The Sikh Religion/Volume 2/Life of Amar Das/Chapter III
annoyance of the Guru and his Sikhs, their attack and slaughter of the Sanyasis, and finally their endeavour to rob the Emperor of his treasure. The Emperor ordered that they should be imprisoned, their houses razed to the ground, and all their property confiscated. ‘Such ,’ said the Guru, ‘shall ever be the condition of those who bear enmity to men who desire to live at peace.’
Chapter III
On one occasion when the Guru visited an out-lying village and preached, the headman said his words ought to be recorded, and he sent for pen and ink for the purpose. The following was the Guru's expostulation :—
Why send for pen and ink? Write my words in thy heart.
If thou ever abide in the love of God, thine affection shall
never be sundered from Him.
Pens and ink-bottles shall perish what they write shall
go with them—
Nanak, but the love of the True One which He bestoweth
from the beginning shall not perish.
The things which are seen shall not depart with one; see
if there be any contrivance by which they may go with you.
The true Guru implanteth the True One in your hearts;
continue to love Him.
Nanak, the Giver of the Word is true, and He is obtained
by good acts.
The Guru continued his instructions :— ‘The Guru will assist him who hath endurance; God is patient and patiently rewardeth. If any one ill-treat you, bear it. If you bear it three times, God Himself will fight for you the fourth time, and extirpate your enemies.’
He then quoted the twenty-first pauri of the Asa ki War.
The Guru, having obtained respite from his Muhammadan persecutors, continued to communicate spiritual and ethical instruction to his Sikhs: ‘Do good to all, but be not proud thereof. Deem another's wife as a snake or a murderous elephant, and associate not with her. Avoid evil company; be not conceited, glorify not yourselves, and forswear slander and falsehood. Eat and work according to your ability. Practise not hypocrisy or ostentation. Meditate on the Guru's instruction. Give a tithe of your substance to God. Associate with the virtuous and wait upon the stranger. Invoke Wahguru before meals, and He will bless your repasts.’
His Sikhs put a question to the Guru: ‘Who are the greatest saints and worshippers of God ?’ The Guru replied, ‘They who have repeated the Name and renounced pride are the best. The saint who so acteth, and leaveth this filthy and loathsome body, shall obtain in its stead a celestial body of light. True saints are passionless, and afford shelter to men. He who restraineth his desires hath obtained salvation while alive. The saints are ever independent. What they do is ever beautiful and of good report. The true Guru and the saints are sent into the world to benefit it, though in reality they live apart and are not of it.’
Kingurinath, at the head of a company of Jogis, visited Guru Amar Das. They proclaimed that they were Jogis and holy men, and in proof of their statement pointed to the garbs and earrings they wore. The Guru denied that that was the way to become holy. He would tell them, and thereupon he uttered the following :—
Ramkali Ashtapadi
Put the rings of modesty in thine ears, O Jogi, and make
compassion thy patched coat.
Apply the fear of transmigration to thy body as ashes,
O Jogi, thus shalt thou conquer the three worlds.
O Jogi, play such a kinguri As shall produce the unbeaten strain and abiding love of
God.
Make patience thy wallet, truth thy platter, put the
ambrosial Name thereon as food.
Make meditation thy staff, O Jogi, and remembrance of
God the horn thou blowest.
Make the fixing of thy mind on God thy sitting posture,[1]
O Jogi, so shall thine injuries depart.
Go beg in the city of the body,[2] O Jogi, and thou shalt
obtain the Name.
It is not by means of this kinguri; O Jogi, that thou shalt
meditate upon or obtain the True One;
It is not by means of this kinguri, O Jogi, that thou shalt
find peace, or that pride shall depart from thy heart.
Make the fear and love of God the two gourds of thy
kinguri, O Jogi, and thy body its frame.
Be holy and the strings will play; thus shall thine avarice
depart.
He who understandeth God's order and applieth his heart
to the one God is properly called a Jogi:
His doubts are dispelled, he becometh pure, and thus
obtaineth the way of union with God.
All that is visible shall be destroyed; wherefore fix thy
mind on God.
If thou bear love to the true Guru, thou shalt understand this.
Union with God consisteth not, O Jogi, in leaving one's
family and wandering abroad.
By the Guru's favour thou shalt obtain God's name in the
mansion of thy body.
This body is an earthen puppet, O Jogi, and in it is a dire
disease—the craving for mammon.
This disease will not be cured, O Jogi, by thy many efforts
or by wearing sectarial dresses.
God's name, O Jogi, in whatever heart He implanteth it,
is the medicine.
Wherever there is a holy man he obtaineth divine knowledge,
and findeth the way of union with Him.
The path of union with God is difficult, O Jogi; he on
whom God looketh with favour obtaineth it.
Whether he be at home or abroad, he seeth but the one
God, and removeth doubt from his heart.
Jogi, play that kinguri which playeth without being
struck.[3]
Saith Nanak, in this way shalt thou obtain deliverance,
O Jogi, and be absorbed in the True One.
One day, as the Guru was taking a ride, he saw a wall broken by rain, which threatened to fall, and he accordingly rode quickly past it. On reaching home his Sikhs quoted to him one of his own hymns, in which he wrote :—
Death shall not approach him who meditateth on God's name.
They also quoted to him a verse of Guru Nanak :—
I feel no anxiety regarding death, and I have no desire to live.
They then interrogated him: ‘Great king, death is subservient to thee. Thou hast enjoyed a long life. Thou hast no pride or selfishness. Why hast thou hastened past the dangerous wall?’ The Guru replied: ‘I only want to teach my Sikhs that since human life, for which even the demigods vainly long, is so difficult to obtain, it is our duty to preserve it. If a tree be preserved, it will many times bear leaves, blossoms, and fruit. So if the body be preserved, we can practise charity and perform religious works of every description; but when the body perisheth, we can no longer perform our duty to God. Holy men derive endless advantages from their bodies. By them they serve the saints, repeat God's name, obtain divine knowledge and become emancipated. The body by which we confer benefits on others, and by which happiness in this life and salvation in the next are obtained, ought to be cherished by all.[4] One day the Sikhs said to the Guru, ‘Formerly, when we undertook any enterprise we used to consult the Brahman astrologers. Now that we have come under thy protection, whom shall we consult?’ The Guru replied, ‘The most favourable time for the Guru's Sikhs is when they pray to God. If at the beginning of all undertakings they with a lowly mind invoke His assistance, all their efforts shall be successful.’
On one occasion, on seeing a large crowd of people who had come to him for the attainment of their desires, the Guru mourned over the ills of life, and decided to seek for a time the retirement of the forest. To escape notice he started on his journey at midnight. His movements, however, became known to his sons Mohri and Mohan and a few other devoted Sikhs, and they prepared to accompany him. When the party had been three days in the forest, a Muhammadan goatherd called Bahlol saw the Guru, and recognizing him as a holy man, fell at his feet and made him an offering of a bowl of milk. The Guru seeing his devotion, said, ‘I am happy.’ The goatherd, too, became happy in the consciousness of having ministered to the wants of a deserving man. The Guru invited him to ask a favour. The goatherd replied that there was nothing stable in the world, wherefore the only favour he asked was that he might be enabled to remember God's name. The Guru granted him this favour.
- ↑ Eighty-four postures of the Jogis are enumerated.
- ↑ That is, practise contemplation.
- ↑ Attune thy heart to divine knowledge.
- ↑ On this subject Guru Arjan subsequently wrote the following
verses :—
Dust flieth on the body of him who repeateth not God's name and frequenteth not the society of the saints.
Nanak, curses on the insipid body which knoweth not Him who created it.
Nanak, cherish that body which remembereth God, in whose heart God's lotus feet dwell, and whose tongue repeateth His name.
Bihāgre ki Wār.