"Then," this author adds, "there were two races in the world; the one Hindú, the other Muhammedan; and both were alike excited by pride, enmity, and avarice, to violence. The Hindús set their heart on Gangá and Benares; the Muhammedans on Mecca and the Cáaba: the Hindús clung to their mark on the forehead and brahminical string; the Moslemans to their circumcision: the one cried Rám (the name of an Avatár), the other Rahím (the merciful); one name, but two ways of pronouncing it; forgetting equally the Védas and the Korán: and through the deceptions of lust, avarice, the world, and Satan, they swerved equally from the true path: while Bráhmens and Moulavis destroyed each other by their quarrels, and the vicissitudes of life and death hung always suspended over their heads.
"When the world was in this distracted state, and vice prevailed," says this writer, "the complaint of virtue, whose dominion was extinct, reached the throne of the Almighty, who created Nánac, to enlighten and improve a degenerate and corrupt age: and that holy man made God the Supreme known to all, giving the nectareous water that washed his feet to his disciples to drink. He restored to Virtue her strength, blended the four casts[104] into one, established one mode of salutation, changed the childish play of bending the head at the feet of idols, taught the worship of the true God, and reformed a depraved world."
Nánac appears, by the account of this author, to have established his fame for sanctity by the usual modes of religious mendicants. He performed severe Tapasa[105], living upon sand and swallow-wort, and sleeping on sharp pebbles; and, after attaining fame by this kind of penance, he commenced his travels, with the view of spreading his doctrine over the earth.
After Nánac had completed his terrestrial travels, he is supposed to have ascended to Suméru, where he saw the Sidd'his[106], all seated in a circle. These, from a knowledge of that eminence for which he was predestined, wished to make him assume the characteristic devotion of their sect, to which they thought he would be an ornament. While means were used to effect this purpose, a divine voice was heard to exclaim: "Nánac shall form his own sect, distinct from all the Yatís[107] and Sidd'his; and his name shall be joyful to the Cáli Yug." After this, Nánac preached the adoration of the true God to the Hindús; and then went to instruct the Muhammedans, in their sacred temples at Mecca. When at that place, the holy men are said to have gathered round him, and demanded, Whether their faith, or that of the Hindús, was the best? "Without the practice of true piety, both," said Nánac, "are erroneous, and neither Hindús nor Moslems will be acceptable before the throne of God; for the faded tinge of scarlet, that has been soiled by water, will never return. You both deceive yourselves, pronouncing aloud Rám and Rahím, and the way of Satan prevails in the universe."
The courageous independence with which Nánac announced his religion to the Muhammedans, is a favourite topic with his biographers. He was one day abused, and even struck, as one of these relates, by a Moullah, for lying on the ground with his feet in the direction of the sacred temple of Mecca. "How darest thou, infidel!" said the offended Muhammedan priest, "turn thy feet towards the house of God!"—"Turn them, if you can," said the pious but indignant Nánac, "in a direction where the house of God is not."
Nánac did not deny the mission of Muhammed. "That prophet was sent," he said, "by God, to this world, to do good, and to disseminate the knowledge of one God through means of the Korán; but he, acting on the principle of free-will, which all human beings exercise, introduced oppression, and cruelty, and the slaughter of cows[108], for which he died.—I am now sent," he added, "from heaven, to publish unto mankind a book, which shall reduce all the names given unto God to one name, which is God; and he who calls him by any other, shall fall into the path of the devil, and have his feet bound in the chains of wretchedness. You have," said he to the Muhammedans, "despoiled the temples, and burnt the sacred Védas, of the Hindús; and you have dressed yourselves in dresses of blue, and you delight to have your praises sung from house to house: but I, who have seen all the world, tell you, that the Hindús equally hate you and your mosques. I am sent to reconcile your jarring faiths, and I implore you to read their scriptures, as well as your own: but reading is useless without obedience to the doctrine taught; for God has said, no man shall be saved except he has performed good works. The Almighty will not ask to what tribe or persuasion he belongs. He will only ask, What has he done? Therefore those violent and continued disputes, which subsist between the Hindús and Moslemans, are as impious as they are unjust."
Such were the doctrines, according to his disciples, which Nánac taught to both Hindús and Muhammedans. He professed veneration and respect, but refused adoration to the founders of both their religions; for which, as for those of all other tribes, he had great tolerance. "A hundred thousand of Muhammeds," said Nánac, "a million of Brahmás, Vishnus, and a hundred thousand Rámas, stand at the gate of the Most High. These all perish; God alone is immortal. Yet men, who unite in the praise of God, are not ashamed of living in contention with each other; which proves that the evil spirit has subdued all. He alone is a true Hindú whose heart is just; and he only is a good Muhammedan whose life is pure."
Nánac is stated, by the Sikh author from whom the above account of his religion is taken, to have had an interview with the supreme God, which he thus describes: "One day Nánac heard a voice from above exclaim, Nánac, approach!" He replied, "Oh God! what power have I to stand in thy presence?" The voice said, "Close thine eyes." Nánac shut his eyes, and advanced: he was told to look up: he did so, and heard the word Wá! or well done, pronounced five times; and then Wá! Gúrújí, or well done teacher. After this God said, "Nánac! I have sent thee into the world, in the Cáli Yug (or depraved age); go and bear my name." Nánac said, "Oh God! how can I bear the mighty burthen? If my age was extended to tens of millions of years, if I drank of immortality, and my eyes were formed of the sun and moon, and were never closed, still, oh God! I could not presume to take charge of thy wondrous name."—"I will be thy Gúrú (teacher)," said God, "and thou shalt be a Gúrú to all mankind, and thy sect shall be great in the world; their word is Púrí Púrí. The word of the Bairágí is Rám! Rám! that of the Sanyásí, Om! Namá! Náráyen! and the word of the Yógís, Adés! Adés! and the salutation of the Muhammedans is Salám Alíkam; and that of the Hindús, Rám! Rám! but the word of thy sect shall be Gúrú, and I will forgive the crimes of thy disciples. The place of worship of the Bairágís is called Rámsála; that of the Yógís, Asan; that of the Sanyásís, Mát; that of thy tribe shall be Dherma Sála. Thou must teach unto thy followers three lessons: the first, to worship my name; the second, charity; the third, ablution. They must not abandon the world, and they must do ill to no being; for into every being have I infused breath; and whatever I am, thou art, for betwixt us there is no difference. It is a blessing that thou art sent into the Cáli Yug." After this, "Wá Gúrú! or well done, teacher! was pronounced from the mouth of the most high Gúrú or teacher (God), and Nánac came to give light and freedom to the universe."