war can be called as God’s won­der on earth. His­tory tells us that Guru Sahib med­i­tated on the banks of the river and through his Bani -hymns, told peo­ple about true med­i­ta­tion and the true mean­ing of Om. 

I bowed my head to the Great Guru for all he did for sav­ing hu­man­ity and giv­ing the lessons of Truth all around the world!  Let me take you through the town and its res­i­dents re­call­ing the way in which Guru Nanak met them and di­rected them to the True Path of God.

Omkaresh­war is one of the most sa­cred towns sit­u­ated on the In­dore-Khandwa High­way in cen­tral In­dia in the state of Mad­hya Pradesh. The holy town is at the con­flu­ence of rivers Nar­mada and Kaveri. This meet­ing point of the two most promi­nent rivers of In­dia leaves the is­land in the shape of Hindu sym­bol Om, hence it is so named. The town has two an­cient shrines-one is Omkaresh­war (whose name means “Lord of Omkaara or the Lord of the Om Sound”) lo­cated in the is­land and Amaresh­war (whose name means “Im­mor­tal Lord” or “Lord of the Im­mor­tals or Devas”) lo­cated on the south bank of Nar­mada River on the main­land. Omkaresh­war tem­ple sit­u­ated on Mand­hata is­land in river Nar­mada houses one of the 12 Jy­otir­lin­gas.

The dam on Nar­mada has in­creased the im­por­tance of the place and the re­li­gious cen­tre has be­come a tourist at­trac­tion too. The wa­ter from this dam is di­verted to Shipra River for Uj­jain Ma­hakumbh and feed In­dore.

Every Mon­day, the golden idol of Lord Omkar is shown to pil­grims and vis­i­tors amidst bands, drums, and the priests gath­er­ing in pro­ces­sion, af­ter which they go to the river to com­plete their wor­ship. Tem­ple per­mits are re­quired for pho­tog­ra­phy. The en­tire area is bounded by moun­tains pre­sent­ing a very beau­ti­ful view. The view around the is­land is also serene and re­lax­ing. 

In the tenth cen­tury AD, Par­mar King Udaya­ditya in­stalled 4 stone in­scrip­tions here with some holy cou­plets of Shiv Mahima in­scribed on these. The tem­ple then came to be known as Amalesh­war Tem­ple.  Thou­sands of vis­i­tors around the globe come here on Ma­hashiv­ara­tri to cel­e­brate union with God. The place was ruled by Par­mars fol­lowed by Bhils and Ra­jputs in the twelfth and thir­teenth cen­turies dur­ing which pe­riod, the tem­ples and the tem­ple towns flour­ished. 

In the four­teenth cen­tury, af­ter Ghau­ri’s in­va­sions, the rule passed on to Sul­tans. Dur­ing this pe­riod, an­cient tem­ples and idols were de­stroyed. Mughals es­pe­cially Au­rangzeb caused fur­ther dev­as­ta­tion. The re­mains of an­cient tem­ples and struc­tures around Mand­hata are spread around the ad­join­ing hill. The new con­struc­tion of tem­ples came up close to Nar­mada.

Dur­ing fairs and fes­ti­vals like Ma­hashiv­ra­tri, Di­wali, Dussehra, Navra­tra and Vas­ant Pan­chami, the lo­cal peo­ple gather in large num­bers here to cel­e­brate. Most pil­grims and vis­i­tors are from nearby town­ships and cities like In­dore, Khandwa, Uj­jain and Dhar.

His­tory tells us that dur­ing one such fair Guru Nanak Sahib vis­ited this area in 1511 AD dur­ing his jour­neys –Uda­sis to south and reached here af­ter vis­it­ing Uj­jain Dha­rana­gari (Dhar), Betma and In­dore. Dur­ing his visit Guru Nanak went to Omkaresh­war and Am­lesh­war tem­ples and held dis­cus­sions with the pun­dits. He did not agree with them that the God as OM cre­ated the earth at this lo­ca­tion. He ex­plained them the ac­tual mean­ing of Omkar as against the one de­picted by them. His de­scrip­tion is called Bani Dhakhni Ongkar and is found recorded in Guru Granth Sahib pages 929 to 938. 

ਰਾਮਕਲੀ ਮਹਲਾ ੧ ਦਖਣੀ ਓਅੰਕਾਰੁ ੴ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ॥

ਓਅੰਕਾਰਿ ਬ੍ਰਹਮਾ ਉਤਪਤਿ ॥ ਓਅੰਕਾਰੁ ਕੀਆ ਜਿਨਿ ਚਿਤਿ ॥
ਓਅੰਕਾਰਿ ਸੈਲ ਜੁਗ ਭਏ ॥ ਓਅੰਕਾਰਿ ਬੇਦ ਨਿਰਮਏ ॥
ਓਅੰਕਾਰਿ ਸਬਦਿ ਉਧਰੇ ॥ ਓਅੰਕਾਰਿ ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਤਰੇ ॥
ਓਨਮ ਅਖਰ ਸੁਣਹੁ ਬੀਚਾਰੁ ॥ ਓਨਮ ਅਖਰੁ ਤ੍ਰਿਭਵਣ ਸਾਰੁ ॥ ੧ ॥
ਸੁਣਿ ਪਾਡੇ ਕਿਆ ਲਿਖਹੁ ਜੰਜਾਲਾ ॥ ਲਿਖੁ ਰਾਮ ਨਾਮ ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਗੋਪਾਲਾ ॥ ੧ ॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥
ਸਸੈ ਸਭੁ ਜਗੁ ਸਹਜਿ ਉਪਾਇਆ ਤੀਨਿ ਭਵਨ ਇਕ ਜੋਤੀ ॥
ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਵਸਤੁ ਪਰਾਪਤਿ ਹੋਵੈ ਚੁਣਿ ਲੈ ਮਾਣਕ ਮੋਤੀ ॥
ਸਮਝੈ ਸੂਝੈ ਪੜਿ ਪੜਿ ਬੂਝੈ ਅੰਤਿ ਨਿਰੰਤਰਿ ਸਾਚਾ ॥
ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਦੇਖੈ ਸਾਚੁ ਸਮਾਲੇ ਬਿਨੁ ਸਾਚੇ ਜਗੁ ਕਾਚਾ ॥ ੨ ॥
ਧਧੈ ਧਰਮੁ ਧਰੇ ਧਰਮਾ ਪੁਰਿ ਗੁਣਕਾਰੀ ਮਨੁ ਧੀਰਾ ॥
ਧਧੈ ਧੂਲਿ ਪੜੈ ਮੁਖਿ ਮਸਤਕਿ ਕੰਚਨ ਭਏ ਮਨੂਰਾ ॥
ਧਨੁ ਧਰਣੀਧਰੁ ਆਪਿ ਅਜੋਨੀ ਤੋਲਿ ਬੋਲਿ ਸਚੁ ਪੂਰਾ ॥
ਕਰਤੇ ਕੀ ਮਿਤਿ ਕਰਤਾ ਜਾਣੈ ਕੈ ਜਾਣੈ ਗੁਰੁ ਸੂਰਾ ॥ ੩ ॥……॥੫੪॥

Ramkali, First Mehl, Dakhani,  Ongkaar:  One Uni­ver­sal Cre­ator God.

By The Grace Of The True Guru:  From Ongkaar,
The One Uni­ver­sal Cre­ator God, Brahma was cre­ated.
He kept Ongkaar in his con­scious­ness.
From Ongkaar, the moun­tains and the ages were cre­ated.
Ongkaar cre­ated the Vedas.
Ongkaar saves the world through the Shabad.
Ongkaar saves the Gur­mukhs.
Lis­ten to the Mes­sage of the Uni­ver­sal, Im­per­ish­able Cre­ator Lord.
The Uni­ver­sal, Im­per­ish­able Cre­ator Lord is the essence of the three worlds.  || 1 ||
Lis­ten, O Pan­dit, O re­li­gious scholar, why are you writ­ing about worldly de­bates? As Gur­mukh, write only the Name of the Lord, the Lord of the World.  || 1 || Pause  ||  

Sassa:  He cre­ated the en­tire uni­verse with ease; His One Light per­vades the three worlds. Be­come Gur­mukh, and ob­tain the real thing; gather the gems and pearls. If one un­der­stands, re­al­izes and com­pre­hends what he reads and stud­ies, in the end he shall re­al­ize that the True Lord dwells deep within his nu­cleus. The Gur­mukh sees and con­tem­plates the True Lord; with­out the True Lord, the world is false.  || 2 ||  

Dhadha:  Those who en­shrine Dharmic faith and dwell in the City of Dharma are wor­thy; their minds are stead­fast and sta­ble.  Dhadha:  If the dust of their feet touches one’s face and fore­head, he is trans­formed from iron into gold. Blessed is the Sup­port of the Earth; He Him­self is not born; His mea­sure and speech are per­fect and True. Only the Cre­ator Him­self knows His own ex­tent; He alone knows the Brave Guru.  || 3 ||   

The study of the first stanza of this Bani clearly in­di­cates that Guru Nanak is dis­cussing the phi­los­o­phy of the Pun­dits of Omkar Tem­ple. In rest of the Bani (from stanza 2 to 54 in­clud­ing Ra­hao (Pause) Guru Nanak is clear­ing the con­fu­sion of the Pun­dit about the na­ture and at­trib­utes of God.

Guru Nanak ex­plained to the Pun­dit that there is no Trin­ity (Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva) of God to which the word, ‘Oankar’ or ‘Omkar’, is im­plied. Guru Nanak fur­ther ex­plains to the Pun­dit that “God is One and the Only One’. He does not come into an­thro­po­mor­phic form (Ajuni); and no spe­cific/​de­scrip­tive name can be coined for God since God is an ‘Eter­nal En­ti­ty’ and in­ef­fa­ble.

Guru Nanak is talk­ing about the an­cient con­cept be­ing taught by the Pun­dit: The Idol of Shiva or Linga of Shiva is con­sid­ered as Omkar by the Pun­dit of Omkar Tem­ple. The Pun­dit also equates ‘Omkar’ to Om, which rep­re­sents Trin­ity of God. There­fore, it is not the phi­los­o­phy of Guru Nanak. So Omkar Bani was com­posed by Guru Nanak to ex­plain to the Pun­dits of Omkar Tem­ple that God can­not be rep­re­sented as Omkar since it orig­i­nated from Om.

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A Gur­d­wara was con­structed to com­mem­o­rate Guru Nanak’s visit just op­po­site the Omkaresh­war tem­ple on Nar­mada Ghat it­self. A new bridge con­nect­ing the south­ern other bank of the river has been con­structed. There is only one per­ma­nent res­i­dent Iqbal Singh Khera hav­ing a gro­cery shop in Omkaresh­war. The Granthi and se­wadar are from lo­cal Sikh com­mu­nity of Van­jaras who have large pop­u­la­tion in this area and oc­ca­sion­ally visit the Gur­d­wara. Dur­ing main Gur­purabs, es­pe­cially from 1-3 April, the san­gat of In­dore, Uj­jain, Betma and Mhow comes in large num­ber un­der the ban­ner of Sukhmani Sahib Sewa So­ci­ety. To meet the re­quire­ment of ac­com­mo­dat­ing large num­bers Gi­ani Sant Singh Mas­keen who had been reg­u­larly com­ing to these oc­ca­sions, was the key in get­ting the new build­ing con­structed. Now S Ran­jit Singh Gauhar reg­u­larly per­forms these func­tions. To ac­com­mo­date the san­gat, a 16 room  inn (sarai) has been con­structed in the city.