by the scorching heat of the sun." "Watering your fields in Kartarpur, such a long way off! How can these handfuls of water benefit your fields at such a distance?" the Brahmans scoffingly replied. "How can, then, your waters," rejoined Nanak, "reach the next world and quench the thirst of your dead? If the water cannot benefit my crops, which are in this world, how can it benefit your dead in another?"
Nanak's followers were called Sikhs, from sicsha, a Sanscrit word signifying disciple or devoted follower, corrupted into Sikh, pronounced Sick, and he was called by them Baba Nanak or Guru Nanak—Father Nanak or the Spiritual guide. When he felt that his end was approaching he appointed as his successor in the Guruship one of his most faithful followers, passing over his two sons despite their remonstrances, one of them being an ascetic and the other a man of the world. He selected whom he thought most fit by moral courage and devotion to the cause to carry on his
