The following compositions of Rav Das are found in the Granth Sahib :
HYMNS OF RAV DAS
God being light and the soul also light, there is no difference between them except that the soul is encumbered with a body.
SRI RAG
Between Thee and me, between me and Thee what difference can there be ?
The same as between gold and the bracelet, between water and its ripples.
If I did not commit sin, 0 Eternal One,
How shouldst Thou have gained the name of Purifier of sinners ?
Thou who art the Lord, art the Searcher of hearts :
The servant is known from his master, and the master from his servant.
Grant me the wisdom to worship Thee with my body.
Rav Das, some rare person who destroyeth his evil passions,1 may explain this.
Though Rav Das's birth is low, he is a candidate for God's favour.
GAURI
My associations are low — I think of it day and night — My birth is mean, mine acts are crooked.
Remove my troubles, make Thy servant full of love for Thee.
1 will not forsake Thy feet even though my body perish to-morrow.
Saith Rav Das, I seek Thy protection, 0 God. Quickly come to Thy servant, delay not:
-1 The gyanis translate— Some rare peri on may explain that God is equally contained in everything.
There is a city named Beghampur,1
Where pain and sorrow find no place ;
There is no fear of tribute or of tax ;
There is nor care, nor sin, nor dread nor death,
Now have I found an excellent abode
Where ceaseless happiness doth reign, my friends.
There firm and for aye is sovereignty of God,
No second or third is there adored,2 He ruleth alone ;
Inhabited and ever famous is that city ;
Its people are full dowered with wealth.
Theirs it is to wander as they please ;
None restraineth them known in the palace,
Saith Rav Das, emancipated tanner,
My friends become my fellow citizens there.3
It is said that a Labana offered an ox to Rav Das. On refusing the present, the saint wrote the fol lowing : —
The road to God is very difficult and steep, and I have already one useless ox.4
My one prayer to God is, ' Preserve my capital,5 O God.'
Is there any merchant of God who will join me ? My goods are laden and about to start.6
I am a merchant of God, and deal in divine knowledge.
The wealth I have loaded is God's name ; the world hath loaded poison.
- That is; no Vishnu or Shiv.
G That is, I am prepared to give religious instruction to whoever will join me.
HYMNS OF RAV DAS 323
Ye recording angels, who know this world and the next, write whatever nonsense you please about me, I care not ;
The club of death will not touch me since I have cast away all entanglements.
This world is like the fleeting colour of safflower,
But the colour of my God is the permanent dye of madder, saith the tanner Rav Das.
Rav Das prays for divine favour.
As a pit full of frogs l which know nothing of different countries,
So my mind infatuated with evil passions taketh no thought of this world or the next.
My mind is not clear, O God, and so I cannot understand Thy condition.
Take pity on me that my doubts may be dispelled, and teach me right understanding.
Even supreme Jogis cannot explain Thine attributes which are beyond expression.
The tanner Rav Das prayeth for Thy love and service.
The following was Rav Das's reply to a holy man who asked the questions contained in the hymn.
In the Sat age was truth, in the Treta sacrifice, and in the Dwapar the performance of worship.
In the three ages these three observances were established, but in the Kal age the Name is the only support.
How shall I be saved ?
No one explaineth to me
How my transmigration may cease.
There are many forms of religion described, but every one appear eth to adopt his own.
What are those acts by which I may be saved, and by the performance of which I may obtain all things ?
1 ' Frog in a well ' is applied in Hindustani to an ignorant person.
Y 2
If what are merits and what demerits be decided by listening to the Veds and Purans,1 doubt shall result ;
Doubt shall thus ever dwell in the heart ; who shall dispel pride ?
Man washeth his body with water, but in his heart there is evil of every description.
How shall purity result ? My purity is such as the elephant practiseth.
As by the sun's light night departeth, as all the world knoweth ;
As copper when touched by the philosopher's stone at once becometh gold ;
So if the supreme philosopher's stone, the guru, be found by destiny,
The perturbed mind shall meet God who is in the heart, and the doors of adamant shall be opened.2
The doubts, the entanglements, and the sins of him who maketh the way of devotion firm in his heart shall be cut away ;
He shall restrain his mind, obtain happiness, and meditate on Him alone who possesseth all qualities and yet possess eth none.
Many efforts have I made to ward off the noose of doubt, but, however much I tried, I did not succeed.
Love and devotion have not sprung up in me, therefore Rav Das is sad.
Man is a prey to all the five senses and their attendant passions, and not to one predominating and overmastering sense alone like the lower animals. Hence the following hymn : —
ASA
The deer, the fish, the bumble-bee, the moth, and the elephant perish each for one sense ;
So what hope is there for him who like man hath five im placable enemies ?
HYMNS OF RAV DAS 325
O God, man loveth ignorance ;
His lamp of discrimination hath grown dim.
The thoughtless are born again as creeping things which distinguish not between good and evil ;
They have now obtained human birth so difficult to obtain, and yet in it they associate with the base.
Men and lower animals, wherever they are, are born subject to their previous acts,
And the noose of Death which hangeth over them can by no means be warded off.
Rav Das, renounce worldly love, dispel doubt, and make the guru's divine knowledge thy religious fervour.
Rav Das prays for the saints' virtues and devotion
The company of the saints, who are Thine image, is my life.
Through the divine knowledge of the guru I recognize the saints as gods of gods.
Grant me the company of the saints, a taste for the saints' converse,
The saints' love, O God of gods,
The saints' good works, and the saints' way, that I may become attached to what they are attached.1
1 pray for one thing more, the miraculous gem of devo tion.2
Show me not the wicked and the sinner—
Between the saints and the Infinite there is no difference ;
Rav Das saith, he who knoweth this is wise.
Rav Das is exalted by holy association.
Thou art sandal, I am the poor palma christi3 plant, I dwell near Thee :
From a humble shrub I have become a lofty tree : Thine excellent perfume abideth in me.
1 am without virtues, Thou art beneficent,
Thou art white l and yellow twisted silk ; we are the poor worms 2 who toil and make it.
My caste is low, my lineage low, and low is my birth ;
1 have not served my sovereign God, saith the tanner Rav Das.
For God's love Rav Das would sacrifice himself.
What would it matter were my body to be cut in pieces ?
Thy slave, 0 God, only feareth that Thy love may depart :
Thy lotus feet are the home of my heart ! 3
By drinking the nectar of His name, I have found God who is my wealth.
Prosperity, adversity, worldly love, and wealth screen God from man ;
In them Thy servant is not absorbed.
Thy slave is bound by the rope of Thy love ;
Saith Rav Das, what advantage is it to escape there from ?
God's name saves saints and sinners.
God, God, God, God, God, God, God ; 4
By remembering God, saints and sinners 5 are saved.
HYMNS OF RAV DAS 327
Through the name of God, Kabir became renowned, and the accounts of his sins of many births were torn up.
Namdev as in duty bound 1 gave milk to god to drink ;
Wherefore he had not the pain of being born again in the world.
The slave Rav Das is dyed with God's love,
And so, through the favour of the guru, he shall not go to hell.
They who think not of God shall be condemned.
How man, a puppet of clay, danceth !
He looketh and looketh, heareth, speaketh, runneth about.
When he acquireth anything he is proud,
But when his wealth is gone he beginneth to weep.
In thought, word, and deed he is fascinated by pleasures,
So when he perisheth he is contained somewhere else.2
Saith Rav Das, the world is a play, my brethren ;
I have established loving relations with the True Actor.3
The object of the following hymn is to show that nothing offered to God by idolaters, even according to their own ideas, is pure, and that the true offering to God is the sincere heart.
GUJARI
The calf hath denied the milk in the cow's udder by tasting it ;
The bumble-bee hath spoiled the flowers, and the fish the water—
My mother, where shall I find anything to offer in God's worship ?
I cannot find other flowers superior to these.
Serpents twine round the sandal-tree ; 4
Poison and ambrosia dwell together ;
Incense, lamps, and consecrated bread are polluted.1
How shall thy slave perform Thy worship ?
Let me dedicate and offer my body and soul as my worship,
Thus, by the guru's favour, shall I find the Pure One.
I cannot perform Thine adoration and worship according to Hindu rites ;
Saith Rav Das, in what condition am I?2
Rav Das concludes that everything is God.
SORATH
When there was egoism in me, Thou wert not with me ; now that Thou art with me, there is no egoism.
Huge waves are raised by the wind in the ocean, but they are only water in water.3
A king sleepeth on his throne ; in a dream he becometh a beggar ;
He suffereth pain at losing his empire, though it is intact : such hath been my condition.
Like the story of the rope and the serpent, I have now had the secret 4 explained to me.
On seeing several5 bracelets I erroneously supposed that they were distinct from the gold ; but what I then said I now say no longer.
In all things the one Lord assumeth various shapes ; God sport eth in all hearts.
HYMNS OF RAV DAS 329
Saith Rav Das, God is nearer to us than our hands and feet ; it is what taketh place by His will that taketh place.
Rav Das so loves God that he feels he has a claim on His mercy.
When Thou didst bind us with a noose of illusion, we bound Thee with a bond of love ;
Try to release Thyself ; we have been released by adoring Thee.
Now what wilt Thou do with us, such being our love for Thee P
Man catcheth a fish, sliceth it, cutteth it up, and cooketh it in various ways ;
He biteth and eateth it, still it forgetteth not the water.1
The Supreme Ruler is no man's heritage ; He belongeth to him who loveth Him.
Though the screen of illusion be spread over the whole world, yet it troubleth not the saint.
Saith Rav Das, my devotion to the one God hath in creased ; to whom shall I tell this now ?
Shall I still suffer misery for the removal of which I worship Thee ?
Rav Das on introspection finds himself wanting.
1 obtained this birth difficult of attainment as the reward of merit, but it passeth away in vain on account of my want of discrimination.
Say of what account would a palace and a throne like King Indar's be without devotion to God ?
I have not thought of the pleasure in the Supreme God's name, a pleasure in which all other pleasures are forgotten.
What we ought to have known we knew not ; we have
become mad, and not considered what we ought to have considered, and so our days have passed away.
Our passions are strong, and our discrimination weak ; our understanding cannot enter into God's designs.
We say one thing, and do another ; wrorldly love hin- dereth us from understanding.
Saith Rav Das, I, Thy slave, am sad at heart ;
Avert Thine anger from me and have mercy on my soul.
We should fix our attention on God who can adequately reward us.
God is an ocean of pleasure ; in His power are the miraculous tree, and gem, and cow.
The four advantages, the eighteen miraculous powers, and the nine treasures are in the palm of His hand.
Why repeat not, ' God, God, God,' with thy tongue,
And abandon all other device of words ?
The epic poems, the Purans, the Veds of Brahma, are all composed out of thirty-four letters.1
Bias having reflected expressed his conviction that there was nothing equal to the name of God.
Very fortunate are they who tranquilly contemplate and fix their attention upon God ; they shall afterwards be freed from their troubles.
Saith Rav Das, the fear of death and birth fleeth from him who hath put the light of divine knowledge into his heart.
The saint's relation to God.
If Thou art a hill, then I am Thy peacock ; 2 If Thou art the moon, then I am Thy chakor ;
HYMNS OF RAV DAS 331
If I break with Thee, whom shall I join ?
If Thou art a lamp, then I am Thy wick ;
If Thou art a place of pilgrimage, then I am Thy pilgrim.
I have joined true love with Thee ;
Joining Thee I have broken with all others.
Wherever I go there is Thy service ;
There is no other Lord like Thee, O God.
By worshipping Thee Death's noose is cut away.
Rav Das singeth to obtain Thy service.
Man is too proud of his body though its origin and its end are contemptible.
The body is a wall of water supported by a pillar of air ; blood 1 and semen are its mortar.
The poor soul dwelleth in a skeleton of bones, flesh, and veins ;
0 mortal, what is mine and what is thine ?
As a bird percheth on a tree, so doth the soul on the body.
Thou layest foundations and buildest thyself a house ;
Three and a half cubits shall be thy measure at last.
Thou curlest thy hair, and wearest thy turban on the side of thy head ;
But thy body shall become a heap of dust.
Even though thou possess lofty palaces and beautiful women,
Without the name of God thy game is lost.
My caste is low, my lineage low, and base is my birth :
1 have sought Thy shelter, O God, saith the tanner Rav Das.
The following was addressed to some one who re proached Rav Das for not following his trade :-
I a cobbler know not how to mend shoes, Yet people want me to mend their shoes.
I have no awl to stitch with ;
I have no knife to patch with.
People have been thoroughly ruined by mending shoes l —
I have attained my object without mending shoes.
Rav Das repeateth God's name ;
I have now no concern with Death.
Rav Das's devotion and hope in God. DHANASARI
There is none so poor as I, none so compassionate as Thou ; for this what further test is now necessary ?
May my heart obey Thy words ! fill Thy servant therewith .
I am a sacrifice to Thee, O God ;
Why art Thou silent ?
For many births have I been separated from Thee, O God : This birth is on Thine own account.2
Saith Rav Das, putting my hopes in Thee I live ; it is long since I have seen Thee.
Rav Das's love for God.
I remember Thee, O God, in my heart ; I behold Thee with mine eyes ; I fill mine ears with Thy hymns 3 and praises ;
I make my mind the honey-bee, I put Thy lotus feet into my heart, and with my tongue I utter Thine ambrosial name.
May my love for God not decrease !
I have bought it dear in exchange for my soul.
Without the companionship of the saints no love is pro duced, and without love no service is performed for Thee.
Rav Das offereth one prayer to God — preserve mine honour, O my sovereign Lord.
HYMNS OF RAV DAS 333
God's name is for Rav Das equal to all the Hindu oblations.
Thy name, 0 God, is mine Arati and mine ablutions ;
Without the name of God all display is vain.
Thy name is my prayer-mat, Thy name my saffron- grater, Thy name the saffron which I sprinkle for Thee ;
Thy name is the water, Thy name the sandal, the repeti tion of Thy name the grating thereof ; * taking it I offer it unto Thee ;
Thy name is the lamp, Thy name the wick, Thy name the oil I pour therein ;
Thy name is the light which I have applied to it, and which hath enlightened the whole world ;
Thy name is the string, Thy name the necklace of flowers ; all the eighteen loads of vegetables are too impure2 to offer Thee.
Why should I offer Thee the work of Thy hands ? Thy name is the chauri which I wave over Thee.
The whole world is engrossed in the eighteen Purans, the sixty-eight places of pilgrimage, and the four sources of life.
Saith Rav Das, Thy name is the Arati ; the true Name is the food I offer unto Thee, O God.3
God alone can save man from his evil passions.