Life Of Guru Nanak: Chapter V | Internet Sacred Text Archive

Sikhism

CHAPTER V

The Guru set out towards the east, having arrayed himself in a strange motley of Hindu and Muhammadan religious habiliments. He put on a mango-coloured jacket, over which he threw a white safa or sheet. On his head he carried the hat of a Musalman Qalandar[3], while he wore a necklace of bones, and imprinted a saffron mark on his forehead in the style of Hindus. This was an earnest of his desire to found a religion which should be acceptable both to Hindus and Muhammadans without conforming to either faith. As the Guru and his attendant proceeded, they met a Muhammadan notable called Shaikh Wajid. The Shaikh alighted under a tree, and his bearers began to shampoo and fan him. This afforded matter for contemplation to Mardana, and he asked the Guru whether there was not one God for the rich and another for the poor. The Guru replied that there

[1. Thâl, plates poised on a stick and spun round.

2. Âsa ki War.

3. A Muhammadan anchoret who abandons all worldly ties and possessions. he corresponds to the Indian Sanyâsi.]

{p. 59}

was only one God. Mardana then put his question in another form: 'Who created this man who rideth in a sedan of ease while the bearers have no shoes. to their feet? Their legs are naked while they shampoo and fan him.' The Guru replied with the following verses:--

They who performed austerities in their former lives, are now kings and receive tribute on earth.

They who were then wearied, are now shampooed by others.

The Guru continued in prose: 'O Mardana, whoever is born hath come naked from his mother's womb, and joy or misery is the result of actions in previous states of existence.' Upon this, Mardana fell at the Guru's feet.

As Guru Nanak and Mardana journeyed on, they arrived at Gorakhmata, or temple of Gorakh, some twenty miles north of Pilibhit, in the United Provinces of India.[1] There they observed a pipal-tree[2] of many a religious reminiscence. Years previously it had withered from age, but it is related that when the holy man sat beneath it, it suddenly became green. The biographer of the Guru states that Sidhs came on that occasion and addressed him: 'O youth, whose disciple art thou, and from whom hast thou obtained instruction?'

Guru Nanak, in reply, composed the following hymn:--

What is the scale? What the weights? What weighman[3] shall I call for Thee?

Who is the guru from whom I should receive instruction, and by whom I should appraise Thy worth?

O my Beloved, I know not Thy limit.

Thou fillest sea and land, the nether and upper regions it is Thou Thyself who art contained in everything.

[1. The place is now known as Nânakmata, in memory of the Guru's visit.

2. The Ficus religiosa.