“This thread serves to tie every thing:
In a cloister it is a rosary; in a temple of idols a zunnar.”
A Sikh asked the Guru Har-govind: “In the absence of my Guru, what other shall I find?” He replied: “Whichever of the Sikhs comes to your house under the name of a Guru, him you may take for yours.” It is the custom among the Sikhs that, whatever demand they have, they can state it in the assembly of the Sikhs to the Guru, to whom they offer whatever present they have, or a coin, and in so doing they join their hands together, and proffer prayers to him, that he may be favorable to them. The Guru states then his demand in the Sangat (Sangátí),[478] that is to say, in the assembly of the Sikhs. This custom exists also among the Sipásian, or Izedanian. The belief of this people is, that an assembly is certainly capable of achieving every thing, inasmuch as the minds act with their united strength.
Among the Sikhs there is nothing of the religious rites of the Hindús; they know of no check in eating or drinking. When Pertábmal, a Jnání, “wise,” Hindu, saw that his son wished to adopt the faith of the Muselmans, he asked him: “Why dost thou wish to become a Muselman? If thou likest to eat every thing, become a Guru of the Sikhs, and eat whatever thou desirest.”
The Sikhs believe that all the disciples of a Guru go to heaven. Whoever takes the name of Guru is received in the house of a Sikh. It is related, that a thief introduced himself once under the title of Guru, in the house of a Sikh, and was treated as such. In the morning the Sikh went out to prepare something better for his guest. The thief saw many jewels worn by the wife of the Sikh, and having killed her immediately, and taken the precious things, he fled. Upon his way he met with the master of the house, who by force brought him back. The Sikh, when they returned to the house, found his wife dead. The thief, seeing every thing discovered, confessed the truth. The Sikh replied: “You have done well.” He then shut the door of the house, and said to his neighbours: “My wife is sick: she ate nothing of the meal which she had prepared.” Urging the thief to be gone, he did not take the jewels from him, but made him a present of them. He finally burnt his wife.
They also relate what follows: a kalender was in the house of a Sikh. One day the kalender said to the wife of the Sikh: “For the sake of a Guru, satisfy my desire.” The woman replied: “I am the property of another; have patience.” The kalender, out of fear, did not return to the house of the Sikh, who asked: “Why does the durvish not visit me any more?” The woman told him what had happened. The Sikh said: “Why did you refuse to yield to his desire?” The woman went out, and having brought the kalender back, permitted every thing to him. When, in the month of February, the Sikhs assembled at the house of the Guru (who lived before the time of Har-govind), he threw an angry look at the kalender, and said: “Him have I struck.” The kalender was stigmatised.
The following anecdote is moreover reported. A Guru saw a speaking parrot, and praised him much. A Sikh heard this, and went immediately to the proprietor of the parrot, who was a soldier, and asked him for the bird. The soldier said: “If you give me your daughter, you may have the parrot.” The Sikh consented. The soldier laughed, and added: “Give me your wife too, and take the bird.” The Sikh did not refuse; he conducted the soldier to his house, and delivered his wife and daughter to him. When the soldier came home, and told his wife what had happened, she was so angry with him that he left the parrot in the hands of the Sikh, to whom he returned his wife and daughter. The Sikh, joyful, lost no time to gratify the Guru. Such customs prevailed among the Sikhs before the time of Har-govind.[479]
[374] चतुर्मुखः
[375] अष्ट बाहुः
[376] जटा the hair matted, as worn by the god Síva, and by ascetics; the long hair occasionally matted together, and brought over the head so as to project like a horn from the forehead; at other times allowed to fall carelessly over the back and shoulders.