The Ādi Granth, or the Holy Scriptures of the Sikhs (1877) · 32

(3). Kablr says: my mind is reconciled with the deceiver. The deceit is gone, the deceiver is known (by me)."

Under the influence of the three qualities and the delusion of the Maya man commits acts,' which subject the soul to transmigration.

According to common Hindu notions every action carries with itself its fruit or reward. If one, under the influence of the quality of goodness, has done here meritorious acts (V3, 'T'!?!), he is after his death admitted into heaven or paradise, where he is allowed to enjoy the fruits of his works, till they are exhausted; then he is turned back again into a womb and born on earth in a high caste and in a pious family, to commence anew the old course, whicli may end, according to his actions, to his advantage or disadvantage. If he has acted under the impulse of the quality ef passion, he is reborn after his death in the house of worldly-minded men. But if he has acted iinder the influence of the quality of darkness and heaped up demerits, he is variously punished by Yama (or Dharm-rai), and then born in the body of some animal,^ or even thrown into hell (Ado^); when his punishment there is over, he is then born in some vile animal body and has to go through various transmigrations, till he be born again in a low human womb.' There is a great latitude in these popular views concerning future rewards and punishments, and we find many allusions to them in the Granth, partly couched in melancholy, partly in jocose terms.

Every soul is supposed to have migrated through the eighty-four Lakhs of forms of existence,

' I find it nowhere stated in the Granth, if the sonl itself is considered inactive, as in the system of the theistic Sakhya (and the Bhagr.vad-gita), where the three qualities are represented as exercising their influence through tlie medium of matter, which transmits the good or bad impressions to the seat of sensibility (f •^); this again forwards tlicm to consciousness (^^^T;)> and tills to the intellect (^f^), which conveys them to the soul, who takes cognizance of them.

" Having given up the remembrance of Hari the woman keeps the Ahoi(-fast). Having become a jenny-ass she is born again and carries a load of four maunds."

' Ravidas says (Asa, I., 2, Transl. p. 666):

" Tlie thoughtless one is produced in the womb of a reptile, (he who is) indifferent to religious merit (or) demerit. The human birth is hard to obtain, in that (human) society also he is low."

before it reached the human birth; ' the human birth is therefore considered so valuable, as final emancipation can only be worked out in it.

jS"o man is thus able to work out his final emancipation, as even in the best case, when he is under the influence of the quality of goodness accumulating meritoricSus works, which hold out to him future rewards, the Maya sticks to him, who deludes him into the error of duality, and so long as he is not freed from this error of duality, he cannot reach the gate of salvation (»Ttf ^WT?).' as only light, purified from all earthly desires, can be re-absorbed in the eternal light.

"W^e need hardly remark, that this whole system is contradictory to itself; for on the one hand it is asserted, that the lot of every man is written from the beginning on his forehead, that he acts under the influence of the three qualities, and is in addition deluded by the ilaya into error, and on the other hand he is made accountable for his works and rewarded or punished accordingly, and after aU subject to the trouble of transmigrations.

The Hindu mind was not unaware of. these contradictions, but transmigration was considered necessary in order to account for the different lot of man in this world, which they were at a loss how to account for otherwise. Why are some high, honoured, rich, happy, etc., and why are others low, poor, crippled, etc., and this so frequently without any apparent merit or fault of their own? The only answer, which the pantheistic philosophers could give, that this was all the sport of the Supreme,' could not satisfy the popular mind, which instinctively felt that there must be some causal connexion between the actions of man and the evR in this world. It was therefore supposed that the lot of man in this present life depended on actions done by him in a former birth, though he had no longer any remembrance of them. The philosophers had to reckon with this popular idea, and took it up, though unconnected with their system and contradictory to it.

The transmigration of the soul, which has in India so firmly and universally laid hold of the popular mind, appears to the Hindu (and so likewise to the Sikh) the greatest of evils, and the question, which occupies all the thoughts of his mind, is, how to be freed from it? His aim is not heaven nor paradise,* for he is not allowed to remain there for ever; his aim is, as held out to him by the Bhagats and their followers, the Sikh Gurus, the total dissolution of individual existence

' Kaliir says (Gauri, XFX., Transl. p. 480):

?5T:f dnn^ tt^jk ^frfe »Tfn f >t3 "^^ w ^t? 1 1

" Wandering about in the womb of the eighty-four Lakhs of creatures Nand became much worn out, O dear! "

^ The Maya produces spiritual blindness or infatuation (Hvl)> the consequence of which is regeneration. Nanak says (Asa, Mah. I., Sabd XXIII., 4, Transl. p. 503):

^ »TtU fsf^ t5?vY xnf^ I i^U'?5T3n TRVf? rTTf^ II

" In this spiritual blindness one falls again into the womb. Who clings to spiritual blindness goes to the city of Yania." ' Tills answer is frequently given in the Grauth. Compare JapjT 17, 18, Transl. p. 6; Transl. p. 509, V. * Nanak says (Asa, Mali. I., Sabd XXXVIII., 3, Trau>l. p. 509):

3T^ tV fwS\ »Hf»J5 "Sn^ vV^3tft VT^T^ ^fsWT II

" The discourse of the Guru is a nectar-speech, who drinks it becomes acceptable. Wbo is very fond of the sight of the gate (of God) becomes emancipated, what shall he do in paradise? "

ly the re-absorption of the soul in the fountain of light} His aim is, in one word, the Nirhln (f»imi!j)> the total cessation of individual consciousness and reunion with the Vacuum (ife, 1T«JI)-

If there could be any doubt on the pantheistic character of tlie tenets of the Sikh Gurus regarding the Supreme, it would be dissolved by their doctrine of the Nirban. Where no personal God is taught or believed in, man cannot aspii'c to a final personal communion with him, his aim can only be absorption in the Absolute Substance, i.e. individual annihilation. We find therefore no allusion to the joys of a future life in the Granth, as heaven or paradise, though supposed to exist, is not considered a desirable object. The immortality of the soul is only taught so far as the doctrine of transmigration requires it; but when the soul has reached its highest object, it is no more mentioned, because it no longer exists as individual soul.''

The Nirban, as is well known, was the grand object which Buddha in his preaching held out to the poor people. From his atheistic point of view he could look out for nothing else; personal existence, with all the concomitant evils of this life, which are not counterbalanced by corresponding pleasures, necessarily appeared to him as the greatest evil. His whole aim was there- fore to counteract the troubles and pain of this existence by a stoical indifference to pleasure and pain, and to stop individual consciousness to its utmost limit in order to escape at the point of death from the dreaded transmigration, which he also, even on his atheistic ground, had not ventured to reject. Buddhism is therefore in reality, like Sikhism, nothing but unrestricted Pessimism, unable to hold out to man any solace, except that of annihilation.

In progress of time Buddhism has been expelled from India, but the restored Brahmanism with its confused cosmological legends and gorgeous mythology of the Purauas was equally unable to satisfy the thinking minds. It is tlierefore very remarkable, that Buddhism in its highest object, the Nirban, soon emerges again in the popular teachings of the mediaeval reformatory movements. Namdev, Trilooan, Kabir, Ravidas, etc., and after these jS^anak, take upon themselves to show the way to the Nirban, as Buddha in his time had promised, and find eager listeners; the difference is only in the means which these Bhagats propose, for obtaining the desired end.

In the Kali-yuga, announces Nanak, as well as the popular saints before him, is the name of Sari the only means of obtaining final emancipation {V(^^)?

' Kabir exemplifies this process by the words:

" A drop is mixed with a drop. A drop cannot lie separated from a drop." See Transl. p. 484, v. 2D. Compare also the next following verse.

'^ Kabir expresses this very fiiroil)ly ((Jaurl, Kabir XXI., I, Transl. p. 4S1):

tTSI TI*T ^3 3TI 3»T 7i:\^ II «f£I 5^ UTT ^m TTRI^ 11