One day a fanatical Brahman came to the Guru and begged for alms. The Guru, who was at his break fast, invited the Brahman to join him. The Brahman replied that he would not eat food in that way. He would only eat what he had cooked himself. He would first dig up the earth to a depth of a cubit so that all impurity of the surface might be removed, and he would also make a cooking square into which none but himself might enter. He would then dig a span deeper, and make a fireplace on which he would put firewood which he had washed, so that no insects might be burned in it. The Guru had not attended to these formalities, and the Brahman spurned food otherwise cooked. The Guru told him he would give him uncooked viands which he might cook himself. He then went outside and began to dig up the earth, but wherever he dug he only turned up bones, which he deemed a still greater abomination than the Guru's food. He continued digging all day, but with the same result. At last, overcome by hunger, he went and threw himself at Nanak's feet, and asked for the cooked food he had previously rejected. The Guru was pleased to gratify him, and then composed the following:--

{p. 133}

Cooking places of gold, vessels of gold,

Lines of silver far extended,

Ganges water, firewood of the karanta[1] tree,

Eating rice boiled in milk

O my soul, these things are of no account

Until thou art saturated with the true Name.

Hadst thou the eighteen Purans with thee,

Couldst thou recite the four Veds,

Didst thou bathe on holy days and give alms according to men's castes,

Didst thou fast and perform religious ceremonies day and night;

Wert thou a qazi, a mulla, or a shaikh,

A Jogi, a jangam,[2] didst thou wear an ochre-coloured dress,

Or didst thou perform the duties of a householder--

Without knowing God, Death would bind and take all men away.

The duties of all creatures are recorded on their heads

They shall be judged according to their acts.

Foolish and ignorant-men issue orders--

Nanak, the True One hath storehouses of praises.[3]

The Guru initiated the practice of singing hymns in the end of the night. A boy seven years of age used to come to listen and stand behind him. When the singing was over, he used quietly to ,depart. One day the Guru ordered his servants to detain the boy in order to discover the object of his continual attendance. He was accordingly brought before the Guru, who asked him, 'O boy, why comest thou so early in the morning to listen to hymns? This is the time of life for thee to eat, play, and sleep.' The boy replied, 'Sir, one day my mother bade me light the fire. When I put on the wood, I observed that the little sticks burned first and afterwards the big ones. From that me I have been afraid of early death. It is very

[1. The Carissa Carandas.