salvation in the next are obtained, ought to be cherished by all.[1] One day the Sikhs said to the Guru, ‘Formerly, when we undertook any enterprise we used to consult the Brahman astrologers. Now that we have come under thy protection, whom shall we consult?’ The Guru replied, ‘The most favourable time for the Guru's Sikhs is when they pray to God. If at the beginning of all undertakings they with a lowly mind invoke His assistance, all their efforts shall be successful.’
On one occasion, on seeing a large crowd of people who had come to him for the attainment of their desires, the Guru mourned over the ills of life, and decided to seek for a time the retirement of the forest. To escape notice he started on his journey at midnight. His movements, however, became known to his sons Mohri and Mohan and a few other devoted Sikhs, and they prepared to accompany him. When the party had been three days in the forest, a Muhammadan goatherd called Bahlol saw the Guru, and recognizing him as a holy man, fell at his feet and made him an offering of a bowl of milk. The Guru seeing his devotion, said, ‘I am happy.’ The goatherd, too, became happy in the consciousness of having ministered to the wants of a deserving man. The Guru invited him to ask a favour. The goatherd replied that there was nothing stable in the world, wherefore the only favour he asked was that he might be enabled to remember God's name. The Guru granted him this favour.
- ↑ On this subject Guru Arjan subsequently wrote the following
verses :—
Dust flieth on the body of him who repeateth not God's name and frequenteth not the society of the saints.
Nanak, curses on the insipid body which knoweth not Him who created it.
Nanak, cherish that body which remembereth God, in whose heart God's lotus feet dwell, and whose tongue repeateth His name.
Bihāgre ki Wār.
