1 20 A Short History of the Sikhs.
2 taught, as the great Luther himself taught, that purity
3 of life is of greater worth than the observance of
4 outward ceremonial, and that the sinful desires of
5 the flesh are only to be overcome by prayer and
6 contemplation. In many parts of India their doc-
7 trines are still widely known and highly regarded.
8 But both Ramanand and Kabir were too much
9 imbued with the spirit of asceticism to be the
10 founders of a popular religion. The seed which
11 Nanak sowed produced a richer harvest than theirs,
12 not because he expounded a nobler philosophy or
13 preached a purer morality, but because he adapted
14 his teaching to the needs of human life — because
15 - — -7=he realized, what they had failed to realize, that
16 a religion, if it is to be a living force, must be a
17 practical religion, one that teaches mankind, not
18 how to escape from the world, but how to live
19 worthily in it ; not how evil is to be avoided, but
20 how it is to be met and overcome.
21 All that we know for certain of the personal
22 career of Baba Nanak could be told in a dozen
23 sentences, though the legends and traditions that
24 have grown up round his name would fill as
25 many volumes. Legends, however legendary they
26 may be, are seldom without historical value ; for
27 to know the anecdotes that were current about a
28 man during or shortly after his lifetime is to
29 know at least something of the man himself.
30 For our present purpose, however, we must be
31 content with a very brief summary of the more
32 generally accepted story of the life of Nanak.
33 Those who wish to study the picture more minutely