Page:The Sikh Religion, its gurus, sacred writings and authors Vol 2.djvu/97

Rh sorrow, birth, and death. It perisheth, and no caste goeth with the soul to the next world. They who are honoured and exalted in God's court are those whose minds are humble, who have renounced falsehood, fraud, slander, deceit, hypocrisy, and ingratitude, and who have repeated the Name and benefited others. If the high caste on which people plume themselves in this life be not recognized in the next, of what advantage is it? The Guru recognizeth no caste.’

Bhais Malhan, Ramu, Gobind, and Dipa asked the Guru to give them instruction whereby they might be saved. He replied, ‘Abandon obstinacy and pride, serve the saints, prepare sacred food according to the rules of our religion, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, rise before day, repeat the Japji, bestow a little of your time and wealth on God's service, associate with the saints, meditate on the Word, perform the duties of your religion, hurt no one's feelings, sing the Guru's hymns, be lowly and abandon pride, recognize only the Creator as the one God, and all your desires shall be fulfilled. If a man be weighed down with worldliness, he shall sink like an overladen boat in the world's ocean; but, if worldliness lie not heavily on him, his bark shall float, and he shall obtain deliverance.’

Bula, a learned pandit, laid before the Guru a scheme he had devised for a compilation of the Guru's hymns, and mooted the question of remuneration for his labour. The Guru replied: ‘Make a careful collection of the Guru's hymns, and give it to the Sikhs in God's name. If any one offer thee money, accept it for thy maintenance, but beg not, and great shall be thy gain.’

A Sultanpur bard named Bhikha embraced retirement from the world so as to search for the Creator. Wherever he heard of any saints he went to wait on them. For a long time he remained in a state of pupilage under a Brahman, without obtaining