God sends great souls to lead the people from darkness to light. Guru Nanak was one of such persons who illuminated the horizon of human thought with his spiritual enlightenment and gave the people the divine message of universal love, fraternity, equality and spiritual harmony. Guru Nanak's birthday is 15/11/2016 - Karthika. 

Whenever a community becomes seriously conflicted from the activities of some of the extremists in that society, the confused majority asks the question as how to respond to such serious threat and how  as responsible human beings, to put society in order to live a life of peaceful and harmonious living with one’s neighbor.

As human beings we are all alike irrespective of our external appearance and the self-created labels which might suggest otherwise. The challenge before us is to value and understand others without any discrimination. This is the essence of the message given by Guru Nanak.  Guru Nanak conveyed the people of different 

faiths irrespective of their cultural differences that it was foolishness to hate a fellow human being for worshiping the creator of Universe in a different way. He emphatically and unconditionally conveyed the message that peace and harmony among the people only could please God and not aggression and hatred.    

One of the most famous stories about Guru Nanak is his rebellion at the very tender age of eleven. Hindu boys of his caste used to start wearing the sacred thread to distinguish themselves from other castes. He refused this custom saying that people should be distinguished by their deeds and their individual qualities, rather than by a thread.  

His family belonged to traditional Hindus, but Nanak showed an advanced interest in religion.  He studied Islamism, Hinduism and various other religions extensively.   Nanak's religious ideas draw on   both Hindu and Islamic thoughts, but are far more than just a synthesis. Nanak is an original spiritual thinker and expressed his thoughts in an extraordinary poetry that forms the basis of Sikh scripture.

Guru Nanak (1469-1539) is one of the greatest religious innovators.  He stood firmly for teachings worthy for the spiritual awakening rather than observing mere dogmatic rituals.
             
Nanak was born about 40 miles from Lahore (now in Pakistan) in 1469. Sikh traditions teach that his birth and early years were  

marked with many events which demonstrated that God had marked him out for something special and was keeping an eye on him.

He worked for a while as an accountant,  but while he was quite young decided to devote himself to spiritual matters. He was inspired by a powerful spiritual experience that gave him a vision of the true nature of God, and confirmed his idea that the way to spiritual growth was through meditation and through living in a way that reflected the presence of the divine within each human being.

In 1496, although married and having a family, Nanak set out on a set of spiritual journeys through India, Tibet and Arabia that lasted nearly 30 years. He studied and debated with the learned men he met along the way and as his ideas took shape he began to teach a new route to spiritual fulfillment and the good life.

Nanak continued to demonstrate a radical spiritual streak - arguing with local holy men and sages, both Hindu and Muslim about that external things like pilgrimages, penances, and poverty which are far less spiritual importance than internal changes to the individual's soul.

His important teaching is “there is only one God, all human beings can have direct access to God with no need of rituals or priests”. His most radical social teachings denounced the caste system and taught that everyone is equal, regardless of caste or gender.