Max Arthur Macauliffe

“ Amar Das preached the doctrine of forgiveness and endurance, upheld Guru Nanak's abrogation of caste distinctions, and his precepts were implicitly followed by his successors.Guru Amar Das. He used to place all his Sikhs and visitors in rows and cause them to eat together, not separately, as is the practice of the Hindus. He said: “Let no one be proud of his caste, for this pride of caste resulteth in many sins. He is a Brahman who knoweth Brahma (God) . Every one prateth of four castes. All are sprung from the seed of Brahm. ”

“ In a short time, besides men who required regular pay, hordes gathered round the guru who were satisfied with two meals a day and a suit of clothes every six months. The fighting spirit of the people was roused and satisfied by the spiritual and military leader. Har Govind was a hunter and eater of flesh, and encouraged his followers to eat meat as giving them strength and daring. It is largely to this practice that the Sikhs owe the superiority of their physique over their surrounding Hindu neighbours. ”

“ The establishment of Singh Sabhas, of Sikh newspapers, and the spread of education have largely tended in the same direction, but the strict ethical code of Sikhism and the number of its obligatory divine services have caused many to fall away from the faith: nor does the austere Sikh ritual appeal to women, who generally prefer Hinduism with its picturesque material worship and the brightness of its innumerable festivals. ”

“ This doctrine of philosophic quietism was common to his successors, until in the time of the sixth guru, Har Govind, it was found necessary to support the separate existence of Sikhism by force of arms, and this led to the militant and political development of the tenth and most power-ful of the gurus, Govind Singh. The Sikhs of to-day, though they all derive primarily from Nanak, are only recognized as Singhs or real Sikhs when they accept the doctrines and practices of Guru Govind Singh. ”

“ He became known as Ram Das, which means God's slave; and on account of his piety and devotion Amar Das gave him his daughter in marriage and made him his successor. Ram Das is amongst the most revered of gurus, but no particular innovation is ascribed to him. He founded, however, the golden temple of Amritsar in A.D. 1577, which has remained ever since the centre of the Sikh religious worship. From this time onward the office of guru became hereditary, but the practice of primogeniture was not followed, each guru selecting the relative who seemed most fitted to succeed him. ”

“ Thus Guru Govind Singh writes:
Next to the unity of God comes the equality of all men in His sight, and so the abolition of caste distinctions. Guru Nanak says:
The concremation of widows, though practised in later times by Hinduized Sikhs, is forbidden in the Granth. Guru Arjan writes:
It is a common belief that the Sikhs are allowed to drink wine and other intoxicants. This is not the case. Guru Nanak wrote:
“By drinking wine man committeth many sins.” ”

“ Guru Teg Bahadur preached to his host as follows:
“Save the people from the vile drug, and employ thyself in the service of Sikhs and holy men. When the people abandon the degrading smoke and cultivate their lands, their wealth and prosperity shall increase, and they shall want for nothing . ”

“ He held that the wearing of religious garb, praying and practising penance to be seen of men, only produced hypocrisy, and that those who went on pilgrimages to sacred streams, though they might cleanse their bodies, only increased their mental impurity. ”

“ All the doctrines of the Sikhs are found set forth in the two Granths and in compositions called Rahit Namas and Tanakhwah Namas, which are believed to have been the utterances of the tenth guru. The cardinal principle of the sacred books is the unity of God, and starting from this premiss the rejection of idolatry and superstition.The Sikh doctrines. ”

“ The Sikhs are not bound to abstain from any flesh, except that which is obviously unfit for human food, or what is killed in the Mahommedan fashion by jagging an animal's throat with a knife. This flesh-eating practice is one of the main sources of their physical strength. Smoking is strictly prohibited by the Sikh religion. ”

“ The hymns in the Adi Granth are arranged not according to the gurus or bhagats who compose them, but according to rags or musical measures. There are thirty-one such measures in the Adi Granth, and the hymns are arranged according to the measures to which they are composed. ”

“ Ideas of revolt and reform of decadent systems are always in the air, it may be for centuries, until some one man bolder than the rest stands out to give them free expression;Precursors of the Gurus. and as John the Baptist preceded Jesus Christ, so Nanak was preceded by several reformers, whose writings are incorporated in the Granth itself. ”

“ These are largely Nanakpanti Sikhs, or followers only of Guru Nanak. The Nanakpanti Sikhs do not wear the hair long, nor use any of the outward signs of the Sikhs, though they reverence the Granth Sahib and above all the memory of their guru. They are distinguished from the Hindus by no outward sign except a slight laxity in the matter of caste observances. ”