Guru Nanak Dev founded the Sikh Faith and was succeeded by Nine Sikh Gurus. His birth is celebrated worldwide as Guru Nanak Gurpurab on Kartik Pooranmashi, the full-moon day in the Indian month of Katak [Kartik in Hindi], October-November every year.

Guru Nanak travelled far and wide spreading the message of an uncompromising Monotheism grounded in One [Peerless] God who dwells in the hearts of all creatures and has Truth as His Primal Attribute. He established a unique holistic faith of spiritual, social, and political realities based on equality, love, justice, peace, and virtue.  His Revelation [I have named Creative Mysticism in my second PhD] is preserved in 974 shabads [hymns] in the sacred scripture of the Sikh Faith, Sri Guru Granth Sahib [SGGS]. The Sikh Bible contains, among many things, his major prayers such as Japuji, Asa di Var, and Siddha-Gosht. An inviolable tenet of the Sikh Faith is that the soul of Guru Nanak's sacrosanctity, divinity, and religious authority was infused into each of his nine successors when they were admitted to his Spiritual Ministry.

The genesis, growth, worth, and perennial relevance of the Sikh Faith began with the birth of the founder Guru Nanak Dev in 1469 CE to the death of Guru Gobind Singh in 1708 CE. This period coincided with the establishment and consolidation of the Mughal Empire in India. The Mughal rulers followed the policy of oppression and persecution that the Sikh Gurus fiercely opposed and even sacrificed their lives to uphold the fundamental human rights grounded in the recognition of the intrinsic goodness and dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family such as equality before law, freedom of speech and expression, freedom to practise religion, and freedom to seek justice through peaceful and legal means.

The most famous teachings attributed to Guru Nanak are: There is only one God without a second—omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient—and that all human beings can have direct access to Him with no need of getting into the rigmarole of rituals, and without the intervention of priests. His most radical social exhortation denounced the caste system and taught that everyone is equal, regardless of caste, creed, gender, nationality, cultural prejudices, nationality, and ethnic eccentricities.

About the Author: Dr SS Bhatti (85) is India’s most versatile professional, nicknamed “Chandigarh’s Mr Versatility” by Chandigarh Newsline of The India Express. He pursues an amazing range of disciplines: Architecture; Art; Poetry; Criticism; Aesthetics; Engineering; Vocal Music; Musicology; Comparative Religion; Mysticism; Geography; Philosophy; Sociology; Mythology; Planning; Creative Writing; and so forth.

He holds three PhDs: first one titled: “CHANDIGARH and the Context of Le Corbusier’s ‘Statute of the Land’: A Study of Plan, Action, and Reality” [1991]; the second on “CREATIVE MYSTICISM: A Study of Guru Nanak Bani with special reference to Japuji” [2000]; and the third on “SRI HARMANDAR SAHIB: A Study of Architecture, Engineering, and Aesthetics” [2008]. He won the Fifth JIIA [Journal of the Indian Institute of Architects] National Award for Excellence in Architecture [Research Category] for the first PhD in 1993. The second one was honoured by Guru Har Krishan Educational Society, Chandigarh, as the Best Doctorate done in 2000 at the Department of Guru Nanak Sikh Studies, Panjab University. On the strength of the third PhD, his interview was featured in the Indian Rajya Sabha’s TV documentaries titled ‘Grand Structures’ showing the glorious history of the holy Sri Harmandar Sahib at Amritsar.

He inherited from his father Sardar Balwant Singh Bhatti the family’s creative versatility and the pursuit of excellence besides love for Gurbani and understanding of the great Indian art and cultural tradition. His father designed Gurdwara Panja Sahib Hassan Abdal [now in Pakistan] and Takht Sri Kesgarh Anandpur Sahib, and was a past master in Sikh Architecture [his article on this subject can be seen on the Internet], painting, sculpture, wood-carving, Indian classical music, and  Greco-Indian style of wrestling.

He has won 30 national and international awards, including IIA [Indian Institute of Architects] Professor MB Achwal Gold for Lifetime Achievement in Architectural Education. Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi conferred on him the Best Book of the Year Award-2019 [_Shu’oor-i-Bekhudi_] in the category of Urdu Poetry, with Citation and Cash Prize of Rs 25,000; and Award of Recognition-2020 for Outstanding Contribution to English Literature/Language, with Citation and Cash Prize of Rs 1,00,000.

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: White Falcon Publishing; 1 edition (2023)
• Author: SS Bhatti
• ISBN-13: 9781636409702
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 X 11 Inch

Indian Edition available on: