The three merchants and Peak Hour Sales

There were 3 merchants and each one of them owned a shop in such locality where majority of sales took place during the 3 peak hours of the day. These hours were not suitable for the merchants because they clashed with their other commitments.

The first merchant was outright stupid and ignorant and did not realize the importance of opening his shop during peak hours. He did not open his shop during the rush hours and as such totally missed sales during that time. For obvious reasons, he was posting records losses, year after year.

The second merchant was a bit lazy and careless. He did used to manage to open his shop during the peak hours but either slept once he opened his shop or remained distracted. He did used to manage to get some benefit of opening the shop during peak hours but still lost a lot of sales by sleeping in his shop or by remaining distracted. He also incurred a lot of losses because of theft incidents while he slept in his shop. He was barely breaking-even as far as profits were concerned.

The third merchant was smart. He not only opened his shop right on time and much before the peak hours but he also stayed awake and concentrated on maximizing the sales during this period. He did not let his mind get distracted and focused on sales alone. He also kept his eyes open for thieves and thus avoided theft-related losses. He made huge profits, year after year and his customers were very happy with him.

I hope we can be like the smart merchant and ensure that we don't lose peak hours related sales and avoid thefts during this time.

Kulbir Singh

Right on, I will remember that.

OK BHAI SAHIB JEE
I will try to be like the smart merchant.

I like this analogy of peak hour sales. Someone was recently trying to convince me that there is no need to wake up for amritvela since "amritvela is any time that you remember and say Vaheguru's name", but this only shows an ignorance of how to reap laaha from naam.

Beautiful.

There was also a forth merchant. He not only experienced that at peak hours, his profits were incredible but thought that to truly be successful, he must be open 24 hours, inclusive of the peak period, to maximise sales. He not only remained aware but even installed CCTV so that thieves could not access his stock from any direction. Customers flocked wide and far & very soon this merchant became the most successful of all.

(a bit like Tesco has done in the UK!)

vaheguru

You are correct Manpreet Kaur jeeo. Thanks for telling us about the 4th super smart merchant.

Kulbir Singh

Veer Kulbir Singh jeo,

Dass wanna discuss remaining step between Rainsbaaee and doing Nitname is Cold shower!
Even if someone doesn't sleep in Rainsbaaee, is doing Ishnaan (cold shower) a must when sitting in Rainsbaaee.

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ਸਜਣਾ ਖਲਕ ਰਹੀ ਇਕ ਪਾਸੇ,ਸਾਥੋਂ ਰੁਸ ਗਿਆ ਸਾਡਾ ਸਾਇਆ

Once upon a time there lived a merchant by the name of Manmukh. Manmukh
lived in a city called PunPaap-Pur. PunPaap-Pur was founded on the " give
and take " philosophy". Everyone in this city was named Manmukh and everyone
who lived in this city had no distinct identity.

Throughout the course of the day, the residents of this city would trade with one another. They would take their plastic, copper, and steel tuprerwar go to the public market and trade with one another. Each citizen of
PunPaap-Pur loved one another because they saw their fellowman as a means to increase their wealth.
Their love and friendship with one another was strictly on the basis of economic gain
If one merchant did not trade fairly with his fellowman he created a debt with the recipient. However, if
someone made a fair trade they would still create bondage, since the recipient would be more motivated
to do business with such fair traders in the future. The desire of wealth was creating more and more bonds
between the residents of PunPaap-Pur.

One day Manmukh started to suffer and decided to postpone transactions with the other Manmukhs, and during
this postponement Manmukh started to think what is the purpose of all this give and take trading.
Slowly by slowly he started to learn that this city was an illusion and thus he had hopes to leave the city.
One day his fortune changed dramatically and he met someone from the neighboring city " ANandpur ".
The persons name was Gurmukh Singh and he offered manmukh a chance to visit his city which Manmukh did not
hesitate to accept.

While in ANandpur, Manmukh noticed the residents have no individual idenity everything they do is for the common
good, and for the sole purpose of pleasing their holy master. Every person in this city was named Gurmukh. Private
ownership was a foreign concept to the residents of ANandpur. In this city, everyone cooked and ate from
an Iron bowls. They would work the fields, and whatever wealth they would earn they would pay for their
basic necessities and the rest would be given to the common good.

The citizens lived on the words of their holy master; thus they became an embodiment of their masters word. Therefore, citizens of this city truly loved one another as they saw their master in each other, and so it was the aspiration of every Anandpur citizen to serve and please each and every citizen of Anandpur since they viewed each citizen as their master. Manmukh was bewildered with the bliss of this city and he begged Gurmukh for a home in this city. Gurmukh replied one has to apply for citizen ship by the council of 5, only then can they stay here. The day he applied for citizenship the council of 5 asked him if he was willing to live and die off of iron. He agreed and promised he would eat and live off food cooked in iron and he would raise the iron sword if someone in the city of Manmukhs started to torment the people and prevent them from going to AnandPur.

After his promise his name was changed to Gurmukh, and he was rewarded with 5 gifts . One of the gifts included an iron handcuff to remind him that he is now a slave of the Iron community, and trading in copper, plastic, and steel was forbidden. He noticed how some curious Gurmukhs become curious with the land of Manmukhs and after trading with these Manmukhs they started becoming confused about the principles of the Iron community. He saw how they broke the laws of ANadpur while visiting PunPaap-Pur and thus were banished from the city. Even though these Gurmukhs became banished from ANandpur and turned into Manmukhs, GUrmukh still saw his GUrmukh master in them and decided to help them out. He remembered the pain he lived through while living in the city of manmukhs, and thus kindly asked his master to give him the strength to enter the city of manmukhs and help bring back the strayed Gurmukhs to the city of ANandpur. His master gave him approval but warned him to stay distinct while in the city of Manmukhs. Following the
advice of his master he was able to bring many Manmukhs back to the city of Anandpur and thus complete his mission in life.

Good story Sukhdeep Singh jeeo.

Quote

Privateownership was a foreign concept to the residents of ANandpur. In this city, everyone cooked and ate from
an Iron bowls. They would work the fields, and whatever wealth they would earn they would pay for their
basic necessities and the rest would be given to the common good.

Sounds a bit like Soviet Union, except for iron bowls.

Kulbir Singh

Kulbir Singh Wrote:

>
> Sounds a bit like Soviet Union, except for iron
> bowls.

I dont believe Sikhi is a Capitalist or Communist religion.

Capitalism teaches one to be self- interested and in some cases it makes many
people greedy. According to Guru Sahib wealth and private property is the ancient
cause of conflict between man, and this conflict has lead to the destruction
of man ( the world)
ਧਨ ਅਰ ਭੂਮਿ ਪੁਰਾਤਨ ਬੈਰਾ ॥ ਜਿਨ ਕਾ ਮੂਆ ਕਰਤ ਜਗ ਘੇਰਾ ॥

On the hand Communism forces people to live a set way of life. They
force people to give to the common community. This way the people
forget who is the real giver. Guru Saihb on the other hand gives the option to
his GUriskhs to give and offer. Through this giving
it becomes a self learning process where GUrsikhs learn they have nothing
to give as everything already belong to him and he is really the true giver. Many
of the lands where Historical gurdwaras were built were donated by Gurmukhs. For example,
our holy city of Anandpur Sahib was first donated by a Gursikh ( wife of Deep Chand),
but Guru Sahib did not take the offer and instead reimbursed the queen, because
Guru Sahib is the true giver and nobody can really give to him.

One thing for sure is Puratan SInghs had no sense of self ownership.
They followed Hukum, and gave ( returned) everything to their Guru.

ਧਰਮ ਕਿਰਤ ਪਾਇ, ਖਾਲਸਾ ਸੋ ਜਿਨ ਤਨ, ਮਨ, ਧਨ ਗੁਰੂ ਅਕਾਲ ਪੁਰਖ ਕੋ ਸੌਪਿਆ ਹੈ

They accepted Gurus Hukum and abandoned any sense of " Mine Mine"

ਜਉ ਲਉ ਮੇਰੋ ਮੇਰੋ ਕਰਤੋ ਤਉ ਲਉ ਬਿਖੁ ਘੇਰੇ ॥
ਮਨੁ ਤਨੁ ਬੁਧਿ ਅਰਪੀ ਠਾਕੁਰ ਕਉ ਤਬ ਹਮ ਸਹਜਿ ਸੋਏ ॥੩॥

Only those Gursikhs who offer everything to their Guru will treat
this world as a dream ,and while in this dream they will stay in sehaj ( contentment)