Context

Recently, 550^th birth anniversary of Guru Nank Dev was celebrated.

About

• Guru Nanak was born in Talwandi but he travelled for years before he founded the Dera Baba Nanak in Kartarpur.
• Irrespective of their creed or caste, his followers ate together in a common kitchen known as langar. And the sacred place/temple he created for worship and meditation was called dharmasal (now known as Gurudwara).
• Before he died in 1539, he appointed a follower called Lena(known later as Guru Angad) as his successor.
• Guru Angad compiled the work of Guru Nanak and added to it his own script known as Gurmukhi.
• The next three Gurus also wrote under Nanak's name, and their work was compiled by Guru Arjan in 1604.
• Works of Shaikh Farid, Sant Kabir, Bhagat Namdev, and Guru Tegh Bahadur were also added to these compilations.
• Finally, in 1706, Guru Gobind Singh authenticated the compilation and created the Guru Granth Sahib.
• Guru Nanak's followers increased in the sixteenth century as people from all castes and occupations joined the community.
• By the seventeenth century, the town of Ramdaspur developed around a Gurudwara called the Harmandar Sahib and became a self-governing society.
• The Mughal Emperor Jehangirsaw them as a potential threat, and in 1606 he ordered the execution of Guru Arjan.
• By the seventeenth century, Guru Gobind Singh organised the Khalsa Movement, and the community of Sikhs became a political organisation called the Khalsa Panth.

Guru Nank’s Teachings

• Guru Nanak emphasised the worship of one Godand insisted that caste, creed, and gender were irrelevant to attaining salvation.
• According to him, pursuit of an active life would liberate humans, and he also used the terms nam, dan, andisnan to mean right worship, welfare, and purity of conduct.
• His ideas today are called nam-japna, kirt-karna, and vand-chhakna, which mean right belief and worship, honest living, and helping others.
• Thus, Guru Nanak’s idea of equality had social and political implications.

Kartarpur Corridor

• The corridor will connect Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur (Pakistan) with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district of Punjab and facilitate visa-free movement of Indian pilgrims, who will have to just obtain a permit to visit Kartarpur Sahib, which was established in 1522 by Sikh faith founder Guru Nanak Dev.
•  The corridor will help India and Pakistan to go peaceful in their relations.