Sunday, December 03, 2006

The Cleaning Women

A janitor (Bhangee or Jamaadaarni) spends his time in inspecting and cleaning filth of others; then he loads it up and carries on his head. A slanderer is a self-appointed Bhangee who finds faults in others and then, by engaging in gossip and back-bite, carries the load of their trash (sins) on his own head. In the process, he simply
ends up turning his own body, mind and intellect into a "trash basket" for the sins of others. Very appropriately, the Gurbani likens slanderers to a "cleaning-woman".

False-mindedness is the drummer-woman; cruelty is the butcheress; slander of others in one's heart is the cleaning woman, and deceitful anger is the outcast-woman (sggs 91).