ABSTRACT
The Sikh religion is rooted in the Sant movement in northern India, begun in the thirteenth century by various holy men and women who wandered the area singing poems about the wonders of their gods. Nanak was born a Hindu into a merchant caste in the town of Rai Bhoidi Taluandi, 40 miles southeast of Lahore, Pakistan. From Guru Nanak's perspective, music can be used to inspire devotion, to give expression to the inexpressible nature of God, and to show humans how to relate to the Divine harmony pervading the universe. According to Sikh tradition, Guru Gobind Singh was stabbed by a Pathan male who was associated with the Vazir Khan in the small town of Nander on the Godavari River. From a simplistic perspective, Sikh religious experience is a devotional path that eventually culminates in a direct experience of God and liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth.
