Accordingly, the Gurus who came after Nanak can only have been imitations or weaker copies of the original’ (p.255). It is not appropriate to associate Guru Nanak or early Nanak Panth with the Sant tradition. Guru had separated himself from the Udasis and had rejected asceticism. His religion is a religion of householders, which aims at harmonising valid worldly pursuits with a true religious life. It must be mentioned that all the ten Gurus, Nanak and his nine successors are equally revered, because they all manifest the same Divine Light, just as one lamp is lit from another. Guru’s injunction is very clear in this respect, “There is one sole holy text (Bani), one Guru, one unified Word (Sabad) to contemplate”.1 Mandair points out that Sikhism has not succeeded in gaining entry into the Elite Club of World religions Mandair interprets the revelatory experience of Guru Nanak at Sultanpur in empirical terms. He says that ‘the event must be thought of as a universal, something that is shareable with the rest of humanity’ and not as something that could only have happened to Guru Nanak, who need not be looked upon as ‘a transcendent being in the world of men’. The episode, he believes, can be brought into the realm of ordinary human experience. He asserts that it was the Singh Sabha that attached transcendence to this episode
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 15:48:05 +0000
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