This incident is from 1950s. There was once a gursikh who decided to go out for darshan of Siri Anandpur Sahib and celebrate Holla Mahalla there. After getting darshan, as he was travelling back, he decided to rest for night at Siri Kiratpur Sahib. He found a good spot near a creek and parked his chariot there.

This person was a good gursikh, who used to do regular Naam simran. One’s who do Naam simran know that most of the time, worldly thoughts become a big hindrance to concentration on Naam. Only fortunate ones are able to break the bonds of maaiya and other thoughts of this world and concentrate on Naam. Normally, we feel lucky if we can concentrate even for few moments.

As he was about to rest, he was accosted by a simple looking gursikh who seemed uneducated. This gursikh had a cow with him and requested the Gursikh with chariot to allow him to tie his cow to his chariot. The gursikh with cow did not want to sleep alone and was looking for company in this isolated area. The Gursikh with chariot too was happy to get company.

Pretty soon, the second gursikh tied his cow there and few meters away from the chariot lied down on floor. He was asleep in no time. The first Gursikh on the other hand suddenly got a weird thought that perhaps this second gursikh had come to him to steal his gold watch. As soon as this thought came to his mind, all his sleepiness went away. He started thinking that the second gursikh was going to steal his gold watch as soon as he went to sleep.

With such intense and stressful thoughts, the first gursikh could not sleep and now had a severe headache. All night he could not sleep and kept waking up to see if his watch was safe.

In the morning, at amritvela, the second gursikh got up, did ishnaan (take shower) and did his paath / simran. . The first gursikh who could not sleep all night had just slept for few moments when he was woken up by the second gursikh. The second gursikh offered him a glass of fresh milk from his cow and thanked him for letting him sleep near him.

As the second gursikh spoke to him, he (first gursikh) realised how big of a mistake he had committed by suspecting such a gursikh person to be a thief. He now looked at his face and saw how pious he looked. The first gursikh felt very ashamed of his behaviour.

In the meantime, the second gursikh left for his destination. The first gursikh was overwhelmed with feelings of guilt and shame. He thought to himself that he had come to Siri Anandpur Sahib to get laaha and sangat but instead had suspected such a good gursikh. To make matters worse, he lost his amritvela and an opportunity to concentrate on Naam and Baani.

What worse could have happened if he had taken his watch? He should have trusted the gursikh. As he was thinking along these lines and was on his way to his village, he approached the bridge for river Sutlej.

As he was in halfway through on the bridge, he took out his gold watch and threw it in the river.

As he did this, his mann (mind) said to him, “What did you do, you fool? You threw away such a good and expensive watch in the river. You are such a fool.”

“I will not give you a reason to hinder my simran and Amritvela in the future. O my Mind, you stayed entangled in the thoughts of this gold watch all night. If you had concentrated in simran, you could have earned million such watches.”

The Gursikh felt much better after this.

Daas,
Kulbir Singh

Adapted from a story written by Giani Amar Singh