A section from the journey
The Ten Gurus
Guru Nanak was the first of ten human Gurus. Each one carried the light forward and added something lasting. One gave the path its own script. One began the free kitchen where all eat side by side. One taught that the spirit and the world must both be cared for. Across more than two centuries, these ten teachers shaped the Sikh path into a full and living tradition.
Guru Nanak was the first teacher of this path, but not the last. After him came nine more, ten human Gurus in all. The line ran for more than two hundred years.
The tradition holds a beautiful idea about them. It says one single light passed from each Guru to the next, like one candle lighting another. The lamps were many, but the flame was one. So each Guru carried forward the very message Nanak had begun.
And each one added a lasting stone to the house. Let us name a few of these gifts, so you can feel how the path grew.
The second Guru, Angad, gave the path its own way of writing. It is called , which means "from the mouth of the Guru." With a script of their own, the hymns could be set down cleanly and kept pure for all who came after.
The third Guru, Amar Das, began something that still feeds millions today. It is the , the free kitchen. In the langar, everyone sits together in one long row on the ground and eats the same simple food. No one is above, no one below. A king and a beggar share one meal. It is the teaching of equality, made real and warm and edible.
The fifth Guru, Arjan, did two great things. He gathered the hymns of the Gurus into one holy book, which we will meet next. And he built a beloved central shrine, with doors on all four sides, to say that people from every direction were welcome.
These were hard times, and the path met real danger. Guru Arjan died a martyr under the rule of the emperor Jahangir. His death marked a turning point, and his son would answer it in a new way.
That son was the sixth Guru, Hargobind. He took up two swords, and he gave them names. One was miri, for worldly power and the duty to protect. The other was piri, for spiritual life and the love of God. He taught that a true person must care for both, the spirit within and the world around. A holy life is not only prayer. It also stands up for what is right.
The later Gurus led their people through more storms, which we will touch in the chapters ahead. Through all of it, the message Nanak first sang stayed steady, passed hand to hand down the line of ten.
Picture the langar, where a ruler and a poor traveller sit in the same row and eat the same bread. What would it feel like to share a meal that way, with no high seat and no low one?
Guru Nanak was the first of ten human Gurus, a line that ran for more than two hundred years, from about 1469 to 1708. The tradition holds that one single light passed from Guru to Guru, like one flame lighting the next lamp. Each Guru added something that endures. Guru Angad shaped the Gurmukhi script, giving the path its own way of writing. Guru Amar Das began the langar, the free kitchen where everyone sits in one row and shares one meal, prince and pauper alike. Guru Arjan gathered the hymns into a holy book and built a great central shrine. Guru Hargobind took up two swords, teaching miri and piri, that the world and the spirit must both be guarded. The later Gurus led the community through hard and dangerous times. We tell this not as Hindu history, but as the story of a neighbour tradition whose path crossed ours, told with care and respect.
❧1 of 1
Page 1 of 1