18.
Guru at Banaaras
After
Gorakhmata, the Guru took southernly route and passing through Gola, Ayudhya
and Prayag (Allahabad), reached Banaras, also called Varanasi- which was
said to be the seat of Hindu religious learning and abode of Lord Shiva. The
Guru and his companion Mardana encamped in a public square of the city.
Pandit Chatur Das was the chief Brahman of the city.
Guru's
dress was neither of a family man nor of a Sanyasi (ascetic). Seeing this
Pandit Chatur Das held a long discussion with the Guru. The Guru asked the Pandit what did he read, what did he teach to the people and what type of
knowledge did he impart to his disciples ?
The
Pandit replied, "By the will of God I teach the people the fourteen
sciences- reading, swimming, medicine, alchemy,astrology, singing the six
rags and their raginis, the science of sexual enjoyment, grammar, music,
horsemanship, dancing, archery, theology, and statesmanship." The Guru
explained that better than all these was the knowledge of God. Upon this the
Guru uttered the fifty-four stanzas of
Ramkali
Mohalla 1- Dakhni Omkar . The true God is superior to all other
gods. The first two stanzas are as follows:
It
is the one God who created Brahma; It is the one God who created our
understanding; It is from the one God the mountains and the ages of the
world emanated; It is the one God who bestowed knowledge. It is by the Word
of God man is saved. It is by the name of the one God the pious are saved.
Hear an account of the letter O- O is the best letter in the three worlds.
Hear, O Pandit, why writest thou puzzles? Write under the instruction of the
Guru the name of God, the Cherisher of the world. He created the world with
ease; in the three worlds there is one Lord of Light. Under the Guru's
instruction select gems and pearls, and thou shalt obtain God the real
thing. If man understand, reflect, and comprehend what he readeth, he shall
know at last the True One is everywhere. The pious man knoweth and
remembereth the truth- that without the True One the world is unreal."
(Ramkali Mohalla 1- Dakhni Omkar, Page-929)
On
hearing the Sabad of Ramkali, Pandit Chatur Das fell at the feet of the
Guru, and became a Sikh, and did much to spread Sikh religion in that area.
The place where the Guru stayed, is now called as Guru ka Bagh Gurdwara.