unchastity, anger, covetousness, selfishness, and want of faith are especially denounced. Nának also taught that the position of the householder, as head of the family and engaged in the business of the world, was most honourable, and strongly discouraged the idea that any special virtue was to be gained by the ascetic life. That true religion consisted, not in outward ceremonial and the acceptance of the religious profession, but in the state of the heart, and that it was possible to meditate with advantage on spiritual things while engaged in the ordinary business of life without retreating to the wilderness or the seclusion of a monastery. It is true that several ascetic bodies of Sikhs, of whom the Udásis and the Akális are the most numerous, subsequently broke away from the teaching of Nának, but these have always been considered more or less unorthodox, and the Sikh religion, as taught both by Nának and Govind Singh, was eminently suited for practical life.
Although the Ádi Granth is hostile to Bráhmans and altogether ignores or denies their pretensions, Nának did not directly enjoin the abolition of caste. Yet his teaching was democratic and he admitted as his disciples people of all classes without distinction. The doctrine of Nának was almost identical with that of his successors, and no change of any religious or social importance was introduced until the time of Guru Govind Singh, whose teaching and book of conduct were a new starting-point for the Sikhs and did more than the authority of Nának to
