The Sikh Religion/Volume 2/Angad/Life/Chapter VII
Chapter VII
One day Guru Angad said that his life was drawing to a close, and he must depart. In reply to his Sikhs, who desired that he should remain longer among them to bestow instruction and divine happiness, he said, ‘The saints of the true Guru are of the nature of clouds. They assume a body for the benefit of the world, and confer benefits on men. The body, which is merely a store-house of corn, shall perish. As a rich man casteth aside his old clothes and putteth on new ones, so do the saints of the true Guru put away their crumbling bodies, and take new vesture for their souls. A man in his own house may remain naked or clothed, may wear old or new raiment—that is the condition of the saints—they are bound by no rules.’ The Guru's disciples listened to this discourse with rapt attention and their anxieties were removed.
While the Guru was considering that his sons were not, but that Amar Das was, fit to succeed him, an accident occurred which finally confirmed him in his determination. On the 14th of the month of Chet, when there was no moon, it rained all night. Cold winds blew, lightning flashed, and every human being was glad to find shelter in his house and go to sleep. Three hours before day the Guru called out that he wanted water. He called again but no one answered him. The third time he shook one of his sons to awaken him, and told him to go and fetch water. When the son showed no inclination to obey his father, Amar Das at once said, ‘Great king, thy slave will fetch thee water.’ The Guru objected and said that Amar Das was now too old for such service. Amar Das replied that he had grown young on hearing the Guru's order. He at once put a pitcher on his head and started for the river. Intoxicated with the wine of devotion he thought not of his body. On arriving at the Bias, he filled his vessel, began to repeat the Japji, and made the best of his way to his master. He paid no regard to the elements, but went straight towards the Guru's house, feeling his way in the thick darkness as he went along.
On the outskirts of Khadur there was a colony of weavers. The holes in the ground, into which the weavers put their feet when sitting at their looms, were filled with water. Into one of these holes Amar Das fell, striking his foot against a peg of karir[1] wood. Notwithstanding his fall he still succeeded in saving the water on his head. On hearing the noise and uproar, some of the weavers awoke. They cried out, ‘Thief! thief!’ and called on their people to be on the alert. On going out of doors they heard some one repeating the Japji, and one of the weavers wives said, ‘Fear not, it is not a thief. It is that poor homeless Amru whose beard hath grown gray, and who hath taken leave of his senses. Having abandoned his sons and daughters, his house and home, his commerce and his dealings, he is now without occupation, and wandereth from door to door. Other people go to sleep at night, but he will not rest even then. Single-handed he doeth the work of twenty men. He is ever bringing water from the river and firewood from the forest; and what a guru to serve!’
Amar Das could endure hearing disrespectful language of himself, but not of his Guru. He told the weaver's wife that she had gone mad, and hence her slander of the Guru. Saying this, he took his vessel of water to the Guru. It is said that the weaver's wife did in fact go mad as the result of Amar Das's censure. They sent for physicians, who, however, knew no medicines to restore her. It soon became known that she had offended the Guru by her language, so on the failure of the physicians the weavers decided to take her to him with the object of imploring his pardon.
The weavers informed the Guru of what had occurred, and implored him to pardon the mad woman's error. The Guru said, Amar Das hath done great service and his toil is acceptable. His words prove true; wealth, supernatural power, and all earthly advantages wait on him. The peg against which he struck his foot shall grow green, and the weaver's wife shall recover. He who serveth Amar Das shall obtain the fruit his heart desireth. Ye describe him as homeless and lowly, but he shall be the home of the homeless, the honour of the unhonoured, the strength of the strengthless, the support of the unsupported, the shelter of the unsheltered, the protector of the unprotected, the restorer of what is lost, the emancipator of the captive.’
After that the Guru sent for five copper coins and a coco-nut, bathed Amar Das, clothed him in a new dress, and installed him in the Guru's seat. He placed the five copper coins and the coco-nut before him while Bhai Budha affixed to his forehead the tilak of Guruship. Thus was Guru Amar Das regularly and solemnly appointed Guru Angad's successor. All the Sikhs, with loud acclamations, fell at his feet. Guru Angad sent for his two sons, Dasu and Datu, told them that the office of Guru was the reward of humility, devotion, and service; and Guru Amar Das had obtained the high position as the reward of his ceaseless toil, manifold virtues and piety. He then ordered his sons to bow before the new Guru, which they were very reluctant to do, as they had always deemed him their servant. Guru Angad then summoned Punnu and Lalu, the head men of the town, and all his Sikhs, told them he was going to depart this life, and that he had appointed Guru Amar Das as his worthy successor on the throne of Guru Nanak. ‘Whoever serveth him shall obtain happiness in this world and salvation in the next, and he who envieth him shall have sorrow as his portion.’
On the third day of the light half of the month of Chet in the Sambat year 1609 (A. D. 1552), Guru Angad gave a great feast to his Sikhs, and reminded them of the tenets and principles of the Sikh religion. On the following day he rose before dawn, bathed, and put on new raiment to prepare for his final departure. He then repeated the Japji, summoned all his family, consoled them, and enjoined them to accept God's will. He ordered Guru Amar Das to live in Goindwal, and there save men by his teaching. Guru Angad then fixed his thoughts on Guru Nanak and, with ‘Wahguru’ on his lips, passed from this transitory world on the fourth day of the light half of Chet, 1609, having enjoyed the Guruship for twelve years six months and nine days.
Guru Angad's sons and Sikhs grew sad, but Bhai Budha bade them lament not, but repeat God's name. They then began to sing the Guru's hymns to the accompaniment of rebecks, drums, bells, and trumpets. They erected a splendid bier on which they placed the body of the deceased Guru and recited the Sohila of Guru Nanak and the lamentations in the Maru and Wadhans measures. After this they placed the Guru's remains on a pyre of sandal-wood and cremated him according to his express wish near the tree which sprang out of the karir peg against which Amar Das had struck his foot.
Guru Amar Das enjoined his flock to console themselves and said to them, ‘Guru Angad is imperishable and immortal. It is a law of the body to be born and die, but the soul is different. It is ever the same essence. Holy men have deemed human life temporary, like the roosting of birds for a night on a tree, or like the brief occupation of a ferry-boat by passengers. Wherefore renounce all worldly love. A child may tremble and suppose his shadow to be a ghost, but the wise entertain no such alarm. And so the man who possesseth divine knowledge hath no apprehension of further transmigration.‘
On hearing the Guru's words many Sikhs obtained divine knowledge, and crossing over the troublous ocean of the world, obtained beatitude in God.
The principal points in Guru Angad's character were to serve and love the Guru and worship God. It was by this means he succeeded in obtaining the spiritual leadership of the Sikhs in opposition to the wife, sons and relations of Guru Nanak. For the same reasons Guru Angad in spite of the opposition of his own relatives conferred the Guruship on Amar Das, who was proved to be the most worthy of the high dignity.
- ↑ Capparis aphylla, the wild caper tree.