"Sin prevailed throughout creation. God, observing men's anguish and hearing their piteous cries, conferred supernatural attributes on Guru Nānak. He bestowed on him the supreme wealth of the Name, and humility, and sent him into the world to relieve its sufferings. … Guru Nānak declared that God, who has no form or outline, was not found by wearing religious garbs, but by humility; and that if men rejected caste and worshipped God in spirit, they should be accepted in His court. … Wherever the Guru planted his foot there was established a seat of worship. Every house of his followers became a temple in which the Lord's praises were ever sung, and the Lord's name continually repeated. … By practising humility the Guru's Sikhs are recognised. They live as hermits among their families, they efface their individuality, they pronounce the ineffable Name of God, and they transgress not the will of the Creator. … The Guru inculcated love and devotion, the repetition of God's Name, and the lesson that as men sow so shall they reap. Thus were men saved in every direction, and Guru Nānak became the true support of the nine regions of the earth."

Footnotes

44:1 See note page 33. The pantheistic doctrine of the Vedānta necessitated the use of negations, for the absolute Brahma, the world-soul of the Universe could possess no positive qualities of goodness, mercy and the like. Thus:

"This Self is nay, nay: not to be grasped, for He is not grasped; not to be broken, for He is not broken; unclinging, for He clings not; He is not bound, He trembles not, He takes no hurt." (Brihad-āranyaka Upanishad.)

47:1 Compare: "Thou are woman, Thou art man, Thou art boy and maiden; Thou art the old man tottering on the staff; Thou art born with face looking all ways. (Svetāsvatara Upanishad.)

47:2 The religion of the Prophet was a later and foreign element.

55:1 One explanation is that in the four great ages of the world, God was worshipped under the names of Wasdev, Hari, Gobind, and Rām. The Guru made out of the initials of these four names the word Wāhguru which is praise of God and the Guru. Gur Dās's explanation is that "wah means congratulation, and guru means great. Both words combined, therefore, mean congratulations to the Great God."

56:1 An account of these services is given before the selections from the Granth Sāhib.

58:1 The five virtues were contentment, compassion, piety, patience, and morality; the five deadly sins, lust, anger, covetousness, worldly love, and pride.

Next: Chapter IV. Hymns from the Granth Sāhib, and from the Granth of the Tenth Guru

Sikhism

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