We have now arrived at a very critical stage of our biography of the Guru, and it is necessary to set forth with clearness and certainty what the Guru really thought of idolatry or the worship of inanimate objects.
On this subject the best evidence obtainable is the Guru’s own acknowledged compositions. In the Akal Ustat he writes as follows :—
Some worshipping stones put them on their heads, some suspend lingams from their necks;
Some see God in the south, some bow their heads to the west ;[1]
Some fools worship idols, others busy themselves with worshipping the dead.
The whole world entangled in false ceremonies hath not found God’s secret.
Again in the same composition the Guru addressing an idolater wrote as follows :—
O great beast, thou recognizest not Him whose glory filleth the three worlds.
Instead of the Supreme God thou worshippest things the touch of which shall cause thee to lose heaven.
By way of doing good acts thou committest sin at which even the greatest sins are abashed—[ p. 68 ]
Fall at the feet of the Supreme Being, O fool; He is not in a Stone.
In the Vichitar Natak are found the following among other similar verses :—
I am not a worshipper of stones,
Nor am I satisfied with any religious garb.
In the thirty-three Sawalyas the Guru expresses himself as follows :—
Some fasten an idol firmly to their breasts, some say that Shiv is God ;
Some say that God is in the temple of the Hindus ; others believe that He is in the mosque of the Musalmans ;
Some say that Ram is God ; some say Krishan ; some in their hearts accept the incarnations as God ;
But I have forgotten all vain religion and know in my heart that the Creator is the only God.
Why worship a stone? God is not in a stone.
Worship Him as God by the worship of whom all thy sins shall be erased,
And by taking whose name thou shalt be freed from all thy mental and bodily entanglements.
Make the meditation of God ever thy rule of action ; no advantage can be obtained by the practice of false religion.
Again the Guru writes as follows in his celebrated letter to the Emperor Aurangzeb :—
I am the destroyer of the turbulent hillmen,
Since they are idolaters and I am a breaker of idols.
In further evidence of the Guru’s sentiments on the subject of idolatry, we have a composition, either written or sanctioned by himself, which is found in his collected works, on which to base our conclusion.
There was a king called Sumat Sain married to a lady called Samarmati. They had four sons and an only [ p. 69 ] daughter called Rankhambh Kala. The children were put under the tuition of a Brahman. One day the princess went earlier than usual to the Brahman’s house and found him worshipping and prostrating himself before a salagram andalingam.[2] She smiled on seeing her tutor thus engaged, and asked him the reason of his extraordinary conduct.
The Brahman
This salagram, O lady, is a god whom great kings adore. What dost thou who art ignorant know about it? Thou deemest this salagram which is god to be a stone.
The Princess
O great fool, thou recognizest not Him whose glory filleth the three worlds. Thou worshippest this stone at whose touch man’s future bliss is forfeited. Thou committest sin to attain thine own object—such sin as other sins would be aghast at. O beast, fall at the feet of the great God; He is not a stone. He liveth in the water, in the dry land, in all things, and in all monarchs. He is in the sun, in the moon, in the sky. Wherever thou lookest, thou mayest fix thy gaze on Him. He is in fire, in wind, and beneath the earth. In what place is He not? He is contained in everything. Were all the continents to become paper and the seven seas ink; were all the vegetables to be cut down and employed as pens; were Saraswati, the goddess of eloquence, to dictate and all beings to write for sixty ages, they could not in any way describe God. Yet, O fool, thou supposest Him to be astone. O man, thou findest not God’s secret. Thou deceivest the world in every way, and fillest thy coffers with wealth as the reward of thy deception. Thou art thyself called by the world a clever and wise pandit, but thou worshippest a stone and therefore thou appearest to me to have abdicated thy reason. While [ p. 70 ] uttering ‘Shiv, Shiv’ with thy mouth, thy heart is filled with greed. Thou practisest excessive hypocrisy before the world, and art not ashamed to beg from door to door. Thou remainest for nearly two hours holding thy nose as if thou wert practising Jog. Thou standest on one leg invoking Shiv. If any one pass by and give thee one paisa, thou pickest it up with thy teeth, and forgettest thy gods. Thou givest instruction to others, but meditatest not on God thyself. Thou ever preachest to people to despise money. Yet for that very money thou beggest at the doors of high and low, and art not ashamed to debase thyself before even the meanest of thy fellow creatures. Thou sayest that thou art holy, but thou art very unholy. Thou callest thyself contented, but thou art very discontented, and only leavest one door to go and beg at another. Thou makest a clay idol of Shiv, and having worshipped it throwest it into the river. When thou returnest home thou settest up another in its place. Thou fallest at its feet, and rubbest thy forehead on the ground for an hour. Think what it hath to give thee. Thou worshippest the symbol of procreation, and fallest before it believing it to be Shiv. Thou callest a stone God, but it will not avail thee. Since the stone belongeth to the lowest order of creation, say what shall it give thee even if propitiated and pleased with thee ? Even if it at any time make thee like itself, thou shalt be no better than a stone. Great simpleton, be assured that, when thy life hath departed, it will be too late for thee to know anything of God. Thou hast passed thy childhood without prayer, but even in thy manhood thou hast not repeated God’s name. Thou hast induced others to give charity, but never lifted thy hand to assist another. . Thou hast bent thy head to stones, but never to God. O fool, entangled in thy domestic affairs, thy life thou hast passed in procrastination. Having read one or two Purans, O Brahman, thou art swollen with conceit. Thou hast not read the Puran through which all the sins of this life may be erased. It is for the sake of show thou practisest penance. Day and night thy mind is absorbed in lucre. Fools accept thy statements, but not I. Why practisest [ p. 71 ] thou so much hypocrisy ? For what object adorest thou a stone? Thou hast forfeited thy happiness here and hereafter. Thou givest false instruction and gladly acceptest all payment which thou claimest. It is enough that thou hast given evil instruction to my brothers ; instruct not me.
The Brahman
Hear me, O princess, thou hast not considered Shiv’s greatness. Ever worship the gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiv. Thou knowest not their greatness, and that is why thou talkest in that way. Know that they are the oldest of all the gods, and do thou recognize them as the lords of the world. I am, O princess, a fasting Brahman, and love all both high and low. I communicate instruction to all and induce even great misers to practise charity.
The Princess
Thou communicatest spells in order to make disciples. Thou then takest money as offerings from them in whatever way thou canst, but thou teachest them not the truth, and marrest their happiness in this world and the next. Hear, O Brahman, thou plunderest in whatever way thou canst those to whom thou givest thine initiatory spell. The fools receive no divine knowledge from thee, but are fleeced for their pains. Thou tellest them that thy spell shall be advantageous to them, and that Shiv will grant them a boon. When the spells turn out unsuccessful, thou pretendest that they have omitted some necessary ceremony, and that is why they have not been successful. Thou next tellest them to give alms to Brahmans and perform the spell by which they might behold the god. Thou takest a fine from them when they ought to take it from thee for misleading them, and in return for their money thou givest them the same spell over again. Thou leadest them astray all along the line, and at last thou tellest them that they have omitted certain words, or that something interrupted the ceremonies to account for the non-appearance of the god and his failure to grant the desired blessing. On [ p. 72 ] this thou counsellest them to again give thee alms. O Brahman, that is the sort of spell thou teachest those whose houses thou designest to plunder. And when thy victims become poor, thou goest to spy out others. Were thine incantations and spells efficacious, thou wouldst sit as a monarch at home and not go about begging.
The Brahman filled with anger and heaping curses on the princess, said, ‘How canst thou know mine affairs ? Thou talkest as if thou hadst taken bhang.’
The Princess
Hear, O Brahman, it is thou who knowest not what thou sayest. Thou addressest me in an insolent manner. My senses are not stolen away by bhang. Whither have thine own senses gone without it? Thou callest thyself wise in that thou never takest bhang even by mistake, but when thou goest a-begging, thou insultest, as if under the influence of bhang, him whose house thou visitest. Why beg from door to door for the money thou pretendest to despise ? Thou goest to rajas and takest morsels from them. Thou sayest thou hast abandoned all worldly things and preachest to everybody to do the same. Why stretchest thou forth thy hand to grasp what thou pretendest to renounce? To one man thou preachest to renounce wealth, to another thou sayest that he is under the influence of malignant stars, and therefore he ought to pay thee for deliverance therefrom. It is in the hope of cheating people thou wanderest from door to door. Thou recitest the Veds, the Shastars, and the Simritis, so that a double paisa may fall to thee from some one. Thou praisest him who givest thee anything and revilest him who refuseth. In this way thou hopest to obtain alms from all people. But thou reflectest not that praise and blame are every one’s lot while alive, but affect not the dead. Thou canst not confer salvation on those who give thee alms, nor canst thou kill the son or father of him who giveth thee none. I only accept him as a Brahman who deemeth the givers and the refusers, praise and blame as the same. O Brahman, the man from whom [ p. 73 ] thou extortest money, or whom thou pleasest with thy varied flatteries, shall at last go to hell in thy company.
Brahmans, though they say they have abandoned the world, are lovers of wealth, and in quest of it go to die either in Banaras or Kumaun. Some through greed for money twist their matted hair round their heads. Others put on a wooden necklace and go forth shamelessly to the forest. Others again, taking tweezers, pluck out all the hair of their heads. The Brahmans practise hypocrisy in order to plunder the world, and they thus lose their happiness both here and hereafter. They make a clay lingam and worship it, but it hath no power for good or evil. Why do men who know that the lingam hath no light in it, light a lamp before it? And why do very foolish and obstinate persons thinking it God fall down before it? Thoughtless one, think of God and quickly cast away thy mind’s indecision. They who have studied for a long time in Banaras go at last to die in Bhutan. Having acquired a little learning thou leavest thy home and wanderest from country to country. Thy father and mother thou hast left somewhere ; thy wife, thy son, and thy son’s wife cannot find thee. No one hath passed beyond the goal of covetousness ; it hath beguiled all people.
Thou shavest the heads of some, on others thou imposest fines, and on others again thou puttest wooden necklaces. To one thou teachest spoken, to another written, and to a third other forms of incantations, yet thou conferrest no abiding spiritual knowledge. Some thou showest how to argue on learned subjects, but to all thou settest an example of covetousness in thine efforts to obtain wealth to the best of thine ability. Thou showest no mercy and never propitiatest God, O fool, but worshippest clay. It is on this account thou art doomed to wander begging. Think, thoughtless one, on Him who made men conscious; why deemest thou Him unconscious ? Why call a stone God ? Why sellest thou thy precious soul under its value? Thou knowest nothing, great simpleton, and yet thou callest thyself a superior pandit. Diest thou not of shame, O great boaster ? In thy pride thou forfeitest thine honour. Thou [ p. 74 ] callest thyself a prophet and pretendest to know the future, but yet thou knowest not even the past. Thou thinkest thyself very handsome and able, and claimest to be continent and physically strong. Thou sayest that Shiv is certainly in the stone, but, O great fool, thou knowest nothing. O clever man, consider in what part of the stone Parbati’s lord is. Say what spiritual perfection thou attainest by bowing thy head to clay? He whom the world cannot please will not be pleased by thy offerings of rice. Thou burnest incense, blowest shells, and rainest a shower of flowers. Thou growest weary in thine endeavours, but findest not God in a stone. To those who accept not thine incantations and spells thou recitest songs and verses. In broad daylight thou stealest wealth from men’s houses. Thieves, pickpockets, and robbers seeing thy cleverness are ashamed of their ignorance. Thou payest no heed to the magistrate or the judge. Thou livest by cheating thy disciples.
Rich people are like flowers, clever men like thee are the bumble-bees which, unmindful of their homes, continue to buzz over them. Every one is at last in Death’s power, and yet men have departed without resigning the craving for wealth. There are no bounds to this desire. It is the only thing in this world that surviveth.
You shave the heads of some, you send others to places of pilgrimages, and at the same time ask for all they possess. Those thou seest wealthy thou entanglest in the narrow door[3] and leviest a tax at so much per head on them. Thou then lettest them pass. It is thirst for money not love of God that actuateth Brahmans.
[ p. 75 ]
The Brahman
Hear, O my daughter, thou understandest not. Thou thinkest that he whom we call Shiv is a stone. All people bow their heads to Brahmans, and apply to their foreheads the water in which they have washed their feet. The whole world worshippeth them, while thou, O foolish girl, slanderest them. This salagram is the primal and ancient Brahm and is prized even by monarchs.
The Princess
Hear, O foolish Brahman, thou knowest nothing. Thou recognizest a stone as the Primal Light of the world. Thou thinkest it holdeth the Supreme Being. Thou hast taken leave of thy senses. Deceive me not, but take what thou desirest to take. Tell me not that a stone is God. While telling fools so, thou plunderest them to thy heart’s content. Thou sendest men to rivers of pilgrimage to drown them in superstition. Thou makest unnumbered efforts to strip them of their wealth and not allow them to take a paisa home. Thou pretendest to find a number of inauspicious circumstances connected with a rich man, so that he may give thee feasts to bribe thee to intercede for him. When thou knowest that a man hath spent all his wealth, thou never lookest at him. Brahmans hover over money like ravens, and quarrel like kites over a fish or dogs over a bone. In public thou expoundest the Veds, but in thy heart is worship of money. Thou findest not God, thy money soon departeth, and vain is all thy service. Thou paradest thy learning, but knowest not how to unite men with God. Thou callest thyself wise and me a fool. What if thou, O idiot, eat not bhang, even still thou art not in thy senses. Everybody can see this for himself. Brave men taking bhang fight and draw elephant’s teeth, and grasping the scimitar and lance fearlessly smite their enemies. Say, O tyrant; what couldst thou do even wert thou to take bhang ? Thou wouldst even then, if engaged in combat, fall on thy face like a corpse through fright. [ p. 76 ] Hear, O Brahman, give instruction to fools, save me from thy lies, and preach thy falsehood to others. Why passest thou leather for metallic coin? Thou shalt go to terrible hell, and be born again as a pariah. Hung up by the heels thou shalt be tortured in the house of Death. When thou and all thy relations are suffering, what answer wilt thou make? Say what books wilt thou then read, and wilt thou then worship the lingam? Wilt thou find Shiv and Krishan there where God will send thee bound? Where thou hast no son, mother, father, or brother, will Ram come to thine assistance ? Ever bow thy head to the great God whom the fourteen worlds fear, whom all recognize as the Creator and Destroyer, who hath no form or outline, whose dwelling, appearance, and name are unknown. By what name shall I speak of Him since He cannot be spoken of? He hath no father, mother, or brother, no son or grandson. Unlike Ram Chandar or Krishan He hath no male or female nurse. He needeth no army to give Him dignity. What He saith is true, and what He desireth He doeth. Some He regenerateth, and others He consigneth to perdition. He buildeth, fashioneth, createth, and again destroyeth. It is the great God I recognize as my Guru. I am His disciple and He is my priest. I am a girl made by Him. O Brahman, I worship the great God. A stone isnottomy mind. Icallastoneastone. On this account people are displeased with me. I call what is false false— a matter which is disagreeable to all. I tell the truth, and pay no regard to any one. As for thee, O Brahman, art thou not ashamed of thy conduct ? Fix thy thoughts even for a brief period on God.
The Brahman
God will consider him a sinner who saith that this stone is other than God, and will cast into hell any one who useth profane language regarding it. It is the primal and ancient God.
The Princess
I only worship the one great God. I regard not Shiv. Nor do I worship either Brahma or Vishnu. I fear not [ p. 77 ] your gods. Know that whoever invoketh them is already dead, but death will not approach him who meditateth on the Deathless One. He who meditateth on the Deathless One and even once invoketh His name, shall obtain wealth and perfection in every act. He who meditateth on the immortal God shall never suffer, but enjoy great happiness in the world. When death tortureth thee, O Brahman, what book wilt thouthen read? Willit be the Bhagavat [4] or the Gita? Wilt thou hold on to Ram or clutch at Krishan for protection? The gods whom thou deemest supreme have all been destroyed by Death’s mace. None— not even Brahma, Vishnu, or Indar—may escape it. The gods were born as the demons were, and both are subject to transmigration. The Hindus and the Turks are the same, and death is potent over them all. Sometimes the demons killed the gods, and sometimes the gods the demons. The Being who destroyed both gods and demons is He who cherisheth me, and whom I have taken as my Guru. I bow to Him whose sovereignty is recognized in the fourteen worlds, who destroyed Indar, Vishnu, the sun, the moon,[5] Kuver, Varun, and Sheshnag.
The Brahman
Shiv removeth all the sins of him who worshippeth this stone. He who forsaketh this god and worshippeth another shall fall into hell. He who giveth money to a Brahman shall obtain tenfold in the next world. He who giveth to other than a Brahman shall derive no advantage therefrom.
The Poet
Upon this the princess took the lingam in her hand, struck the Brahman with it, and smashed all his teeth. She then took away all the Brahman’s property.
The Princess
Say now, O Brahman, whither hath gone thy Shiv? He whom thou hast ever served hath broken thy teeth. The [ p. 78 ] idol which thou hast spent thy life in invoking, hath at last entered thy mouth.
The Poet
All the property the Princess took from the Brahman she distributed among other Brahmans and then said to her antagonist, “ Never mind, thou shalt receive tenfold in the next world.’ [6]
The Princess
Thou sayest to others, ‘Bestow your wealth or spend it ’—thou who art so miserly that thou puttest not turmeric into the dal thou eatest. Thou art very deceitful and goest about for the purpose of deceit. Thou publicly plunderest people in the market-place. Thou spendest not a kauri and art ever begging. Calling girls thy daughters thou deflourest them. Thy mother was greed, thy father avarice, and thou art the incarnation of meanness. While practising greed thou boastest of thy prodigality, so that people may think thee a monarch. Thou art utterly worthless. If any one knew the incantations thou pretendest to know he would not have to beg from door to door. By Yepeating even once such an incantation as thou boastest of, thou mightest fill thy house with wealth. Ram and Krishan of whom thou speakest, and those whom thou worshippest as Shiv and Brahma, were all destroyed by Death. In due time God will again give them birth, How many Ram Chandars and Krishans! How many Brahmas, Shivs, and Vishnus ! The sun and moon—what are these poor wretches ? Simply water-carriers at God’sdoor. They were created in due time and Death shall destroy them all. The Vishnu who was cursed by Jalandhar’s wife [7] and became a stone, thou callest a great god. Art thou not ashamed of thyself ?
[ p. 79 ]
The Brahman
I will go to the Raja thy father and have thee imprisoned.
The Princess
I will tell him a different story, and have both thy hands cut off. Then shall I be really the king’s daughter.
The Brahman
I will promise to do what thou tellest me provided thou dismiss thy wrath.
The Princess
Worship not stones, fall at the feet of the great God.
The Poet
Then the Brahman fell at the feet of the great God, and threw his idols into the river.
Bhai Nand Lal,[8] who was a famous Sikh of Guru Gobind Rai, and wrote several works in the Persian language on the Sikh religion, thus delivered himself in his Jot Bikas: ‘Thousands of Brahmas praise Guru Nanak, for his glory exceedeth that of them all. Thousands of Shivs and Indars place themselves at his feet, for his throne is more exalted than theirs. Thousands of Vishnus, many Rams and Krishans, thousands of Durgas and Gorakhs sacrifice themselves at his feet.’ Bhai Nand Lal further on writes that as Guru Nanak, so were all the Gurus his successors, including Guru Gobind Rai. It is therefore inferred that, so far from Guru Gobind Rai worshipping or doing homage to the goddess Durga, she was an insignificant entity who did homage to him.
Dakhan desh Hart ka wasa, pachh’tm Allah mukama, Kabir. The God of the Hindus dwells in the south (in Dwaraka), of the Muhammadans jn the west (Makka). ↩︎
The lingam sacred to Shiv is the symbol of procreation. It was worshipped in ancient times in Rome as it is now in India. The author saw a lingam in the temple of Venus in Pompeii, and was informed by his Italian guide that it was a stone on which barren women used to sit in the hope of offspring. ↩︎
In Gaya, Kamaksha, and other places of Hindu pilgrimage there is an aperture in a wall through which pilgrims are bidden to pass with the object of securing deliverance. When the pilgrim is a rich man, he is by some secret mechanism caught in the aperture and told that he cannot pass on account of his many sins and enormities. He is then obliged to vow to perform certain penances and make certain presents to the Brahmans. He is only allowed to pass through the aperture when the promised money has been paid down.— Thag Lila, p. 34. ↩︎
One of the eighteen Purans. ↩︎
The Sikhs believe in the different creations and destructions of the world. ↩︎
The princess is here casting up the Brahman’s words to him. ↩︎
The legend is as follows:—Jalandhar was destroying the gods and none could withstand him as he had a virtuous wife. It was proposed to Vishnu to tempt her, and he accordingly simulated Jalandhar and approached her. Recognizing Vishnu by a particular mark on his side, the result of a kick given him by Bhrigu, a Rikhi, she cursed him, and he became the salagram stone. Vishnu in turn cursed her, and she became the tulsi plant, and grew where the salagram fell. ↩︎
An account of Bhai Nand Lal will subsequently be given. ↩︎