1.GURU NANAK DEV JI
Born in 1469 to a Hindu family near the city of Lahore (now a part of Pakistan), Guru Nanak was the founder of Sikhism. He uttered the words:
There is No Hindu, There is No Muslim
Guru Nanak laid forth three basic principles by which every human being should abide:
1. Remember the name of God at all times.
2. Earn an honest living as a householder.
3. Share a portion of your earnings with the less fortunate.
2. GURU ANGAD DEV G
Besides maintaining and upholding the traditions laid forth by Guru Nanak, the second Guru created the Gurmukhi script, a medium through which the writings and teachings of the Sikh gurus could be readily understood by their followers.
3. GURU AMAR DAS G
The third Sikh Guru reinforced the teachings of the previous Gurus by organizing the construction of twenty-two centers of religious learning for the Sikhs. The Guru also required that anyone wishing to meet him would have to first partake in the common kitchen, called Langar, as a sign of equality.
4. GURU RAM DAS G
The fiorth Guru Founder of the city of Amritsar, site of the Golden Temple, Guru Ram Das worked to ensure the city's growth by encouraging commercial and trade ventures in the town.
5. GURU ARJAN DEV G
The fifth Guru started the construction of the Golden Temple. To emphasize the universality of Sikhism, the foundation stone of the shrine was laid by a Muslim saint.
6. GURU HAR GOBIND G
Responsible for establishing idea of the inseparability of spiritual and temporal matters, the sixth Guru maintained an army for the purpose of protecting the poor and destroying tyrants. He constructed the Akal Takht, center of temporal affairs in the Sikh religion, across from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. By this time, the Sikh community was a full-fledged social, religious, and political entity.
7. GURU HAR RAI G
The seventh Guru continued the mission of organizing the Sikhs into a military force that would be equipped and ready, both spiritually and physically, to counter the repressive Mughal empire.
8. GURU HAR KRISHAN G
At only five years of age, the eighth Sikh Guru was the youngest. He worked to alleviate the suffering of the common man during a smallpox epidemic in Delhi, but succumbed to the disease himself at the age of eight.
9. GURU TEGH BAHADUR G
The Mughal Emperor of India, Aurangzeb, attempted to consolidate India into one Islamic nation. In order to achieve this aim, he set out to virtually eliminate Hinduism from India. When the eighth Guru heard of this from a desperate group of Hindus, he challenged the Emperor that, in order to convert all the Hindus, the Guru himself would have to embrace Islam.
10.GURU GOBIND SINGH G
Upon the death of his father, Guru Gobind Singh felt compelled to organize the Sikhs into a community of saint-soldiers. During the spring of 1699, the Guru emerged with the five followers fully clothed in the uniform of the Khalsa, or Pure. Guru Gobind Singh and his Khalsa army were engaged in several battles against the imperialist Mughal army during the Guru's life.
In the face of persecution, the Guru wrote:
When all peaceful means of resolution have failed, it is righteous to draw the sword.
Before his death at the hands of an assailant in 1708, the Guru added the writings of Guru Tegh Bahadur to the Sikh scriptures, thereby giving a final revision to its form. The Guru also declared the lineage of living Gurus finished, and requested his followers to seek spiritual guidance from the Guru Granth Sahib. In essence, the light of Nanak, the first Guru, was to be forever enshrined within the pages of the Guru Granth Sahib.
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.......thanx for this informative post.....
