My brother and I loved the waters of Hasan Abadal where the Panja (hand) still signifies how coolness of Guru Nanak was victorious over Vali Kandhari’s ego.  In Lahore, I tried to comprehend as a preteen why the Fifth Nanak was tortured and martyred, why so many genocidal campaigns against Sikhs? Then, via Pakistani TV, I learned about Indian army sealing and invading Panjab and turning it into bhatti (furnace) on martyrdom commemoration day of the Fifth Nanak. It was June 1984 … Déjà vu?

I remember when Guru Nanak became Sahib (sovereign) to me. I was the sole being asking to be initiated in the House of Nanak in Kansas City in 1988.  I had a lot of questions for the Five Enthroned, for that is what Guru Nanak taught me: To ask tough questions.  I was attracted to the Jagat Guru’s (World-Prophet) mindset: There are no condemned people and Creators’ compassion is not exclusive. In the spirit of Alamah Iqbal I was getting tired of day dreaming:  “Again, voice of Oneness has arisen from Panjab; and thus, a perfect man has awakened India from her dogmatic slumber.”

I remember when Guru Nanak’s sister Bebe Nanaki touched me. It was 1998, on a fieldtrip with then fellow-travelers to her haveli (mansion) at Sultanpur Lodhi. It is no coincidence that Guru Nanak’s divine revelation occurred at Vein river where the dynamic flow of their sibling relationship transcended cultural norms.

I remember when Guru Nanak became more than a spiritualist wishing to remain silent, content to maintain status quo.  Puran Singh’s exploration moves me:  “Guru Nanak condemns false creeds and crooked politics and unjust social order.  He condemns the hollow scriptures and isms of the times; he condemns barren pieties, asceticisms, trances, sound-hearing yogas, bead-telling, namazes’ fasts, and all formal vagaries of religious and political hypocrisies.  He condemns them without sparing any, for it was all darkness in the world and men.” Guru Nanak invokes gian – the wisdom – when talking about genocidal campaigns and critiques the just religious or just political leadership.

Guru Nanak’s advent isn’t about kattak (November) or Vaisakh (April) anymore. As much as I am troubled by how the Brahmins keep deciding when to commemorate my Guru, it is not about just birth. It is about prakash – the Enlightenment. And this phenomenon—the dispelling of darkness – I was able to visualize through Bhai Gurdas: “The mist cleared and the light scattered.  The Sun rose, the stars disappeared, and the darkness dispelled.  The Lion roared, the flock of deer ran away.”

Guru Nanak’s revolution extended beyond sharing the message (Guru Granth Sahib), or putting together the organization (Guru Khalsa Panth) to enact the message.  An apt tribute to Guru Nanak’s advent, beyond customary felicitations, will require introspection:  Am I furthering dead forms and perverted social orders in the guise of religiosity?  Is the law of Love dominating all spheres of human activity? Is my journey starting with where the Creator dwells—Kartarpur? Is the Sikh collective working towards realizing the Guru’s City of Joy—Anandpur?