Mere Rituals are of No Avail

Once Guru Nanak happened to visit Hardwar town.
There he saw some people throwing handfuls of water from river Ganges, towards
the sun in the east. They believed that by this ritual they could offer water to their
dead elders in the next world.
 
Guru Nanak went into the river and started throwing water towards the west.
As those people saw the Guru acting strange, they forgot their ritual.
They flocked to the Guru and laughed at his funny action. They asked him,
“Why are you throwing the holy water to the wrong side?”
The Guru calmly replied, “I am watering my withering crops in Punjab.”

“Are you crazy? How can your water reach hundreds of miles away from here?”
asked the curious spectators.
“The very same way as yours reaches your ancestors in the other world. In fact,
my farm is quite closer on this very earth." Nanak replied.
This made those people think about the uselessness of their ritual.
How effective and rational a way to get people’s attention and remove their ignorance!

The Doctor and Guru Nanak

The Doctor and Guru Nanak

Guru Nanak ji stopped taking lessons from his teacher Maulvi Kutubdin at a young age. He started meeting saints and hermits. When the saints and hermits were busy; he would stay at home and keep to himself. If anybody came to the house, he would behave as if they had just met. He use to forget to eat his meals. His strange behavior, worried his parents. Seeing Guru Nanak grow thinner from not eating, people would say, "Money is dear to Mehta Kalu (father) than his son. He is saving money and not giving his only son proper treatment." Hearing the people talk like this, Mehta Kalu called Haridas, the village doctor, to treat Guru Nanak his son. When Haridas arrived, he held Guru ji’s wrist to feel the pulse. Young Guru Nanak pulled away his arm " why do you hold my arm?" He asked. The doctor explained "I'm trying to take your pulse so that I can find out what is wrong with you. Then I can give you medicine to feel better." Guru Nanak replied " Doctor, my body is not sick. My mind is sick. A wise doctor sees the sickness and then heals it. Then the body and mind are both free from sickness. I suggest you cure your own sickness before trying to cure mine."Upon hearing this, the doctor was upset. He asked "Nanak, which illness do I suffer from? I am quite hale and hearty. "
Guru ji replied, "You are sick with the serious disease of birth and death. This cycle of birth and death cannot be cured by your medicines. Only the doctor who does not suffer from this sickness can give medicine to cure it. That doctor, who is neither born nor dies. You are not that doctor."
Doctor Haridas knew only to cure a sick body, not the mind. However he understood what Guru Nanak had said. He took leave of Mehta Kalu saying, "Na Nanak has no physical ailment. He is immersed in the love of God. So stop worrying aboutyour son. He does not need any medicine from a doctor"

Makeen and Guru nanak Dev ji

Makeen and Guru nanak Dev ji

On one of his travels Guru Ji came to a town and stopped at the house of an old Sikh called Chundhwadi. He was very poor and was in a fluster as to what food to place in front of Guru Ji. He went to the local town not knowing what to do. While he was there he saw a gathering of people and went to see what was happening.

It was a wrestling match and the local Nawab was parading his champion. Now, the champion was called Maskeen and was tall and muscular and was undefeated. He stood while the proud Nawab challenged all the town if there was any person who would take on his champion. Maskeen strode into the middle of the large circle flexing his muscles. No one dared step forward for fear of serious injury. When Chundhwadi heard that the prize was 50rps he thought that if he could get the money he could use it to buy provisions to place in front of Guru Ji. He stepped into the ring and declared his intention to wrestle Maskeen. All fell about laughing, how could such an old man who was just skin and bone take on the mighty Maskeen?

As the two opponents came close Maskeen asked “What are you doing old man ? You have no chance against me, what possesses you to fight me, you are going to get seriously hurt”
Chundawadi said “Oh champion, Guru Nanak Dev Ji is coming to my house today and I have no food to place before him, my only chance is to beat you and use the prize money.”

Maskeen fell into thought,20“I have heard of Guru Nanak” he said “they say he is Khudha himself. I would also like to meet him.” After much soul searching he said “Old man, if I let you win will you take me to see Guru Nanak?”

“Yes” said Chundawadi “but what will become of you? If you lose, and lose to an old man your patronage will end and what will become of you?” But Maskeen did not hear this, all he could think about was meeting Guru Nanak.

So it happened that after a few moves Maskeen fell to the ground with a thump and as planned the old man put his foot on his chest and claimed the prize.

There was pandemonium, there was a riot, the proud Nawab was humiliated and disowned his wrestler. Maskeens reputation was ruined, he knew that he would be turned out of his house. His family were even more livid, when they heard what had happened they planned to do away with him. They hastily dug a trench under his munja and stuck in spikes and covered the whole thing with large palm leaves, they planned to murder him and then plea with the Nawab to let them20stay at the house.

As Maskeen finally got away from the crowd he could not find Chundawadi in all the commotion and wondered home. His favourite daughter met him on route. She had seen what was happening and told her father. But Maskeen was a broken man, he did not care what happened to him, he shuffled to his house and went straight to th e munja and lay on it fully expecting the whole thing to collapse into the hole underneath, but nothing happened. His little daughter ran to him and peered underneath “Papa, I can see a man in robes holding up your munja” she shouted. He knew, he just knew. Maskeen jumped off the bed and before he knew it Guru Nanak Dev Ji stood before him. He fell to his knees placing his head on Guru Jis feet. Guru Ji sat him down. “Oh Maskeen, you were willing to lose everything for me, I am now here for you”

Guru Sahib Ji blessed him and said that he would be remembered for always.

Fifth saroop, Guru Arjan Dev Ji adds Maskeens name to the 15th Sloke in Sukhmani Sahib Ji – “ Sukhi vasay Maskeenia aap nivaar tallay, wudday wuddy hunkarian Nanak garab gallay. “

Gurdwara Pathar Sahib, Leh

Gurdwara Sahib

Gurdwara Pathar Sahib, is a beautiful Gurudwara sahib constructed in the memory of Guru Nanak, about 25 miles away from Leh, on the Leh-Kargil road, 12000 ft above the sea level. The Gurdwara was built in 1517 to commemorate the visit of Guru Nanak Dev, the founder Guru of the Sikh faith, to the Ladakh region.

During his lifetime Guru Nanak travelled to many distant places and one such place was Tibet. Guru Nanak is well respected by Tibetan Buddhists who consider him a saint; The Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Buddhists in Tibet, has confirmed this in his discussions with some Sikh leaders saying that Tibetans revere Guru Nanak as a Buddhist saint under the name of Guru Gompka Maharaj.

The Rock thrown by demon towards

Guru Nanak

In the late 1970s, during the construction of the Leh-Nimu road, a large boulder was found in the middle of the road bed covered with Buddhists prayer flags by Lamas. The bulldozer driver tried to push and throw away the stone but it did not move and in the process the blades broke and the work stopped. The driver had a dream that night not to move the stone.

He narrated his dream to the army officer who did not give any importance to it. When all efforts to remove it failed it was decided to blow it apart with dynamite the next day. That night the army officer also had a dream not to remove the stone but he again disregarded it. The next day being Sunday he and the workers were visited, early in the morning, by several Lamas and Ladhakhis who came and told them a true story of Baba Nanak and the unyielding boulder.

On enquiring further he was told that this pathar they had been having so much trouble with was a "Wax Statue" (a mould with a negative impression) of their revered Lama Nanak and it contained the imprints of his shoulders, head and backside. He was told that during the period of 1515-18 when Guru Nanak was returning back to Punjab through Srinagar, after travelling to Sikkim, Nepal and Tibet, he rested at this place. It is believed that Guru Nanak Dev reached Leh via Sikkim, Nepal, Tibet and Yarkhand. The place is revered by both the local lamas and Sikh sangat. Currently the Army is looking after the gurdwara.

As per a local legend, there lived a wicked demon who terrorised the people in the area where the gurdwara is situated. The people prayed to the Almighty for help. It is said that Guru Nanak heard their woes and came to their aid. He settled down on the bank of the river below the hill where the wicked demon lived. The Guru blessed the people with sermons and became popular in the area. The locals called him Nanak Lama. The demon got into a rage and decided to kill Guru Nanak Dev.

Footprint in the rock

One morning when the Guru was sitting in meditation, the demon rolled down a large pathar (boulder) from the hilltop, with the intention of killing the Guru. The boulder came rolling down and when it touched the Guru's body, it softened like warm wax and came to a halt against Guru Nanak's back. The Guru kept on meditating unhurt and undisturbed. Thinking that the Guru had been killed, the demon came down and was taken aback to see the Guru deep in meditation. In a fit of anger, he tried to push the boulder with his right foot, but as the pathar still had the softness of warm wax, his foot got embedded in it. Pulling his foot from the boulder the demon was dumfounded to see the impression his foot had just left in the stone.

On seeing this, the demon realised his own powerlessness as compared with the spiritual powers of the great Guru. He fell at the feet of Guru Nanak Dev and begged for forgiveness. Guru Sahib advised him to get rid of his wicked ways and asked him to lead a life of a noble person. This changed the life of the demon, who gave up evil deeds and started serving the people.

Guru Nanak Dev thereafter continued his holy journey towards Srinagar via Kargil. The pathar pushed down by the demon, with the imprint of the body of Guru Nanak Dev as the the footprint of the demon, is at present on display in Gurdwara Pathar Sahib. It is said that since the visit of Guru Sahib (in 1517) to 1965, the local lamas have held the pathar sacred and offered prayers to it.

How to Visit

Gurdwara Pather Sahib, Aerial View

To visit the gurdwara, one can take, a direct flight to Leh from New Delhi,JAMMU & SRINAGAR and stay in a hotel at Leh. To visit Leh by road there are two routes,one is via SRINAGAR {J&K} and the other is via MANALI{HP}.Both the roads are closed from November to May every year due to excessive snowfall and remain open from June to Oct. As Leh is located at a high altitude, one can have breathing problems due to the paucity of oxygen. Visitors are advised to consult their doctors and arrange proper woolen clothes before embarking on this journey as the temperature falls beyond -20 degree in Winter. The 25-km road from Leh to the Gurdwara Pathar Sahib is in good condition. Visitors can go by bus or taxi. The Gurdwara Sahib is located next to the main road near Magnetic Hill India.

Bhai Lehna Ji's Devotion

A famous yogi came to visit Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji in Kartarpur. He was impressed with such a lovely community and he said to the Guru “Wow, this is heavenly! what a beautiful community!” Guru Nanak said “You will see just how beautiful.” The next day Guru Ji announced to the whole village, “We will all go on a walk together!” Everyone got ready for the walk, but something strange began to happen in the air. Dark clouds began to fill the sky and the wind started blowing very harshly.
When Guru Nanak came out of his house, he had a very wild look in his eyes. He had some ferocious dogs with him that were barking madly. He was wearing heavy clothes and had a sharp knife in his hand. Without saying anything Guru Nanak Ji started walking with great speed. The people thought, “What is going on? Guru Ji is not acting normal.” Some of them got spooked and didn’t want to follow him on this strange walk. Something didn’t seem quite right to them.
But many people felt that Guru ji had given them an order to follow him for the walk. So they listened to the master and tried to catch up to his fast pace. The walk was longer than normal. They didn’t take the usual paths so it was difficult to go along. But wait! What was this!? They started to notice there were copper coins laying on the ground! Guru ji must have put them there. They thought, “He must be rewarding us for our obedience in following on this strange journey.” So they took their share of copper coins and went back to the safety of their homes.
Those who were left kept going for quite a while longer. This was starting to become a much, much longer walk then they had expected. The Guru was walking on, and on, and they kept up. But it was starting to be too much. Just then they saw something completely unexpected. There were silver coins laying on the ground! They thought, “Guru Nanak is great! We’re very lucky that we waited longer and went through the extra effort. Now we have silver coins! They picked up the coins and left.
Not many people were left at this point. Those who stayed surely had a lot of devotion to keep walking this far and not stop to pick up the copper and silver coins. Then guess what happened next? Gold coins appeared on the ground! The people who picked up loads of gold coins were very happy. “It was well worth it to follow the Guru today,” they thought.
Guru Ji kept madly walking on and by this time the only ones left were two Sikhs, Bhai Lehna, the Yogi and the Guru. They kept on walking. They came to a corpse lying in the road. It was covered with a sheet and it smelled really bad. “Okay!” said the Guru. “Stop here. I want you to eat this corpse.” The two Sikhs didn’t know what to do with such a weird command, they simply turned and ran away. Bhai Lehna Ji only knew to obey his Guru out of love, he said “Where shall I start? At the head or the toes?” Guru Nanak yelled, “Start in the middle!!” Bhai Lehna devotedly went to the corpse to do as he was told, and when he lifted the sheet off the body something had changed. The awful smell of the dead body had turned sweet. Under the sheet all he saw was Prashad!
He took a handful of the Prashad and he offered it to the Guru. Now Guru Nanak looked at the Yogi and said “See, I have many followers but only one true student.” The Yogi said “This man is like your ‘ang’, a limb of your own body, he is a part of you.” Guru Nanak named Lehna ‘Angad’. The Sikh who was so devoted he was the same as the Guru. Angad’s humility and devotion completely ate up his ego. That is why he became worthy of sitting on the throne of Guruship and carrying on the light of Guru Nanak. Through his devotion Lehna became Guru Angad Dev Ji.