to enter Nirvāna, and some way must therefore be found by which even good actions shall cease to bear with them the necessity for "results." They must be wrought "unfettered," "uninvolved," that is, only in the love of God and without hope of fruit. Only thus can they lead to God and not away from Him. If done from any other motive they involve the temporary reward which befits such a motive: "As a man sows so shall he reap," and a body must be reassumed. Thus the distinction is clearly made by Nānak, between right actions performed for the love of God and those which spring from any other motive. But to learn how to act rightly was no easy task. The wish to do so was not enough; the way must be found.

The Guru.—To this end the first essential was a true Guru.

Without the Guru man is ruined by wandering."

"Māya hath bound this world on all sides by her cable. Without a Guru it cannot be untied. Man groweth weary in striving."

"He who serveth the Guru knoweth the way; without the Guru it cannot be found."

In India it has at all times been the custom for young men to be apprenticed to a Guru as religious guide. Every great saint had his Guru. But Nānak held that the religious world had gone astray and that therefore a now

and direct revelation was again necessary. He therefore declared that his own Guru was God, who had specially instructed him how to lead back the world to right faith. All those, therefore, who came to him for religious guidance, or who received it through his disciples, his successors or the Sikh hymns, had found the true Guru, and thus the possibility of emancipation.

The First Essential. Simplicity.—The keynote of the Guru's instruction was greater simplicity in belief and worship. All elaboration, whether of thought or of deed, was to be discarded. Faith in the one true God was absolutely necessary, but the thousands of demi-gods were not to be heeded. Pilgrimages, rosaries, fasts, asceticism, were in themselves of no avail. Nānak admitted that with sincerely religious people these things might be useful, but when the world was lost in error they became mere corruptions. They helped to increase formality and hypocrisy. Some practices were also harmful and cruel, such as the burning of widows, the exposure of girl-babies, and the extreme asceticism practised by hermits. Such things were to be abolished absolutely, and simple obedience and love to God were to take their place. No idols were to be permitted, and ceremonies should be discarded as vain.

"If I please Him, that is my place of pilgrimage to bathe in; if I please Him not, what ablutions shall I make?"