1 28 A Short History of the Sikhs.
2 drawing to the seclusion of the desert or the moun-
3 tains. It was in this respect that Nanak taught
4 a more enlightened doctrine than his predecessors^
5 it was this practical element which gave to his reli-
6 gious system the vitality which theirs had lacked.
7 In common with all Hindu teachers, Nanak held
8 the doctrine of transmigration, and regarded the final
9 liberation of the soul as the goal towards which
10 mankind is ever struggling. But whereas the Hindu
11 regards this goal as infinitely distant, Nanak pro-
12 claimed it to be within the reach, not indeed of all
13 his followers, but of such of them as should attain
14 to the highest merit ; and he claimed the power to
15 exempt from transmigration those among his disciples
16 whom he counted as "the elect." The possibility
17 of exemption, however remote, was one of the most
18 attractive features of Sikhism in the days of the
19 gurus, and brought it many adherents.
20 The writings of Nanak were collected together by
21 Arjun, the fifth guru, at the end of the sixteenth
22 century. The Granth, or more reverently the
23 Adi Granth Sahib,1 of which they form the
24 principal part, contains, in addition, selections from
25 the writings of the compiler, and of the three gurus
26 who came before him, Baba Angad, Amar Das, and
27 Ram Das, as well as various hymns composed by
28 Kabir and other Hindu saints, and by the Muham-
29 madan saint Farid. The most sacred portion of the
30 whole book is the Japji, with which it opens, and to
31 which reference has already been made. The Japji
32 1 Adi in Sanskrit signifies "first," and granth a "book" or
33 " written code."