There was a merchant in Lahore called Mansukh Ji, and he loved Guru Nanak Dev Ji.
His work took him a long way from home, over the sea, to an island kingdom called Sangladeep, where a king named Shivnabh ruled. And while Mansukh Ji was there doing his trading, people noticed something about him.
He did not go without food on the days everybody else went without food. He did not bow down to the stone figures in the temples.
So they took him to the king.
This man has no religion in him, they said. He has come from far away and he does not do a single thing the way we do it, and people are angry.
The king looked at the merchant. You have not worshipped, he said, and you have not fasted. Why do you not do what your elders did.
And Mansukh Ji said: your majesty, let me tell you about a tree.
The world is a tree, he said, and high up in it is the fruit that everybody wants. And there are two ways to reach that fruit. There is the ant's way and there is the bird's way.
Go on, said the king.
The ant climbs, said Mansukh Ji. Up the trunk, out along the branch, slowly, slowly, and there is a very long way to go and a great many things that can go wrong before it gets there. Fasting and penance and pilgrimages and bowing to stone are the ant's way. People work terribly hard at it.
And the bird.
The bird has no road to follow, said Mansukh Ji. The bird just opens its wings and goes. Somebody who has found a true Guru, and turned their whole mind toward loving the Lord, and keeps the Lord's Name in them always, is a bird. There is nothing in the way. That is why the ant's way means nothing to me any more.
The king sat very still.
Merchant, he said, you are a lucky man. Now tell me. Who is this Guru of yours, who put his hand on your head.
And Mansukh Ji said the name.
Guru Nanak Dev Ji. And as he said it his eyes filled up.
The king felt it go into him like an arrow.
That name, he said. You have shot me with it. My heart has been struck and something is pulling me. Take me to him. I want to see him. I will give up this kingdom and go and live wherever he is, if you will only take me.
But Mansukh Ji shook his head.
There is no need to go and look for him, he said. You only have to want him, with love, and keep wanting him. He knows. He feels where love is, the way you feel warmth, and he goes to it. He will come.
How will I know him, said the king. Give me something. A sign.
He is all love, said Mansukh Ji. The moment you see him you will be pulled toward him. Your eyes will fill up, and you will not be able to help it. And when your head touches his feet, you will know.
Then stay here, said the king. Even looking at you does me good.
I cannot, said Mansukh Ji. I have work at home, and my family. But you have his love in you now, and I am his disciple, so what I am telling you will come true. He will come. It is simply what he does. He arrives where he is loved.
And he went home across the sea.
And King Shivnabh stayed in Sangladeep with a love in him that he had caught from a passing merchant, waiting for a man he had never met and would certainly know.
His mind, he said, was like a peacock waiting for the rain.
Goodnight. Somewhere, tonight, somebody is on their way to somebody who is waiting for them.