The Ganges, the Jamna, the meeting of the three rivers
at Tribeni Priyag,[1] the seven oceans,
Alms, charity, and worship are all contained in God’s
name. I recognize Him as the One God in every age.
Nanak, in the month of Magh, if I repeat God’s name
with great delight, I bathe at the sixty-eight places of
pilgrimage.[2]
In Phagan the hearts of those to whom God’s love is
pleasing are happy.
Night and day are pleasant to him who effaceth himself.
When it pleased God, I effaced worldly love from my
heart; O Lord, mercifully come to my home.
Though I deck myself in various garbs, yet without
the Beloved I shall not obtain a place in heaven.
I decorated myself with necklaces, strings of pearls, perfumes,[3] silks, and satins, when my Beloved desired me.
Nanak, my Guru hath blended me with God, and I have
obtained Him as my Spouse.
The twelve months, the seasons, the lunar days, and the
week days,
The gharis, the mahurats,[4] the moments, are all pleasant when the True One cometh and meeteth me of His own accord.
- ↑ A famous place of Hindu pilgrimage, near Allāhābād. The third river is the Saraswati, which is supposed to meet the Ganges and Jamna underground. The Saraswati, though no longer seen, was at one time an actual river. From a legend in the Mahābhārat it would appear that it took its rise with other great rivers in the Himālayas, that it thence flowed through Rājpūtāna, where it occasionally disappeared in the sands of that country, and that it finally debouched north of Dwāraka into the Arabian Sea.
- ↑ Sixty-eight is the number of sacred places of pilgrimage in the estimation of the Hindus.
- ↑ Ras really means relishes.
- ↑ The following is the Hindi time-table:—
- 60 visiās = 1 chasia
- 60 chasiās = 1 pal
- 60 pals = 1 ghari
- 2 gharis = 1 muhūrat
- 4 muhūrats = 1 pahar
- 8 pahars = 1 day and night.
