^26 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.. 



Madra,^ in order to take measures to qwell them. At the prince '^s ap- 

 proach, "everybody," says Gu'ru' Govind, ", was struck with terror. 

 " Unable to comprehend the ways of the eternal, several deserted m&^ 

 " and fled, and took refuge in the lofty mountains. These vile cowards 

 " were," he adds, " too greatly alarmed in mind to understand their own 

 " advantage; for the emperor sent troops, who burnt the habitations of 

 " those that had fled/' He takes this occasion of denouncing every 

 misery that this world can bring, and all the pains and horrors of the 

 next, on those who desert their Guru, or priest. " The man who does 

 " this," he writes, " shall neither have child nor olifspring. His aged pa- 

 " rents shall die in grief and sorrow, and he shall perish like a dog",, 

 " and be thrown into hell to lament." 'After many more curses on 

 apostates, he concludes this anathema by stating^, that the good genius of 

 prosperity in this world, and eternal blessings in the next, shall be the 

 certain reward of all who remain attached to their Gum; and, as an in- 

 stance, he affirms, that not one of those faithful followers, who had ad- 

 hered to him. at, t^iif. trying .crisis, had received the least injury .-f 



"'Guru' Govind closes his first work, the Vkkitra Jfdtac, yvith a fur- 

 ther representation of the shame that attends apostacy, and the rewards 

 that await those that prove true to their religion j and he concludes by a 



* This mmt have been in the j«£arI'^Ql> when Ba»^^ Shah; -was tietached feom the 

 Dek^hinto-iake charge of the gofefimmentoi Ctibiil, and was probably ordered, at the satno- 

 time, to settle the disturbances bi the Penj&b. 



+ There is a remarkable passage in this cbapter, in -which Go'Ru' Go'virrn appears ta 

 acknowledg-e the supremacy of tbe emperor. '^^ God," be says " formed both i?a&a (Na'- 

 *' NAc) and Ba'ber, (the emperor of that name). Look upon Bff&a as the Padshah (king) 

 " of religion, and Ba'ber, the lord of the world. He who will not give Na'n Ac a single 



Damr'i (a coiii the sixteenth part oi an ana) will receive a severe punishment torn Ba * 



