Page:The Sikh Religion, its gurus, sacred writings and authors Vol 1.djvu/155

Rh was only one God. Mardana then put his question in another form: 'Who created this man who rideth in a sedan of ease while the bearers have no shoes to their feet? Their legs are naked while they shampoo and fan him.' The Guru replied with the following verses:—

The Guru continued in prose: 'O Mardana, whoever is born hath come naked from his mother's womb, and joy or misery is the result of actions in previous states of existence.' Upon this, Mardana fell at the Guru's feet.

As Guru Nanak and Mardana journeyed on, they arrived at Gorakhmata, or temple of Gorakh, some twenty miles north of Pilibhit, in the United Provinces of India. There they observed a pipal-tree of many a religious reminiscence. Years previously it had withered from age, but it is related that when the holy man sat beneath it, it suddenly became green. The biographer of the Guru states that Sidhs came on that occasion and addressed him: 'O youth, whose disciple art thou, and from whom hast thou obtained instruction?'

Guru Nanak, in reply, composed the following hymn:—

What is the scale? What the weights? What weighman shall I call for Thee?

Who is the guru from whom I should receive instruction, and by whom I should appraise Thy worth?

O my Beloved, I know not Thy limit.

Thou fillest sea and land, the nether and upper regions; it is Thou Thyself who art contained in everything.