T. V. Kapali Sastry provides an overview of Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Guru Nanak and Guru Govind Singh
After a short stay with the Sadhus and Fakirs, with whom he had been lately in close touch, accompanied by his minstrel Mardana he embarked on his life-work. He first proceeded to Sayyidpur, stayed with Mardana in the house of Lalu, a carpenter, for two days and prolonged his stay at his request. He cared not to observe the caste rules and dined not within the sacred lines. When questioned he said: “The whole earth is my sacred lines and he is pure who loves truth.” Thence he and Mardana proceeded to many villages in the Punjab. Once when Mardana, at the Guru’s bidding, went to a village for food, he returned with large offerings of presents. The Guru asked him to throw them away and explained the disastrous effects of offerings on laymen. "These are poison hard to digest.” He once accepted the false hospitality of Sheikh Sajjan, a notorious robber, who used to consign his guests into a well to perish. When after dinner, the Guru sang a hymn with the robber’s permission, it went home to him and so changed his heart that he fell at the Guru’s feet, confessed and received the God’s name. At Kurukshetra, Nanak attended a religious fair. He cooked a deer for food which was indeed a horror to the Brahmins who called him a heretic. He brought home to the Pandits and the people there how they had forgotten the essentials, the noble ideals of the forefathers and confined themselves to the externals. He was unsparing in his treatment of superstition and outspoken in his condemnation of hypocrisy. He said: "The Hindus are going to hell. Death will seize and mercilessly punish them.” A Brahmin in his pharisaical pride challenged him. The Guru retorted: "Yes, you do Jap, repeat God’s name. It is true that if you do it with true love, you will not be damned. But your hands take the rosaries and count the beads. Your minds are bound to worldly objects. One is thinking of trade in Multan, another of his gain in Kabul. Is this not sham, rank hypocrisy? Can you deceive God ?"
After a short stay with the Sadhus and Fakirs, with whom he had been lately in close touch, accompanied by his minstrel Mardana he embarked on his life-work.
He first proceeded to Sayyidpur, stayed with Mardana in the house of Lalu, a carpenter, for two days and prolonged his stay at his request. He cared not to observe the caste rules and dined not within the sacred lines. When questioned he said: “The whole earth is my sacred lines and he is pure who loves truth.” Thence he and Mardana proceeded to many villages in the Punjab.
Once when Mardana, at the Guru’s bidding, went to a village for food, he returned with large offerings of presents. The Guru asked him to throw them away and explained the disastrous effects of offerings on laymen. "These are poison hard to digest.” He once accepted the false hospitality of Sheikh Sajjan, a notorious robber, who used to consign his guests into a well to perish. When after dinner, the Guru sang a hymn with the robber’s permission, it went home to him and so changed his heart that he fell at the Guru’s feet, confessed and received the God’s name.
At Kurukshetra, Nanak attended a religious fair. He cooked a deer for food which was indeed a horror to the Brahmins who called him a heretic. He brought home to the Pandits and the people there how they had forgotten the essentials, the noble ideals of the forefathers and confined themselves to the externals. He was unsparing in his treatment of superstition and outspoken in his condemnation of hypocrisy.
He said: "The Hindus are going to hell. Death will seize and mercilessly punish them.” A Brahmin in his pharisaical pride challenged him. The Guru retorted: "Yes, you do Jap, repeat God’s name. It is true that if you do it with true love, you will not be damned. But your hands take the rosaries and count the beads. Your minds are bound to worldly objects. One is thinking of trade in Multan, another of his gain in Kabul. Is this not sham, rank hypocrisy? Can you deceive God ?"
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