Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the founding Guru of the Sikh Faith
Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, 1469-1538, is noted for the saying "There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim."
The Granth is the central text of Sikhism, a religion that emerged in the Punjab region of India in the 15th Century. Sikhism is a unique faith which has aspects of Islam: monotheism and iconoclasm, and Hinduism: reincarnation, karma and nirvana. However Sikhism is distinct from Hinduism and Islam.
Sikhism is one of the youngest world religions. After a revelatory experience at the age of about 38, Nanak began to teach that true religion consisted of being ever-mindful of God, meditating on God´s Name, and reflecting it in all activities of daily life. He condemned superstition and discouraged ritual. He traveled throughout India, Ceylon, Tibet, and parts of the Arab world with followers of both Hindu and Muslim origin, discussing his revelation with those he met. His followers became known as Sikhs.
Guru Nanak and his nine successors are known as gurus, which is a very common term in all Indian traditions for a spiritual guide or teacher. In Sikhism, Guru means the voice of God speaking through someone. Sikh gurus were careful to prevent worship being offered to them. The last living guru, Gobind Singh, who died in 1708, pronounced the end of the line of succession and declared that henceforth the function of the guru as teacher and final authority for faith and conduct was vested in the community and the Scriptures, the Guru Granth Sahib. It occupies the same place in Sikh veneration that was given to the living gurus.
Basic Beliefs - The seminal belief in Sikhism is found in the "Mool Mantra" with which the Guru Granth Sahib begins:
There is One God. He
- Is the Supreme Truth
- Is without fear
- Is not vindictive
- Is Timeless, Eternal
- Is not born, so He does not die to be reborn.
By Guru´s grace - He is revealed to the human soul. Truth was in the beginning, and throughout the ages. Truth is now and ever will be.Sri Guru Granth Sahib (Guru =spiritual teacher; Granth = book or volume; Sahib, an honorific signifying master or lord) is the name by which the holy book of the Sikhs is commonly known. It is a voluminous anthology of the sacred verse by six of the ten Gurus whose compositions it carries and of some of the contemporary saints and men of devotion. The book is treated by the followers as Word incarnate, the embodiment and presence manifest or the spirit of the ten historical Gurus (Guru Nanak to Guru Gobind Singh)
Guru Nanak Dev and his nine successors:
- Guru 2 - Guru Angad, 1504 - 1552 (Guruship- 1539-1515)
- Guru 3 - Guru Amar Das, 1479 - 1574 (Guruship, 1552-1574)
- Guru 4 - Guru Ram Das, 1534 - 1581 (Guruship, 1574-1581)
- Guru 5 - Guru Arjan Dev, 1563 - 1595 (Guruship 1581-1606)
- Guru 6 - Guru Harbobind Sahib Ji, 1595 - 1644
- Guru 7 - Guru Har Raj, 1630 - 1661 (Guruship 1644-1661)
- Guru 8 - Guru HarKishan Sahib Ji, 1656 -1664 (Guruship 1661-1664)
- Guru 9 - Guru Tegh Bahadur, 1656 - 1664 (Guruship 1664-1675)
- Guru 10 - Guru Gobind Singh Ji, 1666-1708 (Guru ship 1675-1708)