They pass their lives in vain, dwelling in the midst of sin.2
I speak verily ; hear me all ye people — they who love God have obtained Him.
Some worshipping stones put them on their heads, some suspend lingams from their necks.
Some see God in the south, some bow their heads to the west.
Some fools worship idols, others busy themselves with worshipping the dead.
The whole world entangled in false ceremonies hath not found God's secret.
God is not subject to birth or death,
He is acquainted with the excellent fourteen sciences,^
^ These included all ancient Indian knowledge. Different writers have given different lists of them.
COMPOSITIONS OF GURU GOBIND SINGH 267
He is without stain and infinite,
He is of unfading brightness and generous,
His form is not quickly recognized,
He is head of the saints of the whole world,
He is the highest object of praise ; by Him the earth and sun are supported ;
He is the treasury of the eighteen supernatural powers,^
He is the Dispeller of sorrow in all the worlds,
He is not subject to time, to death, or to karma,
He is versed in all religious ceremonies.
His glory is infrangible and unequalled,
He established all establishment,
He is without sorrow, indivisible, and impenetrable.
Brahma by his four Veds sings His praises.
The Veds speak of Him as indescribable,
Brahma speaks of Him as endless —
His glory is unknowable and unequalled.
Indivisible, immeasurable, and unestablished by any one
He made the extension of the world :
He created it with the utmost thought.
His form is endless and infrangible,
His glory is peerless and dazzling.
He is invisible and noble.
He made millions of Indars and kings.
Many Brahmas and Vishnus who meditate on Him,
Many Rams, Krishans, and prophets —
No one is acceptable without devotion.
There are many oceans, mountains great as Bind,^
Many fishes, tortoises, and serpents,^
^ There are generally only eight sid/iis or supernatural powers enume- rated— anuma, to become so small as to be invisible ; inalitfua, to be able to increase one's size indefinitely ; garuwaia, to make oneself heavy ; laghwna^ to make oneself light ; prdplt, to go wherever one pleases ; wasi karna, to be able to reduce others to subjection ; ishta, to obtain glory or regal greatness ; kdm, to be able to satisfy all one's desires. A list of the eighteen supernatural powers may be left to the reader's imagination.
^ The Sheshnag of the Hindus.
Many deities and sons of Brahma, Many incarnations of Krishan and Vishnu, Many Indars to sweep before His door, Many Veds and Brahmas, Many Rudars^ and Bawans, And many unequalled Rams and Krishans. Many men recite amatory poetry. Many tell the secrets of the Veds, Many recite the Shastars and Simritis, And some read the Purans. Many perform fire sacrifices. Many painful penances with bodies reversed. Many lift their arms in the fashion of the Sanyasis. Some don the garb of Jogis and abandon the world, Some perform the niwali feat, Some practise painful fasting, Some go on pilgrimages and give boundless alms. Some are generous in their worldly acts, Some perform unequalled burnt offerings. Some obtain regal state and dispense justice, Some act according to the Shastars and the Simritis, And some in opposition to the Veds. Many wander in different countries. And many remain fixed in one place. Some pray in water, Some endure five fires on their bodies. Some dwell in the forest,
Some perform the endless duties of a family man. Some are generous in the fashion of kings, Some are free from sickness and error, Some perform good and others bad acts. Some pose as Shaikhs, others as Brahmans, Some perform the duties of kings in an incomparable manner.
Some are free from bodily and mental suffering. Some are subject to the service of a special god, Some are poor, others the sons of kings,
^ Rudar was the god who wielded the thunder.
COMPOSITIONS OF GURU GOBIND SINGH 269
And some are the incarnations of Vyas. Many Brahmas read the Veds, And many Sheshnags repeat God's name. Some are Bairagis, others Sanyasis, And some wander in the guise of Udasis. Know that all these things are vain, And that all such religion is fruitless. Without the support of the One Name Deem all religious ceremonies as superstition.
God is in the water, God is in the dry land, God is in the heart, God is in the forest, God is in the mountain, God is in the cave, God is in the earth, God is in heaven, God is here, God is there, God is in space, God is in time, God is invisible, God is without a garb, God is without sin, God is without enmity, God is deathless, God is uncherished, God is impenetrable, God is invulnerable.^ God is not moved by charms or spells ; God has His own light. He cannot be moved by incanta- tions.
God is without caste, God is without lineage, God is without friends, God hath no mother, God feeleth no physical or mental suffering. God is without doubt, God hath no karma, God is invincible, God is fearless, God is infrangible, God is indissoluble. God cannot be punished, God is radiant, God is transcendent, God is inscrutable.
Repeat God's name, establish God's name in thy heart : Do penance unto God, and repeat His name. Thou, O God, art in the water. Thou art in the dry land, Thou art in the river, Thou art in the sea,
^ A d/ied is often translated inscrutable.
/ THE SIKH RELIGION
ii art in the tree, Thou art in its leaves,
ki art in the earth, Thou art in the firmament.
f name is repeated again and again. Thy name is
/in man's heart.
Thou art space, Thou art time.
Thou art the occupant, Thou art the place,
Thou art unborn, Thou art fearless,
Thou art impalpable, Thou art indestructible.
Thou art continence. Thou art fasting.
Thou art deliverance, Thou art wisdom.
Thou alone art, Thou alone art.
The following is a satire on various penances and austerities practised by Hindu sects in India :—
Swine eat filth ; elephants and donkeys bespatter them- selves with dust ; jackals live at places of cremation ;
Owls Hve in tombs ; deer wander alone in the forest ; trees ever die in silence.
The man who restraineth his seed should only have the credit of the hermaphrodite; monkeys ever wander bare- footed.
How shall the wretch who is subject to a woman and devoted to lust and wrath, be saved without the knowledge "tii of the one God ?
It is known that demons live in the forest, all children on earth drink milk, and serpents live on air.
They who eat grass and renounce the desire of wealth, are no more than calves and oxen.
They who fly in the heavens have only the attribute of birds ; they who engage in meditation resemble cranes, cats, and wolves.
All great gyanis who knew, but asserted not themselves, never allowed such deceit as the above to enter their hearts even by mistake.
COMPOSITIONS OF GURU GOBIND SINGH 271
They who hve in the earth should be called the offspring of worms ; they who live in the heavens should be called birds.
They who eat fruit should be called the offspring of monkeys ; they who wander unseen should be accounted as ghosts.
They who float on water are like gangeris ; ^ they who eat fire hke chakors ;
They who worship the sun have the attribute of the lotus ; they who worship the moon of water-lilies.
The tortoise, the fish, and the shark may all be called Narayan 2 ; if you speak of God as Kaulnabh, the lake in which there is a lotus is also Kaulnabh.^
If you speak of God as Gopinath, all Gujars are Gopinaths, all cowherds Gopals ; if you call God Rikhikesh, that is a name taken by superiors of religious orders.
If you call God Madhav, that is the bumble-bee ; Kaniya is the name of the woodpecker ; if you speak of God as the Destroyer of Kans, you speak of the myrmidons of Death.
Fools utter names, but know not their meanings, and worship not Him by whom man is protected.
God is the Protector and Destroyer of the world. Com- passionate to the poor, Punisher of enemies, ever the Cherisher, and free from Death's noose.
Jogis, wearers of matted hair, cehbates, the true, great Brahmacharis who undergo hunger and thirst in their divine meditation,
They who perform the niwaU feat, who sacrifice to water, fire, and wind, who hold their heads down, who stand or one leg and never sit,
Men, serpents, deities, and demons find not God's secrets ; the Veds and the books of the Musalmans say that God is indescribable.
^ Small black flies on Indian rivers. - God who moves in the waters.
Peacocks skip about dancing, the thunder roareth and the lightning presenteth many phases.^
// God be obtained by being cold or hot, there is nothing colder than the moon, nothing hotter than the sun, if by being a raja God may be obtained, there is no king equal to Indar who filleth the whole world.
Nowhere can be found a penitent like a Shiv, a reader of the Veds like primal Brahma, or penitents like the sons of Brahma ;
Yet without divine knowledge they are all subject to the noose of Death and ever wander through the cycle of the ages.
One Shiv was born, one died, and one was born again ; there have also been many incarnations of Ram Chandar and Krishan.
How many Brahmas and Vishnus have there been ! how many Veds and Purans ! how many collections of Simritis have been and passed away !
How many preachers and Madars ! ^ how many Castors and Polluxes ! how many Ansavatars^ have succumbed to death !
How many priests and prophets have there been ! they are so many that they cannot be counted ; from dust they sprang and to dust they returned.
Jogis, Jatis, Brahmacharis ^ and very great kings, the shadow of whose umbrellas extended for many miles.
Who wandered subduing kingdoms and crushing the pride of very great kings,
Sovereigns hke Man ^ and lords of the umbrella hke
^ The reference is to dancing and roaring faqirs.
^ An incomplete incarnation of Vishnu.
* Brahmacharis are young men who preserve continence during their studentship. Manu, the Hindu law-giver, fixes its limit at twenty-five years of age.
^ Mandhatri, a son miraculously born to Yuvanashwa of the line of Ikshwaku, and author of a hymn in the Rig Veda.
COMPOSITIONS OF GURU GOBIND SINGH 273
Dilip/ great kings who prided themselves on the strength of their arms,
Proud men hke Dara,^ hke the kings of Dihh, and like Durjodhan, having enjoyed the earth in their turn at last were blended with it.
Artillerymen, huntsmen wearing decoy dresses, and they who eat opium bow their heads many times.
What availeth it that men perform prostrations of different kinds to God ? they are like wrestlers practising the exercise of dand.^
What availeth it that men lie with their faces turned up ? If they do not heartily bow to the supreme God, they are only as sick men.
How can he who is the slave of worldly desires and ever clever in obtaining wealth, obtain the one Lord of the world without faith in Him ?
He into whose ear an earwig hath entered shaketh his head ; he who hath lost a friend or son beateth his head in mourning.
For grazing on akk, eating fruits and flowers, and ever wandering in the forests, there is no animal like a goat.
What if a sheep rub its head against trees and thus take off its hair ? as for eating earth, call the leech and ask it.
How can he who is a slave to worldly desires and addicted to lust and wrath, find God without faith ?
The peacocks dance, the frogs croak, and the clouds ever thunder ;
The tree ever standeth on one leg in the forest ; as for those who take not life, the Saravagi bloweth on the ground before putting his feet on it ;
^ He belonged to the solar race, and was ancestor of Ram Chandar.
* Darius.
'^ An oriental exercise in which a man first lies down flat on the ground, then leans on his hands so as to lift his body, and again depresses it so as almost to touch the ground with his chest.
The stones through several ages remain in one place ; the ravens and the kites travel from country to country.
How can the wretch who is without divine knowledge and who is never absorbed in the great Benefactor, be saved without faith in Him ?
Like an actor man sometimes poseth as a Jogi or Bairagi ; sometimes he assumeth the guise of a Sanyasi.
Sometimes he appeareth to live on air, sometimes he sitteth in an attitude of contemplation, sometimes in his infatuation for pelf he singeth many praises of men.
Sometimes he is a Brahmachari, sometimes he producetli a garden in his hand, sometimes he holdeth a fakir's staff and deceiveth men's senses.
He who is subject to worldly desires danceth with gestures ; but being devoid of divine knowledge, how shall he obtain heaven ?
In the cold season the jackal barketh five times, and the elephant and the donkey utter various cries.
What availeth it to be cut in twain by the saw at Banaras? thieves cut men in pieces and kill them with axes.
What availeth it that a fool hath put a halter round his neck and drowned himself in the Ganges ? Thags put men to death by putting halters round their necks.
Without meditation on divine knowledge fools are drowned in hell's river ; and without faith how can there be any such meditation ?
If any one were to obtain by penance the Lord who suffer eth not pain, the wounded man suffereth pain of many kinds.
If any one were by repeating God's name to obtain God who cannot be obtained by lip-worship i, the warbler ever uttereth ' Tu hi ! tu hi ! '
If any one were to obtain God by flying in the heavens, the bird called anal wandereth in the firmament.
^ Ajdp Dev, also translated — God who repeats no name.
COMPOSITIONS OF GURU GOBIND SINGH 275
If salvation be obtained by burning oneself in the fire, why should not the Sati and also the serpent which liveth in hell be saved ? ^
The following is a homily on the equality of men and on the Hindu and Muhammadan forms of worship : —
One man by shaving his head is accepted as a Sanyasi, another as a Jogi or a Brahmachari, a third as a Jati.
Some men are Hindus and others Musalmans ; among the latter are Rafazis,^ Imams, and Shafais — know that all men are of the same caste.
Karta (the Creator) and Karim (the Beneficent) are the same, Razak (the Provider) and Rahim (the Merciful) are the same ; let no man even by mistake suppose there is a difference.^
Worship the one God who is the one divine Guru for all ; know that His Form is one, and that He is the one light diffused in all.
The temple and the mosque are the same ; the Hindu worship and the Musalman prayer are the same ; all men are the same ; it is through error they appear different.
Deities, demons, Yakshas, heavenly singers, Musalmans, and Hindus adopt the customary dress of their different countries.
All men have the same eyes, the same ears, the same body, the same build,* a compound of earth, air, fire, and water.
Allah and Abhekh are the same ; the Purans and the
* The Guru rejects the belief that a widow who cremates herself with her husband's corpse obtains salvation. The second part of the line may also be translated — If salvation were obtained by dwelling beneath the earth, the snake which dwelleth in the nether regions should also be saved.
^ There is not one God for the Hindus and another for the Musalmans.
* Ban, also translated — customs, habits.
T 2
Quran are the same ; they are all alike ; it is the one God who created all.
The following gives the Sikh conception of the manner in which souls emanated from God and are again absorbed in Him : —
As from one fire millions of sparks arise ; though rising separately, they unite again in the fire ;
As from one heap of dust several particles of dust fill the air, and on fiilling it again blend with the dust ;
As in one stream millions of waves are produced ; the waves being made of water all become water ;
So from God's form non-sentient and sentient things ^ are manifested, and, springing from Him, shall all be united in Him again.
How many tortoises and fishes and how many eaters of them ! how many excellent young animals become strong- winged and fly !
How many birds of prey in the firmament eat the excellent birds ! and how many animals eat and digest the birds of prey when they see them !
What mattereth it whether things live in water or land, or fly in the firmament ? God made them and will destroy them all.
As light blende th with darkness and darkness with light, so all things have sprung from God and shall be united in Him.
How many go about howling ! how many die weeping ! how many are drowned in the water ! how many are burnt in the fire !
How many dwell by the Ganges ! how many in Madina and Makka ! how many wander as anchorets ! . How many undergo the pain of being cut by the saw ! liow many of burying themselves in the earth ! how many of being impaled.
^ Abhulbhut, also iraiislated — incorporeal and corporeal beings.
COMPOSITIONS OF GURU GOBIND SINGH 277
How many fly in the firmament ! how many dwell in water ! but they shall all be burnt in the fire ' for want of divine knowledge.
The demigods have grown weary searching for God ; the archdemons have grown weary striving with Him ; the wise have grown weary exercising their wisdom ; they who repeat His name have grown weary of watching.
Men have grown weary of grinding and applying sandal to themselves ; they have grown weary of applying excellent atar of roses ; they have grown weary of worshipping stones and offering them pudding.
They have grown weary of visiting cemeteries and Jogis' places of burial, they have grown weary of smearing walls and of being marked with the brand of idols. ^
The celestial musicians have grown weary of singing ; all the Kinnars have grown weary of their penance, hut none of them hath found God,
The following is Guru Gobind Singh's conception of the divinity : —
God is without passion, without colour, without form, without outline ;
He is without worldly love, without anger, without enmity, without jealousy ;
He is without karma, without error, without birth, and without caste ;
He hath no friend, no enemy, no father, no mother ;
He hath no worldly love, no house, no desires, no home ;
He hath no son, no friend, no enemy, no wife ;
He is invisible, without distinguishing dress, and unborn ;
He is ever the Bestower of supernatural power and wisdom ; He is of size beyond measure.
His form and outline cannot be known.
Nor where He dwelleth, nor in what disguises He wandereth,
Nor what His name is, nor what He is called.
How shall I describe Him ? He cannot be described.
He hath no disease, or sorrow, or worldly love, or mother,
No karma, no superstition, no birth, no caste ;
He hath no jealousy, no garb, and is unborn.
I bow to Him as one ! I bow to Him as one !
He is beyond all things, and from the beginning the Dispenser of wisdom.
He is indivisible, indestructible, primal, peerless, and imperishable.
He hath no caste, or lineage, or form, or colour.
I bow to the primal and infrangible One.
How many millions of worms like Krishan
He created, built, fashioned, again destroyed, and created !
He is unfathomable, fearless, primal, unrivalled, imperish- able.
He is beyond all things, from the beginning, and perfect is His splendour.