Guru Nanak was a pi­o­neer of in­ter-re­li­gious di­a­logue. His was a prac­ti­cal way of life re­volv­ing around the char­ac­ter­i­za­tion and es­tab­lish­ment of Shabad -the Word of the Almighty, as Guru and prop­a­gat­ing of a vir­tu­ous life, be­ing so­cially and po­lit­i­cally alert and be­ing aware of the needs of so­ci­ety, ex­plains Mum­bai-based Uni­ver­sity teacher, writer and in­ter-faith di­a­logue pro­po­nent.

GREET­INGS ON THE 550TH PRAKASH PURAB of Guru Nanak Sahib. Tal­ing about Guru Nanak’s birth in 1469 at Rae-Bhoe Ki Tal­wandi, mod­ern-day Nankana Sahib, now in Pak­istan, his con­tem­po­rary poet and scholar Bhai Gur­das says, ਸਤਿਗੁਰੁ ਨਾਨਕੁ ਪ੍ਰਗਟਿਆ ਮਿਟੀ ਧੁੰਧੁ ਜਗਿ ਚਾਨਣੁ ਹੋਆ।–With the emer­gence of the true Guru Nanak, the mist cleared and the light scat­tered all around.

ਜਿਉ ਕਰਿ ਸੂਰਜੁ ਨਿਕਲਿਆ ਤਾਰੇ ਛਪਿ ਅੰਧੇਰੁ ਪਲੋਆ।
As if the sun rose and the stars dis­ap­peared. The dark­ness was dis­pelled.
                                                                                             Bhai Gur­das Ji-Vaar 1.27Poet Sir Mo­hammed Iqbal, com­mem­o­rat­ing the ad­vent of Guru Nanak said,
ਫਿਰ ਉਠੀ ਆਖੀਰ ਸਦਾ ਤੌਹੀਦ ਕੀ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਸੇ।
ਹਿੰਦ ਕੋ ਏਕ ਮਰਦ-ਓ-ਕਾਮਿਲ ਨੇ ਜਗਾਯਾ ਖੁਵਾਬ ਸੇ। 

Guru Nanak Sahib’s ad­vent was a di­vine oc­cur­rence for the eman­ci­pa­tion of hu­man­ity. We do not have de­tails of how the Sikhs of yore cel­e­brated the first four cen­te­nar­ies of Guru Nanak. We do know that in 1969 -the fifth cen­ten­nial Gur­purab was cel­e­brated with tra­di­tional pomp and glory. Since time im­memo­r­ial, we have fo­cused on the tri­umvi­rate teach­ings of ਨਾਮ ਜਪਣਾ, ਕਿਰਤ ਕਰਨਾ ਤੇ ਵੰਡ ਛਕਣਾ which means med­i­tat­ing on God’s name, hon­est labour and shar­ing.

The core teach­ing of Guru Nanak is the es­tab­lish­ment and char­ac­ter­i­za­tion of ‘Shabad Guru.’ This serves as the back­bone of Sikh phi­los­o­phy and is revered as the Eter­nal Guru -the En­light­ener for all times to come. Sig­nif­i­cantly, Guru Sahib con­veyed the re­vealed word through hymns through the medium of di­rect talk with peo­ple and also through ‘in­ter-re­li­gious di­a­logue’. Guru Nanak Sahib pi­o­neered re­li­gious talks across faiths in a most dar­ing way since his child­hood.

The Shas­trarths within Brah­mins and Alim Fazil Ma­jlises within Mus­lim schol­ars were also di­a­logues but re­mained con­fined to one re­li­gion. Guru Nanak com­mu­ni­cated with one and all in a ra­tio­nal, log­i­cal and sci­en­tific man­ner.

Barely 7 years old, Guru Nanak had his first open di­a­logue with his teacher Gopal Pan­dit. The phi­los­o­phy of the al­pha­bet as ex­plained by Guru Nanak to his teacher is part of Gur­bani as ‘Patti Likhi’ and is a re­mark­able sci­en­tific ap­proach to the prop­a­ga­tion of Sikh val­ues.

Sim­i­larly, Guru Nanak Sahib re­vealed his thoughts about the al­pha­bet of the Per­sian lan­guage, through a po­lite di­a­logue with his Mus­lim teacher Maulvi Ku­tubudin.

The forth­right­ness of Guru Nanak Sahib came to its fore when he had one of his most dar­ing di­a­logue with Pan­dit Har­dayal. As per Hindu tra­di­tion, the fam­ily asked the lo­cal priest to ini­ti­ate the Ja­neu -the Hindu sa­cred thread cer­e­mony. All but nine years of age, Guru Nanak re­fused to wear telling Pan­dit Har­dayal, “Why should I wear it? Will this cot­ton not get sul­lied or burnt? Will it last till the next world? Does it make any dif­fer­ence to one’s soul or is it con­fined to the body alone? Not sat­is­fied with the ex­pla­na­tion given by the Pan­dit and his fam­ily mem­bers, Guru Nanak re­jected a rit­u­al­is­tic life, which is in­cor­po­rated in the Bani ‘Asa Ki Vaar’. Guru Sahib  says:

ਦਇਆ ਕਪਾਹ ਸੰਤੋਖੁ ਸੂਤੁ ਜਤੁ ਗੰਢੀ ਸਤੁ ਵਟੁ ॥
Make com­pas­sion the cot­ton, con­tent­ment the thread, mod­esty the knot and truth the twist.

ਏਹੁ ਜਨੇਊ ਜੀਅ ਕਾ ਹਈ ਤ ਪਾਡੇ ਘਤੁ ॥
This is the sa­cred thread of the soul; if you have it, then go ahead and put it on me.

ਨਾ ਏਹੁ ਤੁਟੈ ਨਾ ਮਲੁ ਲਗੈ ਨਾ ਏਹੁ ਜਲੈ ਨ ਜਾਇ ॥
It does not break, it can­not be soiled by filth, it can­not be burnt, or lost.

ਧੰਨੁ ਸੁ ਮਾਣਸ ਨਾਨਕਾ ਜੋ ਗਲਿ ਚਲੇ ਪਾਇ ॥
Blessed are those mor­tal be­ings, O Nanak, who wear such a thread around their necks.

ਤਗੁ ਕਪਾਹਹੁ ਕਤੀਐ ਬਾਹ੍ਹਣੁ ਵਟੇ ਆਇ ॥
The thread is spun from cot­ton, and the Brah­min comes and twists it.

ਕੁਹਿ ਬਕਰਾ ਰਿੰਨਿ ਖਾਇਆ ਸਭੁ ਕੋ ਆਖੈ ਪਾਇ ॥
The goat is killed, cooked and eaten, and every­one then says, “Put on the sa­cred thread.”

ਹੋਇ ਪੁਰਾਣਾ ਸੁਟੀਐ ਭੀ ਫਿਰਿ ਪਾਈਐ ਹੋਰੁ ॥
When it wears out, it is thrown away, and an­other one is put on.

ਨਾਨਕ ਤਗੁ ਨ ਤੁਟਈ ਜੇ ਤਗਿ ਹੋਵੈ ਜੋਰੁ ॥੨॥
O Nanak, the thread would not break, if it had any real strength. ||2||

(ਸਲੋਕ ਮਹਲਾ ੧, ਵਾਰ ਆਸਾ, ੪੭੧) Slok Mo­halla 1, Var Asa, 417

His re­tort was, “My Ja­neu is di­vine, made up with the cot­ton of com­pas­sion, string of con­tent­ment, knots of chaste be­hav­iour and coils of truth, which will fol­low with my soul to the next world also. Bhai Sahib Bhai Gur­das Ji aptly sum­ma­rizes this method­ol­ogy of Guru Nanak Sahib, say­ing,

ਮਾਰਿਆ ਸਿਕਾ ਜਗਤਿ ਵਿਚਿ ਨਾਨਕ ਨਿਰਮਲ ਪੰਥੁ ਚਲਾਇਆ।
In the world, he es­tab­lished the au­thor­ity (of his doc­trines) and started a re­li­gion, de­void of any im­pu­rity –ni­ra­mal panth.

One of the most sig­nif­i­cant and de­scrip­tive di­a­logues which took place be­tween Guru Nanak Sahib and the lead­ers of the Yo­gis, is com­piled with 73 stan­zas in Guru Granth Sahib, en­ti­tled ‘Sidh Gost.’

Gost, means a di­a­logue be­tween two in­di­vid­u­als or groups.

Be­gin­ning with the words – ਰੋਸੁ ਨ ਕੀਜੈ ਉਤਰੁ ਦੀਜੈ –Do not get ir­ri­tated but an­swer calmly, this Bani makes it clear that it was­n’t a de­bate but a di­a­logue amongst equals.  The first verse of ‘Sidh Gost’ gives an in­tro­duc­tion of the par­tic­i­pants and the pur­pose of di­a­logue. The sec­ond verse starts with a for­mal and de­scrip­tive ques­tion,

ਕਵਨ ਤੁਮੇ ਕਿਆ ਨਾਉ ਤੁਮਾਰਾ ਕਉਨੁ ਮਾਰਗੁ ਕਉਨੁ ਸੁਆਓ ॥
“Who are you? What is your name? What is your way? What is your goal?

ਸਾਚੁ ਕਹਉ ਅਰਦਾਸਿ ਹਮਾਰੀ ਹਉ ਸੰਤ ਜਨਾ ਬਲਿ ਜਾਓ ॥
We pray that you will an­swer us truth­fully; we are a sac­ri­fice to the hum­ble Saints.

ਕਹ ਬੈਸਹੁ ਕਹ ਰਹੀਐ ਬਾਲੇ ਕਹ ਆਵਹੁ ਕਹ ਜਾਹੋ ॥
Where is your seat? Where do you live, boy? Where did you come from, and where are you go­ing?

ਨਾਨਕੁ ਬੋਲੈ ਸੁਣਿ ਬੈਰਾਗੀ ਕਿਆ ਤੁਮਾਰਾ ਰਾਹੋ ॥੨॥
Tell us, Nanak – the de­tached Sid­dhas wait to hear your re­ply. What is your path?”||2|

(ਰਾਮਕਲੀ ਮਹਲਾ ੧, ਸਿਧ ਗੋਸਟ, ੯੩੮) Ramkali Mo­halla 1, Sidh Gost, 938

Guru Sahib gave the per­fect an­swer:

ਘਟਿ ਘਟਿ ਬੈਸਿ ਨਿਰੰਤਰਿ ਰਹੀਐ ਚਾਲਹਿ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਭਾਏ ॥
He dwells deep within the nu­cleus of each and every heart. This is my seat and my home. I walk in har­mony with the Will of the True Guru.

ਸਹਜੇ ਆਏ ਹੁਕਮਿ ਸਿਧਾਏ ਨਾਨਕ ਸਦਾ ਰਜਾਏ ॥
I came from the Ce­les­tial Lord God; I go wher­ever He or­ders me to go. I am Nanak, for­ever un­der the Com­mand of His Will.

ਆਸਣਿ ਬੈਸਣਿ ਥਿਰੁ ਨਾਰਾਇਣੁ ਐਸੀ ਗੁਰਮਤਿ ਪਾਏ ॥
I sit in the pos­ture of the eter­nal, im­per­ish­able Lord. These are the Teach­ings I have re­ceived from the Guru.

ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਬੂਝੈ ਆਪੁ ਪਛਾਣੈ ਸਚੇ ਸਚਿ ਸਮਾਏ ॥੩॥
As Gur­mukh, I have come to un­der­stand and re­al­ize my­self; I merge in the Truest of the True. ||3||

Guru Sahib’s phi­los­o­phy was com­pletely unique from other schools of pre­vail­ing philoso­phies. This di­a­logue re­veals many ques­tions and an­swers. The ques­tion from Yogi Lo­haripa was: 

ਕਵਨੁ ਸੁ ਗੁਪਤਾ ਕਵਨੁ ਸੁ ਮੁਕਤਾ ॥ ਕਵਨੁ ਸੁ ਅੰਤਰਿ ਬਾਹਰਿ ਜੁਗਤਾ ॥
“Who is hid­den? Who is lib­er­ated?  Who is united, in­wardly and out­wardly?

ਕਵਨੁ ਸੁ ਆਵੈ ਕਵਨੁ ਸੁ ਜਾਇ ॥ ਕਵਨੁ ਸੁ ਤ੍ਰਿਭਵਣਿ ਰਹਿਆ ਸਮਾਇ ॥੧੨॥
Who comes, and who goes? Who is per­me­at­ing and per­vad­ing the three worlds?”||12||

-Guru Granth Sahib, 939

The an­swer was in Guru Sahib’s per­fect and typ­i­cal style:

ਘਟਿ ਘਟਿ ਗੁਪਤਾ ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਮੁਕਤਾ ॥
He is hid­den within each and every heart. The Gur­mukh is lib­er­ated.

ਅੰਤਰਿ ਬਾਹਰਿ ਸਬਦਿ ਸੁ ਜੁਗਤਾ ॥
Through the Word of the Shabad, one is united -in­wardly and out­wardly.

ਮਨਮੁਖਿ ਬਿਨਸੈ ਆਵੈ ਜਾਇ ॥
The self-willed man­mukh per­ishes and comes and goes.

ਨਾਨਕ ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਸਾਚਿ ਸਮਾਇ ॥੧੩॥
O Nanak, the Gur­mukh merges in Truth. ||13||

-Guru Granth Sahib 939

The Yo­gis ques­tioned Guru Sahib as to what was his pur­pose of leav­ing home and hearth and go­ing on Uda­sis -world tours,

ਕਿਸੁ ਕਾਰਣਿ ਗ੍ਰਿਹੁ ਤਜਿਓ ਉਦਾਸੀ ॥ ਕਿਸੁ ਕਾਰਣਿ ਇਹੁ ਭੇਖੁ ਨਿਵਾਸੀ ॥
“Why have you left your house and be­come a wan­der­ing Udaasee? Why have you adopted these re­li­gious robes?

ਕਿਸੁ ਵਖਰ ਕੇ ਤੁਮ ਵਣਜਾਰੇ ॥ ਕਿਉ ਕਰਿ ਸਾਥੁ ਲੰਘਾਵਹੁ ਪਾਰੇ ॥੧੭॥
What mer­chan­dise do you trade? How will you carry oth­ers across with you?”||17||

-Guru Granth Sahib 939

Guru Sahib replied that he was on a world tour in search of true be­liev­ers of God and for that, he had ac­quired such at­tire and that he was a trader of truth and by be­ing a true be­liever one gets sal­va­tion,

ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਖੋਜਤ ਭਏ ਉਦਾਸੀ ॥ ਦਰਸਨ ਕੈ ਤਾਈ ਭੇਖ ਨਿਵਾਸੀ ॥
I be­came a wan­der­ing Udaasee, search­ing for the Gur­mukhs. I have adopted these robes seek­ing the Blessed Vi­sion of the Lord’s Dar­shan.

ਸਾਚ ਵਖਰ ਕੇ ਹਮ ਵਣਜਾਰੇ ॥ ਨਾਨਕ ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਉਤਰਸਿ ਪਾਰੇ ॥੧੮॥

I trade in the mer­chan­dise of Truth. O Nanak, as Gur­mukh, I carry oth­ers across. ||18||  

-Guru Granth Sahib 939

The Yo­gis then asked him the key ques­tion of his phi­los­o­phy of life, 

ਕਵਣ ਮੂਲੁ ਕਵਣ ਮਤਿ ਵੇਲਾ ॥ ਤੇਰਾ ਕਵਣੁ ਗੁਰੂ ਜਿਸ ਕਾ ਤੂ ਚੇਲਾ ॥
“What is the root, the source of all? What teach­ings hold for these times? Who is your guru? Whose dis­ci­ple are you?

ਕਵਣ ਕਥਾ ਲੇ ਰਹਹੁ ਨਿਰਾਲੇ ॥ ਬੋਲੈ ਨਾਨਕੁ ਸੁਣਹੁ ਤੁਮ ਬਾਲੇ ॥
What is that speech, by which you re­main un­at­tached? Lis­ten to what we say, O Nanak, you lit­tle boy.

ਏਸੁ ਕਥਾ ਕਾ ਦੇਇ ਬੀਚਾਰੁ ॥ ਭਵਜਲੁ ਸਬਦਿ ਲੰਘਾਵਣਹਾਰੁ ॥੪੩॥
Give us your opin­ion on what we have said. How can the Shabad carry us across the ter­ri­fy­ing world-ocean?”||43||

-Guru Granth Sahib 942

The asked, “Who is thy Guru and to whose dis­ci­ple are you? Which Shabad is able to eman­ci­pate your soul? The re­sponse of Guru Nanak is the foun­da­tion stone of Sikhism. Ex­tolling the con­cept of ‘Shabad Gu­ru’, the First Mas­ter said that “I prop­a­gate One­ness of the Almighty and the Shabad which will cer­tainly em­pan­ci­pate.”

ਪਵਨ ਅਰੰਭੁ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਮਤਿ ਵੇਲਾ ॥ ਸਬਦੁ ਗੁਰੂ ਸੁਰਤਿ ਧੁਨਿ ਚੇਲਾ ॥
From the air came the be­gin­ning. This is the age of the True Gu­ru’s Teach­ings. The Shabad is the Guru, upon whom I lov­ingly fo­cus my con­scious­ness; I am the dis­ci­ple.

ਅਕਥ ਕਥਾ ਲੇ ਰਹਉ ਨਿਰਾਲਾ ॥ ਨਾਨਕ ਜੁਗਿ ਜੁਗਿ ਗੁਰ ਗੋਪਾਲਾ ॥
Speak­ing the Un­spo­ken Speech, I re­main un­at­tached. O Nanak, through­out the ages, the Lord of the World is my Guru.

ਏਕੁ ਸਬਦੁ ਜਿਤੁ ਕਥਾ ਵੀਚਾਰੀ ॥ ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਹਉਮੈ ਅਗਨਿ ਨਿਵਾਰੀ ॥੪੪॥
I con­tem­plate the ser­mon of the Shabad, the Word of the One God. The Gur­mukh puts out the fire of ego­tism. ||44||

-Guru Granth Sahib 942

Guru Nanak said,  “Air is my ori­gin, Sat­Gu­ru’s knowl­edge is my con­science, Shabad is my Guru and my de­voted at­ten­tion is the dis­ci­ple. He pre­sented the eter­nal truth that it is the Shabad only which is ca­pa­ble to end the trans­mi­gra­tion of souls in the cy­cle of life and death. Gur­bani re­it­er­ates,

ਧੰਨੁ ਧੰਨੁ ਸੇ ਸਾਹ ਹੈ ਜਿ ਨਾਮਿ ਕਰਹਿ ਵਾਪਾਰੁ ॥
Blessed, blessed are those bankers who trade the Naam.

ਵਣਜਾਰੇ ਸਿਖ ਆਵਦੇ ਸਬਦਿ ਲਘਾਵਣਹਾਰੁ ॥
The Sikhs, the traders come, and through the Word of His Shabad, they are car­ried across.

Guru Granth Sahib, 313 

ਅੰਤਰਿ ਭਗਤਿ ਹਰਿ ਹਰਿ ਉਰਿ ਧਾਰੁ ॥
He en­shrines lov­ing de­vo­tion to the Lord, Har, Har, deep within his heart.

ਭਵਜਲੁ ਸਬਦਿ ਲੰਘਾਵਣਹਾਰੁ ॥

The Word of the Shabad car­ries him across the ter­ri­fy­ing world-ocean.

Guru Granth Sahib, 1261

Bhai Gur­das, whose com­po­si­tions are con­sid­ered as a guide to Gur­bani and who was a con­tem­po­rary of the fourth, fifth and sixth Gu­rus has also com­piled many in­ci­dents of Guru Nanak’s life in­clud­ing the di­a­logue with the Yo­gis. In his words, the Yo­gis asked Guru Nanak to per­form a mir­a­cle,

ਸਿਧਿ ਬੋਲਨਿ ਸੁਣਿ ਨਾਨਕਾ ਤੁਹਿ ਜਗ ਨੋ ਕਰਾਮਾਤਿ ਦਿਖਾਈ।
Sid­dhs spoke, Lis­ten O Nanak! You have shown mir­a­cles to the world.

ਕੁਝੁ ਵਿਖਾਲੇਂ ਅਸਾਂ ਨੋ ਤੁਹਿ ਕਿਉਂ ਢਿਲ ਅਵੇਹੀ ਲਾਈ।
Why are you late in show­ing some to us.

Bhai Gur­das Ji- Vaar-1.42

Guru Nanak Sahib Ji’s an­swer in Bhai Gur­das Ji’s words,

ਬਾਬਾ ਬੋਲੇ ਨਾਥ ਜੀ ਅਸਿ ਤੇ ਵੇਖਣਿ ਜੋਗੀ ਵਸਤੁ ਨ ਕਾਈ।
Baba replied, ‘O re­spected Nath! I have noth­ing worth show­ing to you.

ਗੁਰੁ ਸੰਗਤਿ ਬਾਣੀ ਬਿਨਾ ਦੂਜੀ ਓਟ ਨਹੀ ਹੈ ਰਾਈ।
I have no sup­port ex­cept the Guru (God), the holy con­gre­ga­tion, and the Word (bani).

ਸਿਵ ਰੂਪੀ ਕਰਤਾ ਪੁਰਖੁ ਚਲੇ ਨਾਹੀ ਧਰਤਿ ਚਲਾਈ।
That Para­mat­man who is all full of bene­dic­tions for all is sta­ble and the earth (and ma­te­r­ial over it) is tran­si­tory.

ਸਿਧਿ ਤੰਤ੍ਰ ਮੰਤ੍ਰਿ ਕਰਿ ਝੜਿ ਪਏ ਸਬਦਿ ਗੁਰੂ ਕੇ ਕਲਾ ਛਪਾਈ।
The Sid­dhs ex­hausted them­selves with the tantra-mantras but the world of Lord did not al­low their pow­ers to come up.

Bhai Gur­das Ji- Vaar-1.42 

Here Bhai Sahib Ji says, ‘On find­ing such a great soul, the Yo­gis planned to bring Guru Nanak Dev Ji into their own cult. What other faith are you seek­ing, bring your tal­ent into ours.’

ਸਿਧੀਂ ਮਨੇ ਬੀਚਾਰਿਆ ਕਿਵੈ ਦਰਸਨੁ ਏ ਲੇਵੈ ਬਾਲਾ।
The sid­dhs thought in their mind that this per­son must some­how adopt the phi­los­o­phy of Yoga.

ਐਸਾ ਜੋਗੀ ਕਲੀ ਮਹਿ ਹਮਰੇ ਪੰਥੁ ਕਰੇ ਉਜਿਆਲਾ।
Such a yogi in kaliyug, will brighten the name of our sect.

Bhai Gur­das Ji- Vaar-1.31

And Bhai Gur­das ji re­veals the truth. He says,

ਸਬਦਿ ਜਿਤੀ ਸਿਧਿ ਮੰਡਲੀ ਕੀਤੋਸੁ ਅਪਣਾ ਪੰਥੁ ਨਿਰਾਲਾ।
Through (the power of the word) Shabad he con­quered the sid­dhs and pro­pounded his al­to­gether new way of life.

Bhai Gur­das Ji- Vaar-1.31

Guru Sahib ji won the Sid­dha sect by Shabad and kept his own faith. Notwith­stand­ing what oth­ers say or even ar­gue, it is clear from this cou­plet that Guru Nanak him­self laid the foun­da­tion of the Sikh way of life. As Bhai Gur­das Ji said, ਕੀਤੋਸੁ ਅਪਣਾ ਪੰਥ ਨਿਰਾਲਾ.

The twin con­cept of Shabad Guru and the stop­ping of all Gu­ru­ships in hu­man form, Guru Nanak evolved a unique and land­mark con­tri­bu­tion to the an­nals of re­li­gion. ਸ਼ਬਦ ਗੁਰੂ   and ਸੂਰਤਿ ਧੂਨਿ ਚੇਲਾ are a new di­rec­tion to hu­man­ity, 

ਸ਼ਬਦ ਗੁਰੂ ਗੁਰ ਜਾਣੀਐ ਗੁਰਮੁਖ ਹੋਇ ਸੁਰਤਿ ਧੁਨ ਚੇਲਾ॥

(Bhai Gur­das Ji- Vaar-7.20)

The com­po­si­tion of ‘Sidh Gosht’ is not only the ex­tract of Guru Sahib Ji’s com­plete wis­dom and life ex­pe­ri­ence but also the foun­da­tion of a fruit­ful in­ter-re­li­gious di­a­logue. This was the first philo­soph­i­cal Re­hat­nama, the Code of con­duct of Sikh Re­li­gion. This also opened a win­dow to many more di­a­logues and Sikh his­tory stands tes­ti­mony to the same.

In­ter-Re­li­gious di­a­logues are an in­te­gral part of Sikh his­tory and we feel proud to be the heirs of such a great and glo­ri­ous legacy. Liv­ing the legacy and prop­a­gat­ing it, the Sikh com­mu­nity will con­tinue to fol­low the path of peace through a sci­en­tific, log­i­cal at­ti­tude and eth­i­cal val­ues as enun­ci­ated in Shabad Guru teach­ings of Guru Nanak and his suc­ces­sor Gu­rus. Sig­nif­i­cantly, when the path of di­a­logue fails, we hear the clash of weapons. Guru Sahib has pre­pared us for this also.