been defiled. Upon this the following was composed:—
Evil mindedness is a low woman,[1] cruelty a butcher’s wife, a slanderous heart a sweeper woman, wrath which ruineth the world a pariah woman.
What availeth thee to have drawn the lines of thy cooking place when these four are seated with thee?
Make truth, self-restraint, and good acts thy lines, and the utterance of the Name thine ablutions.
Nanak, in the next world he is best who walketh not in the way of sin.[2]
While at Hardwar the Brahmans pressed the Guru to return to his allegiance to the Hindu religion. They pointed out the spiritual advantages of sacrifices and burnt-offerings, and of the worship of cremation-grounds, gods, and goddesses. The Guru replied that the sacrifices and burnt-offerings of this age consisted in giving food to those who repeated God’s name and practised humility. And where the Guru’s hymns were read, there was scant worship of places of burial or cremation, or of gods, goddesses,and ignorant priests. As to the homage paid the latter, the Guru said that men were ruined thereby, as sweetmeats are spoiled by flies settling on them.
Guru Nanak and Mardana departed thence, and proceeded to Panipat, a place famous in Indian history as the scene of three great decisive battles. At that time a successor of Shaikh Sharaf[3] was the
- ↑ Dūmni, the wife of a Dūm.
- ↑ Sri Rāg ki Wār.
- ↑ Shaikh Sharaf, whose patronymic was Abū Ali Qalandar, received instruction at the age of forty years from Khwāja Qutub-ul-Dīn, who was also spiritual guide of Shaikh Farid and of the Emperor Shams-ul-Din Altmish. Shaikh Sharaf says of himself, ‘Learned men gave me a licence to teach and to pronounce judicial decisions, which offices I exercised for twenty years. Unexpectedly I received a call from God, and throwing all my learned books into the Jamna, I set out on travel. In Turkey I fell in with Shams-ul-dīn Tabrezi and Maulānā Jalāl-ul-Dīn Rūmi, who presented me with a robe and turban and with many books, which in their presence I threw into the river.
