INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

would argue that the foundation of a Sikh community at Kartarpur (Punjab) at the
end of Nanak’ travels and his establishment of a guru lineage by appointing his devoted
disciples Bhai Lehna (later renamed to Guru Angad) to be the following successor
were intentional efforts of the Guru to implement a much broader divine plan
of deliverance in a concrete moment of history when dharma was lost and Muslim
rulers impaired the country.
That God spoke to humans through the words of Guru Nanak and the following
Gurus has paved the way for theological and mythological beliefs related to the
person who occupied the post of guru and his special relationship to God. In the
various janam-sakhis the persona of Nanak is represented in many diverse ways;
Nanak is a householder, a meditating ascetic, sometimes likened to the divine, and a
charismatic Guru, who mystically draws people to his presence. Contemporary Sikhs
similarly express a variety of views on the first Guru depending upon their personal
beliefs and religious background. The far most common stance among my interlocutors
in Varanasi often starts out from a firm monotheistic belief in a formless and
almighty God without attributes to downplay the divine nature of Nanak. This viewpoint
presents two different interpretations to the identity of the Guru: the first one
perceives Nanak as an ordinary human who is gifted with supernatural knowledge
from birth and owing to a mystical experience become liberated to accumulate no
further karma. The second and more popular explanation, on the other hand, asserts
that Nanak was already an enlightened human being who entered the world in obedience
to God’s command to deliver a divine message at a time when a personal guru
was necessary for human salvation. 249 According to the former view the birth of
Nanak was subject to the laws of karma, while the latter opinion presumes a nonkarmic
reincarnation consistent with a prior plan of God. Common for both, however,
is that Guru Nanak is an enlightened human being who during his lifetime operates
within a close relationship to God that is based on pure love and devotion. He is the
humble disciple (sikh) or slave (das), who by the choice of God is granted direct access
to divine knowledge (gian) and authority to reveal this knowledge to the world. A
local granthi in Varanasi voiced this idea as follows:
G: The Gurus were sent by God. God sent them to this world to bring
people on the right path and stop torture... But God is on the first
place. God should be worshipped first. The Gurus will always come
and go. He will die one day and be gone. But God is eternal. God runs
everything and everyone.
249
The idea of a non-karmic birth of an enlightened soul is in no way unique for origin beliefs
connected with the Guru. In popular religion people believe that souls residing in a celestial
court can take human birth if God consents to bless barren couples with a child. The child sent
to earth on God’s command is considered to belong to the court of God and not the family in
which it is born, since it took birth from a divine intervention and not from the result of karma
and natural conception.
118
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008