GORU NANAK.

A FEW particulars of the life of Goru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion, may not be without interest and novelty to the British reader. As mentioned in the preface, they are chiefly drawn from a short history of the Punjab, and I have thought it better to give the story of a remarkable life in the rough simplicity of the original, so as not to spoil what I may call its Oriental flavour by many words of my own.

Goru Nanak, son of Kálu, a Chhatri, was born in a village of the Punjab, since called after him Nanakana, in the year 1469, when Edward IV. sat on the English throne. At his birth wonderful things were predicted of Nanak, to his father's great delight; but when the child had grown into the lad, Kálu was by no means pleased at the ascetic turn of his son's mind. It must be owned that Nanak gave his parents just cause for vexation. Kálu wished the youth to be a good man of business. Nanak was inclined to take up the life of a wandering fakir. An instance of this disposition is given in the curious little history of the Punjab.

When Nanak was fifteen years old, his father entrusted him with twenty rupees (about £2), and said to him, "O son! Go and buy some good merchandise."

Nanak, accompanied by a servant, set forth on his quest. When he had proceeded some way, he fell in with a company of fakirs (religious beggars), destitute of food and clothing. Pitying their condition, the lad bestowed upon them the twenty rupees, in spite of the expostulations of the servant.

Nanak said in reply to these expostulations, "Oh! What better merchandise can there be than giving food to saints in the name of the Lord?"

Had the money been his own, the remark would have been beautiful, but the youth had no right to be generous with money held only in trust. Nanak returned to his home, and, as might have been expected, received a good flogging from his father.

Though Nanak in due course of time married, and became the father of two sons, family ties did not prevent his adopting the life of a wandering preacher. Nanak, like Socrates and other remarkable heathen, had glimpses of truth, though obscured by a good deal of error. His character appears to have been eminently devout, gentle, and lowly.

In the Granth we find what he thought of himself, and see how in the twilight the Goru was feeling and thirsting after God.

Nanak was certainly beyond his age; he did not reverence idols, he acknowledged but one God, and earnestly, by life and example, inculcated purity of morals. We can never place Nanak in the same category with Mahomed, the sensual, the blood-stained founder of Islamism. In speaking of the Goru we cannot, as in the case of the False Prophet, bring forth his evil character as a proof that he could not have been the honoured servant of God. We rather say to the Sikhs, "We respect your Goru; we believe that were he now on earth he would become a Christian." The remark seems to give no offence.

The influence of Nanak was great. It is recorded in his life that he once visited the house of an atrocious villain, whose crimes were aggravated by hypocrisy. This man would lure victims into his retreat, throw them into prison, and then say, "Give up your property or your lives."

Goru Nanak, who knew the character of this ruffian, boldly rebuked his sins, yet tenderly, addressing him as "brother." He told the robber that though his hypocrisy might deceive others, it could not possibly deceive God, to whom all things are known.

The rebuke of the mild Goru, it is said, touched the heart of his hearer. The robber was covered with shame, and falling down at the feet of Nanak, exclaimed, "O true Goru! I am a great sinner, an evil man, but now I repent, and will do such wickedness no more!"

Nanak, on hearing this, laid his hands on the head of the penitent robber, and said, "May God forgive thy sin."

Nanak does not appear to have vehemently opposed idolatry, but how much its power was weakened by his influence is shown in the following story.

A man of the name of Lahiná went with his family to worship a certain goddess at Kangra. Arriving at the place where Nanak happened to be, Lahiná was curious to see so noted a saint, and procured an interview with the Goru.

According to custom, he prostrated himself before Nanak, who courteously inquired his name, and whither he was going. On receiving Lahiná's reply, the Goru said, "Well, brother, go and see the goddess."

But the Hindu had already changed his purpose, and he replied, "O Goru! My heart does not wish to go farther; I care no more for goddess or god; from this time my desire is to remain at your feet."

This was no passing emotion. Lahiná became Nanak's devoted follower, and afterwards his successor to the dignity of Goruship under the new name of Angad. This office of spiritual sovereign was passed on from one leader to another by a ceremony amusing from its simplicity. The reigning Goru having chosen his successor, presented him with—no jewelled crown nor sceptre of gold, but a cocoa-nut and five coppers! He then was the first to prostrate himself before the Goru to be. The Goruship was, as we here see, not hereditary; Nanak himself set the example of preferring the claim of devoted service to the tie of blood. The circumstances which influenced his choice gave an amusing glimpse into the domestic circle of the great Goru.

Nanak had two sons, named Sirichand and Lahmidás. Whatever other good qualities Nanak may have possessed, he does not appear to have possessed wisdom and firmness to manage his children judiciously. We cannot but suspect that the worthy man had been a spoiling father.

Once on a day, so goes the story, the Goru on his travels fell into a bog. He called out to Sirichand for help to get him out of his trouble.

"O father!" replied the youth. "My clothes are very nice, and they would be spoiled; I will go and send some one else to your help."

The poor Goru, floundering in the mud, made an appeal to his younger son, and from the ungrateful lad received a similar reply.

Lahiná, seeing his master's distress, joining his hands together in sign of reverence, cried, "O true Goru! What is your command?"

"To be taken out of this bog," answered Nanak.

Lahiná, less afraid that were the young Hindu fops of spoiling his clothes, plunged into the mud at once, and extricated his master.

Nanak never forgot this trait of affection; perhaps from that day the idea of elevating Lahiná to the Goruship entered his mind. He afterwards severely tested Lahiná's love and obedience, and found them firm in every trial. Nanak's heart was touched, and he warmly returned the love of his servant.

When asked one day why he showed more affection to Lahiná than to his own sons, his answer (freely translated) was as follows:—"Though Lahiná is not of my blood yet he never neglects my commands; but those who are called my sons never fulfil them. My love is for him who serves me, heart and soul."

One day, in the presence of an assembly of his Sikhs, Nanak placed before Lahiná the cocoa-nut and five coppers, which were the symbol of succession to the office of Goru. Nanak was then the first to prostrate himself before his disciple, after which, rising, he thus addressed the assembly:

"O brother Sikhs! From this day I give to him the office of Goru. Let every disciple of mine, prostrating himself, acknowledge him as such."

Nanak then changed the name of Lahiná, commanding that he should from thenceforth be known as Goru Angad.

Angad was thus the second of the ten Gorus who reigned in succession over the Sikhs. They were treated with such adoring reverence as man should render to the Supreme Being alone. To the Sikh his Goru stood almost in the place of his God. The first Gorus, however, appear to have been meek and gentle-spirited men.

The following anecdote is characteristic, and shows that though the sons of Goru Nanak were not permitted by their father to inherit his spiritual dignity, they were yet treated with great respect for his sake.

The fourth Goru, Rámdas, was once in the company of Sirichand, he who, in his youth, had preferred keeping his fine clothes unspotted to helping his father out of the bog. It might be expected that some jealousy would arise in the heart of Sirichand, seeing thus a third Goru in the position to which, from his birth, he might naturally have aspired. The conversation between the two men is curious.

Beholding the long beard of Goru Rámdas, the son of Nanak said, "O Rámdas Ji! Wherefore has your beard grown so long?"

Rámdas, with Oriental courtesy, replied, "O true king! It has grown long in order to wipe the dust from your feet!"

Nanak's son exclaimed, with generous admiration of the ruler's humility, "Brother, showing such love, you have obtained power to hold the Goruship, and we, who were sons, remain free from envy."

I cannot refrain from adding the story of this Rámdas's elevation to the Goruship, it being one of those pleasing anecdotes which soften the hard, dry lines of history.

At an early age Rámdas had married the little daughter of the third Goru, Amrdás. The youthful wife and her husband took pleasure in rendering any act of menial service to her father the Goru. One day her parent, seated on a chair, was performing his ablutions, his daughter pouring water over his feet, when accidently a nail of the chair ran into the poor girl's foot. Instead of starting or crying out with the sudden pain, the Goru's daughter thought to herself, "If I lift my foot, my father, seeing my blood, will forget his ablutions;" so, with rare fortitude, the young Sikh did not change her position.

The blood from her wounded foot, however, trickling from under the seat, attracted the Goru's attention. "Daughter!" he cried, "from whence does this blood come?"

In the simple words of the native narrator, "the girl, not thinking it right to tell lies, on her father's asking her again and again, told him the truth."

The father, deeply touched by his child's loving reverence, tenderly kissed her, and said, "I have nothing else now to bestow on you, but from this day forth I present you with the Goruship."

The offer tells more of parental affection than of wisdom, for a female Goru would have been somewhat analogous to a female Pope. Happily the daughter showed more sense than her parent. The young Sikh shrank back from the strange post of spiritual leadership to which her father's love would have raised her.

Joining her hands, she cried, "O true Goru, my father! Give this dignity to my husband!"

Amrdás saw the propriety of the request, and Rámdas, through this dutiful daughter and wife, was raised to the leadership of the Sikhs.

The Sikh religion is far purer than that of the Hindus, but has unhappily become much corrupted by its professors mingling with the idolaters around them. I have heard an enthusiastic Sikh complaining of the idolatry carried on even in the precincts of the famous centre of Sikh worship, the Golden Temple of Amritsar.

The Sikhs give one the impression of their being a bold, cheerful, kindly people, who would be (as we proved them to be) formidable foes in war, but frank friends in peace. In the Sikh campaigns they almost shook our Indian Empire, but not long afterwards, in the more terrible Indian Mutiny, our late foes stood faithfully by us.

I once asked an experienced missionary, "If you were in danger in a mixed crowd of Mahomedans, Hindus, and Sikhs, to which of the three would you look for help?"

"I would cling to the arm of the Sikh," was the reply; and it pleased me as showing that my friend's riper judgment coincided with my own. It appears to me that the Sikh is more friendly than the Mahomedan, more manly than the Hindu.