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409 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Sikhs
his master in knowledge; this experience was repeated when he went to study Persian at the age of seven; while a youth engaged in herding cattle, as he meditated the cattle trespassed on a grainfield to the wrath of the owner, yet on examination it was found that not a single shoot had been trampled; once while he was sleeping under a tree, the shadow remained fixed and protected him from the sun, and at another time a cobra spread its hood and shaded him (Cf. SERPENT IN WORSHIP; etc., IV., § 2). Apart from such tales, what may be gathered of his life is that he early reached conclusions condemning the religious customs, both Hindu and Mohammedan, current about him, employed himself in composing verses in the vernacular embodying instruction on man's duty to God and man and expressive of revolt against the teachings and practises of the two dominant religions. He refused as a youth to put on the sacred thread and so declare himself a Hindu, confounding in argument the Brahman who was to perform the ceremony.
Nanak was married at fourteen, but could not be induced to take up an occupation, gaining the reputation of a madman. At length he took service under the governor of Sultanpur, spent the nights praising the Creator, and gave all but a pittance of his wages to fakirs. Having retired into the wilderness, he was gone three days, during which he thought he had a vision of the Supreme, drank nectar in the presence, and was pronounced the true Guru. On his return he uttered a cryptic sentence condemning Hindus and Mohammedans, then took up the life of a wanderer and religious teacher, and began to make disciples. Like Socrates, he found the themes for his teachings in the daily life about him, a question, a chance saying, or an experience giving him the text for a discourse in verse. Manifesting a supreme disregard for rank or dignity, he rebuked or taught with equal ardor, severity, or gentleness, as the case seemed to him to require, all who met him or listened to him, addressing as on terms of equality ascetics, fakirs, thugs, Brahmans, nobles, princes, and kings, all of whom are said to have acknowledged the divine source of his teachings. He overcame the temptation of the devil who sought to buy him with the riches of the earth from the accomplishment of his teaching mission. He is said to have traversed Middle and South India and to have visited Mecca and Medina. During his life the organization of the Sikh church had begun by the founding of societies, and the Guru's hymns were committed to memory as sacred scriptures. At the end of his life he inaugurated the practise followed by the other Gurus (except the tenth) and appointed his successor, in this case Angad. Just before his death Mohammedans and Hindus contested for the honor of disposing of his remains, but in the morning the corpse had disappeared-his supreme miracle. The methods of Nanak were often exceedingly apt and convincing. Thus to a man who had acquired great wealth and ostentatiously displayed it he gave a needle with the injunction to retain it carefully until it should be required of him in the next world. The man took it with the injunction to his wife,
who declared the Guru mad and told him to return it to the giver. The latter then asked, if so small a thing as a needle could not be taken into the next world, how so great wealth could accompany the rich. On being asked how to take it there he replied: " Give some of thy wealth in God's name, feed the poor, and thy wealth shall accompany thee" (Macauliffe, i. 130).
The name of the second Guru, Angad, embodies the theory respecting the person of the Guru. His name was Lahina, but this was changed to a word which included the word for " body,"
3. The the idea being that the Guru for the Other time being was the embodiment of the Gurus. first Guru, and that indeed all the Gurus were not ten but one, the spirit of the first descending to the second. A consequence of this is that the compositions of the Gurus all carry the pen name Nanak. Angad abandoned the wan dering mode of life, settled at a place called Khadur, whither the Sikhs came for instruction and to bring their free-will offerings. His leadership was marked by the first Sikh schism, a part of the followers of Nanak choosing Sri Chand, oldest son of Nanak, as Guru, and this sect received the name of Udasis (" solitaries "). The period of the third Guru, Amar Das, was marked by a second attempt at schism, since Datu, the son of Angad, tried to set himelf up in opposition, but was not recognized by the Sikhs. Amar Das inaugurated the custom for the Sikhs of visiting the Guru three times a year for instruction in religion. It was he who began the work of build ing the sacred tank or pool. His period is marked also by formal complaints to the Mohammedan emperor against the faith, but Akbar dismissed these and showed favor to the Guru. He formulated the rules of the religion and created a sort of regulation of life. By the fourth Guru, Ram Das, the work of dissemination of the religion was undertaken by the despatch of missionaries, part of whose work was the collection of offerings for the completion of the sacred tank. The importance of this structure is great, since it gave the Sikhs a center and a home, the environs of the pool being built up and becom ing the sacred city Amritsar, now the goal of the Sikh pilgrimage. The compositions of this Guru and of his predecessor were quite numerous. The fifth Guru, Arjan, youngest son of Ram Das, completed the erection of the tank and also the building of a temple in the middle of it, also beginning the erec tion of the city of Kartarpur. His oldest brother attempted to seize the leadership and created a sec ond schism, giving rise to the Mina sect. This fact emphasized a growing tendency to diversity of faith and practise and the rise of rival scriptures. Ac cordingly he conceived and carried through the col lection of the body of scriptures called the Adi (" first ") Granth (see below), which was completed in 1604 (or within about fifty years of the death of the first Guru) and deposited it in the newly built temple. The importance of this for the Sikhs can not be overestimated, guaranteeing as it did the perpetuity of the sect. His period is marked by in creased stress from the Mohammedans. Already under the previous Guru there had been armed con flict, which in Arjan's time became serious; there