Page:The Sikh Religion, its gurus, sacred writings and authors Vol 1.djvu/277

Rh tinued to compose hymns which diffused spiritual light and dispelled mental darkness. He ever conversed on religious subjects, and divine measures were ever sung in his presence. The Sodar and the Sohila were chanted in the evening and the Japji repeated at the ambrosial hour of morning.

At Kartarpur, Mardana, the Guru s faithful minstrel, advanced in years and wearied with his long wanderings and physical privations, fell ill. He felt that he had no hope of longer life, and resigned himself to man’s inevitable fate. He had originally been a Muhammadan, but, being now a Sikh, the question arose as to how his body should be disposed of after death. The Guru said, ’A Brahman s body is thrown into water, a Khatri’s is burnt in the fire, a Vaisya’s is thrown to the winds, and a Sudra’s is buried in the earth. Thy body shall be disposed of as thou pleasest.’ Mardana replied, ’Through thine instruction the pride of my body hath totally departed. With the four castes the disposal of the body is a matter of pride. I deem my soul merely as a spectator of my body, and am not concerned with the latter. Where fore dispose of it as thou pleasest.’ Then the Guru said, ’Shall I make thee a tomb and render thee famous in the world.’ Mardana replied, ’When my soul hath been separated from its bodily tomb, why shut it up in a stone tomb?’ The Guru answered, ’Since thou knowest God and art therefore a Brahman, we shall dispose of thy body by throwing it into the river Ravi and letting it go with the stream. Sit down therefore on its margin in prayerful posture, fix thine attention on God, repeat His name at every inspiration and expiration, and thy soul shall be absorbed in the light of God.’ Mardana accordingly sat down by the river, and his soul separated from its earthly enclosure the following morning at a watch