Nation celebrates - Guru Nanak Gurpurab

Today is Guru Nanak Gurpurab – Guru Nanak Jayanthi ! 

Guru Nanak Gurpurab celebrates the birth of the first Sikh guru, Guru Nanak,   most celebrated   and the founder of Sikhism.    This is one of the most sacred festivals in Sikhism – as the festivities in the Sikh religion revolve around the anniversaries of the 10 Sikh Gurus.   

Gurū Nānak (15 April 1469 – 22 September 1539)   also known as Bābā Nānak ('Father Nanak'), was a   spiritual teacher, mystic and poet, who is regarded as the founder of Sikhism and is the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. Nanak  travelled far and wide across Asia teaching people the message of Ik Onkar ('One God'), who dwells in every one of his creations and constitutes the eternal Truth.  With this concept, he  set up a unique spiritual, social, and political platform based on equality, fraternal love, goodness, and virtue. Nanak's words are registered in the form of 974 poetic hymns, or shabda, in the holy religious scripture of Sikhism, the Guru Granth Sahib.   

                 The Gurdwara Janam Asthan in Nankana Sahib, Pakistan, commemorates the site where Nanak is believed to have been born.  Nanak was born on 15 April 1469 at Rāi Bhoi Dī Talvaṇḍī village (present-day Nankana Sahib, Punjab, Pakistan) in the Lahore province of the Delhi Sultanate, although according to one tradition, he was born in the Indian month of Kārtik or November, known as Kattak in Punjabi 

Nanak's teachings are reverred  in the Sikh scripture Guru Granth Sahib, as a collection of verses recorded in Gurmukhi.   The Adi Granth   its first rendition, was compiled by the fifth guru, Guru Arjan (1564–1606). Its compilation was completed on 29 August 1604 and first installed inside the Golden Temple in Amritsar on 1 September 1604.  The text consists of 1,430 angs (pages) and 5,894 shabads (line compositions), which are poetically rendered and set to a rhythmic ancient north Indian classical form of music

Guru Nanak Jayanthi  is one of three Sikh celebrations still calculated using the traditional Bikrami calendar, alongside Vaisakhi and Bandi Chhor Divas, where as the rest are determined now as per the Nanakshahi calendar.  Guru  was born on Puranmashi of Kattak in 1469, according to the Vikram Samvat calendar  on the Full Moon (Pooranmashi) of the Indian Lunar Month Kartik.  The Sikhs have been celebrating Guru Nanak's Gurpurab around November for this reason, and it has been ingrained in Sikh Traditions.  

The Akal Takht  is the most prominent of the five takhts (seats of authority) of the Sikhs. Located within the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in Amritsar, Punjab, India, it was established by Guru Hargobind in 1606 as a place to uphold justice and address temporal matters. The Akal Takht represents the highest seat of earthly authority for the Khalsa, the collective body of initiated Sikhs and serves as the official seat of the jathedar, the supreme spokesperson and head of the Sikhs worldwide.  Originally known as the Akal Bunga,  the building directly opposite the Harmandir Sahib was founded by sixth Sikh Guru, Guru Hargobind, as a symbol of political sovereignty and where spiritual and temporal concerns of the Sikh people could be addressed. 

"Waheguru" is a Sikh term for God, meaning "Wonderful Lord" or "The Divine Enlightener". It is a combination of the words "Wah(e)," an expression of wonder, and "Guru," a spiritual teacher who dispels darkness. Sikhs use "Waheguru" to express awe and to meditate on the divine 

Respects – Wahe Guru to Guru Nanak 

Regards – S Sampathkumar
5.11.2025

Pics of Golden temple taken by me during recent visit to Amritsar.