Haroon Khalid - Walking with Nanak

Haroon Khalids lifelong fascination with Guru Nanak was reignited when he came upon Babur Bani , a poem written by the saint. This, and the discovery that Guru Nanak spent a large part of his life in Pakistan, inspired Khalid to undertake a journey that he hoped would help him learn more about the revered founder of Sikhism.

In this wonderful paean to Guru Nanak, Khalid describes his travels across the length and breadth of Pakistan as he visits the many gurdwaras and other locales associated with the saint, delving into their history and musing about their place and significance in a Muslim country. But this book is not merely a story about gurdwaras, it is also a re-telling of the story of Nanak the son, the poet, the wanderer, the father, the friend. Sifting through the stories of his miracles and poetry, we emerge with a picture of Nanak, the man.

Also exploring the histories of all the subsequent Gurus after Nanak, the book traces the story of how an unorganized spiritual movement evolved into the institutionalized Khalsa of Guru Gobind Singh. Through the journeys of all the Gurus, the book describes how Nanak the poet became Guru Nanak the saint.

WALKING WITH NANAK

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

A White Trail: A Journey into the Heart of Pakistans Religious Minorities

In Search of Shiva: A Study of Folk Religious Practices in Pakistan

WALKING WITH NANAK

TRAVELS IN HIS FOOTSTEPS

Haroon Khalid

TRANQUEBAR PRESS

61, II Floor, Silverline Building, Alapakkam Main Road, Maduravoyal, Chennai 600095
93, I Floor, Shamlal Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110002

First e-pub edition: 2016

First published in TRANQUEBAR PRESS by westland ltd 2016

Copyright Haroon Khalid 2016

All rights reserved

978-93-85152-99-3

Typeset in Adobe Caslon Pro by SRYA, New Delhi

The author asserts his moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, circulated, and no reproduction in any form, in whole or in part (except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews) may be made without written permission of the publishers.

To Iqbal Qaiser, my mentor

CONTENTS

1. Lahore

2. Nankana Sahib

3. Kartarpur Sahib

4. Pakpattan

5. Uch Sharif

6. Karachi

7. Katas Raj

8. Hassan Abdal

9. Sialkot

10. Eminanbad

11. Deepalpur

I had always been fascinated with Guru Nanak, before I had even read a single word written by him or about him. Guru Nanak was someone who was so near and yet so elusive. Having been born and brought up in Pakistani Punjab, I had heard of Guru Nanakabout him being the founder of Sikhism, about him being a poet and about him being a spiritual leader. Yet given the Muslim-dominant culture of Pakistani Punjab, there were no avenues available for me within the culture to explore his personality. He was on the one hand someone who was my own, being a Punjabi, and yet on the other hand, he was an alien, since he was a non-Muslim. When I did eventually read books about him I was disappointed. I was disappointed because even after reading several books I did not feel I had the slightest clue as to who Guru Nanak was as a person or what his life was like. This was particularly disheartening because he had lived only five centuries before the present day and there have been better records of people who had lived even before that time.

I truly discovered Guru Nanak for the first time through my mentor, Iqbal Qaiser. We spent several hours talking about him, his poetry, and this gave me a much better idea about Guru Nanak as a person, compared to any book that I had read. Iqbal Qaiser recited Nanaks Babur Bani to me, a long poem that Nanak wrote at the time the Mughal marauder Babur attacked Punjab, destroying the cities of Eminabad and Lahore on the way. The poem was riveting. It had a huge impact on me and I saw for the first time glimpses of the man I had been trying to discover. Here was a man who is considered a religious figure, the founder of Sikhism and a believer in God and then there was this poem of his which lays the blame of Baburs wrath at Gods feet. Through his poem Nanak challenges the divinity of the Divine and asks if this bloodshed is the blessing that God had promised. This man might as well have been the prophet of those who questioned the existence of God. I realized that one way of getting to know Nanak better was through his poetry.

My fascination with Guru Nanak increased further when I learned on my travels with Iqbal Qaiser that he had spent a major portion of his life in present-day Pakistan. He was born here. He initially preached his new religion here by travelling around this region and eventually settled in a small village which is now on the Pakistani side of the border.Wherever I went to see gurdwaras raised in the memory of Guru Nanak, I felt his presence around me. I could see him sitting with Bhai Mardana, his Muslim companion, oblivious to our presence and detached from the world around him. In my imagination, I began visualising Iqbal Qaiser and my journey as an extension of Guru Nanak and Bhai Mardanas journey. We too travelled like vagabonds, learning the ways of the different people we met on the way. We too engaged in philosophical and religious discussions and despite our intellectual differences, adored each others company. It was through this understanding of our interactions, struggles and experiences that I was able to make sense of the experiences of Guru Nanak. For me then the second way of discovering Nanak was by walking with him. I wasnt interested in Nanak the saint but in Nanak the son, Nanak the father, Nanak the philosopher, Nanak the poet and Nanak the wanderer.

Discovering Nanak should have satisfied my curiosity; however, it only exacerbated the situation. I began seeing the contradictions between Nanak the man and Nanak the saint. Nanak vehemently spoke against organised religion and yet today, the religion that is attributed to him is one of the most prominent organised religions in the world. He abhorred the concept of associating miracles with religious personalities, but today, his biography is nothing but a story of his miracles. On his deathbed, he appointed not his son but his most loyal student as his spiritual successor. This was a clear indication that Nanak did not want his legacy to become a legacy based on kinship, but on intellectual and philosophical heritage. However, only a couple of successors down the line, the institution of Guruhood became a family affair, with all the Gurus hailing from the same family and drawing their legitimacy from Guru Nanak, calling themselves reincarnations of the first Guru.

The Janamsakhis are Sikh texts on Nanaks life, written by his devotees after his death. These are the primary sources we have on Nanaks life. These Janamsakhis, however, dont give us a clear picture of Nanaks life story. What they give us is a collection of Nanaks encounters with various people throughout his travels, recording the stories of his miracles. There are also different versions of Janamsakhis, which make it difficult to sift the truth about Nanaks life.

By drawing from his Janamsakhis , his poetry and my travels along Nanaks path, I have attempted to create a brief picture of Nanaks story, his beliefs, his strengths, his insecurities and his resilience. This part of the book is fictionalised. It was not possible to incorporate all the stories associated with Nanak into this book as I wanted to experience all the tales first-hand through travel to write about them and with my limited resources it was not possible to go everywhere Nanak had been on his travels. My research was limited to a few areas in Pakistan and therefore only a few tales from the Janamsakhis have been included in this book. My aim was not to dissect each and every tale associated with Nanak but rather to understand, holistically, the religious and philosophical ideas of Nanak.

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