As shall cure thee of thy sins.

Make contentment thy mortar, the gift of thy hands thy pestle:

By ever using these the body pineth not away,

Nor at the final hour shall Death pommel thee.

Make enjoyments thy firewood, covetousness thy clarified butter and oil.

Burn them with the oil of lust and anger in the fire[3] of divine knowledge.

Burnt offerings, sacred feasts, and the reading of the Purans,[4]

If pleasing to God, are acceptable.

Empire, wealth, and youth are all shadows

So are carriages and imposing mansions.

Hereafter neither man's name nor his caste shall be considered.

There is day, here all is night.

Let us make penitence the paper,[5] Thy name, O Lord, the prescription.

They for whom this priceless medicine is prescribed,

[1. Also translated--When man possesseth even a portion of the name of the Bright One.

2 Malâr.

3 It was intended by his parents to make a hom sacrifice or burnt offering for Nânak's recovery. The Sanskrit word hom is interpreted to mean casting into the fire, and correctly represents the oblation of clarified butter, sesames, butter, &c., which forms part of the ceremonial.

4 Sacred books of the Hindus, eighteen in number. They are the principal authorities for the idolatry and superstition of the Hindus.

5. To write a prescription on.]

{p. 29}

Are fortunate when they reach their final home.

O Nanak, blessed are the mothers who bore them.[1]

Then the physician drew back, stood still, and said that Nanak was not ill. His relations and friends ought to feel no anxiety for him, for he was a great being. Upon this the physician worshipped him and took his leave.

There is very little known regarding Nanak's married life excepting that he begot two sons, Sri Chand and Lakhmi Das. It was related that he used to retire to the desert, and pass his time under trees in religious contemplation.

All the modern Janamsakhis make Nanak's marriage long subsequent to this, and after his departure to Sultanpur. They say that it was Jai Ram who had him married, and that his wife was a native of Pakkho, a town not far from Sultanpur. We have followed Mani Singh and the old Janamsakhi. If Nanak had been left to his own discretion, and if his marriage had not been made for him by his parents, it is most probable that he would not have turned his attention to that part of a man's duties after entering the service of the government in Sultanpur. This will subsequently be understood when we come to consider his mode of life at that capital.

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Sikhism

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