Coming of mankind's benefactor

The festival of Guruparb falls on the full moon day of the Hindu month of Kartik (October-November) and is celebrated to commemorate the birth of Guru Nanak, the founder Guru of Sikhism. He was a great reformer, preacher and a saint. In praise of the Lord, Guru Nanak uttered:

"There is but one God, His name is Truth, He is the Creator, He fears none, He is without hate, He never dies, He is beyond the cycle of births and death, He is self illuminated, He is realized by the kindness of the True Guru. He was True in the beginning, He was True when the ages commenced and has ever been True, He is also True now."

These words are enshrined at the beginning of the Sikh Holy Scriptures, the Guru Granth Sahib. Guru Nanak did not believe in a Trinity of Gods, or the belief that God can be born as a human form. In Sikhism he tried to harmonize both Hinduism and Islam. He never believed in caste-distinctions and liberalized social practices. A true Sikh strives not for salvation or paradise but always loves to see God. Many of Guru Nanak's hymns, which form a part of the Guru Granth Sahib, reflect clearly how the sight of God and his love itself is supreme.

GURU NANK DEV JI