Page:The Sikh Religion, its gurus, sacred writings and authors Vol 1.djvu/228

132 mounted his horse, intending this time to go and supplicate the Guru, but immediately fell down. His companions addressed him, Thou hast made a mistake in going on horseback. Go on foot, that thou mayest be pardoned/ He took this advice. On arriving at a spot whence the Guru s residence could be seen, he recovered his sight, and began to make salutations in the Guru s direction. On arriving in his presence he fell at his feet. The Guru was pleased and made him his guest for three days. The millionaire, in honour of the Guru, founded a village, which he called Kartarpur, on the margin of the Ravi, and built a Sikh temple therein, both of which he dedicated to the Guru.

One day a fanatical Brahman came to the Guru and begged for alms. The Guru, who was at his break fast, invited the Brahman to join him. The Brahman replied that he would not eat food in that way. He would only eat what he had cooked himself. He would first dig up the earth to a depth of a cubit so that all impurity of the surface might be removed, and he would also make a cooking square into which none but himself might enter. He would then dig a span deeper, and make a fireplace on which he would put firewood which he had washed, so that no insects might be burned in it. The Guru had not attended to these formalities, and the Brahman spurned food otherwise cooked. The Guru told him he would give him uncooked viands which he might cook himself. He then went outside and began to dig up the earth, but wherever he dug he only turned up bones, which he deemed a still greater abomination than the Guru s food. He continued digging all day, but with the same result. At last, overcome by hunger, he went and threw himself at Nanak s feet, and asked for the cooked food he had previously rejected. The Guru was pleased to gratify him, and then composed the following :