The pioneer of Sikhism, Guru Nanak Dev Ji and the 9 Gurus left us infinite spiritual treasures and wisdom. I call these treasures the Spiritual Gems of Sikhism.
Today, I am going to share with you the first spiritual gem that was bestowed upon us by Guru Nanak Ji.
The Silent Teachings:
How many times have we all heard that this world is an illusion or maya? But hardly have we understood what this statement really means.
The materialistic world is more like a reflection of the inner spiritual journey of the soul. This is much evident from the spiritual teachings of our Gurus.
Maajh, Fifth Mehl
Sab Kuch Ghar Mein, Baahar Naahee
Everything is within the home of self, nothing is outside.Baahar tolai so, bharam bhulaaee
One who searches outside, is living in an illusion.Gur parsaadee jin antar paai-aa,
So antar baahar suhelaa jioo.
By Guru’s grace, one who has found the Lord within,
Is happy. Inwardly and outwardly, both.
Every act of our Gurus had a deep spiritual message behind it. The places and the things they created reflected the spiritual teachings of the Gurus and were symbolic of their spiritual messages.
For instance, the 4 doors of Harmandir Sahib (the Golden temple) were created as a symbolism of one of the greatest spiritual teachings bestowed upon us by our Gurus.
The 4 doors meant that everybody and anybody irrespective of their caste, religion, nationality, culture, etc. was accepted in the court of the Lord.
The 4 doors also meant that anybody could come through any door or any path and reach the ‘One Lord’ (Ik Onkar).
While our Gurus left their legacy after going through a lot of difficulties, it becomes our duty to understand their teachings in essence and implement the given teachings in our lives.
The 4 doors is just one of the ways in which Guru Sahib taught us that one and all are welcome in the court of the Lord. Guru Nanak Ji gave us this message in many ways. Another way in which this message was disseminated was through Guru Sahib’s Langar.
Guru Nanak Ji’s legacy is still ongoing with his daily langars in Gurudwaras in India & around the world.
The concept of Langar stated that all people irrespective of their economic or cultural backgrounds, sit together in harmony and eat the same food together. Today, Guru Nanak’s Langar serves free vegetarian food to anybody and everybody who visits the Gurudwara irrespective of their faith or background.
The deep spiritual reason for this concept laid by one of the greatest spiritual teachers, Guru Nanak Ji, was simply to make the seekers on the path understand that we are all souls in this human body.
And the souls, having no shape, color, gender, religion, caste or nationality, are the same in the eyes of the One Lord (Ik Onkar).
If the reason was solely to alleviate hunger of certain castes or serving specific groups of people, then that would have been laid down by Guru Nanak Ji very clearly at the very beginning of the Langar system. But we all know that is not the case.
The langar also gave us the opportunity to serve others. Seva or serving others voluntarily without any expectations of fruits in return actually plays one of the biggest roles in a seeker’s spiritual journey.
Nanak Naam Jahaaz Hai, Chadhey to utrey paar,
O Nanak, the Naam(Shabad) is the ship,
The one who boards it, crosses the ocean.Jo sardha kar sev de, Guru Par uttaaran haar.
The one who serves the Lord with utmost faith,
Crosses the ocean of birth & death forever by the Grace of the Guru.~ Guru Nanak Ji
This is because when we serve other people (or other souls), it helps our own soul (atma) slowly move towards the light by removing the darkness of separation that our minds have created amongst the people(souls) of this world, that are all a part of the Supreme Soul (the One Lord).
This wall of separation created by our egos in the form of color, caste, religion and nationalities needs to be brought down if we want our souls to shine and come forth in order to connect to the Source.
This is the reason that every Saint that came to this world laid much stress on the importance of Seva or voluntarily serving others.
This was the first Spiritual Gem of Sikhism that I shared with you today and there are infinite more bestowed upon us by our Gurus. Let us end this article by expressing deep gratitude to our Gurus, by closing our eyes and thanking them for their presence in our lives.
Waheguru.