Guru Nanak Sakhis (Stories)

Guru Nanak (Gurmukhi: ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ) is the founder of Sikhism and is the first of the ten Sikh Gurus, the eleventh guru being the living Guru, Guru Granth Sahib.

Guru Nanak travelled to places far and wide teaching people the message of one God who dwells in every one of God's creations. The earliest biographical sources on Nanak's life, recognised today, are the Janamsākhīs (life accounts) and the vārs (expounding verses) of the scribe Bhai Gurdas.

Life And Times Of 1450's Punjab
Before reading the Sakhis of Guru Nanak, it is important to understand the life and times of 1450's Punjab.

Miracles Of Higher Spheres
Benevolent Guru Nanak while sitting in the Lord's palace looking at the earth. What did he see?

Birth Of A Guru
Guru Nanak was born in 1469 in a small village named Talwandi. The village is now called Nanakana Sahib after the Guru and is now in Pakistan. Nanakana means Nanak's village.

Guru Nanak's Childhood
Guru Nanak was not an ordinary child. Children of his age liked him very much and everyone wanted to play with him.

Guru Nanak At School
At the age of five, Guru Nanak was sent to school, which was run by teacher, Pandit Gopal Das, at his village.

The Study Of Divine Knowledge
Guru Nanak appears to have continued to attend school for some time. One day he was observed to remain silent, and not apply himself to his books. The village tutor asked him why he wasn't reading.

Guru Nanak's Education
Deeply impressed by the profound and convincing thoughts of Guru Nanak, Gopal met Mehta Kalu and advised him to send his son to a learned scholar.

Guru Nanak's Ceremony Of The Sacred Thread
When Guru Nanak was nine years old, his father was determined to make him wear a janeu (sacrificial thread of the hindus). The Guru said, "Please wait. Let me first try to understand why you want to put this thread around my neck."

Guru Nanak's Doctor
Guru Nanak's parents were worried and called a doctor to see if he was sick.

Grazing Cattle
Guru Nanak's father let him graze cattle but they went into a farmers field and ate the crops that were there.

Deadly King Cobra
The king cobra is the world's longest venomous snake. Rai Bullar spotted the head of a large cobra showing above the tall grass with its hood spread wide open near Guru Nanak.

Guru Nanak's Marriage
Guru Nanak refused to follow the marriage rituals dictated by the brahmins of the day. He stated that any time would be an auspicious time for the wedding. There was no need to cast horoscopes as he was not superstitious.

The Truest Of Bargains (Sacha Sauda)
At the age of eighteen, Guru Nanak, was sent by his father Mehta Kalu to the city to do business.

Lucky Number 13
Guru Nanak's brother-in-law positioned the Guru in the post of a store-keeper in the Nawab's state granary.

Guru Nanak's Disappearance
Every morning, Guru Nanak got up early and went to take a bath in the river. One day, he disappeared in the water.

There Is No Hindu, No Musalmaan
When Guru Nanak reappeared after his disappearance in the river Bein, Guru Sahib declared, "There is no hindu and no musalmaan".

Guru Nanak Meets Mai Bharai
On Guru Nanak's arrival at the Khadoor, he met a woman called Mai Bharai.

Amrit Sarovar
The first time Harmandir Sahib's Amrit Sarovar was discovered.

Bhai Lalo
Bhai Lalo earned his living by honest work. He was born in 1452 at the village of Saidpur (now in Pakistan).

Malik Bhago
One day Malik Bhago, a high government official of the city, invited Guru Nanak to a feast.

Freedom To The Sadhus
Another story during Guru Nanak's stay in Eminabad, where Guru Ji teaches the correct path of God to both Malik Bhago and the Khan.

Sajjan Thug
A Sajjan by name, a Thug by profession, Guru Nanak met Sajjan Thug.

Solar Eclipse At Kurukshetra
When Guru Nanak Dev Ji was at Kurukshetra it was the day of solar eclipse.

Guru Nanak And The Vaishno Ascetic
When Bhai Mardana's shadow fell over a vaishno sadhu, the sadhu went beserk.

Guru Nanak Throwing Water
Led by so-called holy men, people would throw water towards the morning sun. Guru Nanak guided them to the truth.

Guru Nanak And Duni Chand
Duni Chand was a wealthy man whose mind was awakened.

Guru Nanak At Banaras
After Gorakhmata, the Guru took southerly route and passing through Gola, Ayudhya and Prayag (Allahabad), reached Banaras, also called Varanasi.

Guru Nanak At Gaya
Where simple minded people made huge offerings and the priests fed their ancestors by offering rice balls and lighted up little lamps to illuminate their paths in the high heavens.

Guru Nanak And Salas Rai The Jeweller
Each individual places a value on things according to their judgement.

Guru Nanak And Pir Dastgir At Baghdad
The Pir asked 3 questions of Guru Nanak and became an admirer.

Kauda The Cannibal
Kauda belonged to the Bheel (a non Aryan, Dravidian tribe) who were known to eat human flesh. He threw Guru Nanak into fire.

Establishment Of Kartarpur
How Guru Nanak founded the city of Kartarpur.

Guru Nanak And Raja Shivnabh At Ceylon
Ceylon is now known as Sri Lanka. This is the story of how the King of Ceylon became a disciple of Guru Nanak.

Hamza Gaus And Mula Karar
Hamza Gaus cursed a city for having been cheated. Mula Karar became a disciple of Guru Nanak but then fell from grace.

Guru Nanak At Hassan Abdal
Wali Qanhari pushed a giant bolder towards Guru Nanak hoping to crush him.

Guru Nanak And The Kaljug Pandit
Guru Nanak with a pandit who claimed he could see the impossible. This human life is not meant to be wasted in such spurious and fake acts.

Guru Nanak At Jagannath Puri
The Guru visited the temple not to adore stone idols but to teach the people that the worship of God was superior to the worship of the deity.

Guru Nanak And The Two Villages
Two villages with two different types of people and two different responses.

The Leper Cured
The leper's mind was under an illusion that his disease was incurable.

Guru Nanak And Mian Mitha
Mian Mitha was like a man who sets out from his home intent on drinking at the ocean of nectar, but who, reaching near the shore, begins to play with pebbles lying there, and forgets the object of his journey.

Guru Nanak And The Dried Up River
The power of faith is Guru Ji's bachan (words).

Guru Nanak And The Bitter Soapnut (Reetha) Tree
The yogis around Gorakhmata denied Mardana food. This story is not in Janamsakhis.

Guru Nanak At Gorakhmata
The Guru's teaching became so effective that Gorakhmata became Nanakmata.

Queen Of Black Magic At Kamrup
The city of Kamrup was ruled by a woman of black magic. She had assumed the name of Nurshah, the name of one from whom she had learnt this art.

Guru Nanak At Summer Parbat (Mountain) And The Naths/ Sidhas
Guru Nanak called on the habitat of nine Naths and eighty-four Sidhas, besides six Jatis (celebrated ascetics) and offered his greetings with due courtesy, and invited them to a meeting.

Guru Nanak And Ruhela Pathaan In Nanakpuri
Guru Sahib in the guise of a child, sat on a pile of stones by himself. An evil man by the name of Ruhela Pathaan caught Guru Sahib (child) and took him home.

Guru Nanak And The Rising River At Kashipur
At the time, the Dhela river used to cause havoc in the city by flooding each year.

Hot Springs At Manikaran
Guru Nanak than lifted a rock and a hot spring (hot water) appeared.

Sheikh Brahm (Sheikh Farid)
The story of how Guru Nanak met Sheikh Farid.

Guru Nanak At Mecca
At Mecca, Nanak was found sleeping with his feet towards the Kaaba.

Dukh Sukh
Two shopkeepers had their shops next to one another. One Gurmukh and one Manmukh.

Guru Nanak At Shikarpur
Guru Nanak Ji visited Shikarpur while coming from Turkistan (a region in Central Asia, which today is largely inhabited by people of Turkic decent) on his way back to Kartarpur.

Is There One God For The Rich, And One For The Poor?
On their travels, Guru Nanak and Mardana met a Muhammadan notable called Shaikh Wajid.

Guru Nanak And Charity
'By gathering things offered in charity one becomes greedy. A greedy man entangled by this urge can never do any good to mankind.'

Guru Nanak And Bhai Bhoomiya
There lived a landlord in a village near Dacca, and though he was a rich farmer, he led a gang of thieves, who robbed the people of the surrounding villages as well as the travellers on the roads.

Babar's Invasion
Guru Nanak and Mardana, also among the captives, were ordered to be taken to prison as slaves.

Guru Nanak At Achal Batala
The Guru also went to Achal Batala to teach people.

Guru Nanak Sidh Gosht
The Sidh Gosht (Dialogue With The Sages) is a pious Bani that recounts a meeting of Guru Nanak with a group of hindu ascetics (siddhs) who had renounced the world, living in the caves of the Himalayas.

Guru Nanak And The Elephant
During Guru Nanak's stay in Delhi, he came across some people that were mourning the death of their elephant. Guru Nanak asked them what the cause of their suffering was. The people said that they were sad because their elephant had died. Guru Nanak told them that they were mistaken.

Guru Nanak, The Gursikh And The Goldmine
Once Guru Nanak and Bhai Mardana were on their travels, when they came across a humble servant of the lord who had nothing but a little mud hut to live in.

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