15 May 1899
Lots of Love from Jaimal Singh to my obedient son Babu Sawan Singh, and to Basant Singh, Babu Gajja Singh Chanan Singh, Diwan Singh, and any other Satsangi whose name I might have missed, to Babu Hari Ram, Malik Thakar Das Ji, the elder Bibi and the younger Bibi Ji, to Maya Devi and all the Satsangis and Satsangi sisters.
May the Grace and Mercy of the compassionate Anami Lord, always be upon all of you.
My son
I received three letters in Urdu, including a letter from Bachint Singh, informing me about everyone’s well-being. I have also written a postcard to you about this.
The news of the brick-kiln: one lakh (100,000) large-sized bricks, and twelve hundred of the small size for the roof of the durbar hall, were baked first. So the bricks are all done, but the entire kiln has not been opened yet because it is still hot. It was fired on the evening of 8 May. Two bricks were pulled out as samples; they were well baked – so the firing has been satisfactory. The expense of the kiln has come to 290 rupees, and there has been an additional expense of 10 to 15 rupees. So it all has turned out well: whatever has happened by the compassionate Hazur’s will is good. An urgent issue: why has the painter, Nabi Bakhsh, not received the money for his work? It is imperative that honest labour be used for the durbar hall. I asked Nabi Bakhsh whether or not he had received his wages. Even upon asking him three times, he would not give me an answer. Then he said that the money was as good as received by him; but then he added that he won’t take it and wished to leave it as seva. He is a very poor man, so the next time he comes to you, please definitely give him the money.
You already know about Agra. Do come if you get leave, but it is very hot these days. If you do not get leave, send money to Agra. I intend to go – the rest will happen as is the will of Hazur Maharaj. The money, however, should reach Agra by the 25th or 26th of Jeth1. Please make arrangements accordingly. I cannot think of anything else – that which pleases the compassionate Hazur is going to happen. We only need the refuge, sharan, of His Lotus Feet all the time.
I have had absolutely no spare time to write a letter. Only now, during the last two days, have I been free. If you know someone in Multan, please ask him to send me 5 rupees’ worth of crystallised sugar from there by parcel. Be sure to remember it. Crystallised sugar made in a clay pitcher is of three kinds. What I would like to receive is good, top-quality crystallised sugar, even if only a small amount is available. The parcel should be made out like this: Railway Station Beas, Recipient: Jaimal Singh Sant. After dispatching the parcel, the invoice should be put in an envelope and addressed: District and Tehsil Amritsar, Post Office Sathiala, Village Waraich, Dera Santan, Jaimal Singh Sant. Be absolutely sure to write this address. After buying the crystallised sugar – worth 5 rupees – it should be wrapped in a gunny sack, then packed in a box worth five or six annas, and sent here very soon, because I have now no Multani sugar left. Better still, send this person 6 rupees, or let me know about it.
In my heart I feel sorry at what Kishen Singh has done, but then I realised that he was destined to seek revenge from a previous birth and he did his job. What does it matter that he called himself a brother? So why worry, though I am sorry that it happened – is good that this debt is now paid off.
The day the individual being – jeevaatmaa –, that is, the soul, separated from Sach Khand and the Shabd Dhun, that very day its trust in the True Lord – Sat Purush – and the Shabd Dhun was also severed. The Shabd Dhun looks after it all the time, but it does not realise this because its love and loyalties are deeply entrenched in mind and maya, and in maya’s objects and the senses that deceive. But what kind of a love is this that has made it unable to understand its own loss? That loss it considers to be a gain. It is dizzy in the love of the mind, and the mind is dizzy in the pleasures of the senses. Maya has spread such a veil over it that it may never regain awareness. It does not have the slightest regret for the twenty-four thousand breaths that go to waste every day, that not a single breath can be bought at any price. From this it is evident that the being definitely has no consciousness of its self. For a few paltry pennies of maya it kneels before each and every insignificant man, with the result that when the soul parts from the human body, the highest form of all, the being goes wandering into the hell of eighty-four. So have full faith in the words of the Satguru, my son. These words are specifically of the Lord Himself. The Satguru, attaching the disciple again to the same Shabd Dhun, will guide him back to Sach Khand. So the disciple’s trust that remained broken in life after life has been restored by the Satguru.
On this point, there is a line in Sri Guru Granth Sahib:
Janam janam kaa tootaa gaadai.
The sundered of countless births He knots.
I have written only a little as I did not have time to write more. Please understand it carefully. Do not think, ‘This thing should be given to me,’ or ‘This man was junior to me. Just see, now that he has been promoted, he hasn’t even come to see me!,’ or ‘Why has the Lord not given it to me?’ Such fretful thoughts and false desires should never be allowed into the mind. Rather, you should think:
For myself, I want only Love and faith for the Lotus Feet of the Satguru. I should stay within His will. Let me look upon it this way: everyone is burning in the fire of maya; all are roasting in it day and night. Then why do I also beg for that?
The Satguru, my son, is the saviour Who pulls us safely from the fire of mind and maya. We should have unshakeable Love for Him. We are never to go outside His words.
Only that which is written on my forehead will be given to me –
nothing more is to be desired. Whatever worldly work the Satguru considers appropriate, He will do it well. Do not worry about it at all. You must realise that with each and every breath He is always by our side.
Five rupees of Babu Hari Ram have been received and credited to the bandhara. Best wishes to everybody. May Grace and Mercy be upon the whole family of Babu Hari Ram. Blessings of Grace and Mercy upon all the Satsangis. Best wishes from Bibi to you, her dear brother. Please also convey Bibi’s warm regards to all the Satsangis. Also, warm regards from all the Sadhus at the Dera to all of you.
Listen daily to the Shabd Dhun, my son, and do your Bhajan and Simran every day.
15 May 1899
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Explanation: 1) The 3rd month of the Sikh calendar; from 15 May to 14 June.