Gurdwara Guru Ka Bagh (Varanasi)

Gurdwara Guru Ka Bagh (Varanasi) commemorates the visit by Guru Nanak to Varanasi at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The occasion was the Sivaratri of 1563 Bk, which fell in February 1507. Guru Nanak's apparel which was neither of a householder nor of a hermit attracted notice.

One of the leading Pandits, Chatur Das, came and began to question him, "What faith do you profess? You carry no Saligram, the devotee's stone, nor do you wear the necklace of Tuisi, the holy basil. You have no rosary and no mark of white clay upon your forehead. What devotion you have attached yourself to?"

Guru Nanak asked Mardana to play the rebeck and recited the hymn : "Let God's Name be the Saligram thou adorest and good deeds the basilwreath round thy neck. Seek divine grace and let this be thy raft's anchor. Why waste thy time watering barren land and plastering walls built on sand ? Let good deeds be the string of vessels to draw whaler from the well and yoke thy mind to the wheel. Distil the nectar and irrigate with it the land. Then wilt thou be owned by the Gardener."

Chatur Das was proud of his learning and invited the Guru to stay in Varanasi and master the various branches of knowledge. Guru Nanak said that for him only one word was of real account and that was the God's Name. He reckoned him truly learned wTio remembered Him and engaged himself in the service of others.

The bagh (garden) where this colloquy took place is no longer in existence. However, Gurdwara Guru Bagh marks the site. The construction of the present building was inaugurated on 23 November 1969, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Guru Nanak's birth. The vast rectangular divan hall has an elegant little porch at the entrance and a 5 metre wide gallery at mid-height on three sides.

There are 14 small rooms for use as office and residence for staff and pilgrims. One of these rooms in the building houses a library named after Guru Nanak. In an adjacent campus is a girls college called Guru Nanak Khalsa Balika Inter College, Guru Bagh. The management of the Gurdwara is in the hands of a local committee.