By God's mercy men obtain it and not by idle words.
One man cometh, another goeth; we give them great names.[1]
Some men God created to beg, and some to preside over great courts.
When they have departed, they shall know that without the Name[2] they are of no account.
I greatly fear Thine anger; O God, my body pineth and wasteth away.
They who have been called kings and lords are beheld as ashes.
Nanak,[3] when man departeth all false affections are sundered.[4]
Upon this the schoolmaster became astonished, did Nanak homage as a perfect saint, and told him to do what he pleased.
Nanak, having thus shown his scholastic proficiency, left school and took to private study and meditation. He remained for long periods in the same attitude, whether sleeping or waking, and associated continually with religious men.
The scholastic ignorance of the founders of great
- ↑ Literally—we call them commanders. This refers to the custom of parents giving their sons high-sounding names.
- ↑ In the Sikh writings the word Name is frequently used for God. A somewhat similar practice was known to the ancient Jews (Amos vi. 10). At a time too early to be traced the Jews abstained from pronouncing the name Jehovah for fear of its irreverent use, and uttered instead Adonai or Lord. In connexion with this we may say that the repetition of God's name is one of the principal forms of Sikh worship. Set forms of prayer are apt to be repeated mechanically or ostentatiously; and it was believed that by the constant heartfelt repetition of God's name man should be eventually absorbed in Him, and thus obtain the supreme object of human birth after countless transmigrations.
- ↑ In Oriental poetical works it is usual for the poet to insert his real or assumed name—takhallus—in the end of a composition or section of a composition. This practice is unknown to European poets except in the case of professed imitators of Oriental poetry. Were we therefore to omit the word 'Nānak' wherever it occurs, we should be consulting the taste of European readers, but the Sikhs do not desire such an omission.
- ↑ Sri Rāg.
