name, and thou shall night and day derive profit therefrom.
A.What God who made the world hath to do He continueth to do.
He acteth and causeth others to act; He knoweth everything; thus saith the poet Nanak.
Nanak appears to have continued to attend school for some time. One day he was observed to remain silent, and not apply himself to his books. The schoolmaster asked him why he was not reading. Nanak inquired, Art thou sufficiently learned to teach me? The schoolmaster replied that he had read everything. He knew the Veds and Shastars,[1] and he had learned to cast up accounts, post ledgers and daybooks, and strike balances. Upon this Nanak said, 'To your accomplishments I prefer the study of divine knowledge'. He then composed the following hymn :—
Burn worldly love, grind its ashes and make it into ink;[2] turn superior intellect into paper.
Make divine love thy pen, and thy heart the writer; ask thy guru and write his instruction.
Write God's name, write His praises, write that He hath neither end nor limit.
O master, learn to write this account,
So that, whenever it is called for, a true mark may be found thereon.
There[3] greatness is obtained, everlasting joys, and ever lasting delights.
- ↑ Sanskrit works on the six philosophical systems of the Hindus. They are—the Nyāya founded by Gautama, the Vaisheshika by Kanāda, the Sānkhya by Kapila, the Yoga by Patanjali, the Mimānsa by Jaimini, the Vedānt by Vyas. The six systems have been learnedly expounded by Max Miiller in his Indian Philosophy.
- ↑ At that time in India ink was made from burnt almond-rind and gum.
- ↑ Corresponding to ἐκεῖ in Greek, the next world.
