24-episode docuseries traces Guru Nanak's travels across 9 nations

Chandigarh, Oct 8 (IANS) The first-ever comprehensive documentation of Guru Nanak's life journey through visitations to multi-faith sites across nine nations, as documented in the historical texts, will be available from October 14.

The series, 'Allegory, A Tapestry of Guru Nanak's Travels', chronicles the vast expanse of sites that were visited by Guru Nanak during his lifetime.

Over 550 years ago, Guru Nanak travelled across the distant lands of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Tibet, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka for over two decades on an altruistic pursuit to spread the message of the oneness of creation.

To relate with people of diverse cultures and belief systems, he engaged in philosophical and social dialogue, and through the medium of words and music, he gracefully imparted experiential and spiritual insights, fearlessly challenged the binary constructs of society, and relentlessly opposed gender, religious, racial and class inequalities.

In the 21st century, geopolitical restrictions and cultural mandates impose immense challenges to trace Guru Nanak's extensive travels as approximately 70 per cent of the places he travelled to fall in geographies where filming is difficult.

However, in January 2019, a team led by Singaporean couple, Amardeep Singh and his wife, Vininder Kaur, embarked on a journey to retrace Guru Nanak's footsteps. This herculean task, extending far beyond personal ambition, is aimed with a passion to preserve Guru Nanak's teachings that perceives no borders or human divisions.

Aided with the analytical study of the oldest 'Janamsakhis' (biographies of Guru Nanak) and supported by the allegoric messages in Guru Nanak's verses, the team spent over three years filming all the geographies and multi-faith sites visited by Guru Nanak to present his life events in the form of a 24-episode docuseries.

Undeterred by adversities, they travelled from the deserts of Mecca in Saudi Arabia to Mount Kailash in Tibet, explored remote regions of perilous Afghanistan, experienced the scorching heat in Iraq, scaled the arid Baluchi mountains in Pakistan, sailed across the waters of the Indian Ocean to disembark in Sri Lanka, blended with the Persian culture in Iran, crossed the delta region in Bangladesh and mapped all four directions in India.

Commenting on the docuseries, Mohammad H. Qayoumi, President Emeritus, San Jose State University, said: "As a practicing Muslim, I have found this docuseries filled with symbolic spiritual messages of Guru Nanak which will be enjoyable for everyone who has a curious mind. I highly recommend them to all viewers."

For Amardeep and Vininder, every moment in Guru Nanak's footsteps was philosophically liberating. It encouraged them to challenge their own conditioning, unlearn, re-learn and assimilate the beauty of unity in diversity.

"In a world that is so fragile and volatile, there has never been a better time to understand why Guru Nanak's travelled for 22 years to share his experiential wisdom and propagate the oneness of humankind," said Amardeep Singh.

The weekly episodes of this docuseries will be available on the website TheGuruNanak.com from October 14.

In the next phase, the docuseries, produced by 'Lost Heritage Productions' and 'SikhLens Productions', will be translated into Punjabi and Hindi.