Sant Baba Nand Singh (8 November 1870 – 29 August 1943) was a Sikh Saint. He is known as the founder of the Nanaksar Kaleran sampradya of Sikhism.
Early life
Baba Nand Singh was born on 8 November 1870 at
Sherpur village in
Jagraon
Jagraon is a city and a municipal council, a rural police district and a sub-division of the Ludhiana district in the Indian state of Punjab. Jagraon is more than three centuries old. It has been thought that the city's original name was Jagar ...
,
Ludhiana district
Ludhiana district is one of the 23 districts in the Indian state of Punjab, India, Punjab. It is Punjab's largest district by both area and population. Ludhiana, the largest city in Punjab, is the district headquarters.
The main industries are ...
of
Punjab to Sardar Jai Singh and Mata Sada Kaur. It is reported that he displayed a proclivity for meditation from a young age, once being found doing so while sitting at the edge of a well in the middle of the night.
Life work
Nand Singh left his house to do
sewa
Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), meaning "service" in several Indian languages, is a trade union based in Ahmedabad, India, that promotes the rights of low-income, independently employed female workers. With over 1.6 million particip ...
at Gurdwara Sahib in
Firozpur. He acquired a distinct group of followers during his lifetime. At a very young age, he left his family to seek enlightenment and became a disciple of Maha Harnam Singh, another great Saint of great spirit. There he met
Harnam Singh
Raja Sir Harnam Singh Ahluwalia , KCIE (15 November 1851 – 20 May 1930) was a member of the Kapurthala royal family in the direct line founded by Jassa Singh Ahluwalia.
He was the first president of the All India Conference of Indian Christi ...
, who was impressed by his spirituality. He mentored him in the ways of devotion and the spirit of sacrifice.
It is said Singh went to a forest for further meditation. After some time, he returned from the forest and stayed outside nearby village. The villagers constructed a temporary shelter for him. After some time, dwellers of the Kalera village approached him with an invitation to their village, which he accepted. En route, he stopped at a well located between Kalera and Kaunke. He made his camp there, and a small hut was made for him by the villagers. Singh started his meditation there.
Nand Singh established his
dera
Dera, Dero, Daro, Dhoro, Dahar or Dehra is a word in several languages of South Asia, whose meaning is 'camp', 'mound' or 'settlement'. It appears in the names of a number of places.
Geography India
* Dera, Himachal Pradesh
* Dera Bassi, Mohali ...
, now known as
Nanaksar
Nanaksar is a village in the Punjab province of Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of ...
, near Kalera. The food (
langar Langar may refer to:
Community eating
*Langar (Sikhism)
* Langar (Sufism)
Places
Afghanistan
*Langar, Badakhshan, Afghanistan
* Langar, Bamyan, Afghanistan
* Langar, Faryab, Afghanistan
* Langar, Herat, Afghanistan
* Langar, Wardak, Afghanis ...
) was provided by nearby villagers, a practice which is in place to this day. Unlike other
gurdwaras, no financial offerings are made by the devotees in front of the
Guru Granth Sahib at this Sri Nanaksar Gurdwara.
Death
Nand Singh left his bodily form at Nanaksar in Punjab which is now recognized as the central dera although his devotees have established Gurudwaras under the name of Nanaksar across
Punjab,
Haryana,
Uttarakhand, and
Canada.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Nand
Indian Sikhs
Sikh saints
1870 births
1943 deaths