"Guru Nanak taught that the way to connect with the Supreme is ... but through direct personal experience"

Guru Nanak

"Mysticism Of Guru Nanak"by Dewan Singh
Shri Guru Nanak Ji

Guru Nanaka was born into a Hindu family in 1439 in what is now Pakistan. Following a transformative realisation while bathing in the river Bein, He gave up his career as an accountant and began to travel throughout India teaching, composing hymns and establishing centres of worship known as dharamsalas.

He taught the absolute unity of God; everything is God, and everything is dependent on the will of God; therefore, spirit and matter are not ultimately antagonistic. Spirit is the only reality, and matter is a form of spirit.

"When I saw truly, I knew that all was primeval. Nanak, the subtle (Spirit) and the gross (material) are, in fact, identical," Guru Nanak said. "That which is inside a person, the same is outside; nothing else exists; by Divine prompting look upon all existence as one and undifferentiated.”

It was a time in India's history when Mughal domination had led to increasing tension between Hindu and Muslim. Seeing the divisiveness of human religions, He said: "There is no Hindu or Muslim, so whose path shall I follow? I shall follow the path of God.”

Guru Nanak taught that the way to connect with the Supreme is not through the mind or through rituals, but through direct personal experience. Therefore, He emphasised meditation on the Name and Presence of God.

"As fragrance abides in the flower, as reflection is within the mirror, so does your Lord abide within you. Why search for Him without?”

He also made it clear that realisation of Self/God is not possible without the compassionate agency of a true guru:

"The Guru is my ship to cross the world ocean. The Guru is my place of pilgrimage and sacred stream.”

"Let no man in the world live in delusion. Without a Guru none can cross over to the other shore.”

Before His death in 1539, Guru Nanaka chose one of his followers to take responsibility for establishing the principles He had taught. The principles were then passed down through a succession of gurus in the Sikh religion. Sikhism was not initially intended to be a separate religion from Hinduism or Islam but, due to a long period of persecution, it became increasingly distinct.

The Concept Of Sahaj

"The concept of Sahaj is central and pivotal in Guru Nanak's mystical thought. It relates to the highest spiritual state humanly attainable and has thus deepest connotations attached to it. The ordinary meaning of Sahaj [is] 'just what it should be' or 'just normal'. In other words, a simple human proposition: that a man should become a man par excellence, a real man; no adhesions, no default, no accretions, no deviations.

But this paradoxical word Sahaj does not go with mere 'saying' or verbal expression. It is an actuality, a real human state, a tangible workable human achievement. Guru Nanak himself ... experienced directly the blissful union with God and the concomitant divine manifestations attending such beatitude.

Sahaj is originally a Sanskrit word which means 'having been born together' and thus something inwardly perceived or intuited along with one's birth as a human being — a sort of indwelling mystical principle of divine perception given to man as his birthright and therefore, a natural and effortless heritage of divinity ingrained in humanity.

Properly speaking, Sahaj is the very mysticality of religion. It is the acceptance of inwardness and intuitionism as the true basis of religion, to the negation of all ritualistic externalities. Sahaj in this meaning would be the mystical state of a man who has accepted the divine will. Sahaj, thus, is the highest spiritual state attainable in Sikhism. It is the highest bliss.

Sahaj connotes a natural slowness and steadiness required for perfect action. Sahaj is the opposite of inordinate haste. Sahaj is compactness and self-sufficiency, while haste is flippancy and inner weakness. Sahaj would mean equipoise, equanimity and equilibrium. It may be called 'balanced perspicacity' or sambuddhata, in the psychological sense. All true balance and true action (which may be called Sahaj-karam, as distinct from the self-willed action) engender aesthetic as well as spiritual pleasure, while spiritual fulfillment produces infinite bliss.”

Mysticism Of Guru Nanak by Dewan Singh