Chapter 2

SEARCH FOR AN OCCUPATION

Nanak had entered his fourteenth year, but his father Kalyan Chand had still not been able to figure out what work his son should take up. He knew that there was no point in asking Nanak to take up a task he did not like; he would only give it up after some time, just as he had given up his studies.

Kalyan Chand observed Nanak closely. Nanak was spending more and more time all by himself in the forest around Talwandi. This activity seemed to give him the maximum pleasure. The Bedis had a large herd of cattle, and taking them out to graze was an important task. Perhaps Nanak could take on the management of the herd. It would give him the chance to be by himself in the area around the forest. When this idea was discussed with him, Nanak was more than happy to take on the task.

Nanak took the cattle out to the common grazing grounds and into the forest. All day he would let them feed on the grass and the fresh leaves of the bushes, and in the evening he would drive them back home. Day after day he followed this routine. He was able to spend a long time alone with his thoughts. However, he loved the animals too and made sure that each of them ate well. He was no longer restless and his mother was happy to see this change in him.

From Kalyan Chand’s point of view, there seemed to be a general improvement in Nanak’s attitude. He performed his duties well; he spent more time at home with his mother and his father, and was friendlier with the villagers. He carried out other errands too for his father and performed them well. Kalyan Chand felt that his son was now ready to take on greater responsibility. He called the boy to him and gave him twenty silver coins.

‘My son, you must go to the town of Chuharkana. It is market-day there today. Take your friend Bala with you. Buy some goods and then sell them at a slightly higher price here in Talwandi, and thus make a profit,’ he said gently.

Nanak, in his new mood, was eager to please his father. ‘I will do so, father,’ he said and, accompanied by his friend Bala, he set out for the nearby town.

When they had reached the outskirts of the village, they came to a little path that led through the forest and was a short cut to the market town. In the middle of the forest, there was a clearing where various holy men camped when they passed through Talwandi. Nanak would often visit this place and listen to the holy men as they held their discussions and exchanged ideas. As a result, at a very young age, he had learnt a great deal about different religions and different religious movements. It was here that he met the Muslim scholar Sajjid Hussain and had first learnt about Sufism. Now too he stopped at the path which led to the clearing and after pausing for a moment or two, he said to his friend Bala, ‘Let us take the path through the forest.’

‘No,’ Bala replied sharply, knowing that Nanak wanted to take the path not because it was the shorter way, but because he hoped to meet some holy men in the forest. If that happened, they would spend many hours there and would be late for their errand at the market.

‘Let us take the main road,’ Bala said. However, Nanak smiled at him and walked quickly down the path, and Bala had no choice but to run after him. Nanak had heard that there was a group of holy men in the forest who belonged to the Nirbani sect. He had never met any holy men from this sect before and was anxious to meet them.

The two friends came to the clearing in the forest and saw a large group of sadhus there. All of them were naked and stood in different postures, absorbed in meditation and prayer.

Nanak and Bala stood at the edge of the clearing, taking in this strange scene. However, Bala was impatient to get to the market. ‘Let’s go or we will be late,’ Bala said, pulling at Nanak’s sleeves.

‘I will take only a few moments,’ Nanak said and strode through the clearing and stopped before an elderly sadhu, who was obviously the leader. The leader’s eyes were closed and his lips moved in silent prayer. At last, his prayers over, he opened his eyes. Nanak bowed to him and the holy man held up the palm of his right hand in blessing. Then he signalled to Nanak to sit down.

‘Maharaj, why do you not wear any clothes?’ Nanak asked.

‘We are Nirbanis,’ the holy man said, a gentle smile playing on his lips. ‘We do not want anything that will bind us to this world. So we do not wear any clothes. We do not look for food too, and eat only when God sends us food,’ he finished.

‘And when did God last send you food?’ Nanak asked.

‘For me it was three days ago. For the other four men it has been eight days.’

Nanak was perturbed that these holy men should have gone hungry for so long. Perhaps God intended that he should be the instrument through whom they would be fed. He bowed to the sadhu, took his leave, and hurried to the market town.

When the duo reached Chuharkana, Nanak spent all his money on buying food items. He bought flour, oil, sugar, and many other things. He bargained fiercely and beat the prices down to a considerable extent. Bala was sure that when they sold their purchases in Talwandi they would make a good profit, and Kalyan would be very proud of his son.

The two friends took much longer on the return trip because they were burdened by the weight of their purchases. They reached the clearing in the evening, and when Nanak took the load from his head and put it on the ground, Bala was happy to do the same. He was tired and was glad that Nanak had stopped to rest. As he wiped the sweat from his brow, he saw Nanak approach the leader of the Nirbanis and bow to him.

‘Holy one, God has sent food for you and for all the other holy men of your group,’ said Nanak. Bala was shocked beyond words when he heard this.

Nanak bowed to the holy men once again and, with Bala following, made his way out of the forest. When at last they reached the small mango grove just outside Talwandi, Bala stopped and said, ‘Your father is going to be very angry because you have thrown away his money. He wanted you to make a good profit, but see what you have done.’ He stopped to catch his breath and then went on, ‘I will tell him the truth. I will tell him that if is all your doing; that I tried to stop you but you did not listen.’

Both friends were quiet. Their thoughts were on Kalyan’s anger.

‘You go ahead, Bala. I will stay here,’ Nanak said. So Bala left his friend and made his way to the village. Because he loved Nanak very much and was afraid of what Kalyan Chand in his anger would do to him, he went quietly to Nanak’s house and first told Nanki what had happened. It was only after this that he went to report it to Kalyan Chand. Fortunately Rai Bular was present when Bala related the story.

Kalyan was furious and said, ‘Take me to where he is hiding.’ They both hurried to the mango grove, followed by Rai Bular and Nanki. Kalyan Chand caught hold of Nanak and shook him hard.

‘You waster, what have you done with my money?’ He sounded so angry that Rai Bular was afraid he might strike the boy. He held his friend back.

‘If the loss of twenty silver coins troubles you so much, I will give you the money. But do not berate the boy,’ Rai Bular said in a soft, gentle voice.

Kalyan was quiet for a while. But the whole affair had been too much for him: His dreams of his son’s greatness now lay shattered.

‘Greatness!’ he said bitterly. ‘Pundit Hardyal said my son would be a great man, and look what he has become! He cannot even be trusted with twenty silver coins,’ he continued angrily.

Rai Bular put his arm around the boy’s shoulders and spoke kindly to his friend. ‘Pundit Hardyal was right. Tell me, my friend, what greater profit can a man earn than the merit he earns from feeding the hungry? He has invested your money wisely.’ The Bhatti’s words softened Kalyan’s anger a little.

Nanak was upset at his father’s anger. When his mother gave him his evening meal he refused to eat it. His mother said, ‘You have earned so great a merit by feeding twenty hungry men. Will you not let me earn a little merit by feeding just one hungry boy?’ She smiled and caressed his hair as she said this. Nanak felt the sadness lift from his heart at once. Despite his father’s anger, he was glad that he had fed the holy men. He smiled at his mother and ate his food.

After the incident when Nanak had spent the money on feeding the holy men, Kalyan Chand barely spoke to his son. Though he did not scold Nanak, Nanki, who was on a visit to Talwandi, knew it was only a question of time before his anger erupted again. She was frightened by the prospect of what might happen. One night, while the men slept, she voiced her fears to her mother.

‘I am frightened too,’ Tripta said in a whisper. She added, ‘I am also frightened by the thought that Nanak will, one day, go away from us. He spends so much time listening to the holy men who wander from place to place. I am frightened that one day, like them, he too will want to wander off on pilgrimages.’ Her voice broke as she spoke and she began to cry softly in the dark. Nanki reached out and held her mother’s hand.

Nanki finally found a way to resolve the difficult situation. Perhaps Nanak should go away from Talwandi for a while. He would thus be away from his father’s anger and also from the influence of the holy men. Perhaps when the time came for her to go back to Sultanpur, she should take him with her. The more she thought on the matter, the more she felt it was the right thing to do.

When her husband Jairam came to Talwandi, a few days later, Nanki confided her plan to him. ‘Yes, it is a very good idea. Nanak should come away with us. It will be good to have him with us in Sultanpur,’ he said.

So the next morning, when Kalyan had gone to work and Nanak had gone for a walk, Jairam seated himself close to his mother-in-law. Tripta sat at her spinning wheel. Nanki, having prearranged it, left them alone and went into the kitchen.

‘Mother, I have been thinking of Nanak. He spends too much time with the holy men,’ said Jairam.

Tripta said with a sigh, ‘Yes. Sometimes I am afraid that he will start going on pilgrimages with them and be away from home for great lengths of time.’

‘If you permit, mother, I want to take him with me to Sultanpur,’ said Jairam. The thread snapped and Tripta stopped in her spinning. Her son had never been away from her for a single day and the prospect of him going away now caused her much heartache. But at the same time, she knew that this was the only way to keep him from being influenced by sadhus and faqirs and to protect him from his father’s anger.

‘Yes, yes of course,’ she said, still not looking up, afraid that Jairam would see the sadness in her eyes.

‘You are his brother; you know what is best for him,’ she said. She looked up at last, and smiled at her son-in-law, but he saw the tears glistening in her eyes.

‘Do not worry, mother. It will only be for a short while. He will come back to you with his mind cured of all these thoughts and after having achieved something in life. Then his father will not be angry with him,’ he said.

In the afternoon, Jairam carried his father-in-law’s lunch to him. As Kalyan sat eating his meal, Jairam suggested that Nanak should go with him to Sultanpur.

‘It is a good idea. I have not been able to do anything for the boy here. He might find some useful employment in Sultanpur and finally settle down. You must first go back to Sultanpur and see what chance there is of his finding a suitable job there,’ Kalyan Chand said.

Fifteen days after Nanki and Jairam had left for Sultanpur, a messenger arrived with a letter for Kalyan. Jairam had spoken to Nawab Daulat Khan Lodhi and the Nawab had promised to help Nanak. The message said it was imperative that Nanak should come to Sultanpur at the earliest.

A few days later, Nanak set out on his journey to Sultanpur, accompanied by Mardana, who was Nanak’s childhood friend. He belonged to a family of Dun Muslims, who were professional singers and rabab players. Nanak was fascinated by music and he spent many hours in the house of Mardana and thus became friends with Mardana.

Nanak never really returned to Talwandi again. He came back on short visits but it was never again to be his home.

Sultanpur was, at that time, a rich and prosperous town. This was mainly because of Nawab Daulat Khan. He had beautified the city and had built many gardens and grand buildings. He also brought learned people to Sultanpur, and thus the town became the home of teachers and scholars, who taught in the many Islamic schools that had been set up there.

Nanak and his companion, Mardana, were given a warm welcome on their arrival at Sultanpur, and the next morning Nanak accompanied Jairam to the Nawab’s palace. As they were getting ready to leave the house, Nanki offered her brother a bowl of curd and sugar. Nanak said, ‘I know you do this because you love me; you believe that this will bring me luck and the Nawab will give me employment. But sister, if merely by eating curd and sugar we could ensure good fortune, no one would need to work. No one would believe in God.’

There were signs of great wealth everywhere in the Nawab’s palace: in the furniture, in the decor and in the clothes that the people wore. Nanak came into the Nawab’s presence, and like Jairam, bowed before him in greeting, but when he looked up again he looked the Nawab straight in the eye.

‘Come and sit beside me,’ the Nawab said, pointing to the small stool by his side. ‘Did you have any trouble on your way?’ he asked.

‘No sir, we had a comfortable journey.’ The Nawab was pleased with the young man’s manners. He liked the fact that Nanak was polite and well-behaved, yet there was no fear or deference in his eyes and voice – emotions that other people showed when they were in his presence.

The Nawab was a busy man. Yet he put all his work aside and sat and talked to Nanak for a long time. He remembered what Sayed Hassan, a Muslim scholar from Talwandi, who came to teach at one of the Islamic schools in Sultanpur, had told him about Nanak. Sayed Hassan had praised Nanak’s knowledge and interest in religion. By the end of the meeting the Nawab had appointed Nanak as the officer in charge of his modikhana.

The modikhana was the Nawab’s granary. It was a very important part of his office, because in those days farmers were given the option to pay their taxes either in either cash or in kind, and most of them chose to pay in kind, through grains. Part of the salary of the court officials was also paid in grains. So Nanak had to measure and record, not only the grains that came into the modikhana but also the grains that went out. Nanak had always been quick to learn and soon he was adept at his work. Nanki was happy that her brother seemed, at last, to have settled down.

The Nawab noticed how well Nanak worked and, in appreciation of his good work, gave him a house near the modikhana. The new house was a small one but Nanak was quite happy: he had never wanted anything more than a roof over his head. Nanki helped her brother settle into his new home; and Mardana, who moved in with Nanak, took charge of the household.

Soon Nanak’s life established a pattern. He would wake up before the crack of dawn and go to bathe in the waters of the Bein, a rivulet that flowed close to Sultanpur. After this he would spend some time in meditation. Then he would come home and have his morning meal and go to the modikhana. The day would pass quickly in work. He was very sincere, honest, and hard-working, and recorded all transactions scrupulously. At the end of each month, he carried out a physical stock-taking to ensure that the stock of grains in the store tallied with the quantity entered in his account books. All through the day he would work and, in the evening, he would return home. Sometimes he would go to his sister Nanki’s house and spend an hour or two with her.

Guru Nanak was about twenty-seven years old when he moved to Sultanpur. He had got married in the year 1487, and had been blessed with two sons. His father-in-law was Mulchand Khatri who lived in the town of Batala in Punjab. He had a daughter Sulakhni, who was said to be polite and soft-spoken. Both Jairam and Nanki had felt that she would make a good match for Nanak. It was during his stay at Sultanpur that his sons, Sri Chand and Lakhmi Das, were born, in the years 1494 and 1496 respectively.

Sulakhni was as gentle as Nanak and made friends easily. Her best friend was Nanak’s sister, Nanki. She was also very hard-working. From an early age she had helped her mother with the household chores and knew exactly what was needed to ensure that her own household ran smoothly. She had to prepare an evening meal without knowing how many people would be eating, because the number of people who came to participate in kirtans (devotional songs) led by Nanak, varied every day. She followed her husband’s life; she woke before Nanak was awake, and made all her husband’s guests feel welcome at her home.

Close to Sultanpur was a village, Malvian, and there lived a man named Bhagirath, who spent a great deal of time in the company of saints and holy men. He heard that Nanak, who looked after the Nawab’s modikhana in Sultanpur, was a holy man. So he came to Sultanpur and attended the kirtan at Nanak’s home. The kirtan touched his heart deeply and he was so influenced by Nanak’s teachings that he took up abode in Sultanpur and became Nanak’s first disciple.

Eleven years after Nanak’s wedding, there was another wedding in the house – Mardana’s daughter’s wedding. Bhagirath was entrusted with the shopping. He went to Lahore for this purpose and came in contact with a trader named Mansukh. Mansukh was so impressed by what Bhagirath told him about Nanak that he too travelled to Sultanpur and became Nanak’s disciple.

Professionally too, Nanak was doing well. The Nawab was very pleased with his work and showed him many favours. This aroused jealousy in the minds of some of the courtiers and they began to spread false tales about Nanak. They said that he was stealing from the modikhana and this was how he was able to feed so many people every evening. These rumours spread amongst the courtiers and some of the senior and trusted among them, took it upon themselves to complain to the Nawab that Nanak was misusing his position.

Nanak too heard these stories and, one morning, he went to see the Nawab about this.

‘What is it, Nanak? What has happened?’ he asked after greetings had been exchanged.

‘There are people who say that I have stolen grain from the modikhana,’ Nanak said, coming at once to the point. ‘I would like you to have an audit so that the stores can be properly checked and accounted for,’ he said and held out the keys to the modikhana.

‘I do not believe these accusations,’ the Nawab said. ‘I know that you are honest, that you sometimes give out more grain than is their due, to the poor people. But I also know that you keep a careful account of all this and make it up at the end of every month. But yes, it is important that your name should be cleared and all these rumours should be laid to rest and the rumour-mongers shown up to be the liars that they are,’ the Nawab said. He took the keys from Nanak and asked his treasurer to check the stores and the accounts. As was expected, everything was found to be in order.

A few days later, Nanak did not return home after his morning bath in the stream. When people went to look for him, they found his clothes on the river-bank but there was no sign of him. So they concluded that he had been drowned. The Nawab heard the news and came galloping to the spot, his officers riding close besides him.

‘Get the fishermen’s nets. Drag the waters. Hurry,’ he shouted. While his orders were being carried out, he thought of Nanak. Nanak was a good swimmer, so it was unlikely he could have come to any harm. But perhaps Nanak had been so perturbed by the recent happenings that, lost in his thoughts, he might have swum into an unsafe part of the stream and been carried away by the current. Hours passed and, one by one, his officers returned.

‘Did you find anything?’ he asked each of them, and each shook his head in the negative. By now all his followers had gathered at Nanak’s house. The men sat in silence, frightened by what was believed to have happened. Sulakhni was dazed with grief and her little sons broke into tears.

Nanki alone did not believe that her brother had died. She comforted Sulakhni and her nephews and assured them that nothing had happened to Nanak, and that he would soon be home again. This reassurance brought them hope and strength. ‘You wait and see. Nanak will soon return,’ she said. And on the third day, Nanak indeed returned.

What had happened was that while swimming in the rivulet Nanak had heard a voice – a voice with a strange dream-like quality to it. The voice told him that he must travel from village to village, and take his teachings to the common people. When he woke from the dream, he found that he had been meditating in the jungle. This was where he was found by the Nawab’s servants, who had brought him back to town.

His disciples were very happy to see that their fears had been proved wrong. The Nawab too was very happy to see Nanak return safe and sound. The first words that Nanak spoke on that occasion were: ‘There is but one God. There is no Hindu and no Musalman.’

This was the proclamation of Guru Nanak’s new faith. He had also composed a few hymns while meditating in the forest.

Guru Nanak was now ready to go out beyond Sultanpur and spread his message to all the people who cared to listen to him.