The above will give a sufficient view of the ideas which the Sikhs entertain regarding the divine origin of their faith; which, as first taught by Nánac, might justly be deemed the religion of peace.
"Put on armour," says Nánac, "that will harm no one; let thy coat of mail be that of understanding, and convert thy enemies to friends. Fight with valour, but with no weapon except the word of God." All the principles which Nánac inculcated, were those of pure deism; but moderated, in order to meet the deep-rooted usages of that portion of mankind which he wished to reclaim from error. Though he condemned the lives and habits of the Muhammedans, he approved of the Korán[109]. He admitted the truth of the ancient Védas, but contended that the Hindú religion had been corrupted, by the introduction of a plurality of gods, with the worship of images; which led their minds astray from that great and eternal Being, to whom adoration should alone be paid. He, however, followed the forms of the Hindús, and adopted most of their doctrines which did not interfere with his great and leading tenet. He admitted the claim to veneration, of the numerous catalogue of Hindú Dévas, and Dévatás, or inferior deities; but he refused them adoration. He held it impious to slaughter the cow; and he directed his votaries, as has been seen, to consider ablution as one of their primary religious duties.
Nánac, according to Penjábi authors, admitted the Hindú doctrine of metempsychosis. He believed, that really good men would enjoy Paradise; that those, who had no claim to the name of good, but yet were not bad, would undergo another probation, by revisiting the world in the human form: and that the bad would animate the bodies of animals, particularly dogs and cats: but it appears, from the same authorities, that Nánac was acquainted with the Muhammedan doctrine regarding the fall of man, and a future state; and that he represented it to his followers as a system, in which God, by showing a heaven and a hell, had, in his great goodness, held out future rewards and punishments to man, whose will he had left free, to incite him to good actions, and deter him from bad. The principle of reward and punishment is so nearly the same in the Hindú and in the Muhammedan religion, that it was not difficult for Nánac to reconcile his followers upon this point: but in this, as in all others, he seems to have bent to the doctrine of Brahmá. In all his writings, however, he borrowed indifferently from the Korán and the Hindú Sástras; and his example was followed by his successors; and quotations from the scriptures of the Hindús, and from the book of Muhammed, are indiscriminately introduced into all their sacred writings, to elucidate those points on which it was their object to reconcile these jarring religions.
With the exact mode in which Nánac instructed his followers to address their prayers to that supreme Being whom he taught them to adore, I am not acquainted. Their D'herma Sála, or temples of worship, are, in general, plain buildings. Images are, of course, banished. Their prescribed forms of prayer are, I believe, few and simple. Part of the writings of Nánac, which have since been incorporated with those of his successors, in the Adí-Grant'h, are read, or rather recited, upon every solemn occasion. These are all in praise of the Deity, of religion, and of virtue; and against impiety and immorality. The Adí-Grant'h, the whole of the first part of which is ascribed to Nánac, is written, like the rest of the books of the Sikhs, in the Gúrúmuk'h[110] character. I can only judge very imperfectly of the value of this work: but some extracts, translated from it, appear worthy of that admiration which is bestowed upon it by the Sikhs.
The Adí-Grant'h is in verse; and many of the chapters, written by Nánac, are termed Pídi, which means, literally, a ladder or flight of steps; and, metaphorically, that by which a man ascends.
In the following fragment, literally translated from the Sódar rág ásá mahilla pehla of Nánac, he displays the supremacy of the true God, and the inferiority of the Dévatás, and other created beings, to the universal Creator; however they may have been elevated into deities by ignorance or superstition.
Thy portals, how wonderful they are, how wonderful thy palace, where thou sittest and governest all!
Numberless and infinite are the sounds which proclaim thy praises.
How numerous are thy Peris, skilful in music and song!
Pavan (air), water, and Vasantar (fire), celebrate thee; D'herma Rájá (the Hindú Rhadamanthus) celebrates thy praises, at thy gates.
Chitragupta (Secretary to D'herma Rájá) celebrates thy praises; who, skilful in writing, writes and administers final justice.
Iswara, Brahmá, and Dévi, celebrate thy praises; they declare in fit terms thy majesty, at thy gates.
Indra celebrates thy praises, sitting on the Indraic throne amid the Dévatás.
The just celebrate thy praises in profound meditation, the pious declare thy glory.
The Yatís and the Satís joyfully celebrate thy might.
The Pandits, skilled in reading, and the Rishíswaras, who, age by age, read the Védas, recite thy praises.
The Móhinís (celestial courtezans), heart alluring, inhabiting Swarga, Mritya, and Pátálá, celebrate thy praises.
The Ratnas (gems), with the thirty-eight Tírt'has (sacred springs), celebrate thy praises.
Heroes of great might celebrate thy name; beings of the four kinds of production celebrate thy praises.
The continents, and regions of the world, celebrate thy praises; the universal Brahmánda (the mundane egg), which thou hast established firm.
All who know thee praise thee, all who are desirous of thy worship.
How numerous they are who praise thee! they exceed my comprehension: how, then, shall Nánac describe them?
He, even he, is the Lord of truth, true, and truly just.
He is, he was, he passes, he passes not, the preserver of all that is preserved.
Of numerous hues, sorts and kinds, he is the original author of Máyá (deception).
Having formed the creation, he surveys his own work, the display of his own greatness.
What pleases him he does, and no order of any other being can reach him.
He is the Pádsháh and the Pádsáheb of Sháhs; Nánac resides in his favour.
These few verses are, perhaps, sufficient to show, that it was on a principle of pure deism that Nánac entirely grounded his religion. It was not possible, however, that the minds of any large portion of mankind could remain long fixed in a belief which presented them only with general truths, and those of a nature too vast for their contemplation or comprehension. The followers of Nánac, since his death, have paid an adoration to his name, which is at variance with the lessons which he taught; they have clothed him in all the attributes of a saint: they consider him as the selected instrument of God to make known the true faith to fallen man; and, as such, they give him divine honours; not only performing pilgrimage to his tomb, but addressing him, in their prayers, as their saviour and mediator.
The religious tenets and usages of the Sikhs continued, as they had been established by Nánac[111], till the time of Gúrú Góvind; who, though he did not alter the fundamental principles of the established faith, made so complete a change in the sacred usages and civil habits of his followers, that he gave them an entirely new character: and though the Sikhs retain all their veneration for Nánac, they deem Gúrú Góvind to have been equally exalted, by the immediate favour and protection of the Divinity; and the Dasama Pádsháh ká Grant'h, or book of the tenth king, which was written by Gúrú Góvind, is considered, in every respect, as holy as the Adí-Grant'h of Nánac, and his immediate successors. I cannot better explain the pretensions which Gúrú Góvind has made to the rank of a prophet, than by exhibiting his own account of his mission in a literal version from his Vichitra Nátac.