Guru Nanak Dev ji taught us how to seek God and live a pious life while attending to our responsibilities and duties. We should not seek to “renounce” the world, because we never can; while living in the world, we must devote ourselves to God.
As we celebrate his birth anniversary today, we need to think of his teachings, of how we need to meditate, understand and absorb Gurbani and perform sewa. Too many of us are trapped today in a world of “I” — we become egoistic and self-centred. We forget that Guru Nanak laid the foundations of a truly multi-cultural society. We have forgotten the wonderful feeling of surrendering to the Will of God.
Guru Nanak’s message of the oneness of God is as empowering today as it was more than five centuries ago. Please read this quote from Gurbani, where he dwells on the mystery of existence:
Where does he go and where from he comes?
What gives birth to him and what is it that he merges into in the end?
How is he enmeshed and how is he released?
How is he subsumed with the Eternal
He who treasures the Name in his Heart
And repeats the Name on his lips;
He who dwells in the Name becomes free from attachment like the Lord
By the Lord’s order he comes
By His order he departs
From ego he is born and from ego he stays
He who surrenders himself to God’s Will is released and remains not in bondage
He meditates on the Word and practises the Name, finding deliverance
Like birds flocking to the trees at night,
Men come into the world
Some have a peaceful existence, while others live in distress.
Every morning and evening, their eyes wander over the skies
And they roam aimlessly trapped in the cycle of their deeds.
Those seeped in the Name regard this world
As a grazier’s temporary hut in a rain-grown pasture.
The poisonous earthen vessel that contained their passions and anger is shattered
Without God’s remembrance life is empty
The Guru’s word dispels ignorance.
Man meets a revered soul if he is so destined
Those dedicated to Hari rejoice in truth
To His will they submit their body and soul.
I, says Nanak, would touch the feet of such men.
Guru Granth Sahib, page 152