Guru Nanak Dev ji

Guru Nanak Dev ji, the first Guru of the Sikhs, was born at Talwandi in a Khatri family; Sikhs celebrate his Prakash Purab on Kartik Purnima. The Janamsakhis tell that as a young man working at Sultanpur Lodhi he went into the river Bein and did not come out for three days, and that when he returned his first words were that there is no Hindu and no Musalman, meaning that God sees only the one Light in all. With his companion Bhai Mardana, who played the rabab, he made long journeys, the udasis, to Hardwar, Kashi, Jagannath Puri, the south, the Himalaya and the west, singing shabads wherever he stopped; his Aarti, “Gagan mai thal”, is remembered as sung at Puri. In his last years he settled at Kartarpur on the Ravi, where his followers farmed, ate together in langar and sang the Name morning and evening. Before he left his body in 1539 he named Bhai Lehna, Guru Angad, as his successor. His 974 shabads, including the Japji Sahib, open the Guru Granth Sahib. He taught nam japna, kirat karni and vand chhakna: remember the Name, earn honestly, share with others. Hindus and Sikhs alike revere him as a saint of the one Light.