Sri Nanak Dev     

Thus said Banda:
My Lord, when thou spoke thus of Sri Nanak Dev
Thou glow’st with a halo that radiance gave.
He was a savior who brought resurrection
To India’s past of spiritual perfection.
And he did it, as dost thou, by skill in action,
Conveying that work is the soul’s satisfaction.
The marvels he worked through the alchemy of Name
Transformed all his men-not one stayed the same.
Please tell me about that great mystic wonder-
That men could be changed, their blocks rent asunder.

Thus spoke Guru Gobind:
You have, my disciple, brought up a principle
That explains why we Sikhs are so often invincible.
Sri Nanak Dev, God’s instrument on earth,
Inspired his people to experience rebirth.
They had been living in defeat and despair;
For ideals and values they did not even care.
Their psyches were crushed and so was their culture,
Futility hung ‘round their minds like a vulture.
Sri Nanak Dev’s message fully inspired them.
He gave them dreams that zealously fired them.
Then they trusted in him, but more, in themselves.
He heartened their courage to go inward, where delves
The seeker of power, of wisdom, success.
And there they found God, who then did them bless.
They repeated God’s Name with each breath of their life,
And thus they found valor and freedom from strife.
Sri Nanak Dev’s love inspired them to create
Themselves and their world by the glorious template
Of dharma’s great pattern of beauty and power.
It assured them success from that very hour.
He put them in tune with the way of the Lord
And kept them aloof from opinions untoward.
He focused them all on one single shared goal,
Chann’ling the Divine from within every soul
To uplift themselves and their people through love
So their every thought was directed above.
In this magic transformed, and now few can compare
With their dignity, reverence, and holy compassion
In service to God without any ration.

His tradition was not that of sadhu or priest
But of princes and generals whose lives increased
The quality of existence for the people they led.
To the people whose spirits and bodies were fed
By their noble efforts and shining example
They gave them on earth tastes of heaven to sample.
Men like Janak and Arjun who gave sacred food-
Kshatriyas, kings: men of great magnitude-
Were the ones who preceded him to the role
Of rousing the people, their hope to extol.
They built social perfection on a spiritual foundation
So all could be joyous in their great holy nation.
He taught not outer form but honored the essence
That pervades the form with its iridescence.
A man of the Lord, he knew that real worship
Means service to man and direct sponsorship
Of the dictates of dharma in their daily lives
So their essence unfolds and the network survives.
With spiritual motive expressed as humanitarian
He served to unite the nation Aryan.
His life portrayed that the one greatest prayer
Is to work selflessly for the human welfare.

Sri Nanak Dev was the first of his house,
All of whose teachers did rightly espouse
The wisdom of India found in Vedanta
And then simplified in the Sri Adi Grantha.
He embodied the teachings that he so adored
As he loved the people, whom he implored
To live by the noble ideas that were stored
In ancient scripture and the heart’s own record.
For each human soul has the Veda within it
Needing only the guru or the word Infinite
To awaken that knowledge to the conscious realm
Where it can serve others with God at the helm.
The Grantha springs forth from the same lofty mountain
That upholds the Veda in its holy fountain.
The two as one flowed from Sri Nanak Dev,
The people of Punjab and the whole world to save.
He was the spirit of the Veda reborn,
The noble, high brow of Bharat to adorn.
His teachings came forth direct from the Source,
And he conveyed them with such a pure force
That his successors all had the strength to sustain
The high spiritual wisdom that he did attain.
They passed it on so our nation could grow
Along dharma’s guidelines. Then it could show
Its ancient wisdom to the future ages,
So they could imbibe the Truth of the sages.
His inner teachings are told in the Grantha
So all men may come in touch with the pantha
That leads them to give to all and to share
Heavenly rapture and love b’yond compare.