Guru and his Sikhs. I have also mine own earnings which I wish to dispose of for their benefit. Furthermore, I have recently built a house at great expense, which I reserved for myself, but it is useless to me now. If that also be applied to the use of the Sikhs, I shall have nothing to regret.’ His relations and Sikh friends disposed of his property accordingly. He then, in the words of the Sikh chronicler, parted with his body as though it were the slough of a snake.
One day a Sikh merchant went to the Guru, and said that he had given alms and feasts to Brahmans, and made pilgrimages according to prescribed rules, but obtained no spiritual profit or consolation therefrom. He therefore requested the Guru, who was the pilot of the world's terrible ocean, to save him. The Guru on that occasion composed the following :—
Serve God; perform no other service.
By serving Him thou shalt obtain the fruit thy heart
desireth; by any other service thy life shall pass away in
vain.
God is my love, God is my rule of life, God is the subject
of my conversation.
By the Guru's favour my heart is saturated with God's
love; thus is my service rewarded.
God is my Simritis, God is my Shastars, God is my kinsman,
God is my brother.
I am hungry for God; with His name my heart is satisfied.
God is my relative, and at the last moment will be my helper.
Except God all other capital is false, and goeth not with
us when we depart.
God is the wealth which shall depart with me; whitherso
ever I go, thither will it go.
He who is attached to falsehood is false, and false are the
works he performeth.
Saith Nanak, everything happeneth according to God's
will; naught is gained by babbling.[1]
- ↑ Gūjari.
