CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

In Rabindranath Tagore' s au t obi og raphi cal

book I Remmscence' in the Chapter describing his

educational pursuits in England, Tagore refers to a

theory expounded by his Latin teacher,according to

which in every age the whole wor l d is moved by

common thought currents that effect even nations

not in contact with each other.Tagore subscribes

to this vi.ew and ass er t s hi s belief t hat all humani t y

is bound together by an invisible power so that what;

'. . happ ens in one comer of the wo rLd finds its

reflection in other parts also. v!hat eve r the validity

of this theorY,it cannot be denied that certain

ep ochs provide gr ounds f or sucp an assu mp t i on . The

6th and 5th century' B.C. ffi1d the 15th and 16th

century A.D. have supposedly such Parallels. The former

saw the emergence of Confucius (around 551-479 B.C.)

and Laotse (traditionally asslgned to the 6th century

B.C.) in China; of Buddha (560-480 B.C.) and Mahavi r a

(died in 477 B.C.) in India; of Aeschylus (525-456 B. C. )

Sophocles (496-406 B.C.) and Euripides (around

480-407 B.C.) in Greece.The l atter, as pointed mlt

in the first ch apter, Sa'-' an erup tion of the spirit

in several countries, an eme rgence of forces t hat gav e

a neW directi on to world history.As a p art of this

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general upsurge, we find parallel religious reform

movements in Germany and in Panj ab , ini tiated by two

r-emar'kab'l e men who left their mark not only on the

history and cul ture, but also on the Language and

literature of their people. They are builders of

nations, cultures,religions,lite r atu res and

languages. (335)

They had not wan t ed to be any of these things 0

Luther never wanted to split the church and N~1ak

seemed to have settled down for good with a steady

job as a store-keeper thnt left him the freedom to

lead a pious life with singing of hymns at night and

wo rkf.ng during the dey.I t was circumstances that

brought them out into the a r en a . The gross ma.lp r ac t .L c es

Of, the church, the corruption,lic entious life, cynical

unscrupUlous exploitation of the simple faith of the

masses as in the selling of indul gences-tbe:se we r e

a f'ew of t he evils that forced Luther's hand.Hishing

to remove the evils and to reform the chur ch , he ended

- - - -- - - - - - - - .- - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - -335. Compare: 'If Panj ab's earth is mor e productive,if

its manhood more manl y , i f its womanhood is moreliberated,if its people are more c atholic in dressand. diet-babi ts and far less superstitious androam the who.Le woz-Ld for adventure as forliv~lihood,all this is thanks to great Nan ak ,whose faith works through living life and sustains,broadens an d deepens it by gi vin g it an earthlypurpose as much as spiri tual hope.'

Singh,Gopal;Sri Guru Granth Sahib,loc.cit.,P.XXXV.)

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' up as a 'Ketzer Wider Willen'.Nanak was sorely gr i ev ed

at the sight of the reli gious fanaticism that divided

people into Hindus and Nuslims and led to oppression and

maSSacre in the name of religion ; he ~as sorely gr i eved

at the sight of the rigid casteism and ritualism of

Hinduism and thought a common religion that combined

the best traits of both (e.g. the monotheism and the

democ r-at.Lc brotherhood of man from Eohemmedani sm) and

brought human being s together as brothers, wouLd bring

about peace and the true spiri t of reli gion in the

worship of the one 'eternal GodoAfter his vision at the

river he kept on repeating as though it were his

wat.chword e "There is no Hindu and there is no 1'1ussalman ll •

In the strange g~b that he wore on Ins Udasis in

worshipping at the mosque,in going to Baghd ad j Ln Shor t ,

in ills life and practice,he tried to reconcile the two

religions.He must have succeeded in ,t hi s attempt, for

llindus and Musl i ms claimed him for themselves when he,

was on his death bed.If in the long run Nanak as well

as Luther led only to '.the creation of new rnili tant sects,

it was because of external fac tors and forces.

Both Luther and Nan~{ tried to remove the

intermediaries between man and God and to establish

religion in its essence as direct coynmunion with God.

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In our fourth chapter \ -le have worked out the

siralarities i n their concept of God and of -man ' s

relati on t o God. God the one and onl y God"vi t hout

beginning and end, omnipresent and omnip otent,

inscrutable in His ways, incomprehensible ; man­

powerl~ss to help himself, weak and si nful,but able

to attain God through faith, t hr ough compLe t.e trust

in God,man's du t y being to obey God's Hukam-in these

essentials t heir views are the same even though1

each renained an chor ed firmly in his specific

religious background,Luther t o t he Christian and

Kanak tc the Hindu religi on. Thus Luther believed

in transubstantiation and Nanak in rebirth.But

apart from such doctrines t here is considerable

similarity on vital points as f or ex ample in the

parallels be t ween Naam (sabad)- Hord and Son - the Guru.

If Fan ak 'and Luther did not warrt t o be

religious reformers or to found new religions, they

t hought even less of be coming key figures in thei r

language , and literat\lre, and yet this Has \-That

happened . Nan ak could be said to have be gun Panjabi,

.since i n t he e voluti on of t he Gu rmukhi scri p t , he was

t he s trongest i nspirati on and in the tran sformation

of a p rimi tive langu age f orm into a literary l anguage,

he played t he mos t important role.He wrot e s ome of the

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greatest poetry in Panjabi and influenced later

Panjabi writers deeply.Luther helped t o establish

a standard form for the German language, t urned it-

into a vitally alive medium for literary creation,

through 'hi s translati on of the Bible inDuenced the

thought and culture of a whole nation,influenced

also the translation of the Bible in other laneu ages

and above all,by s et t i ng up a model in prose style,

worked on gen er at i ons of Gennan writers and thus

~bntinues to be an endUring influence on German

literature.We read .for example how Brecht has 'ganzII .

unbeeindruckt durch die sprachgestal tung etwa in

del' Klassik direkt wieder an Luther angekn~pft". (335)

Through h~s hymns Luther laid the foundati on

of ' geistliche lyrik' whi ch formed the main stream

of lyric in the 16th and 17th century.Thereby one

has to remember how Luther never considered himself

a po et and in fact spoke of his hymns belittlingly

"as 'gars tige und s chnode Poetery odder geti cht '

(WA 31.1.393).On another occasion he gave the following

very modest estimate of himself "Ich will,darf und

k ann mich keinesfalls rni t einem Dichter mess en. II

(WA.Br.5,1686). Nanak however calls himself poet and..

- -- - - - - - - - - -~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -335.QU oted from Uirich He r ol d ; Was haben wir von

Mar t i n Luther,loc.cit.,P.96.

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singer.More about self-assessing by himself,we do'

not know.Probably he took it as a gift from 'God

and used it in the service of God,considering it

only as a means to convey his message to the people,

never as an end in itself.

Hot only in mus.Lc whf.ch they loved and created,I

but also in the many, debates they engaged in (Luther

in his 'Streitschriften' and Nan~{ in the many reported

dLsput.es as ·wel l · as ln 'Sidha Ghoshtd ! ) ,in the

dialogue or question and answer form they often used

(Luther's "catechism" and Nan~\:'s "Sidha Ghoshti i , )I

,t hey seem to evince the same tastes.In their \oJTitings

as we have seen in the fourth chapter,both show

many similarities, a~ for example, in the rhythmic

and deliberately mel odious use of words, in rhetorical

devices etc.

In their life's mission and m?de of activity

they resemble each other.Even in the crucial occurrences

of ,t hei r life., there seems to be some parallelism.

Thus Hanak has his mystic experience in 1507 after

which he gi ves up .his job and begins his Udasis to

preach God's Naam.Luther becomes a monk in 1505. after

the . incident of the thunderstorm.In 1517 as Nanak

sets out on his second Udasi . , Luther nails the 95

theses on. the chu r ch door. The period of the Udasis

\-laS for Nanak ce r-t.arrily a period of disputati on \'li th

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Sidhs, Yogis , Haul avis e t c. and the three Udas i s

lasted upto 1521 , althoug h it i s t o be conceded

that we cannot have certainty ab out Nan ak t s dates .

The period from 1517 to 1521 was period of t r emendous

s t r ain f or Luther als o , wi th dispu t ations at

Heidel be rg in 1518, at Leipzig in 1519 crowned by

the encoun te r ''lith Empe r or Charles V a t the Diet of'

Worms in 1521. I f Lu t her had on e of the fines t momen t s

of his life in t hi s encounter as he s aid, "I neither

can nor wi l l r ecant anyt hing, sinc e it is nei t her

right nor s a f'e t o ac t against conscience. God help

me.Amen,,(336) , so , Nanak had al r eady some t i me , between

151 9 and 1521 his encoun t e r 'wi t h Babar whom he

impres sed s o mu ch v:i t h hi s uprightness,fearl essness

and saintliness that he cou~d even ge t favours f rom

the conqueror.¥rom 1521-1534 Luther worked a t his

gr eates t literar y creqtion,tbe translati on of the

bible.He also wrote mos t of hi s hymns (1523-24),

and published i mpo rtant treatis es like "Von wel tli cher

Obrigkei t, '\'l i e 'veil man i hr Gehor sam schuldig s ei

(1523)", "Von Or dnung Gottesdi en sts in de r Gemcine

( 1523) " ,"Hider di e r J'ube r r i che n und mb'rde r ichen

Ro t t en de r Bau ern (1525) ",Der groB e Kate chismu s (1529),

Sendbrief v om Dolmetschen (1530 ) etc. I n t he ye ars- - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -336 . quoted f r om Martin Lu t her - 450 Anni versary of t he

Reforrnat ion, 10c. ci t.,P. 58.

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after his Udasis, when Guru Nariak settl ed dOVTn at

Kart.arpur , al.L ,hi s important wor'ks like Japji and

Baramah were put into writing.In 1525 Luther got

married and became a house-holder "li th a household

that wi thin a few years g rew into a huge establishment

with 16 children,11 of them adopted children,

Yisitors,guests,students,widows and old ,women ,

'eine gemischte Schar aUS jungen Leuten,Studenten,

jungen H~'dchen, Hi tid en , alten Frauen und Kl nde rri'", (337)

stab~es for livestock, land for cultivation,even a

brevlery.As Luther vlrites to his friend Jonas,his

wife ,Frau K~the : "f'uhrw e rk t , bestell t das Feld,

weidet und kauft Vieh, braut US",". (338), Ich armer

Hann,so .'halt ich Hau s ' , l arnen t s Luther in self-mockery

in 1536. (339\Jhile in Hittenberg,Luther was thus

getting more and more involved in 'the life of his

household, at Kartarpur Guru Nariak had t.ak en off the

strange pilgrim's g~*b that he wore ~n the Udasis,

donned the ordinary dress of the day and begun the

life of a house-holder. "He also started cul. tivation

of a farm and. out of its produce food was offered

to whosoever came to Inm.Thus he laid the foundation

337. Friedenthal,Richard; Luther,Sein Leben und SeineZei t,loc. ci t. ,P .542.

338. Ibid. ,Po54 0 .

339. Ibid.,P.541.

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of a community kitchen in which everyone, high or low,

caste or no caste, and men of all creeds, we r e mad e to

eat together( ••• )11(340~one more trip, this time to

Mecca and Med i n e , interrupted this life.But Nan~c

returned soon , to t ake up again a regular house holder's

life. (341) "Norning and evening reli gious services

w e r-e performed". (342) Nanak also imparted instructi on

to the hundreds of men and ' ,w men who came to meet him.

About Luther's household also we read, " Hau sand a ch t.en

"werden a~g ehal t en im.fruheren Refektorium,es wird

eifrig gebetet, die Bi b el gelesen und. au s ge'l e g t "; '

With people always coming and g oing to meet the two

refonners, with the 'langhar' attached to the SikhI

household and the many mouths to ,feed in the Christian

hous eho.Ld j wl t h the religion as a central influence

in daily life in both, the 'two households must have

had very much in common.

But not the two personalities in the centre.

Here we see individual differences.Luther with his

340. Singh, Gopal;Guru Hanalc,10c.cit.,P.53.

341. We read in Nacaullffe, how when Lehina, who laterbecame Guru Angad came to meet Guru Nanak , theGuru's wife told him that the Guru was in hisfields, and would be 'home by evening.Lahinawen t s t raigh t to the Guru and saw t h a t he h adcollected three bundles of grass for Ins cowsand buffaloes.Nacauliffe ,1'1. A. ;The Sikh Religions, Vol.II,1 oc • cit • ,P • 5 •

342. Singh,Gopal;Gunl Nan~,loc.cit.,P.53.

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'Derbheiten 1 and outbursts of t emper s eems very much

human.Nan~~ vnth his ge n t l ene ss , t ol erance ,p i e t y and ­

lov e seems, if not half divine, at least a saint.

But we hav e to remember that while the gl a ring light

of t he lTis chreden' falls on Luther and even his

coarse off-the-cuff r emarks noted down by overzealous

dis ciples have been preserved to, scnndal;Lse l ater( 343 )r eaders, we r ead about Guru Nanak only the

miracles t hat he worl~ed and his encounters with

advers aries whom he always worsted in debat es and al l

of whom at the end fell at his feet.All the same it

is easy to i gnore the mi r acl es and to concentrate on

t he human side of the man, enough of whtch remains.

For examPle there is hi s sense of humour which

delighted in provoking others.Thus in Mec ca , he lies

wi t h feet Lurned t o the Kaaba and when asked "why

hast thou, 0 sinner, turned thy feet to\" ~rdS God ?"

replies: "Turn my feet i n a direction in whf.ch God i s

not". At Har-dwa'r he provokes the Hi ndu s a t t hei r

ablutions by t hr owi ng , water westwards.When Babar tells

him to ask for any favour, he replies si nce God is

the only gi ver and all the others including Kings and

343. Friedenthal,Richard; Lu ther , Sein Leben und SeineZeit,10c.cit~,P.539.

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emperors are begg a r-s , ltHear,Emp eror Babar, He wh o

begge t.h of thee is a ; 001 " (3l¥t) . 'Absolute f earlessness

is also evident in his reply.Luther wa s al s o fearless

and has a keen sense of humour.Nw1~{ls reply to

Babar reminds us of Luther's l etter to protector

Friedrich, Elector of Saxony who had forbidden him

from leaving the s ecuri ty of 'l'Jartburg. " Since I feel

that your Ducal Grace is still weak in the faith,

I can 'by no me an s regard your Ducal Grace a s the man

to protect or sav e me. II (345)The pages of the

'Tischreden' a r e filled ,,,i th examples for his humour

and ironic self-mockery.In a heal t.hyj s ensf.b'Le approach

to. things also both resemble each other.They both

rej ect as t r-ol.ogy, "Our God do es not c onsul t the slcy~'

Luther says in 'Tischreden' (YJA.4,4846) " Thou

calculatest auspicious moments but r eflectest not,

that God is beyond auspicious moments,,(346),

s aYs Nanalc.

In gen e r os i t y and kindness a l s o there is

similari ty. Thus Ou ru Nan ak had a s householder, his' ·f r ee

kitchen, refused during his Udasis gifts from others

much to the chagrin of J.1ardanci, helped the weak and

n e edy j many i nstances of whf.c h 'a r e narrated by Hacau'LLf'f'e ,

------------34~. Nacauliffe, H.A.;The Sikh Religion ,10c.cit.,P.122.

345. Bornk nmm , He i n r i c h ; Luthers 'geistige Hel t,loc • ci t , , P .89.

346. Nac aul i f f e ,l1 . A. ; The Sil{h Religion , , 1 0 c . c i t . , P . 3 52 .

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Luther did not t.alce any money for his book s vno r did

"he aoeept: fee from s tude n t s . II Er sch enkte unauI'h or-Lach',

wenn F1~'chtlinge ocler Bed~rftige ihn ansp rachen " . (347)

We have alre ~dy men t i on ed their love of dispu tation.

While Luther can be boundl essly intempera te in his

speech and fling all s orts of invectives s hor t of

obsceni ty a t hi s opponen t s . Nan ak is always di gni fied

and restrained, al t hough he is ve ry blunt ~1d outsp oken

in his critici sm as we see in his tirades agains t the

Yogis,Bra lmdns etc. We hav e one ins t ance in Macaulif f e'.

whe r-e from bluntness he slides off into "That c ould be

called vicious att ack.Bhangarnath, t he super io r of

the Yogis a sk ed him why he mi x e d ac i d wi t h ~lk ,

meaning the reby,\'l hy he, a holy man j Led a f amily life.

n~'Jhen the milk becometh s ou r , no butter is produ ced

b y churnin g". Hanak r eplied : "0 Bhang a r ria t.h , thy

mothe r wa s an unslcil l ful wom.,n , She k n ew not h ow to

wash t he churn, and so spoi l t t he butter in p r odu c i ng

thee. n(34 8 \ ia turally Nanak cou l d n ever hav e indulged in

wi l d abus e like Lu ther. (349)Nor could he, "lith his

Friedenthc.l ,Richar d ;Luthe r ,Sei n Leben undSei n e Zeit. ,10c.c1t.,P.54-1.

l·Ja cauliffe , N.A. ; The Sik h ·Rel i gi on , l oc . c i t . , P . 1 57 .

Examp l es a r e : Wi d er Han s Wors t (HA 51,P .469 rr) ,Neu e Zeitung v om i111ein (WA.53. P.4041),und Wide rd as P apstum zu Rom vom Teu f el ges tift(WA. 54 ..P . 206 f f )

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compassion for the '\ole a ly.:, h ave 'vr i t ten Luther's a rti cles

a ga i n s t the revolting peasants or vii t.h his fe arl es s

advocating of the right written a treati se like

"Von weI tlicher Obri gkei t wie vlei t man ihr Gehorsam

schuldig sei. n

Nanak 'vas on the whol e a f iner p e rson al i t y

than Luther, more i ma ginative and underst.anding, more

t olerant and f orbearin g,less wor l dl y and agg r e s siv e.

His calmness and equianimi ty, courtesy and pat ienc e in

the f ace of provocati on s (for exampl e , in the f ace of

such i mpertinent questi ons as those of the Kas hmi r i

P andi t,Brahm Dass "Ls that the sort of f aqir t hou a r t ?

Why we arest thou l eather" 'lhich i s unclean? Vlhy h -Jis te s t

thou a r ope round thy b ody ? Hhy hast thou a b andoned

the observances of thy r eligion ' ? And why eat e s t thou

flesh and fish? ·1350)make him a s ai ntly pers onal i t y ,

while Luther with his rudeness an d , i mp atence and

intol erance alwa ys r emained an e r r i n g human being

~ truggl ing for pe r f ec t i on . Bu t these di ffe~en t

personali ties took up· the s ame task, that of religious

r-ef'o rma 'td on , used the same mean s j name'Ly t he 'p owe r,

o f the word and of mu s i c and ther~by became creators of

Ii tera ry wo r ks of the f i n e s t kind,li terary wor k s that

ensure them a plac e in wor l d Ii t.er-ature ,

3500 1'lacaul i ffe , lvi- A. ; The Sikh Religi on , Loc , ci t , ,P .163.