When hollow within, are as it were crumbled and useless.

Herons arrayed in white dwell at places of pilgrimage;

Yet they rend and devour living things, and therefore should not be called white.[2]

My body is like the simmal tree;[3] men beholding me mistake me.[4]

Its fruit is useless: such qualities my body possesseth.

I am a blind man carrying a burden while the mountainous[5] way is long.

I want eyes which I cannot get; how can I ascend and traverse the journey?

Of what avail are services, virtues, and cleverness?

Nanak, remember the Name, so mayest thou be released from thy shackles.[6]

Shaikh Sajjan, on hearing this warning and heart-searching hymn, came to his right understanding. He knew that all the faults were his own, which the Guru had attributed to himself. Upon this he made

[1. The name Sajjan also means friend. There is here a pun on the word.

2. The heron, though white, has a black heart.

3. The Bombax heplaphyllum. It bears no fruit in the true sense of the word. Its pods yield cotton, which is unfit for textile purposes. Its wood is very brittle, and almost useless for carpentry.

4. Like birds which peck at what they suppose to be the fruit of the simmal tree, but find none. The gyânis exercise their ingenuity on this line, and translate--The parrots (mai jan) looking at it make a mistake.

5. Dûgar, thence the tribe of Dogras in the Kângra and adjacent districts. Dogra literally means hillman.

6. Sûhi.]

{p. 47}

him obeisance, kissed his feet, and prayed him to pardon his sins. Then the Guru said, 'Shaikh Sajjan, at the throne of God grace is obtained by two things, open confession and reparation for wrong.' Shaikh Sajjan asked him to perform for him those things by which sins were forgiven and grace obtained. Then the Guru's heart was touched, and he asked him to truly state how many murders he had committed. Shaikh Sajjan admitted along catalogue of the most heinous crimes. The Guru asked him to produce all the property of his victims that he had retained in his possession. The Shaikh did so, whereupon the Guru told him to give it all to the poor. He obeyed the mandate, and became a follower of the Guru after receiving charanpahul.[1] It is said that the first Sikh temple[2] was constructed on the spot where this conversation had been held.

The Guru, hearing of a religious fair at Kurkhetar near Thanesar, in the present district of Ambala, on the occasion of a solar eclipse desired to visit it with the object of preaching to the assembled pilgrims. Needing refreshment, he began to cook a deer which a disciple had presented to him. The Brahmans expressed their horror at his use of flesh, upon which he replied:--

Man is first conceived in flesh, he dwelleth in flesh.

When he quickeneth, he obtaineth a mouth of flesh his bone, skin, and body are made of flesh.