Chapter VI
The Guru and Mardana went to Kamrup,[1] a country whose women were famous for their skill in incantation and magic. It was governed by a queen called Nurshah in the Sikh chronicles. She with several of her females went to the Guru and tried to obtain influence over him.
Then the Guru uttered the following verses:—
You buy saline earth,[2] and want musk into the bargain:
Without good works, Nanak, how shall you meet your Spouse?
The Guru continued as follows:—
The virtuous wife enjoyeth her husband; why doth the bad one bewail?
If she become virtuous, then shall she too go to enjoy her husband.
My Spouse is an abode of sweetness; why should He enjoy other women?
If a woman become virtuous and turn her heart into a thread,
She shall string her Spouse's heart thereon like a priceless gem.
I show the way to others, but walk not in it myself;[3]
I say I have already traversed it.
If thou, O my Spouse, speak not to me, how shall I abide in Thy house?
Nanak, excepting One there is none besides.
If Thy wife, O Spouse, remain attached to Thee, she shall enjoy Thee.[4]
Nurshah observed that her people's spells were of no avail, however much they tried. The Guru, on
