Page:The Sikh Religion, its gurus, sacred writings and authors Vol 1.djvu/156

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THE SIKH RELIGION

My heart is the scale, my understanding the weight, Thy service the weighman I employ.
I weigh the Lord in my heart, and thus I fix my attention.
Thou Thyself art the tongue of the balance, the weight, and the scales; Thou Thyself art the weighman;
Thou Thyself beholdest, Thou Thyself understandest, Thou Thyself art the dealer with Thee.[1]
A blind man, a low-born person, and a stranger come but for a moment, and in a moment depart.

In such companionship Nanak abideth; how can he, fool that he is, obtain Thee?[2]

Then the Sidhs said, 'O youth, become a Jogi, and adopt the dress of our order, so shalt thou find the true way and obtain the merits of religion.' The Guru replied with the following hymn:—

Religion consisteth not in a patched coat, or in a Jogi's staff, or in ashes smeared over the body;
Religion consisteth not in earrings worn, or a shaven head, or in the blowing of horns.[3]
Abide pure amid the impurities of the world; thus shalt thou find the way of religion.


Religion consisteth not in mere words;
He who looketh on all men as equal is religious.
Religion consisteth not in wandering to tombs[4] or places of cremation, or sitting in attitudes of contemplation;[5]
Religion consisteth not in wandering in foreign countries, or in bathing at places of pilgrimages.
Abide pure amid the impurities of the world; thus shalt thou find the way of religion.


On meeting a true guru doubt is dispelled and the wanderings of the mind restrained.

It raineth nectar, slow ecstatic music is heard, and man is happy within himself.
  1. In the Granth Sāhib God is the wholesale merchant from whom all grace and good gifts proceed, and men are the dealers who receive from Him.
  2. Sūhi.
  3. The Jogis blow deers' horns.
  4. Marhī, a structure raised over the ashes of the dead.
  5. Tāri lagāna is to sit cross-legged in contemplative attitude as Buddha is represented.