him on the unpleasant errand. They inquired if he had found a guru, and in reply he told them his painful story. They explained to him that the woman was Maya, or worldly love; and that she for whom he had so longed was his guru. The pandit returned to the Guru, and fell at his feet. He then cast away his two loads of books, began to repeat God's name, and became so humble as to be, as it were, the dust of the earth. The pandit inquired who were happy in this world. The Guru replied with the following sloks, which Hassu and Sihan committed to writing:--

Indar wept after his thousandfold punishment;[1]

Paras Ram wept on his return home;[2]

King Ajai[3] wept after eating what he had obtained as alms-

Such is the punishment meted out in God's court -

Ram wept when he was expelled from his kingdom,

And separated from Sita and Lachhman.[4]

Rawan, who took away Sita with beat of drum,

Wept when he had lost Lanka;[5]

The Pandavs[6] though their master[7] had been with them,

Became slaves and wept;

[1. Indar was the god of the firmament. His punishment was for his effort to seduce Ahalya, the wife of the sage Gautama.

2 Paras Râm. Râm with the axe was the sixth avatar of Vishnu and preceded the Râm of Indian popular worship. He is said to have cleared the earth twenty-one times of the Kshatriyas. He then gave it to the sage Kashyapa and retired to the Mahendra mountains. The text alludes to his subsequent homeward return.

3 Aj was grandfather of Râm Chandar. One day when hunting he dipped a cloth in the blood of a deer which he had shot; and in order to test his wife's affection sent it to her with a dying message that he had been killed in the hunting-field. She, believing the messenger, at once cremated herself with the cloth she had received. King Aj on returning home found out what had occurred, and was so overcome with grief and sorrow, that he abandoned his throne and retired from the world to do penance for his crime.

4. Lachhman was Râm's brother.

5. Lanka. This was the ancient name of Ceylon, where Rawan ruled.

6 The opponents of the Kauravs in the great war which forms the subject of the Mahâbhârat.

7 Krishan.]

{p. 169}

Janameja[1] wept when he went astray;--

For one offence he was deemed a sinner--

Shaikhs, Disciples and Pirs[2] weep

For fear of suffering at the last moment;

Kings wept when their ears were torn,[3]

And they went to beg alms from door to door;

The miser wept at his departure from the wealth he had amassed;

The pandit wept when he had lost his learning;

The young girl who hath no husband weepeth

Nanak, the whole world is in misery.

He who revereth the Name is victorious

No other act is of any avail.[4]