But God's orders are absolutely binding, and, like Allah of the Koran, His ways cannot be questioned. He does what He pleases; by His order everything is maintained from moment to moment, and yet He is described as being "perfectly unconcerned."

"God the unconcerned is happy."

His glory and splendour are a continuous source of praise in the Sikh hymns, together with His consistency:

"Thou art the same in every age,
 Thou art ever and ever the same,"

Divine Incarnation denied.—The Sikh Gurus

denied that the Supreme Deity could take upon himself the body of an individual man.

"God is immovable, imperishable, how can He obtain a body?"

"Some in their hearts accept incarnations of God, but I have renounced all vain religion."

Man might achieve union with God, and the reality of this union is emphasised in the strongest terms.

"They who meditate on God have become absorbed in Him."

But the distinction between such raising of manhood into God and the limiting of the Godhead in an individual man was carefully guarded. Gobind Singh says of himself:

"I performed such penance that I became blended with God."

"I am the son of the immortal God, and am sent into the world to restore religion."

But he adds:

"They who call me the Supreme Being shall fall into the pit of hell."

This attitude was taken up by all the Gurus, who denied that they were incarnations of the Deity, but admitted that they had obtained Divine union.

"There is no difference between God and His saints."

Divine Immanence.—The splendour of the transcendent Deity and the divine mission of the

[paragraph continues] Guru are combined with a firm belief in the indwelling and all-pervading Spirit. So strong indeed is this that the Sikh Gurus often use terms of orthodox pantheism very similar to those of the earlier Hindu Scriptures. 1

"Thou art in the tree, Thou art in its leaves. Thou art space, Thou art time, Thou art fasting, Thou art wisdom, Thou alone art, Thou alone art."

But the pantheism of the Gurus is continually qualified by renewed insistence on the transcendent Deity. He remains the Being distinct from all the world. To mankind he is as the ocean to the dew-drop, complete and self-existent, but yet the true self of every individual.

Doctrines borrowed from Hinduism.—The doctrines as to the general construction of the universe are much the same as those of Hinduism in general. All Indian thought which really belongs to the country 2 accepts in one form or another the theories of Karma, Reincarnation, Nirvāna, Māya; and deities as described in the Vedas. Sikhism is no exception. It stands for monotheism placed above and beyond all these.

Karma.—Karma (lit. works) is the law by which