A company of Jogis with their superior went to make trial of the Guru. They said: ‘ Great king, thy Sikhs practise not Jog with its eight limbs or accessories, and without doing so the mind is never at peace. Until the mind is at peace, God is not [p. 264] obtained ; until God is obtained salvation is impossible ; and until salvation is obtained the soul shall wander through the eighty-four lakhs of existences. QO Guru, how can thy Sikhs obtain salvation? What advantage do they gain by serving thee ?’
The Guru replied: ‘As the teats on a goat’s neck yield no milk, so Jog without piety yieldeth no advantage. My Sikhs are family men, and may obtain salvation in that condition of life. It would be impossible for them to practise Jog. The best means of practising Jog is the repetition of the Name. The Name is implanted in the hearts of my Sikhs, and they repeat it day and night. All persons in whose hearts there are love and devotion, shall undoubtedly obtain deliverance from transmigration. Wealth or supernatural power may strive to lead them astray, but will not succeed. Profit or loss, joy or sorrow, praise or blame never cause them to waver. At every breath they repeat the Name of Sri Wahguru, the immortal God. They never incline to mammon or worldly advantages, since they know that all such things are perishable and delusive like a mirage. He who hath not divine knowledge, is like a man in a lonely forest in the heat of the year, who searcheth for water but findeth only a sandy waste. The sun above him burneth his head, the sand beneath him his feet, and he findeth no respite from his sufferings. He who on the contrary hath divine knowledge, knoweth that it is not water, but a sea of sand that is before him, that everything is false and that God alone is true. Without love and devotion to God all other means of obtaining salvation are unprofitable. O Jogis, it is very difficult even for yourselves to practise Jog in this age, and you can never obtain perfection by it. Even if you obtain supernatural power, it is very difficult to fix your attention on God, for the mind wandereth in every direction, and is not at [p. 260] rest even for a moment. But, supposing it were possible to practise Jog, thoughts of wealth and supernatural power would ultimately lead men astray. Their desire is to obtain money, beautiful women, fame, greatness, and honour. In such aspirations man forgetteth God. They who know Him are never led astray. However potent their temptations may be, they conquer them, and therefore enjoy the sweets of divine knowledge and meditation. A man may wear a Jogi’s garb, but without devotion in his heart God never entereth it. It must be one of our main objects to extricate ourselves from the mire of the world.’ The Guru completed his instructions to the Jogis by repeating to them the following hymn :—
O Jogi, when thou touchest the strings only with thy hands, thy lute is played in vain.
Under the Guru’s instruction utter God’s praises, O Jogi, and dye thy soul with the dye of God’s love.
O Jogi, teach thine intellect divine instruction.
The one God existeth in every age, I bow before Him.
Thou singest in many measures and arguest in many ways, but thy heart is only playing a game.
Thou desirest to work thy well and water the ground after the oxen have gone to pasture.
Perform the duty of sowing God’s name in the soil of thy body ; God will then germinate and there shall be a verdant field.
Yoke a constant mind for a bullock and by means of it irrigate thy love of God with the Guru’s instruction.
Jogis, Jangams and all creation, O Lord, are Thine ; they walk by the wisdom Thou givest.
O Lord of slave Nanak, searcher of hearts, turn my soul unto Thee.[1]
On account of the general impression produced by the Guru’s teaching, people of every class and religion flocked to see and hear him, and there was [p. 261] a great accession of converts. Several persons, as usual in such cases, became envious of his fame and success, and foremost among them was a third Tapa or penitent.[2] He said: ‘This is really the terrible Kal age. I a penitent bear cold and heat, yet people heed me not, while they reverence this married man asa guru.’ Thus the Tapa spluttered, and foamed, and impotently raged. One day he repaired to the Guru’s court and thus addressed him: ‘O Guru, thy Sikhs are very proud; they accept not the Veds or Shastars; they make no pilgrimages ; nor do they fast, perform the usual religious duties of Hindus, or practise austerities of any sort. They only reverence thee and recognize thy compositions. Their adoration is confined to the utterance of Wahguru. These misguided people are losing the advantages of their human birth. Pray tell me, sir, however can they go to heaven ?’
The Guru replied: “O Tapa, my Sikhs desire not heaven. Heaven they deem not fit reward for their merits. They never engage in worship which 1s merely intended for the admiration of the public. Their minds are absorbed in God’s love. That is their heaven and their salvation. Thou knowest not the glory of the saints. Thou hast forsaken the real thing, attached thyself to false ceremonies, and forfeited thy salvation. Thy mind is filled with pride. Through pride and boasting men completely lose their way in this world. Without faith no devotion, penance, or worship availeth. They who possess no faith are drowned in lust, wrath, worldly love, covetousness, pride, and whatever else there is of evil. It is not so with my Sikhs. Their confidence and trust are reposed in the one immortal God. At every breath they repeat His name, and thus easily merit salvation. They need not penances or pilgrimages. They are in themselves pure and holy [p. 262] places.’ The Guru composed the following on the occasion :—
The Ganges, the Jamna, the Godavari, and the Saraswati make efforts to obtain the dust of the saints’ feet.
They say ‘ The filth of sin which falleth into us from those who are full of it, is washed away by the dust of the Saints feet.”
Bathe in the Name as in the sixty-eight places of pilgrimage.
When the dust of the saints’ feet riseth and falleth into the eyes, it removeth all the filth of evil inclinations.
Bhagirath [3] by penance brought down the Ganges, and Shiv established Kedarnath [4]? and Banaras ;
Krishan herded cows in Bindraban ; but it was by producing saints of God that all these places became famous.
All the places of pilgrimage which the gods established long for the dust of the saints’ feet, and say—
‘When we meet a saint of God and a holy man of the Guru, we will apply the dust of his feet to our foreheads.’
O my Lord, all Thy creation longeth for the dust of the saints’ feet.
Nanak, God granteth the dust of the saints’ feet to him on whose forehead it hath been written, and saveth him.[5]
It is said the Tapa was convinced on hearing this hymn, and embraced the Sikh religion.
The Guru occupied most of his time in composing hymns breathing great devotional fervour and in receiving and addressing his Sikhs. Piles of wealth were offered him, but his thoughts turned not in that direction.
Among the Sikhs at Goindwal was a simple man called Handal, a native of Jandiala in the present [p. 263] district of Amritsar, who was ever on the alert to perform submissive service for the Guru. Handal continually repeated God’s name, conversed with no one, and remained absorbed in devotion. He was unaffected by joy or sorrow, and every one loved him on account of his child-like nature ; but he himself bore neither love nor hate to any one, and was known as a saint. One day the Guru went to visit his kitchen. There he saw willing Sikhs at work. Handal, who was kneading flour at the time, was delighted to see him, and prepared to prostrate himself before him. As the wet flour was adhering to his hands, he put them behind his back, so that they might not be seen, and then threw himself at the Guru’s feet. The Guru was eratified on seeing his true and humble devotion— “O Handal, thy love is pleasing to my soul; thou hast prostrated thyself in a new manner. Thy service is complete. What thou desirest, that will I give thee. The Guru blessed him, gave him a robe of honour, granted him deliverance, and thus addressed him: ‘ Return to thy native town, repeat the Name, initiate Sikhs, and keep them on the Guru’s way. Have confidence in none but the Creator and the true Guru.’ Handal went home, and lived in Jandiala, where a shrine has been erected in his honour. His followers do not perform the Hindu obsequies, nor take the bones of the dead to the Ganges. The vessels and clothes offered by the Hindus to the dead, to wear on their journey, are by the Handalis applied to their own wants instead of being distributed to the inferior priests who minister at Hindu funeral rites. Strange to say, it was the descendants of this pious man who introduced falsehood into the lives of the Gurus, and destroyed the first authentic accounts of their lives.
Asa. ↩︎
Accounts of the Tapa who opposed Guru Angad and of the Tapa who opposed Guru Amar Das have already been given. ↩︎
Sagara was king of Ajudhia. Bhagirath, a descendant of his, performed austerities which induced Shiv to allow the Ganges to descend to the earth for the purpose of bathing the ashes of Sagara’s sons who had been consumed by the wrath of the sage Kapila. ↩︎
Kedarnath, a place of pilgrimage in the Himalayas sacred to the god Shiv, who is there represented as a shapeless mass of rock. ↩︎
Malar. ↩︎