After visiting many places and showering blessings on many people and moving slowly like a breeze the Guru reached Hardwar. Here a festival was going on and there was a hustle-bustle. A large number of men, women and children had come.
The Guru saw people in ignorance and blind following of tradition. People were having a bath in the river Ganga in cold water and washing the body but they mistakenly believed that they were washing from their mind the dirt of their sins. They were dipping their heads in the holy water but their minds were wandering aimlessly. They were offering water to their ancestors and reciting the holy prayer but in their homes, before coming one brother had fought with another, and here also their minds were full of rivalries and confrontations. They were not ready to leave their evil deeds but they were making a lot of noise for the bath.
I am first, I am first: they were fighting.
Pandits were asking for charities. If one did not give, then they were threatening to invoke a curse. Some people were giving. But from people who were not willing to give, they were taking by threatening to invoke a curse on them, and they called it charity.
In the morning flowers were offered to the river. People were having a dip and offering water to their forefathers. Water was being thrown towards the sun and it was believed to be reaching their forefathers.
When the Guru saw this ignorance, blind following of tradition and the plight of the pilgrims in this holy city, he felt sorry for them.
So, one day he went and stood in the river. The sun had risen from the east. He turned his back to the east, stood facing the west and started offering water. When the people saw him offering water towards the west, they came near and started talking to each other. Soon a crowd collected and started staring at him threateningly and asked in an angry voice: Who are you? Are you a Hindu? Why are you offering water towards the west? Towards the west is Mecca. Say, if you are Hindu, then you offer water to your ancestors towards the east. See the sun has come up in the east. Say, who are you?
The Guru felt sorry at their ignorance and wrong belief. He laughed at their ignorance and with a miraculous and merciful glance asked: Why are you offering water towards the east?
Some people: We are offering it to our ancestors and some of us are offering to the sun.
Miraculous Guru: How far are your ancestors and how far is the sun?
Some people: City of the forefathers. Maybe millions of kilometers. Even the sun is far.
Guru: Then, it is O.K.
And the Guru started throwing water towards the west again.
One pandit (from the crowd): You have got busy in your work. We have replied to you. You should also reply to us.
Guru: Well, gentlemen, I have my village this side. My fields are there. This season we had no rain. I thought I might send water from here. Maybe my fields are saved from drought.
On listening to this, everybody laughed. Some said: Seems to be mad. Some said: See even these days there are people who are so simple. The Ganga water is falling back in the Ganga and he thinks it is reaching the fields.
One intelligent person (to the Guru): Listen Gentleman, Why are you tiring your hands? This water cannot reach your fields. Your fields are far away. Even the Ganga is flowing towards the east and your fields are towards the west.
Guru: O.K. You mean this water will not reach my fields that are on this earth and the water that you are throwing shall reach your forefathers millions of kilometers away. Do you mean like that?
O Great Guru Nanak. Novel is your method. People think you have lost. But in your losing, those who were questioning have lost.
One person: Well, He is telling the truth.
Second person: We remained in mistaken beliefs. He says genuinely. If the water cannot reach a hundred kilometers, how can it reach millions of kilometers away?
Third person: He has opened our eyes.These pandits have been fooling us. Fourth person: Well. Didn't I say he is miraculous? What a wonderful thing he has said.
Fifth person (looking towards the Guru): Well, respected friend, you have spoken an honest truth and it is gripping the heart but this is a thinking only. Guru: Your thinking only is taking you to hell.
The person: Our thinking is of God. When we are thinking of God, how can you say we will go to hell?
Guru: Yes, you do have a garland of beads in your hand but your mind is remembering wife, sons, riches, glory, trading, horses and all sorts of desires. The mind will go where it is attached. The mind will go after the desires in which it is immersed now. Water is being offered to the ancestors but the mind is wandering aimlessly towards worldly desires. You are deftly sitting on the bank with a garland of beads, with eyes closed and your mind is wandering after worldly desires. You are having a dip in cold water. Your mouth is trembling with cold and uttering O God, O God, but your mind in that cold is still wandering after worldly desires. Where your mind goes, there goes your salvation.
The person: What you say is genuine but how do you know that the mind is wandering after worldly desires? Maybe they are really devoted.
The Guru then read the minds of some people who were sitting in meditation on the bank of the river. Regarding one person, he said that his mind is in Multan thinking of business, second in Kabul and the third in Delhi. When he thus read the minds and spoke what they were thinking, then the people became serious. They gave respect and became devoted to the Guru. The Guru, then sat on the bank and the congregation swarmed around. The Guru guided them to come out of their ignorance and mistaken beliefs and the blind following of tradition. He put them on the true path, the path of love of the Lord.
He said: The recitation of the Lord's name with love is the true path. Remain in remembrance. While sitting, standing, sleeping and walking recite the Lord's name. Feel the presence of the Lord when you recite His name. The Lord is omnipresent. He is here, there, everywhere. But we remain in the forgetfulness of the Lord.
As the air is there everywhere, it remains with us while sitting standing, sleeping and walking but we cannot see. Similarly the Lord is there with us all the time. Love, sweetness, happiness springs from Him always. In His remembrance, we will get all His love, sweetness and happiness. If our mind remains immersed in His love, then even after death, we will go to Him.
You may do your worldly chores like earning and looking after the family as a God given duty. Earn in an honest way and from your earning give something to the poor and needy.
You must do some work to earn. Don't remain a non-earner. Don't make others uncomfortable by living on their earning. Don't be a burden on others by living on their earning. Do any work but do it well and do it honestly.
Well. The mind will go towards work. How will it remain in the remembrance of the Lord?
Like this: Use your hands for work. Apply your mind that much to work that is necessary. Work with diligence. Don't deceive and don't do evil to anyone. Do your work properly and thoroughly.
Now, there is a lot of spare time like early morning, evening, night when one is free. Spend this time in the recitation of the Lord's name. Secondly, when the hands are working the mind should remain in the recitation of the Lord's name. With time your mind will not forget the presence of the Lord. Forgetfulness is the veil between the Lord and us. Remove this veil by remembrance and recitation. While reciting one feels the presence of the Lord. To feel the presence of the Lord is the fundamental principle. The recitation of the name reverses the direction of the mind that was going on the road of forgetfulness. It reverses the direction of the mind from the road of forgetfulness to the road of remembrance.
The Guru said: Recitation of the Lord's name is everything.
The Guru blessed everyone with the Lord's name.
After that, the people who were greatly impressed by him, asked the Guru: Please come and have food with us.
When they went to the kitchen site, there the Brahmins had drawn lines on the floor and had washed the kitchen and were preparing food. When the Brahmins who were wearing very clean clothes went inside, the Guru said that the kitchen has become dirty. How can we have food in the dirty kitchen?
The Brahmins (with folded hands) said: The wood has been washed with water. The kitchen has been scrubbed. The wheat has been washed with water and dried. We had our bath and then we have started cooking.
Guru: But you have entered and made it dirty.
Brahmins: No untouchable person has come. We are pure Brahmins of high caste. No sweeper or lower born has come. No low caste singer or butcher has come.
Guru: 1. What is the good of cleaning your body when the thing that makes everyone dirty is the dirty mind; the mind that does not keep the animal instincts in control is dirty. In fact, the animal instincts are having an upper hand on the mind. See, how much dirt is on your mind? 'The mind that is not reined by the intuitive mind' is it not like a lower caste singer who sings dirty songs and makes the mind dirty?
2. 'To be without forgiveness, to be cruel, to do evil to others, being selfish and looking for your own gains only' is it not like being a merciless person? 'To fleece people for your personal gains' does this habit not give a dirty touch to others?
3. 'To criticize people with the intention of maligning someone's good reputation' is maligning not a habit of the dirty mind?
'To have a desire to gain prominence and downgrade another person so that you become more prominent' is it not a dirty desire? First you make your mind dirty by listening to the backbiting and adverse talk and then make other people's mind dirty by talking adversely and talking ill of others. Is it not a dirty habit? In this way people are getting into the bad habit of talking ill of others. This habit of criticizing is the dirtiest habit that makes your mind dirty. In house, in galleries, wherever four persons sit they talk ill of others. It is interesting to see that at another meeting-point those very persons are being criticized. So, criticizing others is the third dirty thing that makes the mind dirty.
4. Then, anger is the worst dirty thing. Anger is a fire that burns you. If somebody frowns at you, then you also get angry. The person burns himself and the anger burns you also. It affects the body and thejnind.
Now, you look inside your mind and say whether you have made the kitchen dirty or not.
These Brahmins had become devoted to the Guru when he read the minds of some of the people, but their habits and misdeeds were the same as before. When they heard the Guru telling them their faults then they fell at his feet and said: Please forgive us. We are sinners.
The benevolent Guru said: Speak the truth and keep control over your passions. Do good deeds. At the end those will be considered good that have not carried the weight of sins on their minds.
Brahmins: Please make us your disciples.
Guru: My discipleship is a bit difficult. But it is easy also.
Whatever money you have got, you have earned by dishonest means. You have collected money by fleecing people. Give it away in the name of the Lord. On listening to him the Brahmins readily gave away the money they had to the needy.
On seeing this, the Guru showered blessings on them. The Guru blessed them with the Lord's name. The Guru blessed them the love of the Lord. The Guru blessed them the recitation of the Lord's name and made them feel the presence of the Lord within the body and outside in nature. They got ecstasy. He put them on the path of love of the Lord. They learnt to live in the incessant recitation of the Lord's name and they got the sensation of the Lord in their mind that gave a feeling of the presence of the Lord all the time.
In this way, when many people became disciples of the Guru and deviated from artificiality and hypocrisy, then, a group of Brahmins and pandits came to the Guru to tell him the good points of the sacrificial rituals and the yagnas with the hope that the impressive and pious Guru may adopt the traditional rituals. They said a lot in praise for the traditional rituals and yagnas.
But the Guru said: What is good is always good but focusing the mind on mistaken beliefs can never be good. I wish to put everybody on the path of love of the Lord. Those who tread on it will be blessed. Those on whose forehead, it is not written, can just forget about it.
Don't waste wheat and rice and refined butter by burning it in fire. People are suffering and are poor. Give food to the saints and other needy people. This is the sacrificial ritual and this is the yagna.
Rest is fame. I do not want any fame. Fame is like a fly that sits on the rice pudding and infects it.
A man of God gets strength from the Lord. He does not require the fame-fly. The Guru's command to the Brahmins is repeated once again:
The 'recitation of the Lord's name with love' is the true path. Remain in remembrance. While sitting, standing, sleeping and walking recite the Lord's name. Feel the presence of the Lord when you recite His name. The Lord is omnipresent. He is here, there, everywhere.
" Recitation of the Lord's name is everything ".
□ L) J J