Page:The Sikh Religion, its gurus, sacred writings and authors Vol 1.djvu/184

88 The Guru and Shaikh Brahm remained together that night in the forest. A kind-hearted and charitable villager who had seen them, took them a basin of milk before daylight. The Shaikh separated his own share from that of the Guru, and uttered these verses:—

Devotion in the beginning of the night is the blossom, in the end of the night the fruit. They who watch obtain gifts from the Lord.

The Guru responded:—

Gifts are the Lord's; what can prevail against Him? Some who are awake receive them not; others who are asleep He awaketh, and conferreth presents upon them.

The Guru then asked Shaikh Brahm to put his hand into the milk and feel what was in it. Farid found that it contained four gold coins. Upon this the villager, deeming that he was in the hands of magicians, went away without his basin. The Guru uttered the following hymn:—

I O thou with the beautiful eyes, in the first watch of a dark night Watch thy property, O mortal; thy turn shall come next. When thy turn cometh, who will awake thee? Death shall taste thy sweets as thou sleepest. The night is dark; what shall become of thee when the thief breaketh into and robbeth thy house? O inaccessible, incomparable Protector, hear my supplication. O Nanak, the fool hath never thought of God; what can he see in a dark night?