SADHNA

SADHNA, one of the fifteen saints and sufis whose hymns are incorporated in the Guru Granth Sahib, was a qasai or butcher by profession who, by nis piety and devotion, had gained spiritual eminence. He is believed to have been born at the village of Sehvan, 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 Nam Dev, another medieval saint. Sadhna lived by selling n eat, though, as it is asserted, he never butchered the animals himself.

His only sabda (hymn) in the measure Bilaval, in the Guru Granth Sahib, 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, 0 lord, I am your slave after all. (GO. 858) Sadhna worshipped the idol of saligram, the ammonite stone, symbolising god Visnu of the Hindu Trinity. His spiritual quest led him to renounce the household. He left Sehvan 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 Sahib, which keeps his memory alive.

References :

1. Sabadarth Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Amritsar, 1975
2. Gurdit Singh, Giani, Itihas Sri Guru Granth Sahib (Bhagat Bani Bhag). Chandigarh, 1990
3. Sahib Singh, Bhagat Barn Satik. Amritsar, 1959-60
4. Chaturvedi, Parshu Ram. Uttari Bharat ki Sant Prampra. Allahabad, 1964
5. Macauliffe, Max Arthur, The Sikh Religion: Its Sacred Writings and Authors. Oxford, 1909