The Source Book On Sikhism

Guru Nanak and Nanaki

Guru Nanak was named after his sister Nanaki who was by five years his senior. The love of an Indian sister for her younger brother is proverbial. It is all the more exalted by sentiment when they happen to be namesakes too. Nanaki, therefore, not only loved her brother, Nanak, but also adored him as a superior being. She could not bear to part from him even for a moment. They always went about and played together. Their parents were exceedingly glad to find them love each other so dearly.

Although the astrologers had predicted that Nanak would be a great man, none realized the truth of this prediction so early as Nanaki. She was fully convinced that Nanak was destined to achieve great things in the world.

When Mehta was sometimes cross at what he considered his son’s lapses and wasteful ways, it was Nanaki who shielded him against his wrath.

And, again, when Mehta gave him up for lost, it was she who summoned him to Sultanpur and through the good offices of her goodly husband Jai Ram, got him employed at the government granary. It was she again who, in order to retrieve him from other-worldly thoughts, had him bound in wedlock.

Education

From his very early life Guru Nanak was rather unusually inclined towards the life of the spirit. He was hardly five when he would gather around him children of his own age and make them think on God. On other occasions he would slip into the company of holy men and listen intently to their words of wisdom.

Mehta Kalu did not take kindly to his son's otherworldly ways. He desired that his son should grow into a man of the world. So, when Nanak was seven years old, his father took him for education first to a village Brahman named Gopal Dass and then to a Sanskrit scholar, Brij Nath. Nanak proved to be an uncommonly bright and promising student. His teachers were surprised at his uncanny ability to grasp things. Soon they told Mehta that they had taught his son all that they could and were unable to teach him any further.

After this Nanak relapsed into his former ways. This worried Mehta beyond measure. Rai Bular came to know what disturbed Mehta’s thought and he assured the latter that if son could attain proficiency in Persian, he would find him a suitable job at the court.

Thus assured, Mehta took his son to Rukan-ud-din, a noted Persian scholar. Here, too, Nanak completed his studies soon enough and took again to the company of holy men.