WHO ARE THE PERSONALITIES AT
TEMPLE UNIVERSAL?
GURU
NANAK
Spiritual Reformer and Uniter
By Fredric Pincott, M.R.A.S
Religious Systems of the World
1892
In 1469 the revered Nanak was born, near the town
of Lahore; and came into the world inheriting the
traditions of Islam and Hinduism.
The struggle between Hindu and Muslim thought was
raging. The previous unsettlement in the minds of
men had prepared the way for a devout and enthusiastic
teacher to build up a new and living faith. Nanak
was just the man for such a task; for he was thorough
and consistent, prudent and yet enthusiastic, inoffensive
yet urgent and as gentle in manner as he was strong
in faith.
Nanak was one of the great reformers of
the world; for he clearly perceived the errors of
his predecessors, and had the boldness to proclaim
the truth, even against the opposition of the prejudiced
and interested, whether exalted or humble.
Nanak's principles may be reduced to a single formula
- the Unity of God and the Brotherhood of Man.
For Nanak there was no such thing as a God for the
Hindus, a God for the Muslims, and an God or gods
for the outer heathen; for him there was but one
God; not in the likeness of man like Rama; not a
creature of attributes and passions, like the Allah
of Islam; but one, sole, indivisible, self-existent,
incomprehensible, timeless, all-pervading - to be
named, but otherwise indescribable, adorable and
altogether lovely.
Such was Nanak's idea of the Creator and Sustainer
of the phenomenal world; and it was a conception
which at once abrogated all petty distinctions of
creed, and sect, and dogma, and ceremony.
THE POWER OF UNITY
The realization of such a God shatters the sophistries
of the theologian and the quibblings of the dialectician;
it clears the brow from the gloom of abstruse pondering
over trifles, and leaves the heart free for the
exercise of human sympathies. And if the grand idea
of the Incomprehensible Unity, which could only
be named and adored, beveled all distinctions of
creed and caste, so did the great truth of the Brotherhood
of Man sweep away the barriers of nation, tribe,
and station. Nanak taught that all men are equal
before God; and there is no high, no low, no dark,
no fair, no privileged, no outcasts; all are equal
both in race and in creed, in political rights and
in religious aspiration.
These two ideas - the Unity of God and the Brotherhood
of Man -
while uniting all classes on a common basis, at
the same time separated those who accepted them
from the rest of their countrymen as an association
of God-fearing republicans; for what Nanak claimed
was Liberty from prescribed trammels, Equality before
God, and the Fraternity of mankind. The practical
application of the doctrines thus taught led to
the formation of a new nationality, the disciples
of the great teacher becoming a republican fraternity,
which gradually consolidated into a separate nation
by the necessity for struggling for the liberty
they claimed.
