Thou didst expel with ignominy[1] their former avarice,
greed, lust, wrath, and worldly love with their train.
Hail to thy place! true are those who abide in thy presence.
Thou art Nanak, thou art Lahina, thou art Amar Das;
so I deem thee.
When I saw the Guru my spirits were sustained.
One day the Sikhs represented to the Guru: ‘The Purans describe the advantages of pilgrimages, and thou sayest that the repetition of the Name is the most efficacious form of worship. Be pleased to satisfy our minds on this subject.’ The Guru replied: ‘They who go on pilgrimages commit every species of enormity. Whatever good acts they perform are merely for ostentation. They give alms to those who flatter them to their faces or speak well of them to others. How shall persons like that be saved?’ The Guru then quoted the following hymn of Guru Nanak :—
Shall I go to bathe at a place of pilgrimage? God's
name is my place of pilgrimage.
My places of pilgrimage are the Word, contemplation, and
the divine knowledge within me.
The divine knowledge given by the Guru is the true place
of pilgrimage where the ten auspicious times for bathing
and the Dasahra[2] are always present.
I ever beg for God's true name; grant it me, O God,
- ↑ Literally—having beaten them.
- ↑ The Dasahra festival is held on the tenth day of the light half of the month of Jeth, May–June, in commemoration of the birth of the Ganges. The word is derived from dash, ten, and hara, to take away; that is, the removal of ten great sins. The ten parabs or auspicious times for bathing are the eighth and the fourteenth of the lunar month, the day when no moon appears, the day when the moon is full, the first day of the solar month, the day of the new moon when it falls on a Sunday and the moon is in the mansion of Shrawan or Aquila, the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, eclipses of the sun and moon. Sardār Kahn Singh's Gurumat Prabhākar.
