doubtful whether we shall live to be old, and so I attend thy religious gatherings.' The Guru was much pleased on hearing this wisdom from the child s lips, and said he spoke like an old man (budha). On that occasion the Guru composed the following :
In the briny unfathomable ocean the fish did not recognize the net. 1
Why did the very clever and beautiful fish have so much confidence ?
It was caught through its own doing ; death cannot be averted,
O my brethren ; know that in like manner death hangeth over your heads.
Man is like the fish upon which the net falleth unawares.
The whole world is bound by death ; without the Guru death cannot be destroyed.
They who are imbued with the True One, and have abandoned worthless mammon, are saved.
I am a sacrifice unto those who are found true at the gate of the True One.
Death is like the hawk among the birds, or the huntsman with the noose in his hands.
They whom the Guru preserved have been saved ; all others have been entrapped by the bait.
They who possess not God s name shall be rejected ; no one will assist them.
God is the truest of the true, and His place is the truest of the true.
They who obey the True One meditate on Him in their hearts.
Even the perverse who obtain divine knowledge under the Guru s instruction are pure.
Make supplication to the true Guru to unite thee with the Friend.
When man meeteth the Friend he obtaineth happiness, and the myrmidons of death poison themselves.
1 The worldly man does not remember death.
