Ten Companions of God (Life and Teaching of The Sikh Gurus)

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God is one, but the ways to reach him are many!

This central thought in the Gita, has also been the dearly held ideal of Gurudev Sadhu Vaswani – an ideal which is upheld by Rev. Dada J.P Vaswani, the metor and spiritual head of the Sadhu Vaswani Mission.

It is in this spirit of reverence and admiration that Rev. Dada offers for our reading, his own distinct tribute to the Great Sikh Gurus who have always been a tremendous sources of inspiration to him and his ancestors. This book is much more than a biographical account of the great Masters; nor is it another compendium of their invaluable teaching. Rav. Dada’s stated wish is to talk about them and the values for which they stood, values which were translated into thoughts and words and deeds in their life and teachings.

Gurudev Sadhu Vaswani urged every young Indian to become a sipahi in the service of his country and his faith; the great Sikh Gurus are soldier saints whose lives were not divorced from action and the service of society. Reading about them in Rev. Dada’s inimitable account is sure to inspire you with the same ideals! They gave to the world not another dogmatic faith, but a way of life which we would do well to emulate!

Salutations to the great Gurus!

Mentored, guided, blessed and moulded by Gurudev Sadhu Vaswani, I have always held the great Masters of all Faiths in great respect. As it seems to me, no other writer, no other spiritual leader has written so extensively on the great Ones of East and West. Sadhu Vaswani studied their lives, imbibed the best of their teachings and shared the essence of their wisdom with one and all, through his inspired discourses and brilliant written works. He wrote with equal fervour of Jesus Christ and Prophet Muhammad; of Gautama Buddha and Mahavira; of Kabir and Chaitanya; of Rabia and Mira; of Guru Nanak and Sri Ramakrishna; of Adi Shankara and St. Francis; of Tukaram and St. Augustine - of scores of saints and sages, belonging to all countries, races and religions.

He believed in the unity of all races and religions, in the One Spirit. His heart rose in reverence for all saints and prophets of East and West. "My religious philosophy," he said, "is theomonoistic. My reverence for Krishna and the Buddha and Christ and Nanak is top deep for words. And I have learnt, not without some study and meditation, to salute Muhammad among the Prophets of God."

And again, "There are so many who can believe only one thing at a time. I am so made as to rejoice in the many and behold the beauty of the One in the many. Hence my natural affinity to many religions: in them all I see revelations of the One Spirit. And deep in my heart is the conviction that I am a servant of all Prophets."

His life was radiant with the great truth of fellowship with all creation. "The creation of God," he said, "is bound by golden chains to the feet of the One God, the One Divine Father of us all."

Thus spoke the soul of Sind!

My native land, Sind, on the banks of the Vedic Sindhu river, was the cradle of one of the world's greatest civilisations. Sind was not only the birthplace of the Rig Veda. It was also the land of fakirs and dervishes, of pirs and dargahs, of Sufi poetry immortalised by Shah Abdul Latif, Sachal Sarmast, Bedil and Bekas. Here, saints and sages, poets and prophets lived together, contributing to its rich heritage in religion, culture, literature and art. Situated on the margin of both the Indian subcontinent and the lands lying to its west, it was, in the long course of its history, influenced by events on both sides of its frontiers.

In the sixteenth century the teachings of Guru Nanak reached Sind. Oral tradition has it that Guru Nanak visited Shikarpur, in northern Sind, in the course of his wanderings. His bani, drawn from Sufi mystics, the Bhakti saints of India and from his own experiences and realisations, touched the hearts of all who heard it. Like the Sufis, Guru Nanak rejected the differences of caste, used music and song to express His devotion and preached about the importance of the Guru in the language of the people. Like them too, He broke away from the orthodox stream of His own religious tradition and acted as a bridge between the Hindus and the Muslims. To this day, most Sindhi Hindus revere the Guru Granth Sahib as their sacred text.

As we know, the word Sikh is derived from the Sanskrit word, Sishya. Every true Sikh is expected to be a faithful disciple of his Gurus.

As one who has always regarded himself as a disciple of all the great ones of East and West, my affinity to the Sikh faith and the great Sikh Gurus is perhaps understandable!

It is in this spirit of reverence and admiration that I bring before my readers this humble tribute to the great Sikh Gurus who have always been a tremendous source of inspiration to the land of my ancestors. This is not just meant to be an exhaustive biographical account of the great Masters, or indeed a comprehensive account of their invaluable teachings. My wish is to talk about them and the values for which they stood, values which were translated into thoughts and words and deeds in their life and teachings.

Sadhu Vaswani urged every young Indian to become a sipahi in the service of his country and his faith; the great Sikh Gurus are soldier saints whose lives were not divorced from action and the service of society. They gave to the world not another dogmatic faith, but a way of life which we would all do well to emulate!