Sangat (term) - Guru Nanak

Guru Nanak

Though sangat has the freedom to discuss secular matters affecting the community, it is its spiritual core which imparts to it the status and authority it commands in the Sikh system. Guru Nanak said, “satsangat is where the Divine Name alone is cherished.” (GG, 72) This is where virtues are learned. “Satsangat is the Guru’s own school where one practises godlike qualities.” (GG, 1316) Attendance at sangat wins one nearness to God and release from the circuit of birth and death. “Sitting among sangat one should recite God’s praise and thereby swim across the impassable ocean of existence.” (GG, 95) As satsangat is obtained through the Guru’s grace, the Name blossoms forth in the heart. (GG, 67-68) “Amid sangat abides the Lord God.” (GG, 94) “God resides in the sangat. He who comprehends the Guru’s word realizes this truth. (GG, 1314) “Deprived of sangat, one’s self remains begrimed.” (GG, 96) “Without sangat ego will not be dispelled.” (GG, 1098) Says Guru Arjan in Sukhmani, “Highest among all works is joining the sangat and thereby conquering the evil propensities of the mind.” (GG, 266) Again, “As one lost in a thick jungle rediscovers one’s path, so will one be enlightened in the company of the holy.” (GG, 282)

Sangat, fellowship of the holy, is thus applauded as a means of moral and spiritual uplift; it is as well a social unit which inculcates values of brotherhood, equality and seva. Sangats sprang up in the wake of Guru Nanak’s extensive travels. Group of disciples formed in different places and met together in sangat to recite his hymns.

As an institution, sangat had, with its concomitants dharamsal, where the devotees gathered in the name of Akal, the Timeless Lord, to pray and sing Guru Nanak’s hymns, and Guru ka Langar, community refectory, where all sat together to partake of a common repast without distinction of caste or status—symbolized the new way of life emerging from Guru Nanak's teachings. At the end of his udasis or travels, Guru Nanak settled at Kartarpur, a habitation he had himself founded on the right bank of the River Ravi. There a community of disciples grew around him. It was not a monastic order, but a fellowship of ordinary men engaged in ordinary occupation of life. A key element in this process of restructuring of religious and social life was the spirit of seva. Corporal works of charity and mutual help were undertaken voluntarily and zealously and considered a peculiarly pious duty. To quote Bhai Gurdas: “dharamsal kartarpur sadhsangati sach khandu vasaia”, Varan, XXIV. 11, i.e. in establishing dharamsal at Kartapur, with its sangat or society of the holy, Guru Nanak brought the heaven on earth.