Those works which seem to have the best claim to be considered his own compositions are the _Sakhis_, or stanzas, some 5000 in number, which have a very wide currency even among those who do not formally belong to the sect, and the _Shabdawali_, consisting of a thousand "words" (_shabd_), or short doctrinal expositions. Perhaps some of the _Rekhtas_, or odes (100 in number), and of the _Ramainis_--brief mystical poems in very obscure language--may also be from his hand. Of these different forms specimens will be found translated in Professor H. H. Wilson's _Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus_, i. 79-90. Besides the followers who call themselves by Kabir's name, there may be reckoned to him many other religious sects which bear that of some intermediate _guru_ or master, but substantially concur with Kabir in doctrine and practice. Such, for instance, are the _Nanakshahis_ in the United Provinces, the Central Provinces, and Bombay, and the _Dadu-panthis_, numerous in Rajputana (Wilson, _loc. cit._ pp. 103 sqq.); the Sikhs, numbering two and a half millions in the Panjab, are also his spiritual descendants, and their _Granth_ or Scripture is largely stocked with texts drawn from his works. Kabir taught the life of _bhakti_ (faith, or personal love and devotion), the object of which is a _personal_ God, and not a philosophical abstraction or an impersonal quality-less, all-pervading spiritual substance (as in the Vedanta of Sankaracharya). His utterances do not, like those of Tulsi Das, dwell upon the incidents of the human life of Rama, whom he takes as his type of the Supreme; nevertheless, it is the essence of his creed that God became incarnate to bring salvation to His children, mankind, and that the human mind of this incarnation still subsists in the Divine Person. He proclaims the unity of the Godhead, the vanity of idols, the powerlessness of _brahmans_ or _mullas_ to guide or help, and the divine origin of the human soul, _divinae particula aurae_. All evil in the world is ascribed to _Maya_, illusion or falsehood, and truth in thought, word and deed is enjoined as the chief duty of man: "No act of devotion can equal truth; no crime is so heinous as falsehood; in the heart where truth abides there is My abode."[3] The distinctions of creeds are declared to be of no importance in the presence of God: "The city of _Hara_[4] is to the east, that of '_Ali_[5] is to the west; but explore your own heart, for there are both _Rama_ and _Karim_;"[6] "Behold but One in all things: it is the second that leads you astray. Every man and woman that has ever been born is of the same nature as yourself. _He_, whose is the world, and whose are the children of '_Ali_ and _Rama_, He is my _Guru_, He is my _Pir_." He proclaims the universal brotherhood of man, and the duty of kindness to all living creatures. Life is the gift of God, and must