Bronze is bright and shining, but, by rubbing, its sable blackness appeareth,
Which cannot be removed even by washing a hundred times.
They are friends[1] who travel with me as I go along,
And who are found standing ready whenever their accounts are called for.
Houses, mansions, palaces painted on all sides,
When hollow within, are as it were crumbled and useless.
Herons arrayed in white dwell at places of pilgrimage;
Yet they rend and devour living things, and therefore should not be called white.[2]
My body is like the simmal tree;[3] men beholding me mistake me.[4]
Its fruit is useless : such qualities my body possesseth.
I am a blind man carrying a burden while the mountainous[5] way is long.
I want eyes which I cannot get; how can I ascend and traverse the journey?
Of what avail are services, virtues, and cleverness?
Nanak, remember the Name, so mayest thou be released from thy shackles.[6]
Shaikh Sajjan, on hearing this warning and heart-searching hymn, came to his right understanding. He knew that all the faults were his own, which the Guru had attributed to himself. Upon this he made
- ↑ The name Sajjan also means friend. There is here a pun on the word.
- ↑ The heron, though white, has a black heart.
- ↑ The Bombax heptaphyllum. It bears no fruit in the true sense of the word. Its pods yield cotton, which is unfit for textile purposes. Its wood is very brittle, and almost useless for carpentry.
- ↑ Like birds which peck at what they suppose to be the fruit of the simmal tree, but find none. The gyānis exercise their ingenuity on this line, and translate—The parrots (mai jan) looking at it make a mistake.
- ↑ Dūgar, thence the tribe of Dogras in the Kāngra and adjacent districts. Dogra literally means hillman.
- ↑ Sūhi.
