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Guru Nanak

Religious and Spiritual Leaders

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Guru Nanak (1469-1539) was an Indian spiritual teacher, mystic and poet born in the Punjab region, regarded as the founder of Sikhism and the first of its ten Gurus. He rejected caste distinctions and the ritualism of both the Hindu and Muslim traditions of his time, teaching a path of devotion to one formless God, honest living and service to others. He travelled widely across South Asia and beyond before settling at Kartarpur, where he established a community that became a model for the Sikh faith. His hymns are preserved in the Guru Granth Sahib, the central scripture of Sikhism.

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