Thoughts of Guru Nanak

ON SUNDAY, November 2, many thousands marquee in the compound of the Sawan Ashram, Delhi to commemorate the five hundredth Anniversary of the birth of the first of the great Sikh gurus Guru Nanak Ji Maharaj.

Watching the eager throng as they waited patiently for the Master to take his seat on the rostrum, I sank into a reverie and my thoughts ran on in this wise:

These children of light, as the Master calls them in one of the many beautiful phrases that flow from him, have gathered here to do homage to that great light that shone in India five hundred years ago in Sant Satguru Nanak. 

It seemed to me that in doing obeisance to his memory in remembering the purity and saintliness of his life and in reflecting on the beautiful teachings he left behind, notable in that exquisite poem, Jap Ji, which our Master has so beautifully interpreted for us, we at the same time do reverence to all the great Master's who proceeded him, back to the beginning of time.

Down the ages came these great sons of God – God clothed in human form, for “the Father and the son are dyed in the same color” – and five hundred years ago Guru nanak took his place as a link in the Divine Chain. Completing his mission, he appointed his successor and departed to his own place. And so with each successive Sant Satguru down to the present living perfect Master, his holiness Sant Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj, in whom it seems the whole of the past is being unrolled before our wondering gaze.

O sons of God in glory clad, the light ablaze within moving in the heavenly Bani, the melody divine, we prostrate ourselves before the Lord Supreme.

Yet each conceals himself from mortal gaze in such perfect humility; the Buddha disdained a throne and in a simple yellow robe first found Enlightenment in solitude and moved in love among his fellow men, teaching the Eightfold path; Christ, the son of a carpenter having nowhere to lay his head, moved in lowly grace amongst the poor and lost, accepting a cruel death; Ravidas, the cobbler, Saina the Barber; Kabir, the weaver; Dhanna, the Jat; Namadeva, the calico printer; Guru Angad, who succeeded Guru Nanak; then Guru Amar Das down to Guru Gobind singh, the last of the great gurus in succession to Guru Nanak; tulsi sahib his royal origin disdained; Soamji; Jaimal Singh, a soldier, followed by Baba Sawan Singh, a military engineer; succeeded by the present living Master, Kirpal Singh a civil servant.

One and all of these great Master's living and teaching the same glorious truths adorning the path of the Master's, display one prominent characteristic – humility. Mightier than any Emperor, no earthly crown for them; no orb, no scepter; no clad in silks nor weighted down with precious stones; no outer pomp or splendor not even a religious emblem upon their persons; no attendant priests and acolytes; no palace, no armed guard and watching sentries; no retunue of servants surrounding them. But in peerless humility, the servant of all, each comes with his clarion call:

Awake! Arise! Stop not until the goal is reached!

So came Guru Nanak, “The servant of the servants of God.” and he calls to us:

Only he is alive. O Nanak who is attuned with him; all else are dead.

And immediately I recall the words of Christ: “Let the dead bury their dead; follow me!”

There is one supreme way in which we may honor Guru Nanak and all past Master's who are no longer linked with earth: this is to sit at the feet of the present living perfect Master, if we may be so divinely blessed, and do his will. Over the Master's chair in the verandah of the bungalow across the way, Christ’s words are writer:

If ye love me, keep my commandments.

It is not enough to read and talk about he Master; not enough to sit in rapt gaze before him, glorious privilege and blessing though his darshan be; not enough to offer him outer reverence. He asks nothing from us save only this: that we keep his commandments, seeking only to do his will. This is the love he will accept. Why? I think perhaps in this obedience which is the test of love, he is enabled to pour out his love even more abundantly upon us.

Even kings and emperors with heap of wealth and vast dominions 
Compare not with an ant filled with the love of God.

My reverie abruptly ended ; there was a stir in the audience the Master is coming – “Go ye forth to meet him” and with his other children I entered into the joy of his presence, hearing him sweetly say: children of light!

L. GURNEY PAROTT

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