The Shaikh then asked the Guru to what religious sect he belonged. The Guru replied:—
Under the instructions of my Guru[1] I remain His disciple.
My stole and my hat consist in grasping the Word in my heart.
I have turned the flowing river into a streak of sand.[2]
I sit there at mine ease and am happy.[3]
I have dispelled joy and sorrow.
Having put on my stole I have killed all mine enemies;[4]
I have settled in the silent city and abide therein:
There I learned how to wear this stole.
Having forsaken my family I live alone—
Nanak having put on this stole is happy.
The Shaikh next inquired to what sect the Guru's loin-cloth belonged. The Guru replied:—
By the word and instruction of the Guru my mind hath obtained peace;
I restrain my five senses and abide apart from the world;
I close mine eyes and my mind hath ceased to wander.
I have locked up the ten gates[5] of my body,
And I sit in contemplation in its sixty-eight chambers.[6]
With this loin-cloth I shall neither grow old nor die.
Putting on a loin-cloth I dwell alone
And drink from the waterfall[7] of the brain.
I discard my low intelligence for the lofty wisdom of my Guru.
In this way Nanak weareth a loin-cloth.
- ↑ Nānak's Guru was God. See Sorath xi, Mahalla I, and Gur Dās's Wār, xiii, 25.
- ↑ My brain is in a state of repose.
- ↑ The wanderings of the mind hither and thither have ceased.
- ↑ Dusht, literally, ill-wishers, then man's evil passions.
- ↑ The apertures or openings of the body frequently mentioned in Oriental medical and theological sciences. Nine of them can be easily enumerated, the tenth is the brain.
- ↑ In Jog philosophy the breath is supposed to wander in sixty-eight chambers of the body.
- ↑ Jogis believe that nectar falls or trickles from the brain in a state of exaltation.
