The Sikh Religion, Volume 1
Hymns Of Guru Nanak

On the tenth day of the lunar month repeat the Name as your offerings and ablutions.

Night and day lave yourselves in the attributes and knowledge of the True One.

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When doubts and fears have fled, impurity shall not cling to the true heart.

A frail cord will soon snap

Know that the world is as the cord.

Fix thy mind firmly on the True One and thou shalt be happy.

RAMKALI

In his devotional enthusiasm the Guru indulges in self-depreciation:--

Some read the Veds,[1] some the Purans

Some repeat names[2] on their rosaries and meditate on them.

I know not and never knew anything; 1 recognize only Thy name.

I know not, O God, what my lot shall be.

I am ignorant and devoid of divine knowledge; O Lord, I seek Thy protection, mercifully preserve my self-respect and honour.

The mind sometimes riseth and sometimes falleth to the nether regions.[3]

The greedy mind remaineth not still; it searcheth for mammon in all directions.

Man entered the world doomed to die; yet he amasseth wealth for long life.

While others depart, O Lord, we see the burning fire approaching us also.

No one hath a friend, no one hath a brother, no one hath a father or mother.

Nanak representeth, if Thou give Thy name, it will assist me at the last hour.

After the death of a Hindu a lamp is kept burning for several days to light the soul of the departed to the next world. It is then floated on water. Guru Nanak indites the following homily on the custom:--

[1. Literally--Sanskrit.

2. Some invoke gods and goddesses.

3. Sometimes man is elated and sometimes depressed.]

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Adore God[1] in the following way--

Make thy body into a raft[2] by which thou mayest cross over.

Put on it the fire of thy heart,

And the lamp shall burn untiringly day and night.

Float such a lamp on the water

As shall procure thee all knowledge.

The knowledge of God is a good material;

God will accept a lamp made out of it.

Make good deeds thy wheel, and mould thy lamp on it;

It will accompany thee in this world and the next.

When God looketh on him with an eye of favour,

Some rare pious man knoweth how to make this lamp.

This lamp shall be permanent in his heart,

And shall not be extinguished when he dieth.

Float such a lamp on the water As shall not be shaken or put out by the wind,

And by whose light God's throne may be seen.

Khatris, Brahmans, Sudars, and Vaisyas

Find not such a lamp by thousands of researches and calculations;

But if any of them light such a lamp as I have described,

He shall, O Nanak, obtain deliverance.

The following was addressed to a Jogi:--

The Jogi runneth about begging for clothes and food