When Guru Gobind Singh Ji came to stay at Paonta, word went round the hill states, and people began coming to him from all around.
And they came with a complaint.
There was a lion in the thick forest near by. A white one, they said, very tall, and it had stopped being afraid of people. It killed whatever it liked. Nobody would go that way any more. Could Guru Ji do something?
So next day he rode out with two hill kings, Medni Prakash Ji of Nahan and Fateh Shah of Srinagar, with Nand Chand Ji and a few soldiers, to the place where the lion lay. Even from a distance it was a frightening thing to look at.
Guru Ji turned to King Fateh Shah and invited him to go first.
No, said the king, quickly. Only you can do this one. Plenty of men have gone after that lion and it is the men who have died.
Then King Medni Prakash Ji tried to talk him out of it altogether. Why go near it at all, he said. We can build a platform. We can sit up on the elephants and shoot it from all sides, safely.
No, said Guru Ji. Let us fight.
And he got down off his horse, and took one steel shield on his arm and one sword in his hand, and walked out towards the lion alone.
The lion saw him coming and roared like thunder, and turned, and sprang.
Guru Ji moved a little to the side, caught the whole weight of it on his shield, and finished it with one stroke.
That was the lion.
Everybody there made a great noise about it, as people do. Word went round the hills. But the sakhi is only half over, because there was somebody else to be won, and he was harder work.
Near Paonta was a village called Sadhaura, and in it lived a holy man named Budhu Shah Ji. He owned land and had crowds of followers. He kept a separate kitchen so that Hindu ascetics could eat at his house, and he listened to all of them.
And he was not satisfied.
He had a question that nobody had been able to answer for him, and he had heard that somebody had come to Paonta, so he went, with his followers walking behind him.
How does a person meet the Lord? he asked.
The way night meets day, said Guru Ji.
Budhu Shah Ji thought about that. But when night meets day, the night is finished. There is no night left. So how is that a meeting?
Guru Ji watched him thinking and said: yes. What you are thinking is right.
But how? said Budhu Shah Ji.
Just as you have understood it, said Guru Ji.
Budhu Shah Ji did not want to say I do not understand, with his own followers sitting there listening. But there was no way round it. So he said it. When the day comes, the night dies.
When you meet the Lord, said Guru Ji, your ego dies. The Lord comes in. The I and the me go out.
Then how is that a meeting? said Budhu Shah Ji.
Your ego is a curtain, said Guru Ji. You hung it there yourself. Your wanting made it.
I have done every hard thing, said Budhu Shah Ji. Fasting. Long penances. Years of them. And the ego does not go.
Guru Ji said: it grew bigger. You did all of it with your ego, so it fed.
Well, calling the Lord is not in my hands, said Budhu Shah Ji.
Is putting down the ego in your hands? said Guru Ji.
That, said Budhu Shah Ji slowly, is in my hands.
Then put down as much of it as you can, said Guru Ji, and after that, keep the company of holy people.
I have come to the company of holy people, said Budhu Shah Ji. I am here.
Yes, said Guru Ji. And you came wearing your ego like a coat.
No, said Budhu Shah Ji.
Yes, said Guru Ji. Be sure of it. You brought your followers with you, and you are worried the whole time that somebody will go home and say our saint bowed to another man.
And Budhu Shah Ji sat there a long moment.
Then he said: you are right. I do have it in me.
Now tell me how it goes.