Guru Nanak Dev undertook his last great travel to the West. He donned the blue clothes of a dervish, and, travelled upto Mecca and Medina, and returning via Afghanistan and modern-day Pakistan. He stayed at a town then called Saidpur, and known as Eminabad today. The Guru could see the pending invasions from the west, and he advised the residents to leave for safer areas. As Guru Nanak had predicted, Saidpur was laid waste by the invading armies of Babur. The Guru and his devout attendant Bhai Mardana were taken prisoner. In the prison, the Guru was found singing this, when referring to Babur:
When the people were slaughtered, did it not raise any compassion in you?/One may give himself a great name, and revel in the pleasures of the mind,/but in the Eyes of the Lord and Master, he is just a worm, for all the corn that he eats.
The Guru’s demeanor set him apart from others, and the generals reported this to Babur, who sent for the Guru and asked him to repeat what he was singing, which Guru Nanak did. Babur was taken aback at this, and seeing Nanak as a dervish, ordered his release. Babur was addicted to bhang, and there is mention that he offered it to the Guru as a friendly gesture. The Guru declined, saying that he was forever intoxicated with His presence, and did not need any drug. And then, the Guru said this:
The body-fabric will be torn apart into shreds, and then India will remember these words:/Coming in seventy-eight, they will depart in ninety-seven, another will rise up.
Seventy-eight and ninety-seven are Samvat era years, corresponding to 1521 AD and 1540 AD. Babur had begun his Punjab campaign around 1521 AD. Sher Shah Suri was that “another” person the hymn had predicted, and he ousted the Mughals, and took control of the empire in 1540 AD.