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 SADHNAA,
one of the fifteen saints and süfis whose hymns are incorporated
in the Guru Granth Sâhib, was a qasãi or butcher by profession
who, by his piety and devotion, had gained spiritual eminence. He is believed
to have been born at the village of Sehvãn, in Sindh. He was cremated
at Sirhind, in the Punjab, where even today a tomb stands in his memory.
He is considered to be a contemporary of Nãm Dev, another medieval
saint. Sadhnaã lived by selling meat, though, as it is asserted,
he never butchered the animals himself. His only sabda (hymn) in the measure
Bilãval, in the Guru Granth Sãhib, indicates his belief
that all evil deeds of a man could be washed away by devoted meditation
on the Name— and so the deeds of a butcher:
What merit have you, Enlightener of the world, if our ill deeds
are not effaced?
What avails it to enter the asylum of the lion, if a mere jackal will
be allowed to devour one?
I am nothing, nor is anything mine Save my honour, O lord,! am your slave
after all. (GG 858) the ammonite stone, symbolising god Vishnu of the
Hindu Trinity. His spiritual quest led him to renounce the household.
He left Sehvãn and roamed about the country preaching the love
of God. None of his holy songs have survived except the solitary hymn
preserved in the Guru Granth Sãhib, which keeps his memory alive.
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