Lehal Library

41 Binh of Sikhism Another's wealth, his wife, her comeliness. Impurity of the ears is listening to calumny. (Asii di v<ir) THE GENTLE PATH OF NAM AND SAHA]. The Hindus had advocated three alternative paths to salvation: that of action ( karmamarga), of knowledge (gyanamarga), and of devotion ( bhaktimarga). Guru Nanak accepted the path of bhakti, laying emphasis on the worship of the Name (namamihga).~ 'I have no miracles except the name of God,' he said.'3 As hands or feet besmirched with slime, Water washes white; As garments dark with grime, Rinsed with soap are made light; So when sin soils the soul The Name alone shall make it whole. Words do not the saint or sinner make. Action alone is written in the book of fate. Whal we sow that alone we take; 0 Nanak, be saved or forever transmigrate. (Japfi) Nanak believed that by repetition of the nam one conquered the greatest of all evils, the ego (haumaiE-literally, I am), because the ego also carries in it the seed of salvation which 34 Sher Singh, Phi.wscrphy of Sikhism, pp. 51 and 213. 35 An exhortation to repeat the name ( niirn japo) was the main theme of the teaching of Nanak. Its \'Ulgarized and popular form was repetition ad nauseamofa litany, as ifit had some magical potency to overcome evil. This is not what Nanak meant by nam. He considered the mere mumbling of prayer oflittle consequence. "1/hen you take rosaries in your hands and sit down counting your beads, you never think of God but allow your minds to wander thinking of worldly objects. Your rosanes are therefore only for show and your counting of beads ouly hypocrisy.' (Sri.) To Nanak, nam implied not sjmply che repetition of prayer but prayer with the understanding of words and their translation into action. See Sher Singh's Philosophy of Sikhism, chapter X\1, where he states that 11ama-marga-tbe path of nam-required three things: realization in the heart (hride gyan), its expression in prayer (mukh bhaku), and detachment in all one's actions (varlan vairag), pp. 84 and 248.