Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the founder of the Sikh faith, was the son of an official with a small holding of land in a village north-west of Lahore (in present day Pakistan). Guru Ji had his elementary education in the local language of the village and as a member of the Khatri caste his father made sure that he was tutored in the village Gurukul in the ancient Sanskrit and knowing well the value to be gained by learning Persian his father enrolled him with a scholar of that language as well. His father intended to train him as an accountant so that he could get a job in the court of the Muslim governor of the district. But Guru Nanak Dev Ji turned out to be indifferent to any attempt to teach him the standard subjects of business. He soon outdistanced his teachers as each found themselves unable to teach him as he had rapidly mastered the languages they had taught him. He roamed the forests around his village engaging in long discourses with holy men both Hindu and Muslim, who frequented the surrounding jungals, traveling through on their various pilgramages. Mixing with his friends of other castes and religions he was the despair of his parents as he would not attend to family business and spent what ever money they gave him on feeding the poor. When he grew up to be a young man, they arranged a marriage for him. For a time he devoted himself to the care of his wife, and two sons.

Then his search for truth became too over powering, having gone to work for his sister’s brother in the stores of a Muslim official he went out one morning to take his usual bath in a local river only to disappear. For three days his friends and his growing cadre of admirers (Sikhs they were called) feared that he had drowned. Some, jealous of his popularity, started the rumor that he had looted his employer’s stores and run away. On the third day Nanak reappeared and would only repeat, ‘There is no Hindu, there is no Mussulman’. By this statement he was stating that there was no difference between what the worshippers of the two differing religions – Hinduism and Islam were worshiping, he had realized that there was only one God who was the root of each religion and that service to ones fellow men was the way of realizing their mutual goal of being reunited with God the Father, creator of them all. After arranging for the care of his wife and sons, settling his affairs and quitting his job he and his Muslim friend, a musician named Bhai Mardana Ji set out on his first ‘Udasi’ (travel) preaching as they walked from village to village. Guru Ji composed his sermons in ragas (musical modes) which were sung to the accompaniment of Bhai Mardana’s Rabab (a simple lute style instrument) with a curved peg tuning board which could hang over Bhai Mardana’s shoulder as he walked.

Wherever they stopped, Guru Ji’s teachings would inspire the people and leave them singing the simple Bani in the fields as they worked. Within a few years these disciples became a homogeneous group whose faith was exclusively the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev Ji. In several trips that covered many years the young Guru traveled all over India. With a second companion a Hindu named Bhai Balla Ji they went as far east as Assam, as far south as Sri Lanka and as far to the north as Tibet. Later Guru Ji traveled westward beyond India to Mecca and Medina in Arabia, from where they returned by foot through Al Sham (Greater Syria), Bagdad, Persia and the land we now call Afganistan. Wherever he went, they sang Guru Nanak’s hymns, which told the people that if they wanted to love God they should learn first to love each other and always keep the Name of God on their lips. In a time of brutal oppression, his simple message of one loving God, the equality of men and even women (a radical thought in those days) and a life dedicated to returning to God’s Kingdom, not by practising religious austerities, but by living the life of a simple house holder (Grehsatti Jeevan) building a family and a loving relationship with ones wife and children – to the One God, by ones hard and honest work and even sharing ones blessings with the sick and homeless.

There are countless stories of Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s travels. Once Guru Ji came to a river for his morning bath only to find the water full of many Hindus who were, doing the age old Hindu morning ritual of saluting the Sun. Guru Nanak having grown up in a Hindu family knew just what they were up to. They were taking water in their clasped hands and throwing it at the rising Sun. Already well aware of what they were doing and why, the Guru knew that they had never even questioned the age old ritual. He was the sort of teacher that we all have grown up loving and admiring. The ones we all remember from our childhood, the ones that taught by example actually leading us to discover the answers for ourselves, to feel the answer in our soul, rather than using the age old pedantic method of ‘do and repeat what I say’. So giving them enough ‘rope with which to hang their beliefs’ in such rituals (that they had never even dared to question) he asked them what they were doing. They must have thought him mad, or at the least a stranger from some strange land, who had no idea of the important work they were doing.

One person raising the tone of his voice with each word, replied almost in disgust, “we are offering water to our ancestors who have gone to live in the stars near the Sun–their throats are parched and dry from the Sun’s great heat! Guru Ji replied, “That sounds like a great idea, let me try”. With this Guru Nanak Dev Ji turned in the opposite direction and started tossing handfulls of water towards the west, the crowd was dumbstruck. “What are you doing Fakir Ji?” you are wasting your time, why are you throwing water in the wrong direction. “Why, I am sending water to my parched fields in the Punjab”, he said, “if your water can reach the Sun surely mine can reach the Punjab which is only a few hundred miles away”. With this the people realised their folly, perhaps for the first time they questioned what they had been doing their whole lives.

Another story tells us of the time that Guru Ji met a very rich and successful man. The man invited Guru Sahib to his large and luxurious home. He had accumulated a vast fortune, no doubt by deceit and foul means and he even boasted of his wealth. He asked Guru Ji if there was anything he could do for his guest, such an obvious man of God. Guru Nanak saw a needle on the floor, picked it up and handed it to him, “Please give me this needle in the next world”, he said. With a puzzled look on his face the man replied, “How can I do that; One comes into this world with nothing and leaves it with nothing”. It was so quiet that you could hear that needle drop to the floor as the man realised that he had wasted his whole life and that none of the wealth he had amassed could be taken to the ‘next life.’ He fell at Guru Sahib’s feet. “Forgive me ” he cried.

Guru Nanak Dev Ji blessed him and told him the three rules all should live by:

Naam Japo – Recite the name of the Lord at all times.
Kirat Karo – Do an honest day’s work.
Wand Shako – Share your food with those around you.

Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s crusade was against intolerance which had become, on one hand the practice of their Muslim overlords bent on converting their Hindu subjects, to earn credits (as their ‘good angel’ which they all believed was sitting on their right shoulder) toted up their good deeds so they could enter the Kingdom of Heaven and on the other the meaningless rituals and gross discriminations of caste (and gender) which had become an integral part of Hindu life, where in order for some men (the Brahmins) who had written the laws in the first place to have someone to be superior to they had doomed others to lives as pariahs whose shadows, they told others, would pollute those of the higher privileged casts. Innocent men and women and children who were denied any chance at an education (would actually be killed if they were caught trying to read) and forced to do the foulest of tasks with death being their only chance to enter a higher caste.

Guru Ji spent the last years of his life with his family in the village he and his followers cleared on some land donated by another of his admirers. The village named Kartarpur (the village of the Creator, God’s Village) grew as people heard of this new way of living, where all men and women shared in the work and ate their meals in a communal kitchen (called the Guru ka Langar) with no distinction being made to their former caste. People flocked to the village to hear him sing his hymns. Even today Guru Ji is regarded as the symbol of harmony between the Muslims and the Hindus . A popular couplet describes him as:

The teacher Nanak is the King of holy men. The mentor of the Hindus, the religious leader of the Mussulmans.
Guru Nanak Dev Ji had a following of people from both Hinduism and Islam, it was left to his nine successor Gurus to mold that following into a distinct community with its own language, literature, its own religious beliefs and institutions and its own traditions and conventions.

Sri Guru Ramdas Ji (Jetha ji) was born at Chuna Mandi, Lahore (in Pakistan), on Kartik Vadi 2nd, (25th Assu) Samvat 1591 (September 24, 1534). Son of Mata Daya Kaur ji (Anup Kaur ji) and Baba Hari Das ji Sodhi Khatri was very handsome and promising child. His parents were too poor to meet even the daily needs and he had to earn his bread by selling boiled grams. His parents died when he was just 7 year old. His grandmother (mother’s, mother) took him to her native village Basarke. He spent five years at village Basarke earning his bread by selling boiled grams. According to some chronicles, once Sri Guru Amardas Ji came village Basarke to condole with the grandmother of Sri Guru Ramdas Ji at the death of her son-in-law and developed deep affection for Sri Guru Ramdas Ji. Along with grandmother he left for Goidwal Sahib to settle there. There he resumed his profession of selling boiled grams and also began to take part in the religious congregation held by Sri Guru Amardas Ji. He also made active participation in the development of Goindwal Sahib.

Sri Guru Ramdas Ji was married to Bibi Bhani Ji (daughter of Guru Amardas Sahib Ji). She bore him three sons: Prithi Chand Ji, Mahadev Ji and Arjan Sahib (Guru) Ji. After the marriage he stayed with his father-in-law and deeply associated himself with the Guru Ghar activities (Sikhism). He commanded full confidence of Sri Guru Amardas Ji and often accompanied him when the latter went on long missionary tours to different parts of India.

Sri Guru Ramdas Ji was a man of considerable merit. He became famous for his piety, devotion, energy and eloquence. Sri Guru Amardas Ji found him capable in every respect and worthy of the office of Guruship and installed him as Fourth Nanak on september 1, 1574. Sri Guru Ramdas Ji laid the foundation stone of Chak Ramdas or Ramdas Pur, which is now called Amritsar. For this purpose he purchased land from the zamindars of the villages: Tung, Gilwali and Gumtala, and began digging of Santokhsar Sarover. Later on he suspended the work on Santokhsar and concentrated his attention on digging Amritsar Sarovar. Bhai Sahlo Ji and Baba Budha Ji, the two devoted Sikhs were assigned the supervising work.

The new city (Chak Ramdas Pur) flourished soon as it was situated at the centre of international trade routes. It grew into an important center of trade in Punjab after Lahore. Sri Guru Ramdas Ji himself invited many merchants and artisans from the different walks of life and trades. Later on, it proved to be step of far-reaching importance. It provided a common place of worship to the Sikhs and paved the way for the future guidelines for the Sikhism as a different religion. Sri Guru Ramdas Ji introduced Masand system in place of Manji system and this step played a great role in the consolidation of Sikhism.

Sri Guru Ramdas Ji strengthened the Sikhism a step further by composing Four Lawans and advised the Sikhs to recite them in order to solemnize the marriages of their children. Thus he introduced a new matrimonial system based upon Sikhism instead of Hindu’s Vedi system. Thus this distinct marriage code for the Sikhs separated them from the orthodox and traditional Hindu system. Also made rapprochement with different sects of Udasis through Baba Shri Chand Ji. He, like his predecessors, carried forward the tradition of Guru ka Langer. Superstitions, caste system and pilgrimages were strongly decried.

He wrote 638 hymns in 30 ragas, these include 246 Padei 138 Saloks, 31 Ashtpadis and 8 Vars and are a part of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. He nominated his youngest son (Guru) Arjan Dev Sahib Ji as Fifth Nanak. After this he left Amritsar and retired to Goindwal Sahib. There, after a few days he passed away for heaven on Bhadon Sudi 3rd (2nd Assu) Samvat 1638 (September 1, 1581).

Guru Amar Das Ji was born in the village of Basarke on May 5, 1479. He was the eldest son of Tej Bhan a farmer and trader. Guru Amar Das Ji grew up and married Mansa Devi and had two sons Mohri and Mohan and two daughters Dani and Bhani. He was a very religious Vaishanavite Hindu who spent most of his life performing all the ritual pilgrimages and fasts of a devout Hindu.

It was not until his old age that Amar Das Ji met Guru Angad Dev Ji and converted to the path of Sikhism. He eventually became Guru at the age of 73 succeeding Guru Angad Dev Ji as described previously.

Soon large numbers of Sikhs started flocking to Goindwal to see the new Guru. Datu one of Guru Angad’s sons proclaimed himself as Guru at Khadur following his fathers death. He was so jealous of Guru Amar Das Ji that he proceeded to Goindwal to confront the Guru. Upon seeing Guru Amar Das Ji seated on a throne surrounded by his followers he said; “You were a mere menial servant of the house until yesterday and how dare you style yourself as the Master?”, he then proceeded to kick the revered old Guru, throwing him off his throne. Guru Amar Das Ji in his utter humility started caressing Datu’s foot saying; “I’m old. My bones are hard. You may have been hurt.” As demanded by Datu, Guru Amar Das Ji left Goindwal the same evening are returned to his native village of Basarke.

Here Guru Amar Das Ji shut himself in a small house for solitary meditation. There he attached a notice on the front door saying, “He who opens this door is no Sikh of mine, nor am I his Guru.” A delegation of faithful Sikhs led by Baba Buddha Ji found the house and seeing the notice on the front door, cut through the walls to reach the Guru. Baba Buddha Ji said, “The Guru being a supreme yogi, cares for nothing in the world – neither fame, nor riches nor a following. But we cannot live without his guidance. Guru Angad Dev Ji has tied us to your apron, where should we go now if you are not to show us the way?” At the tearful employment of the Sikhs, Guru Amar Das Ji was overwhelmed by their devotion and returned to Goindwal. Datu having been unable to gather any followers of his own had returned to Khadur.

Guru Amar Das Ji further institutionalized the free communal kitchen called langer among the Sikhs. The langar kitchen was open to serve all day and night. Although rich food was served there, Guru Amar Das Ji was very simple and lived on coarse bread. The Guru spent his time personally attending to the cure and nursing of the sick and the aged. Guru Amar Das Ji made it obligatory that those seeking his audience must first eat in the langer. When the Raja of Haripur came to see the Guru. Guru Amar Das Ji insisted that he first partake a common meal in the langer, irrespective of his cast. The Raja obliged and had an audience with the Guru. But on of his queens refused to lift the veil from her face, so Guru Amar Das Ji refused to meet her. Guru Amar Das Ji not only preached the equality of people irrespective of their caste but he also tried to foster the idea of women’s equality. He tried to liberate women from the practices of purdah (wearing a veil) as well as preaching strongly against the practice of sati (Hindu wife burning on her husbands funeral pyre). Guru Amar Das Ji also disapproved of a widow remaining unmarried for the rest of her life.

Goindwal continued to experience growth as many Sikhs thronged there for spiritual guidance. Pilgrims moved there in large numbers to be close to the Guru. Muslims and Hindus also moved to the thriving town. When there was racial fighting between the three groups and calls for revenge, Guru Angad Dev Ji instructed his Sikhs; “In God’s house, justice is sure. It is only a matter of time. The arrow of humility and patience on the part of the innocent and the peaceful never fail in their aim.”

Once during several days of rain while Guru Amar Das was riding by a wall which he saw was on the verge of falling he galloped his horse past the wall. The Sikhs questioned him saying; “O Master, you have instructed us, ‘fear not death, for it comes to all’ and ‘the Guru and the God-man are beyond the pale of birth and death’, why did you then gallop past the collapsing wall?” Guru Amar Das Ji replied; “Our body is the embodiment of God’s light. It is through the human body that one can explore one’s limitless spiritual possibilities. Demi-god’s envy the human frame. One should not, therefore, play with it recklessly. One must submit to the Will of God, when one’s time is over, but not crave death, nor invite it without a sufficient and noble cause. It is self-surrender for the good of man that one should seek, not physical annihilation. “

With a view of providing the Sikhs with a place where they could have a holy dip while visiting Goindwal the Guru had a type of deep open water reservoir called a baoli dug. As the Hindus believed in reincarnation in 84 hundred thousand species, Guru Amar Das Ji had the well dug with exactly 84 steps. To symbolize that God could be reached through his remembrance rather than just a cycle of reincarnations, he declared that who ever would descend the 84 steps for a bath while reciting the Japji of Guru Nanak at each step would be freed from the cycles of births and deaths.

When it came time for the Guru to marry his younger daughter Bibi Bani, he selected a pious and diligent young follower of his called Jetha from Lahore. Jetha had come to visit the Guru with a party of pilgrims from Lahore and had become so enchanted by the Guru’s teachings that he had decided to settle in Goindwal. Here he earned a living selling wheat and would regularly attend the services of Guru Amar Das Ji in his spare time.

In 1567 while on his way to Lahore the Emperor Akbar decided to visit and see for himself Guru Amar Das Ji. He stopped at Goindwal to meet the Guru, whose teachings he had heard about. The Guru agreed only to seem Akbar if he would first eat in the langer. Akbar agreed, and here the Emperor sat down and ate with the poorest of the poor in his company. Akbar was so impressed by Guru Amar Das Ji that he wanted to give the Guru a parting gift of the revenue collected from several villages to help support the langer kitchen. Guru Amar Das Ji refused saying that the langer must be self-supporting and only depend upon the small offerings of the devout.

The jealousy of the teachings of the Gurus by the high caste Khatris and Brahmins continued. They pleaded with Akbar at the royal court that the teachings of Sikhism would lead to disorder, as they went against the teachings of Hindus and Muslims. Akbar summoned the Guru to his court for an explanation. Guru Amar Das Ji politely excused himself on account of his old age, but sent Jetha to answer the charges leveled against the Sikhs. In the royal court, Jetha explained the teachings of Sikhism. Akbar was open minded and deeply impressed by the religious doctrine of the Sikhs and decided that no further actions were required.

Guru Amar Das Ji continued a systematic planned expansion of the Sikh Institutions. He trained a band of 146 apostles (52 were women) called Masands and sent them to various parts of the country. He also set up 22 dioceses called manjis across the country. These twenty two dioceses helped to spread Sikhism among the population while collecting revenues to help support the young religion. Guru Amar Das Ji also declared Vaisakhi (April 13), Maghi (1st day of Magha, mid January) and Diwali (festival of lights in October/November) as three special days where all the Sikhs should gather to hear the Guru’s words. Although advanced in years, Guru Amar Das Ji undertook a tour of a number of Hindu places of pilgrimage along the banks of the Yamuna and Ganga rivers as well as Kurukshetra. Here the Guru would hold religious services and large numbers of people would come to hear his preaching.

For their religious scriptures Guru Amar Das Ji collected an anthology of writings including hymns of Guru Nanak Dev Ji and Guru Angad Dev Ji and added his own as well as those of other Hindu saints whose poems conformed to the teachings of Sikhism. All of these were in Punjabi and easily understood by the common people. When a learned Brahmin once questioned the Guru; “Why do you impart instruction to your disciples not in Sanskrit, the language of gods in which all the Hindu lore is written, but in their mother-tongue, like Punjabi, the language of the illiterate mass.” To this Guru Amar Das Ji replied; “Sanskrit is like a well, deep, inaccessible and confined to the elite, but the language of the people is like rain water – ever fresh, abundant and accessible to all.” He said; “I want my doctrines to be propagated through every language which the people speak, for it is not language but the content that should be considered sacred or otherwise.”

Seeing the rapid expansion of Sikhism, Guru Amar Das Ji asked his son-in-law and trusted follower Jetha to oversee the founding of another city. He wanted him to dig a tank there and to build himself a house. Jetha first purchased the lands for the price of 700 Akbari rupees from the Zamindars of Tung. Here he started the digging on the tank. This new township called Ramdaspur would in due time become present day Amritsar, the holiest city of the Sikhs.

On September 1, 1574 sensing that his end was near, Guru Amar Das Ji sent for Baba Buddha Ji and other prominent Sikhs including his two sons Mohan and Mohri. He declared; “According to the tradition established by Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the leadership of the Sikhs must go to the most deserving. I, therefore, bestow this honour on my son-in-law Jetha.” Guru Amar Das then renamed Jetha as Ram Das, meaning Servant of God. As was the custom Baba Buddha Ji was asked to anoint the forehead of Amar Das  Ji with the saffron mark. All those present bowed before Guru Ram Das Ji except for Mohan, Guru Amar Das’s eldest son. Shortly thereafter Guru Amar Das Ji breathed his last on the full moon day of Bhadon in 1574 at the ripe old age of 95.