Vol. II — Guru Ram Das Receiving His Disciples, Chapter I
GURU RAM DAS'S parentage and birth, his early life, his meeting with Guru Amar Das, his marriage with Guru Amar Das's daughter Bibi Bhani, and many other incidents in his life, have already been related in the Life of Guru Amar Das.
The manner in which the Emperor Akbar bestowed several villages on Bibi Bhani, Guru Amar Das's daughter, after they had been refused by her father, has also been narrated. She assigned them during her father's lifetime to her husband.
How the construction of the tank in Amritsar was entrusted to Jetha, and how he was appointed Guru Amar Das's successor under the name of Guru Ram Das, have also been related. It needs hardly be said that Guru Ram Das adopted the principles and tenets of Guru Amar Das.
The minstrel Satta dedicated to Guru Ram Das on his installation the seventh pauri of the composi tion, which is known in the Granth Sahib as the joint production of Balwand and Satta, previously called the Coronation Ode.
Hail ! hail Guru Ram Das ! God who created thee hath decorated thee.
Complete are the miracles which the Creator Himself performed.
The Sikhs and their congregation bowed to thee since God was with thee.
Thou art immovable, unfathomable, unequalled ; thou hast no end or bounds.
Thou didst save those who worshipped thee with love ;
Thou didst expel with ignominy l their former avarice, greed, lust, wrath, and worldly love with their train.
Hail to thy place ! true are those who abide in thy pre sence.
Thou art Nanak, thou art Lahina, thou art Amar Das ; so I deem thee.
When I saw the Guru my spirits were sustained.
One day the Sikhs represented to the Guru : ' The Purans describe the advantages of pilgrimages, and thou sayest that the repetition of the Name is the most efficacious form of worship. Be pleased to satisfy our minds on this subject/ The Guru replied : ' They who go on pilgrimages commit every species of enormity. Whatever good acts they per form are merely for ostentation. They give alms to those who flatter them to their faces or speak well of them to others. How shall persons like that be saved ? ' The Guru then quoted the following hymn of Guru Nanak : —
Shall I go to bathe at a place of pilgrimage ? God's name is my place of pilgrimage.
My places of pilgrimage are the Word, contemplation, and the divine knowledge within me.
The divine knowledge given by the Guru is the true place of pilgrimage where the ten auspicious times for bathing and the Dasahra 2 are always present.
I ever beg for God's true name ; grant it me, O God, Sustainer of the earth.
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The world is ill, the Name is its medicine ; without the True One the filth of sin attacheth to it.
The Guru's word is pure and ever diffuseth light ; ever bathe in such a true place of pilgrimage.
Filth attacheth not to the true ; what filth have they to wash off ?
Twine for thyself a garland of virtues, and then what shalt thou have to grieve for ?
He who chasteneth himself by meditation shall be saved ; he shall save others and never again return to a womb.
The supreme mediator is himself the philosopher's stone ; the true are pleasing to the True One.
They feel happiness and true joy night and day ; their sorrow and their sins depart.
The true Guru hath shown God to him who hath obtained the true Name ; no impurity attacheth to him in whose heart is the True One.
Association with the congregation of the saints is the perfect ablution.
Sweet is the voice of the singer who singeth of God.
Praising the True One and obeying the true Guru are in my opinion equal to alms-deeds, and works of mercy.
He who loveth the society of the Beloved shall easily bathe in the society of those who are the truest of the true 1 as his Tribeni.
Worship the one true God who ever giveth and whose gifts ever increase.
Salvation is obtained by associating with saints ; God associateth with the company of the saints him on whom He looketh with favour.2
Every one giveth accounts of God ; how great shall I say He is?
I by myself am a blockhead, low, and ignorant, but I understand Him from the Guru's description.
True is the teaching of the Guru whose words are nectar ; my heart is satisfied therewith.
Man marcheth off to a place of pilgrimage and returneth laden with sin, while, if he had remained under the Guru's instruction, he would have found the True One.
There should be no end to speaking of God ; He is the storekeeper of devotion and everywhere diffused.
Nanak maketh a true representation — it is he who cleanseth his heart who is pure.1
To this the Guru added the following hymn of his
own :—
The pandits read the Shastars and the Simritis,
The Jogis cry ' Gorakh, Gorakh ',
But I who am ignorant repeat God's name.
I know not, O Lord, what my condition shall be.
Worship God, O my soul, so shalt thou sail over the terrible ocean.
The Sanyasis apply ashes to decorate their bodies,
The Brahmacharis altogether avoid women ;
But my hopes O God, ignorant though I am, are in Thee.
The Khatri performeth deeds and obtaineth the rank of a hero ;
The Sudars and the Vaisyas work for others.
God's name hath saved me who am ignorant.
The whole creation is Thine, Thou pervadest every place.
Nanak, God giveth greatness to the holy.
I being blind have set up God as my prop.2
The Guru continued : ' Even if one go on a pilgrimage, the Name ought to be praised. Indeed, it is by praising the Name all advantages, whether temporal or spiritual, are obtained ; and it was for the magnification of the Name places of pilgrimages were established on spots frequented by great Rikhis and Munis who had spent their days in that form of devotion. On the other hand, making pilgrimages involveth great sufferings and rufrleth
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the temper, whereas the pilgrimage of the Name requireth no exertion and causeth no exasperation. What is even the Tribeni — a place so holy in the estimation of the Hindus ? The Tribeni of the Sikhs is to repeat God's name, sing His praises, and know Him present in every heart. Without intelligence and discrimination men go astray at pilgrimages. What pilgrimages did Kabir and Rav Das make ? Yet they obtained salvation and are reverenced by the world. They each abode in a hut at the pil grimage of the Name. The restraint of their desires they made the four walls of their lowly dwellings. Love and devotion were their roofs, and divine knowledge and meditation the beams on which they rested. They kept the love of God in their hearts to preserve them from the rain of bad com pany, the cold of superstition, and the heat of avarice. By dwelling in such huts men need not wander on pilgrimages, and may easily obtain deliverance from transmigration.'
Sri Chand, the elder son of Baba Nanak, wore long hair, wandered a naked hermit, and established the sect of the Udasis. He would not go to meet either Guru Angad or Guru Amar Das, but, now that a long time had elapsed since his father's death, and he had partially forgotten his imaginary griev ances, he thought he would visit Guru Ram Das. When he arrived in the suburbs of Goindwal, the Guru went and took him, as the son of Guru Nanak, an offering of sweets and five hundred rupees in money. Sri Chand on beholding Guru Ram Das, thought him the very image of Guru Nanak. In the course of conversation Sri Chand remarked to him that he had grown a long beard. The Guru replied, * Yes, I have grown a long beard that I may wipe thy feet therewith ' ; whereupon the Guru proceeded to suit the action to the word. Sri Chand felt abashed, drew back his feet from the Guru, and said, ' O great king, thou art senior, thou art in my
father's place. It is magic like this which hath made thee a Guru. I possess no such power, and therefore was I superseded. I cannot express thy greatness. The Sikhs who come to behold thee shall be saved/
One day the Guru, while meditating on Guru Amar Das, remembered that he had received from him a parting injunction to preach the true Name everywhere, and make a supreme place of pilgrimage at Amritsar. He asked his brothers-in-law, Mohan and Mohri, to accompany him thither for the pur pose, but they refused. He went himself and spent several months there excavating the tank ordered by Guru Amar Das. In process of time a deputa tion of Sikhs came to him from Lahore inviting him to extend his journey to their ancient city. They said, ' Since thy parents died, thou hast not visited thy birth-place. Return home, meet thy relations, preach to the Sikhs, and bless thy city. Wherever thou treadest, thou savest numberless sinners/
The Guru accordingly proceeded to Lahore. As he approached that city, his relations and Sikhs came forth to meet him. He remained there for some time, turned his parents' house into a temple, and built a well near it for the devotional ablutions of his followers. During his sojourn in his natal city he made many converts. It is said that his person and his words possessed such attractive power, that all who came under his influence felt constrained to embrace his religion. In due time he returned to Goindwal.