Kalu in despair replied, 'Thou art lost to us; go and take government service. Jai Ram, Daulat Khan's revenue officer, is thy brother-in-law; go and take service with him; perhaps thou wilt like that place; we can dispense with thine earnings. If thou go elsewhere without any occupation, everybody will say that my son hath become a faqir, and people will heap reproaches on me.' Upon this, Guru Nanak uttered a fourth stanza:--

Make attention thy service, faith in the Name thine occupation;

Make the restraint of evil thine effort, so shall men congratulate thee.

[1. In which the Indian petty shopkeeper keeps his goods.]

{p. 24}

God will then look on thee, O Nanak, with an eye of favour, and thy complexion shall brighten fourfold.[1]

Nanak then informed his father that God had, granted him the object of his prayers. The gains of commerce, of government service, and of banking, had all been imparted to him. The astonished father said he had never seen or heard of a God who granted so many favours. Nanak replied that his God was the object of praise to those who had seen Him:--

As men have heard, O Lord, so all call Thee great;

But hath any one ever seen how great Thou art?[2]

Thy worth cannot be estimated or described;

They who seek to describe it are absorbed in Thee.

O my great Lord, deep and profound, brimful of excellences,

None knoweth the extent of Thine outline.

Though all meditative men were to meet and meditate upon Thee,

Though all appraisers were to meet and appraise Thee--

They who possess divine and spiritual wisdom, priests, and high priests[3]--

Yet could they not describe even a small portion of Thy greatness.

All truth, all fervour, all goodness, The excellences of perfect men,

Cannot be obtained in their perfection without Thee.

If Thy grace be obtained none can be excluded

Of what account is the helpless speaker?

Thy store-rooms are filled with Thy praises.

Who can prevail against him to whom Thou givest?

Nanak, the True One arrangeth all.[4]

His father was not satisfied, but further remonstrated

[1. Sorath.

2. Also translated--How great He is whoever hath seen Him could tell.

3. Gurhâi, translated high priests, is really the Persian plural of guru. Compare the words Shaikh mashâikh, so frequently found in the Granth Sâhib. Mashâikh is, of course, the Arabic plural of shaikh.

4. Asa.]

{p. 25}