Nanak dived into the Bein River and emerged three days later with Japuji, the spiritual verses which were his first gift to the world. Symbolically, being lost in the river was his surrender to the Supreme, implying one must give up himself to merge! As long as I exists, HE cannot!

Nanak once walked the lands that became Pakistan in 1947. In the communal madness that ensued the decision to partition the subcontinent on the hypothesis that Hindus and Muslims can’t live together, the followers of Nanak were reduced to a ‘collateral damage’.

Seven decades after partition, it is refreshing that Nanak continues to survive across Pakistan in names of places like ‘Nankana Sahib District’, ‘Nanakpur in Faisalabad’, ‘Nanak Sir near Jhang’, ‘Nanakpura in Rawalpindi’, ‘Nanak Wara in Karachi’ and ‘Guru Nanakpura in Gujranwala’.

A small man-made canal of the British era in Khanewal, on the road to Multan, which is called ‘NANAK PUR MINOR’, to me it symbolized Nanak’s association with the flowing waters of the river in which he had disappeared. In the picture, ‘Nanak Pur Minor’ is written in Urdu in the larger letters.

Nanak, the benefactor continues to live in names across Pakistan, while his followers are exiled!