GEMS OF GURBANI

National Character – 2

WORK (Kirat karni)

A community like Indians who suffered humiliation, who were reduced to the downtrodden state by foreigners and by own people and where inequality in the matters of social, economic and gender status became an eminent fact, presence of national character will be too much to ask. When a community is made to believe that your state of condition, your honour, your dignity are all due to your fate and destiny then bringing a change in their attitude will not require a revolution but a change in attitude over several generation could be the right approach. Exactly that approach was taken by Guru Nanak and the facts that he established were many. He observed that rich landlords, priest class and many who could manipulate others and make a living and wandering Sadhus and Jogis who didn’t do any work and lived from the labours of others by creating fear in people. The socialist concept that every able bodied person must work and earn his living in the larger interest of the society in order to avoid exploitation by the few powerful persons who maintain a luxurious life style without doing any work themselves may not have come from Gurbani. But Guru Nanak practices and preached these concepts centuries before Karl Marx laid these in his socialist doctrines. At the end of his several wandering missions Guru Nanak settled in Kartarpur and started doing agriculture to ingrain the work culture in his followers and he established a langar system and all the followers who visted him were asked to do sewa( free labour) to cook food and distribute. Work and working people were raised to a higher status in Guru Nanak’s preachings to establish respect for work and working class. There is one difference in Karl Marx’s and Guru Nanak’s doctrines. For Karl Marx religion makes a person lazy and worthless whereas Guru Nanak while criticizing worthless and lazy people has incorporated the religion in work culture of a person. Guru says:” Udham kareyenda jiyo tun kamavyan such bhuun wich II Dhiyandya tun prabhu mil, nanak utri chint II Gujri  waar mahala 5 GG 522 Meaning: By being industrious you shall earn the comfort and the peace on this earth and reciting and meditating on His Name thou shall meet the Lord and your anxiety shall vanish. The work with your hand and feet is encouraged remaining in touch with the Lord : haath pao kari kam sabuh cheet niranjan naal.II GG Page 1376

Before the parliamentary system came into being with rights and dignity for working class the situation in every country was same for the labour. He was exploited by the mighty and rich and was not even given a dignified status in the society. To plunder wealth the Islamists turks, pathans and Moguls came to India and remained here to amass wealth and live a luxurious life. They were so immersed in the luxury of wealth that they forgot they have to be prepared to face the attack of Babur and suffer genocide. Guru Nanak says: Is jar ghani viguti ini jar ghani khuayee II papan bazhu hove nahin muayan saath na jayee. GG 417 Meaning: for the wealth many are ruined and it has disgraced many. Without misdeeds it cannot be amassed and departs not with the dead.

Guru Nanak like the Bhagtas of the time didn’t want to leave anything for the conscience of the high caste and rich to change their attitude towards the working and lower castes. All his followers were working on the fields and shared this earning in a langar where food was cooked and distributed irrespective of caste and standing in the society. With this simple exercise the work, sharing, sewa and equality became the part of Gurus followers and paved way for respect to humanity as part of Sikh ethics.