saith Guru Nanak :
Vain it is to brag of one’s caste and fame All creatures are equally under God's protection His true merit will appear only when put to test.
he Barrister and his wife had left the village quite some time
back. The court case relating to the motor car had been decided and the alleged offenders acquitted. The Barrister was now no longer a stone-hearted man. He had compensated Nathu, Khaira and others with money. He was stubborn no more; he had realised his error and expressed regret. Life in © the village was peaceful. At dawn the villagers would start their daily chores while they listened to Gurbani. In the village shrine men and women, old and young assembled. One day at the conclusion of the congregational prayer a Sikh got up and said, “Trouble is brewing in the village. We must find a way to stop it.” Another Sikh asked,” What sort of trouble?” The first one replied, “The village scavengers have collected funds to raise a thatched building outside the village where they have installed a copy of the Guru Granth Sahib; they plan to have their own congregation and use the building for elementary education of their children.” The Baba listened to all this and said, “You call it trouble? Have you read the holy Granth? The Guru himself says, Even a despised outcaste turns noble in whose heart lodges the Lord.’ Ifsuch alow person is not allowed to utter God’s name, why has the Guru called him noble? Vain it is to have pride of caste and name. All creatures live in God's shadow. Instead of getting offended you should rejoice that your example has encouraged others to follow the right path.
Itis a matter of great joy that even the lowhiest among the low consider Guru Nanak as their own. When they recite His word, they will no longer remain despicable. The Guru himself has said:
lam among lowest of the low. With such shallI be.
Not with those considering themselves great.
God’s grace falls on the place where those considered low are cherished.
If a low-born person follows the right path,
he will be elevated.
Inmy view, we should rather help them in their good cause. If needed, we should contribute funds and some one, among us should volunteer to teach them Gurmukhi.” One person retorted, “Baba this will not be right.” .
The Sun was quite bright by now, therefore all had come out to sit in the open. By this time Ranjha had also arrived. He too expressed grave doubts about Baba’s proposal and said, “If the low caste people become literate, they will consider themselves our equals and then refuse to work for us.” The Baba gauged the gravity of the situation, smiled and said, “I tellyouanincident. Once upon a time, ahermitlivedin a village. One morning he saw that some travellers had spent the preceding night in the village. It was very cold, so they had made a fire by burning twigs to keep themselves warm. In the morning when they were gone, monkeys from the nearby forest gathered around the fire-place and warmed themselves. As the heat decreased, they came closer and huddled together. When the fire was completely extinguished, the monkeys still continued sitting there because now the warmth of their bodies was Keeping them cosy. The twigs collected by the travellers were lying nearby, but no monkey had the intellegence to light the fire. The hermit who was watching all this thought that they were also created by the same God and like human beings they also deserved pity and help. He felt that the innocent beings in the forest were suffering because they did not know how to light a fire and decided to teach them. So, he
chose his own pet monkey as the first trainee. This monkey had already learnt many tricks. The hermit used the policy of the carrot and stick to train the monkey. With all his efforts he could succeed only to the extent that the monkey was able to pic up embers of fire ona stone or to pick up a burning twig and put small pieces of wood on it. This way, like a trained parrot, who says something without understanding it, he learnt the procedure without understanding it, he learnt the procedure without understanding its real purpose. The monkey learnt only this much that wherever he saw a fire burning, he tried to pick up a burning twig to make another fire. When the hermit saw that his efforts were bearing fruit, he took the monkey to a far away place and left it there so that the trained monkey could show his fellow beings his tricks and they might imitate him. At first the monkey in the forest were terrified by thenewcomer’s activities, but when winter set in, they enjoyed sitting around the fire and warmed themselves. In this way monkey learnt the trick of making fire. One day the foolish monkey put a burning piece oflog at the foot of a dry tree and the tree caught fire and this led to a conflagration. It was dry weather, so many © trees were fire-prone. The forest fire spread far and wide. It was still far away when the hermit came to know about the devastating fire. Fearing that the fire would soon reach his place, the hermit panicked. He assembled his companions and ran towards a safe place, and ultimately reached a Gurdwara which was situated on the other side of the forest. When the hermit narrated the whole story to the priest of the Gurdwara, the latter smiled and said, “Listen, revered sir, this is the result of your benevolence. The art of making fire, which you taught the monkey, proved of no use to him and to his community. It was more of asportto him, and has reduced the whole forest to ashes and resulted in the death of many monkeys too. The very monkey whom you taught the trick of making fire must have perished and his folly has burnt your hut too.” The hermit agreed with what the priest said and concluded, “I thought of the monkeys’s welfare but quite the opposite has happened.”
On hearing this story Ranjha was anxious to tell the Baba that he had meant exactly what the Baba had said. With all the pride of making a good point, Ranjha said, “Baba, you are great! | meant exactly the same thing.”
The Baba smiled and said, “Ranjha, but ! mean something else. I mean that if you train the foolish animals, they would harm themselves because of lack of understanding, but if you educate human beings in the ways of goodness, goodness will multiply. So, our effort should be to teach the so called lowbom to think right and act justly, and when they are able to study the holy Granth, they will realize that true knowledge always aims at the welfare of all. In this way they will become noble souls. The point to understand is that if the scavengers are to study the holy Book on their own or aided by some person with a vested interest, they are bound to behave like the monkeys, but if someone from among you takes the trouble of explaining to them the correct meaning of Gurbani and tells them how to live a religious, honest and joyous life, they will not only be happy themselves but make others happy too. What I suggest is that we should help them in their efforts and ensure that they understand the holy word correctly. But if we fail in our duty, the trouble-makers will establish contact with them and create harm. You should adopt an attitude of helping them in learning the right interpretation and correct meaning of Gurbani and training them to lead a life according to the teachings of Gurbani. You will then see that everything will be proper. If we do not do this, they may fall into a trap, adopt the wrong path, make sinister interpretations of Gurbani and start believing in superstitions. We should guide them against such evils.”
The Baba’s suggestion and plan was approved by all and they declared with one voice, “Baba, we agree with you and. we shall carry out your plan.” The trouble was that nobody volunteered to go to the new place to teach the outcastes. sensing the situation, the Baba said, “Friends, we must follow the foot-steps of our great forefathers. I hope, you all know that one such blessed man was Baba Dhanna Singh. He was a
resident of Philaur, which is situated on our side of the river Sutle]. He was a holy man known for his kind nature and other qualities. He had been initiated into religion by Bhai Vasti Ram who was a Saint and had faith in Guru Granth Sahib. He led a pious life and was kind to everybody. He used to go to the nearby villages to collect food to feed the destitute, the homeless and the needy. The name of God never left his lips.” “One day, it so happened that when he was returning from a nearby village named Khanianwala, he saw a child of a scavenger caught in the thorns of a bush. The more the child tried to extricate himself the more he was trapped. His shirt was torn into shreds. Blood was oozing from his body. Many Hindus and Muslims saw all this but none was willing to help the crying child lest they should be polluted by his touch. When the Babasaw the child in pain andalsosaw the peoplestanding nearby, but not willing to come forward and help, the Baba placed the basket containing food on the ground and extricated the child from the thorny bushes. He gave the child his love, washed his hands and feet and then washed his own hands © and feet and gave the child something to eat. He took the child to its mother who was picking cotton in a nearby field. When the Baba returned and, after washing his hands and feet once again, picked up the basket, the people standing nearby said, ‘Baba, throw this food away, it is polluted and therefore it has become unfit for human consumption. Do not take this food to the Gurdwara.’ The Baba placed his basket on the ground, lifted the covering cloth and examining the food, said, ‘Friends, the food is as good as it was.’ The people standing nearby said, ‘No, Baba, this has been polluted.’ The Baba put a morsel in his mouth and said, ‘It tastes the same like it does everyday.’ This innocent reply made everybody laugh ashamedly. Then the. Baba gave a piece of bread to everybody and said, Taste it yourselves and judge what change has taken place in it.’ The people knew the Baba’s saintly ways and some out of awe and some out of respect, ate the food offered by him. Brethren, our ancestors used to brush aside all superstitions and that was because they were blessed with true wisdom. They were true
devotees of God and were kind and considerate to everybody. This is not a concocted story, this is how it really happened. You decide yourself whether you wish to side with him and his _ like who came forward to extricate the child from the they bushes or those who were afraid of being polluted and were mere on lookers. If nobody among you comes forward, then your Baba will go to teach them.” ~The Babasaidto them, “Thereis a street in Amritsar where for centuries the scavengers have been worshipping Guru Granth Sahib and reciting the holy Gurbani. It has been the practice of our elders that instead of keeping their knowledge to themselves they spread the holy Word all around. I am not saying something new, it has been our well-established tradition and convention. You also know that whosoever eamesly believed in God and wished to be initiated into the faith, our elders accepted such a person into the fold of our religion with open arms. Such persons have been initiated without any consideration of caste, creed, colour or country.” The ideas proposed by the Baba were so sound and. persuasive that everyone’s heart was moved and one young man instantly offered his services. The Baba raised a fund of twenty-five rmpees, bought the necessary furniture and other accessories and helped the scavengers in installing the holy Guru Granth Sahib. A mature person was deputed to teach the new leamers. Slowly but surely, they picked up the teaching and were soon able to understand and follow it and think on the right lines.