The Ādi Granth, or the Holy Scriptures of the Sikhs (1877) · 34

3Tt^ "u^ -UBT 3fH*>rr TifLr tjt^s? ^tst flfs ii

totally changes all, who come into contact with him. The saving power of the Guru is so extensive, that not only the greatest sinners are purified hy him, but also his disciples become in their turn (apparently by some magical process) ' the means of salvation to their respective families. This is taught in numberless passages of the Granth (see Transl. p. 43, V., 3; p. 390, 5).

That, which the Guru teaches the disciple for the sake of effecting his final emancipation, is, if we may trust the Granth, contained in a few meagre sentences.

The Guru gives the name of Hari to the disciple, which he is enjoined to mutter continually. He is required to repeat and sing the qualities (3T3) of Hari, to meditate on them continually and never to forget them one moment from his mind. Then he is taught to clear away his own "I" and to consider himself identical with Brahm. This is the highest degree of knowledge, which is often alluded to, but nowhere more fuUy detailed. The Guru strives hard to surround himself with some mysterious halo, but in reality he has nothing to teach the disciple but the pantheistic sentence: " So ham," i.e. I am that, I am identical with the Supreme.- This knowledge and its effects are fi'equently described in glowing colours; the disciple gets thereby uncontaminated from the world and remains without any blemish, becomes purer than pure; darkness is dispelled and light diffused in his mind; he looks on all things as the same, pleasure and pain, friend and enemy; he is patient towards all, kind to all, he stops his running mind, destroys his egotism, in fact he is the Supreme Lord himself.^

To a disciple, who has reached this fourth^ or highest step of the soul, religious works are no longer obligatory, as he is free from the Maya and duality, and whatever he does, he must do with an indifferent mind, without any desu-e for future rewards.* The disciple must overcome aU his desires and wishes, which are not directed on Hari, so completely, that he becomes totally hopeless (t^rSTTT) in the world, that he dies, whilst living, being merged in meditation on Hari; thus he becomes emancipated whilst being as yet in the body, and when he dies, he does not come again."

From the foregoing remarks it is plain enough, that in a religion, where the highest object

' Amar-das (Siri Rag, Mali. III., Sabd III., 4, Transl. p. 42) says expressly:

^ Nanak sajs (Sirl RSg, Astp. XI., 8, Trausl. p. 84):

' See Transl. p. 391, Vlll., Astp. 1-C; p. 203, XXXIII., XXXIV.

* See about this fourth step (\J Q V(\ 1)6^, ti6t( I "U^ or 3^^THT)> Transl. p. 15/, note 3; p. 522, II., 2, where a popular description of the fuui' steps is given.

° Arjun says (Gaiiri, SiikhmanJ, IX., Astp. 2, Transl. p. 393):

^trr^ fl fiT^ ■fvfH in£jT7j n frmTi sf^ mfHwr 5 ^ fw^ ii srnj s?5 sft fs^ Au^ tnt ii 5^w 33Tt3 sftrsTs flfji Hit ii

■^ Amar-das says (Gaiirl, Mah. III., Astp. I., 8, Transl. p. 331):

^TTBT *rt 7J »in% ^f^ II 7JT7J37 sra^jftf Hu wnfe ii

^^T^^ST? SJ^Jfftf $ TgV II V^»T TJ-^idH VT% ^^ II 33T3 H% tX^H^ TrZ\ II TCm?ITfg f^% ^{3 fl^ II

of life is the extinction of individual existence, there can be no room for a system of moral duties; we need therefore hardly point out, how wrong the statement of some authors is, that Sikhism is a moralizing Deism.

"We have already noticed that the chief duty of the disciple is blind obedience to his Guru, and in the second place service to the saints. This latter point is considered quite essential to salvation and therefore frequently enjoined; the disciple should become the dust of the feet of the pious (?n"'J). lie should wash their feet and drink the water used in so doing; he should offer up his life to the pious and become their sacrifice. The society of the saints is the greatest blessing; for in their society all filth is removed, true knowledge of Brahm is obtained and the jewel of the name found, so that the gate of Hari {i.e. final emancipation) is naturally reached.' The other duties are summed up in the triad: Tim, '^Ti, fHTTJT^, «'•«• remembering the name, giving alms and practising ablutions; but the two latter duties, as in fact all, except the muttering of the name, are no longer required, when the highest step, the knowledge of Brahm, is obtained. Other duties are occasionally inculcated, as far as they tend towards the burning of egotism and the removal of duality, such as abstaining from falsehood and slander, 'not looking on another's wife, purifying the heart from the five vices, 5TH (lust), ^TJ (wrath),^?53 (greediness), *nJ (infatuation or spiritual blindness) and WtlonB' (egotism).'

Charity to animal life is frequently inculcated in the Granth on pantheistic grounds (all creatures being considered alike), and in consequence abstinence from animal food;^ but this injunc- tion, which went right against the habits of the Jat population of the Panjab, was never observed and therefore silently dropped afterwards; only the killing of the cow was in later times interdicted as sacrilegious, though in the Granth itself no trace of a peculiar sanctity of the cow is to be found.

Eemarkable it is, but quite in accordance with the pantheistic principles of the system, that prayer to the Supreme is hardly ever mentioned in the Granth,* whereas prayer to the Guru is frequently enjoined."

The high position, which the Guru claimed for himself, naturally led to a deification of the same, and though Nanak spoke modestly of himself and confessed himself unlearned and the lowest of sinners,'

' Compare Gaiirl, Mah. V., Sukhmani, XV., 6, Transl. p. 406, and VII., 1-8, Tiansl. p. 389. ^ See Gaiiri, Mah. V., Sukhmani, IX., 1, Transl. p. 393.

* And even when prayer to the Supreme is mentioned, no object or contents of it are detailed, so that it seems to be a mere accommodation to popular notions. Aijun says (Transl. p. 387, V. 8):

srrf %?^ MTH^TH? Tf ttt^ II »HV77r sfWi nrrvft' *n3 ii

Trar »if^iT »T5\ nf^^rrfJT ii wr^ ^th ^ ^rrsrrfJT ii

?I§ 3¥f5 "q^^rt ^ II Tfe ^feWT-g^ W3 M ^fs II ' Nanak says (Siri Rag, Mali. I., Astp. IV., 5, Transl. p. 77):

»rf5 3TH W^ JWaRTfiT Sffs JRTtT^ $fe f^?5TfS II

JiTwfe f»TfeJH?w vrf^nn ^m ^ ¥% fw >crfe ii

' Nanak says humbly of himself (Asa, Mah. I., Sabd XXIX., 2, Transl. p. 505):

j^ trf 7T5\ fK5\ 7i^ -vrfwwfT ^?tr ^w\i ^t^« sfenn ii i{^^f3 TJTT^ f37J?Y JiHsrr fiUTi f jvreft f^mf^nn ii

It is iiitoniprehensible, how the later tradition, in the face of confessions of this kind, could deem Nanak to be an Avatar.