51 passages · ~19 min read
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The Guru set out towards the east, having arrayed himself in a strange motley of Hindu and Muhammadan religious habil…
They who performed austerities in their former lives, are now kings and receive tribute on earth. They who were then …
The Guru continued in prose: 'O Mardana, whoever is born hath come naked from his mother's womb, and joy or misery is…
As Guru Nanak and Mardana journeyed on, they arrived at Gorakhmata, or temple of Gorakh, some twenty miles north of P…
Guru Nanak, in reply, composed the following hymn:—
What is the scale? What the weights? What weighman shall I call for Thee? Who is the guru from whom I should receive …
In such companionship Nanak abideth; how can he, fool that he is, obtain Thee? Then the Sidhs said, 'O youth, become …
Religion consisteth not in a patched coat, or in a Jogi's staff, or in ashes smeared over the body; Religion consiste…
Religion consisteth not in mere words; He who looketh on all men as equal is religious. Religion consisteth not in wa…
On meeting a true guru doubt is dispelled and the wanderings of the mind restrained. It raineth nectar, slow ecstatic…
Nanak, in the midst of life be in death; practise such religion. When thy horn soundeth without being blown, thou sha…
Abide pure amid the impurities of the world, thus shalt thou find the way of religion. On hearing this the Sidhs made…
The Guru and his musical attendant proceeded to Banaras, the head quarters of the Hindu religion, and the birthplace …
O Brahman, thou worshippest and propitiatest the salagram, and deemest it a good act to wear a necklace of sweet basi…
Chatur Das replied: 'O saint, the salagram and the necklace of sweet basil may indeed be useless as the irrigation of…
Make God the well, string His name for the necklace of waterpots, and yoke thy mind as an ox thereto. Irrigate with n…
The Pandit inquired: 'The soil is irrigated, but how can it yield produce until it hath been dug up and prepared for …
Beat both thy lust and anger into a spade, with which dig up the earth, O brother: The more thou diggest, the happier…
The Pandit replied: 'I am the crane, and thou art the primal swan of God. My understanding is overcome by my senses.'…
If thou, O Merciful One, show mercy, a crane shall change into a swan. Nanak, slave of slaves, supplicateth, O Mercif…
The Pandit then admitted that the Guru was a saint of God, and asked him to bless the city and sing its praises. The …
The city is frail, the king is a boy and loveth the wicked; He is said to have two mothers and two fathers; O Pandit,…
Nanak, slave of slaves, representeth, O God, in one moment makest the small great and the great small. Chatur Das req…
It is the one God who created Brahma; It is the one God who created our understanding; It is from the one God the mou…
On hearing the whole fifty-four stanzas of the Oamkar, the Pandit fell at the Guru's feet, and became a Sikh and poss…
During the Guru's stay at Banaras Krishan Lai and Har Lai, two eminent young pandits, went to visit him, and he expla…
From Banaras the Guru proceeded to Gaya, the famous place of pilgrimage, where Buddha in days long past made his grea…
The Name alone, is my lamp, suffering the oil I put therein. The lamp's light hath dried it up, and I have escaped me…
The Guru and Mardana in the course of their travels found themselves at a grain-dealer's house. A son had just been b…
In the first watch of night, my merchant friend, the child by God's order entereth the womb. With body reversed it pe…
II
In the second watch of night, O merchant friend, it forgetteth to meditate on God. It is dandled in the arms, O merch…
Thou knowest not Him who created thee; meditate upon Him in thy heart. Saith Nanak, the child hath forgotten to medit…
At the third watch of night, O merchant friend, man's thoughts are of woman and the pleasures of youth; He thinketh n…
IV
In the fourth watch of night, O merchant friend, the reaper cometh to the field; The secret hath been given to none w…
When morning came, the grain-dealer's child died, and the grain-dealer and his relatives came forth weeping and waili…
They to whose faces were uttered gratulations and hundreds of thousands of blessings, Now smite their heads in grief;…
As the Guru and Mardana pursued their way they saw a small enclosed field of gram. The watchman of the field began to…
Thy pallet is a coverlet and mattress for me; thy love is my dainty dish. Nanak is already satiated with thy good qua…
In due time the watchman obtained spiritual dignity in return for his kind intentions towards the Guru.
There was at that time a shopkeeper whose mind had taken a religious bent, and who desired to meet a religious guide.…
Meanwhile the first shopkeeper arrived in doleful case. Having left the Guru, a thorn pierced his foot. He bound up t…
The Guru explained that the sinful shopkeeper had in a former birth given a gold coin as alms to a holy man. That coi…
The heart is the paper, conduct the ink; good and bad are both recorded therewith. Man's life is as his acts constrai…
The Guru then took the opportunity of discoursing on the immoral shopkeeper's peculiar vice: 'Man is fickle when he b…
After this they all separated, and the Guru and Mardana continued their wanderings. On the way they were encountered …
Covetousness is a dog, falsehood a sweeper, food obtained by deceit carrion; Slander of others is merely others' filt…
Nanak, they who are beyond God's favouring glance love not charity or His name. By the following the Guru recommended…
The oxen are disciples, the ploughman is their Shaikh; The earth is a book, the furrow the writing. The sweat of the …
Then the Guru departed thence.