Be pure in your thoughts

Guru Amar Das carried forward the mission of equality for all, and the community kitchen was a good tool to emphasise this aspect, where all sat in the same place, ate the same food, and then washed each other’s utensils. To ensure that this message was transmitted to all, Guru Amar Das ordained that only those who had eaten in the common kitchen could meet him.

Maidass was a high caste Brahmin, and he came to have a dialogue with Guru Amar Das. On arrival, he was informed that he should first sit down with others, and eat a meal in the community kitchen. This was not acceptable to Maidass. 

He decided to cook his own meal, in purified and clean utensils, and in a separate kitchen.

He cleans a piece of ground, and as he digs a little to improvise a stove, he finds a skull. He changes location, and this time he digs up a horse carcass. He tries again, but some more bones appear out of the ground.

In frustration, he gives up searching for clear ground. He finished cooking, then ate his meal, and came to see the Guru.

“I saw a strange incident,” the Guru said, “a high caste cooked an elaborate meal, but then dumped it in a leather bag.” Maidass was surprised—no Brahmin would cook a meal and then place it in leather. 

“We do not even touch leather,” he said.

“But you just cooked a fine meal of rice and vegetables, and then you put it in your body. What is our body, but a leather bag, full of blood and refuse? One cannot be clean by external purity, dissolve your sense of superiority, and be pure of thought.”

The soul is polluted by skepticism; how can it be cleansed? 

Wash your mind by attaching it to His name, keep your consciousness focused on the Lord.