Guru Nanak A Homage

$20
Item Code: IDH363
Publisher: SAHITYA AKADEMI, DELHI
Author: K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar
Language: English
Edition: 1974
ISBN: 8172016328
Pages: 304
Cover: Hardcover
Other Details 8.5" X 5.7"
Fully insured
Fully insured
Shipped to 153 countries
Shipped to 153 countries
More than 1M+ customers worldwide
More than 1M+ customers worldwide
100% Made in India
100% Made in India
23 years in business
23 years in business
Book Description

From the Jacket

Nanak, whom Tagore called 'teacher of Mankind, had, according to the Poet, a concept of religion not restricted by the limits of unconventional deity-worshipping restrained within the narrow idea and dead habit of a particular caste or country, which prevents universal man to find any identification. Nanak's mind crossed the barriers of such narrow Puranic religious dogmas and he laid down his life in propagating the massage of deliverance among mankind.

In 1969, the whole country celebrated the quincentenary of birth of this Great Teacher. As a part of these celebrations, Sahitya Akademi, in consultation with the Guru Nanak foundation organized a National and four Regional seminars on Guru Nanak's Teachings. It was nothing odd for the government of a Secular state asking a National academy of Litters to organize seminars on a person who was not only a religious teacher but an inspired poet,-indeed the fountainhead of Punjabi poetic tradition. Guru Nanak's poetry, at its mystical sublime, become bani, a prayer, a means of grace.

Regional Seminars were held in Calcutta, Madras, Bombay and Ludhiana and the National Seminar took place at New Delhi. About 60 Scholars representing a fair cross-section of Indian intellectuals and leaders of thought presented working papers.

The proceedings of the five Guru Nanak Seminars have been edited and published in this volume to give a permanent form and offer a National Homage on the occasion of Nanak's fifth birth centenary celebrations. Among the contributors to this volume are Niharranjan Ray, Trilochan Singh, V. Raghavan, D. G. Saiyidain, Mulk Raj Anand, K. R. Srinivasa lyengar and Suniti Kumar Chatterji, Besides Papers, a Section includes Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterji's Sanskrit Poem with his own English translation, Srimati Amrita Pritam's Punjabi poem as translated into English by Sri Suresh Kohli and three poems on Nanak from three Bengali poets, Premendra Mitra, Bimal Chandra Ghosh and Manindra Ray.

The book is a collection of a large number of leaned essays all inspired by the life and work and enduring influence of Guru Nanak.

 

Introduction

The year 1969 was a year of commemorations. It was the Gandhi centenary year, and the Srinivasa Sastri centenary year. It was the year of the seventh centenary of Namdev, a tailor from Maharashtra who sang about the glory of God and the efficacy of taking His name, a poet who, along with his contemporaries Jayadev and Trilochan, found a place in the Sikh scripture, the Adi Granth. And 1969 was also the fifth birth centenary of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism.

Of Guru Nanak-as Einstein said of Gandhiji it is difficult to believe at this distance of time that 'such a one ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.' In modern times, Muhammad Iqbal sang of Nanak: And Professor Puran Singh said that Punjab was neither Hindu nor Muslim, but existed by the name of Guru Nanak. That Punjab-where is it? It was, perhaps, not so much a geographical area as a concept, and this at least could be deathless. Nanak's fifth birth centenary might yet awaken humanity-at least Indian humanity-to his message of Oneness of God and Community of Man.

Since independence, India has celebrated the birth centenaries of Lokamanya Tilak (1957), Gurudev Tagore (1961), and Swami Vivekananda (1963). The Gandhi centenary fell on 2 October 1969, and Guru Nanak's quincentenary on 23 November. What have these nation-wide celebrations achieved? And what are they expected to achieve? Certainly, it was good to remember our great men, review their life- histories, and recall their ambrosial words. But have the celebrations halted the march of divisive forces, have they helped to make us a community of free minds, a nation with faith in itself, a people capable of noble thoughts and heroic endeavour?

On the other hand, it would not do to be too easily dispirited. Unity, integration, harmony, strength cannot be accomplished in one magic canter, and indeed the battle, even if won once, may have to be waged again and again. The Guru Nanak quincentenary was no doubt an occasion to pay national homage to the great Founder of Sikhism, but it could also be an opportunity to rally the forces of sanity in the country so that India might be enabled to awake once more from her present nightmarish slumber of soul and body.

It was no surprise, therefore, that a National Committee, with the Prime Minister as Chairman, was set up to organise the fifth birth centenary celebrations of Guru Nanak. One of the decisions of the Committee was that a National and four Regional Seminars on Guru Nanak's Teachings should be held, and the Ministry of Education and Youth Services requested the Sahitya Akademi to organise these Seminars in consultation with the Guru Nanak Foundation, New Delhi. This was on 9 September 1969, a little more than two months before the actual date of the quincentenary.

Was it odd that the Government of a secular State asked a National Academy of Letters to organise Seminars on the founder of a religion? But Nanak was not only one of India's religious teachers; he was an inspired poet as well, and indeed the fountainhead of Punjabi poetic tradition. Literature is many things to many men. Poetry itself appeals in different ways to different people. It could be descriptive, it could carry didactic or political overtones, it could also be a means of sadhana. At its purest, at its mystical sublime, poetry becomes bani, it becomes prayer, a means of Grace. Some of the best of Guru Nanak's poetry is of this kind.

Again, in the circumstances prevailing in India for some years past, the major responsibility of Government has been to arrest the disintegrating trends in our society. The supreme objective of popular education today should be to bring out the potentiality for creative harmony in the 550 millions of her population. Where is the bond that can hold together a pluralistic society like ours? The love of God may be necessary, but even that is not enough; the love of man is even more necessary.

Indeed, the former should lead to the latter, and the latter should be involved in the former. In his well-known Arti, Nanak sang:

All Nature and all Humanity are the visible Divine; God lives in His .creatures, and the Mother lives in her children. Where is a high priest of 'national integration' with a clearer vision or a more vibrant voice than Guru Nanak?

It was significant, again, that the Akademi set about organising a National as well as four Regional Seminars. India is indeed one, the sap that keeps alive this vast country from Himavant to Kumari is indeed the same, but the several regions have their own individualities, their own local genius, their own distinctive modes of self-expression. In Tamil Nad and the Punjab, in Maharashtra and Gujarat, in Rajasthan and Kashmir, in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, in Assam and Bengal, in Kerala, Andhra, Karnataka and Orissa, everywhere a succession of God-intoxicated singers have borne witness to the glory of the Grace of God and the marvel of the oneness of man in God-a galaxy of saints who have raised their voices against man-made divisions and social stratifications, and have sought to establish communities of enfranchised men and women bound together by their love of God. Nanak and Nanak's melodies would thus come as no strangers to people anywhere in India, for he had been speaking always to use-although unknown to us, perhaps, and therefore unrecognised or unacknowledged by us. Pilgrims of Immortality like Tirumular and Basava and Vemana, Namdev and Kabir and Nanak, were truly kindred souls, contemporaneous although belonging to different ages; and it was hoped that this sense of the living past, the contemporaneous relevance of all God's messengers, could be inferred and highlighted by the National and the several Regional 'Gun; Nanak Seminars'.

Notwithstanding the limited time available and in spite of the difficulties involved in organising Seminars at places like Bombay and Ludhiana where the Sahitya Akademi hadn't even regional offices, the five Seminars duly took place: the National Seminar at New Delhi from 9 to 11 December 1969, the Calcutta Seminar on 15 December, the Madras Seminar on 4 January 1970, the Bombay Seminar on 18 January, and the Ludhiana Seminar on 14-15 February. Almost 60 scholars, Sikh and non-Sikh, presented working papers, and there were about 150 other participants (besides observers and journalists) representing a fair cross-section of Indian intellectuals and leaders of thought. The inaugurations began, appropriately enough, with devotional music (usually Nanak-Bani) provided by such artistes as Srimati Surinder Kaur (New Delhi), Srimati M. S. Subbulakshmi (Madras) and Professor Ram Punjwani (Bombay). The inauguration ceremonies were well attended, the seminar working papers were mimeographed and distributed in advance, and the seminar discussions were well- informed, breathing a genuine spirit of inquiry and underscoring the need for mutual enlightenment. Unfortunately, no record of the discussions was maintained, with the result that we are now left only with the working papers presented at the various Seminars. And yet, having carefully followed three of the seminar-discussions (at New Delhi, Madras and Bombay), I venture to think that the abiding results of the Seminars are not easily commensurable, and must certainly exceed any mere record of the verbal proceedings.

CONTENTS

132

Introduction ix
SUNITI KUMAR CHATTERJI  
Sri-Guru-Nanaka-Deva-Puja-Pradakshina 1
NIHARRANJAN RAY  
The Age and the Social Message of Guru Nanak 46
A. R. DESHPANDE  
Guru Nanak and His Age 70
DR. S. S. DOSANJ  
Guru Nanak's Punjab: 1469-1539 76
ABDUL MAJID KHAN  
The Punjab of Guru Nanak 81
H. I. SADARANGANI  
Guru Nanak, Sikhism and Assam 91
SATI KUMAR CHATTERJEE  
Response of the Brahmo Samaj to Message of Guru Nanak 103
G. S. KHOSLA  
Guru Nanak's Conception of the Origin of the Universe 111
TRILOCHAN SINGH  
Guru Nanak's Approach to Contemporary Philosophies 117
K. SESHADRI  
The Philosophy of Guru Nanak 126
GURBACHAN SING TALIB  
a Perspective on Guru Nanak's Teaching 130
MADHAO GOPAL DESHMUKH  
Life and teaching of Guru Nanak 152
K. G. SAIYIDAIN  
The Message of Guru Nanak 159
MULK RAJ ANAND  
Guru Nanak's Humanism 166
JAYALAL KAUL  
Guru Nanak: His relevance Today 178
K. R. SRINIVASA IYENGAR  
Guru Nanak's Mystic and Devotional Poetry 184
V. RAGHAVAN  
The Bhakti of Guru Nanak 197
BISWANARAYAN SHASTRI  
Guru Nanak and the Bhakti Movement 211
KALINDI CHARAN PANIGRAHI  
Guru Nanak and the Bhakti Cult 216
MASUD HUSAIN KHAN  
Guru Nanak and the Bhakti Poets 221
T. P. MEENAKSHISUNDARAN  
Guru Nanak and the Bhakti Movement of the Tamil Land 226
M. VARADARAJAN  
Guru Nanak and the Tamil Saints  
VINAYAK KRISHNA GOKAK  
Guru Nanak: Dynamic Mystic and Prophet 237
R. S. MUGALI  
Guru Nanak's Mystic Poetry 244
D. ANJANEYULU  
Guru Nanak: Mystic Poetry 250
K. M. GEORGE  
guru Nanak: Mystic Poet and Teacher 256
GOBIND SINGH MANSUKHANI  
Guru Nanak: The Poet of Divine Love 262
ATTAR SING  
The Impact of Guru Nanak's Works on Punjabi Poetic Tradition 270
SUNITI KUMAR CHATTERJI  
Sri-Guru-Nanaka-Deva-Prasastih Slokaika-Vimsatika 276
AMRITA PRITAM  
Nine Dreams and the Annunciation 282
SRI PREMENDRA GHOSH  
"Guru Nanak" 285
SRI BIMAL CHANDRA GHOSH  
"Bharat-guru Nanak" 286
SRI MANINDRA RAY  
"Guru Nanaker Joy" 288
JNANI GURMUKH SINGH MUSAFIR  
The Message of Guru Nanak Deva 290
APPENDIX 301
Sample Pages

















Frequently Asked Questions
  • Q. What locations do you deliver to ?
    A. Exotic India delivers orders to all countries having diplomatic relations with India.
  • Q. Do you offer free shipping ?
    A. Exotic India offers free shipping on all orders of value of $30 USD or more.
  • Q. Can I return the book?
    A. All returns must be postmarked within seven (7) days of the delivery date. All returned items must be in new and unused condition, with all original tags and labels attached. To know more please view our return policy
  • Q. Do you offer express shipping ?
    A. Yes, we do have a chargeable express shipping facility available. You can select express shipping while checking out on the website.
  • Q. I accidentally entered wrong delivery address, can I change the address ?
    A. Delivery addresses can only be changed only incase the order has not been shipped yet. Incase of an address change, you can reach us at help@exoticindia.com
  • Q. How do I track my order ?
    A. You can track your orders simply entering your order number through here or through your past orders if you are signed in on the website.
  • Q. How can I cancel an order ?
    A. An order can only be cancelled if it has not been shipped. To cancel an order, kindly reach out to us through help@exoticindia.com.
Add a review
Have A Question

For privacy concerns, please view our Privacy Policy

Book Categories