About that time Gur Das, author of ‘Wars’ and ‘Kabits’, went to visit the Guru.[1] He prostrated himself before him and said, ‘ My lord, thou art the honour of the unhonoured, the life of the holy, the protector of the poor. I have come to seek thy protection. Make me a disciple of thine.’ The Guru was ever pleased to accede to such a request, and, having heard of Gur Das’s good report as a Sikh, directed him to go to Agra and preach the Sikh religion there. Bhai Gur Das became a famous and successful preacher. He sent several of the Agra Sikhs to the Guru, who taught them the advantages of human birth and the necessity of working out ultimate salvation therein. The Guru at that time composed the following for the instruction of his Sikhs in the practice of their religion :—
Let him who calleth himself a Sikh of the true Guru, rise early and meditate on God ;
Let him exert himself in the early morning, bathe in the tank of nectar,
Repeat God’s name under the Guru’s instruction, and all his sins and trangressions shall be erased.
Let him at sunrise sing the Guru’s hymns, and whether sitting or standing meditate on God’s name.
The disciple who at every breath meditateth on God, will please the Guru’s heart.
The Guru communicateth instruction to that disciple of his to whom my Lord is merciful.
The slave Nanak prayeth for the dust of the feet of that Guru’s disciple who himself repeateth God’s name and causeth others to do so.[2]
The Guru again reminded his disciples of the order of Guru Amar Das to make a nectareous tank—the [p. 265] sacred Sikh tank in Amritsar—as a second place of Sikh pilgrimage, and exhorted them to assist in completing the work he had begun. The Guru and his party proceeded to a thick forest filled with luxuriant Indian trees. He rested beneath the shade of the shisham tree near which he had previously laid out the tank and done some excavation.
The Kardar, or magistrate and revenue collector, of Patti, a town in the Lahore district, had five daughters, but was not favoured with a son. All the daughters are described as beautiful, virtuous, and obedient. Four of them were married, and happened at the time to be visiting their parents, but the youngest had not yet been even betrothed. One day the whole five went to bathe and enjoy the fresh air in their father’s country garden. As they were returning home, they met a company of saints engaged in divine worship. One of the saints burst forth into God’s praises. The four married ladies went home, while the unmarried one remained to hear the holy man as he sang the eighth slok of the Asa ki War.
The saint thus concluded his discourse: ‘God is the Cherisher and Lord of all. He is the Cause of causes. He setteth everything in motion, and holdeth everything in His own power. It is the one God who destroyeth and preserveth, who produceth and cherisheth.” When the young lady heard this and similar instruction, divine love sprang up within her. She then and there divested herself of her jewels and superfluous costly raiment, and distributed them among the saints. Having thus gratified her spiritual promptings she went home, and there continued to be absorbed in God’s love. She lost no time in communicating to her sisters the instruction and spiritual satisfaction she had received.
When her mother heard that her youngest daughter had suddenly undertaken the réle of preacher, she became very angry, and informed her husband. The [p. 266] father, in order to make trial of his daughters, summoned them all to his presence, and asked who gave them to eat and drink, and who cherished and protected them. The four married daughters bowing to their father said, that it was their parents who had provided them with food and cherished and protected them. The jewels and ornaments and everything they possessed had been the gifts of their parents. The father, seeing that his youngest daughter was silent, inquired the cause. She then found utterance: ‘The one God alone is the Cherisher of creation. Parents are only a pretext.’ Her father was very angry on hearing this reply, and again addressed her: “Who hath given thee clothes and jewels?’ She replied: ‘Father dear, all are God’s gifts. It is the Creator who bestoweth everything. He giveth to thee and to me, and protecteth us all.’ The father replied, “I shall see if God will protect thee:
After some time a leprous cripple came to the town. His flesh, where not melting away, was eaten by worms, and his whole body emitted a foul odour. To such a man did the angry father marry his pious daughter without her consent and without a dowry. He stripped her even of the jewels and dresses she had retained after her offerings to the saints. It was impossible for her to be pleased with her husband, yet she bore her evil fate with fortitude, and said: ‘O God, although I can have no happiness in this world with my husband, yet Thou art my true Lord and Creator. Thou cherisheth the eighty-four lakhs of existences, and wilt also cherish me.’ Saying this she set herself to wait on her leprous spouse, as if he were her god. She begged from door to door, thus maintained him and herself, and wore out her days of sorrow.
One day her husband addressed her: ‘My beloved, my beautiful, other people shun me in disgust, and will not even touch me, but thou waitest on [p. 267] me with extreme self-devotion. I have now one more request to make thee. By granting it God will vouchsafe thee thy reward.’ She replied, * My body and soul are thine, and as thou orderest so shall I do.’ Then her husband said: ‘I was born a cripple, and I afterwards contracted leprosy. I am weak, poor, and miserable. Far from being able to serve others, I cannot maintain myself. Attached to me thou hast undergone great hardship and misery. I have now suffered for my evil acts in former states of existence, but I have done nothing good even in this life. Now do me this last favour by taking me to a place of pilgrimage, that I may endeavour to earn salvation hereafter.’
She procured a basket, put her husband into it, and tenderly bore him on her head to Hardwar, Tribeni, and other places of Hindu pilgrimage in the hope of curing him of his malady. Wandering and wandering, she by the divine guidance of piety and virtue arrived footsore and weary at the very spot which the third Guru had indicated and the fourth Guru had marked out as the site of his tank of nectar, and there laid down her burden. She and her husband were soon seized with an imperious desire for food, and bethought them how it was to be obtained. After much discussion, during which the wife expressed her reluctance to leave her husband, it was decided that he should remain under a ber tree in the cool and grateful proximity of the water, while she departed to the nearest village to beg their daily meal. The leper, left alone, saw two crows fighting. One had a piece of bread in its mouth, which the other tried to snatch. While they were struggling, the bread fell into the pool. Both birds swooped down upon it. On emerging from the tank’s tiny wavelets they became swans of singular whiteness, and flew to Mansarowar, a lake in Tibbat (Thibet) supposed by the Indians to be the natal place of those beautiful birds. The leper saw [p. 268] that the water possessed marvellous healing and cleansing properties, and at once determined to test its efficacy on himself. He left his basket and crawled into the water. The leprosy at once disappeared from the whole of his body except one finger by which he had held on to a branch of the ber tree on the margin. Not only had the leprosy disappeared, but he who had hitherto been a cripple was restored to health and the splendour of manly beauty, and he calmly awaited the return of his darling and faithful spouse from her mendicant excursion.
On arriving, her consternation knew no bounds. In the perfect proportions of the man who stood before her, she could not discover her husband, the recent crippled and maimed leper, and she shrank from his embrace with all the indignation of outraged virtue. In vain did he essay to explain to her the cause of his metamorphosis. She interrupted his narrative with tears and imprecations. Her belief was, that the stranger before her had killed her husband, and now presented himself as an unholy lover in her helplessness and bereavement. The quarrel waxed hot between husband and wife. She refused to accept his statements, and he felt mortified at the incredulity of his hitherto peerless spouse. emonstrance and argument had no effect on her, and feminine obstinacy temporarily triumphed. With ceaseless objurgations and monitions of divine vengeance she hastened from the presence of the man she believed guilty of such great enormity, to mourn her darling leper in some remote and forlorn solitude.
Some villagers who had accidentally seen the occurrence, bore witness to the fact that it was really the same man she had brought in her basket. The lady still remained sceptical. On this they told her that Guru Ram Das, a famous saint of God, was sitting under a tree not far distant, and if she went [p. 269] to him he would resolve her doubts. Accordingly she and her husband appeared before him. The wife after compliments said: “I am a virtuous woman. I left my leprous husband here and he hath disappeared. This man whom I know not, claimeth to be he, but I believe he is some deceitful person who hath a design on my virtue. I deem not that this pool possesseth such extraordinary efficacy as he allegeth.’ The Guru smiled and said: ‘Thou sayest this pool hath no such efficacy. It is in fact supreme among all places of pilgrimages. If thou even yet believe not, see this man is affected with leprosy in one finger. Let him dip it into the water, and thou shalt see the result. And whoever batheth in this tank shall obtain balm for his wounded spirit!’ The late leprous cripple put his finger into the water and it was immediately healed. Thus was his wife doubly convinced that it was in reality her husband who had accosted her, and that the pool possessed miraculous virtues. The ber tree still on the spot is that under which she left her crippled husband. The place is called the Dukhbhanjan1, or destroyer of sorrow.
After the conjugal reconciliation through the kind offices of the Guru, the faithful couple embraced his religion, and the quondam leper and cripple assisted him in enlarging the tank, building to it flights of descending steps, and rearing on its margin imposing edifices for divine praise and prayer, worthy of the miraculous discovery of the water and its still more miraculous virtue.
His Sikhs were rejoiced on seeing the Guru’s participation in this miracle, and the magistrate of Patti was astonished on hearing of it. He recognized the Guru as a real saint of God, made him offerings, and prostrated himself before him. The magistrate was delighted on again beholding his daughter and seeing her husband restored to ordinary human shape and vigour. Having no son he adopted his [p. 270] completely healed son-in-law. The Guru on that occasion composed the following :—
God is very dear to the hearts of those who have met the society of the saints and whose souls are fascinated by the Word.
Repeat God’s name, meditate on God; it is He who conferreth gifts on all.
O my brethren, God fascinateth my soul.
I sing God’s praises ; His servant is honoured by meeting the Guru and the society of saints.
The service of God under the Guru’s instruction is an ocean of happiness; through it wealth, prosperity, and supernatural power fall at man’s feet.
They whose support is God’s name utter it and are adorned thereby.
They who feel angry on hearing the Name are devoid of good fortune and possess a bad and worthless understanding.
Thou mayest throw ambrosia to crows and ravens, but they will only satiate themselves with filth and ordure.
The true Guru, the true speaker is a lake of nectar[3] by bathing wherein crows become swans.
Nanak, blessed, and great, and very fortunate are they whose hearts’ filth is washed away by God’s name under the Guru’s instruction.[4]
The magistrate, on hearing this, became ashamed of his previous perversity. He made over all his property to his son-in-law, went to serve the Guru, and put himself under his instruction and spiritual protection.[5]
The Guru, telling his Sikhs that Santokhsar, the first tank he had undertaken, should be finished by his successor, set about completing his Amritsar, or [p. 271] tank of nectar, as a place of pilgrimage for his followers. He induced all his Sikhs to join in the work, under Bhai Budha’s superintendence, and engaged labourers to assist them. He said that the tank of nectar should be God’s home, and whoever bathed 1n it should obtain all spiritual and temporal advantages. During the progress of the work the hut in which the Guru first sheltered himself was enlarged for his residence. It is now known as the Guru’s Mahal, or palace.
Suraj Parkash, Ras 11, Chapter 14. ↩︎
Gauri ki War I. ↩︎
Amritsar. ↩︎
Gujari. ↩︎
In the Suraj Parkash, Ras Il, Chapter 37 et seq., all this is represented to have occurred in the time of Guru Arjan. It is not likely that Guru Rim Das would have neglected to carry out the work which he himself had begun under the order of his beloved father-in-law, the third Guru. Even the author of the Suraj Parkash himself throws a doubt on his own narrative. Ras II, 39. ↩︎