Bhai Lehna's True Devotion

When Guru Nanak was nearly 70 years old, a visitor arrived to meet him. Talking with the Guru, seeing his serene surroundings at Kartarpur, the devotion with which he was served, the spiritual environments, the langar facilities and the community of disciples, the visitor said to Guru Nanak, "Well done. You must be pleased with the life you've created. So many people studying with you; being your students; walking the path of self-liberation."

Guru Nanak looked at the visitor and said, "You have not looked deeply enough." The visitor was surprised by Guru Nanak's response. "What do you mean, Guru Ji? You have so many Sikhs who respond to your every word. They follow your teachings devotedly." "Look again," laughed Nanak. "Let me show you how many are truly devoted." So the Guru in his wisdom sent word to his followers that he was going on a holy walk, and that he desired his Sikhs to come with him on this mission.

The Walk

"Please wait for me outside. I'll join you shortly, and you will see beyond all doubt what is devotion, and what is simply emotion." In anticipation of being in the presence of their spiritual master, the Sikhs began to assemble outside Guru Nanak's house at the appointed time. They filled the courtyard and seeped past the wall and out into the road. Bhai Lehna waited with the visitor near Guru Nanak's door while the crowd gathered. The village was in a happy mood. They loved it when Guru Nanak came out and walked among them. They enjoyed his company and many people took the opportunity to ask him questions, to try to get his approval or blessing for some idea, or to further their own status in the community.

It had been a bright, sunny day, but as the people waited for Guru Nanak, the wind picked up. What had been a cloudless sky grew dark and the temperature began to drop. A number of people, anticipating that it would rain, changed their minds and went home. Suddenly the door flung open and four large but rather than greeting the crowd warmly and fatherly, Guru Nanak stormed out his front door preceded by two huge, snarling, frightening dogs. Brandishing a large knife, his own clothes tattered, his eyes wide and terrible, Guru Nanak yelled for the Sikhs to follow him. Then, he set off at a strong pace along the road.

Some Show Little Devotion

When he appeared in the doorway looking wild and scary, many of the Sikhs fell back at the sight. The way the Guru looked frightened them. His behaviour was strange and unfamiliar. So rather than follow him, concerned for their safety and wanting to feel protected, they turned away and walked home.

However, a good many took courage and decided to follow the Guru – out of curiosity, if nothing else. After some time of walking along behind their knife-branding, wild-acting teacher, the people began to notice bronze coins scattered on the path. Seeing the bronze coins, some of the Sikhs stopped. They gathered as many bronze coins as they could. Pockets full, hands full, feeling lucky and happy, they turned their back on Guru Nanak, left the company of the others and went home.

Further down the road, the bronze coins disappeared. But then silver coins began to appear in their place. Excited at their good fortune, many who did not stop for the bronze stopped for the silver, instead. Expressing their joy aloud, the gathered as many silver coins as they could. Filling their pockets, using the cloth of their clothing to create bundles, they filled themselves with silver. Happy, appreciate, grateful, content – they stopped following the Guru and returned home.

Some Allow Greed To Overcome Their Devotion

By this time the number of people walking with Guru Nanak had fallen considerably. As the party advanced down the road, the silver coins disappeared. And gold coins took their place. The remaining party almost went mad with delight. Exuberant, exhilarated, praising and exclaiming their unbelievable fortune, they stopped and gathered the gold coins.

They congratulated themselves and congratulated each other for having gone so far with the Guru. For having traveled such a distance. And look how the Guru rewarded them. With pure gold! They filled their pockets, made bundles from the clothes of their body, used anything and everything available to them to collect the gold. When the load became heavy, then they turned back and went home. But Guru Nanak, never a backward glance, kept walking. The road was becoming wilder and wilder, and he entered into a forest. By this time he had only 3 companions. Baba Budha, Bhai Lehna and the visitor.

There is more to this story, more tests in the forest, But we have to stop here. Stop at this place – looking back down the empty road – where bronze, silver and gold had swept all but two of Guru Nanak's followers away.

The Truth Is Difficult To Acknowledge

It is a truth that is difficult to acknowledge. Why do people follow a teacher? Why pray? Why belong to a religion at all? All of the masters teach about love, about the power of the spirit, how to find the divine inside of oneself, how to conquer the experience and illusion of death. But for so many, for most of us, really, when the test comes, our basic animal instinct for security and comfort has more power.

What do we love? God? No. Divinity? No. What we really love is the image of our own comfort. We love our own convenience. Most religious rituals and practices, if we are honest, are done to secure for ourselves that image of comfort and convenience. We love the earth and what is of the earth. Because we believe the earth is what provides our security.

Isn't it human? Isn't it natural? Don't we want success, status, money and the power, the influence that comes with it? Doesn't it give us a sense of security? Of validation? Even a sense of purpose? So in some ways we tell ourselves stories about why we follow one path or another. We deceive ourselves a little about why we are spiritual. Sometimes, gold is the real God. The God of the Americans. The God of the Indians. Even the God of the Sikhs.

Earthly Wealth Is Not The Ultimate Aim

We claim to follow the Guru because we want to merge with the divine. But when gold is our secret devotion, our subconscious destination, our real image of deathlessness and divinity – then we can get a little stuck. The Guru has no problem leading us down a road where we find all the earthly wealth we could ever ask for or imagine. The problem is – gold is not the ultimate destination.

Bronze, silver and gold come from metals buried in the earth. It is our animal impulse, our animal instinct that sees the earth and what it is of the earth as true security. But we are not just animals. We are something different – we are blend of animal, angel and human. We have a mind, a consciousness given to us to perceive the divine. So when those metals of the earth overpower and distract the mind, it is because we have created an internal image and belief that they are the highest power. Though there is nothing in them inherently that has any power at all. The Guru wants to take us to a different type of experience entirely.

The spiritual path that the Guru has given to the Sikhs is to find the deathless reality of the divine light buried inside our own bodies. And to know this deathless light as the only Power that truly matters. It spans the cycles of birth and death. It bathes us in pure pure Love. What an amazing potential the human birth offers – to break through the blocks of our own subconscious mind and find that infinite, Ever-Present, Loving Reality in our own hearts. Waiting to embrace us and take us home.

The security we feel when we can touch the Naam within us, the divine identity inside of us, is real and everlasting. It doesn't depend on the earth – though it has the capacity to enjoy the earth, unattached. To follow the Guru to the end is to find ourselves. And when we find ourselves, then we become the living light of the divine on the earth – enjoying whatever the Creator brings to us without ever loosing sight of the deathless divinity in all. This is something, the Guru tells us, that no money can buy. But it is the answer to the most secret longing of every soul.

Into The Abyss

Guru Nanak continued into the forest. After traveling deep into its depths, the party came across what looked like a corpse lying next to a funeral pyre. A cloth was draped over the decayed and rotting body, and the stench that arose was gut-wrenching and terrible. The stench of death was pervasive, making it uncomfortable to breathe, around the body were four lighted ghee lamps. The sky appeared as a dark bruise. The wind had stopped, though the clouds continued to thicken in the sky.

The atmosphere was still as death, making its presence undeniable. It could be tasted in the air and felt upon the skin. Guru Nanak turned to those who were with him. "Whoever wishes to accompany me further must eat this." Guru Nanak's voice was fierce, he looked at Baba Budha and Bhai Lehna. "Go and eat that dead corpse," he said. Bhai Buddha started thinking, but Bhai Lehna obeyed and bowed. "Shall I start at the head or the feet?" he asked with humility. "Start at the feet", said Guru Nanak.

In the forest, we leave the realms of social reality completely behind. And the types of tests that the Guru creates – there is no psychology to explain them. What the senses perceive, what the mind reacts to. In these realms where the soul has transcended earthly attachments and enticements – still – there are issues to resolve. These are tests to go through.

But that dimension is not something one can create for oneself. That dimension requires such trust, such love, such a deep state of surrender that it can only come through grace. What Guru Nanak was testing in that moment was his own grace. It's difficult to describe this, impossible to put it into words. But the test was not of those who followed him into the forest. Rather, Guru Nanak was testing to see upon whom his own grace had fallen. Upon whom his own grace had been received.

Holding his breath and with a prayer, Bhai Lehna lifted the sheet. The stench of the corpse faded, and the fragrance of incense and flowers cut through the thick air. Under the sheet Bhai Lehna found a mound of sacred prashad, the sweet food blessed by the Guru. Taking it in his hands, he stood and offered it to Guru Nanak. "My beloved Guru, please take this. Allow me to have what remains when you are finished."

With a rush of wind the sky spun and the air cleared, and for the first time in more than two hours, Guru Nanak smiled. "Behold my one true Sikh! Of all chose around me, only Bhai Lehna is imbued with true devotion. There are many in Karrarpur, but none of them were devoted enough to stay with me to the end."

True Devotion

Smiling broadly the visitor replied, "Guru Ji, you have taught me a meaningful lesson today. For once in my life I have seen real devotion and the living power of love." Then, accepting the prasad from Bhai Lehna, Guru Nanak spoke, "This prashad has come to you because you are willing to share it with others before yourself. You have made the Guru very happy."

"This man is one with you – he is of you," the visitor said to Guru Nanak. Guru Nanak agreed. "Bhai Lehna is of me, he is my very limb – that is why he shall be known as Angad. He is my own true image."

The state of grace is a total mystery. It can take us past our senses, past our intellect and rationality, past our fear of pain and death. Who has the words to describe and explain it? Grace can cause us to do what we ourselves could never do on our own. And when that grace prevails in a person, it is God given.

It has been said that Guru Nanak only had one true Sikh - Bhai Lehna who became Guru Angad. And that Guru Gobind Singh only had five – the Panj Pyare. They didn't choose who these Sikhs were. They didn't decide it. But when the time came, and the test was given – what the Guru was truly testing was the reality and expression of his own grace.

How can we enter into that dimension? How do we have a prayer of accessing that state of consciousness that pulls us past the animal instinct for security and convenience, the mental reaction to what the senses perceive? The gift of Amrit is the gift given by the Light of Nanak in the body of Guru Gobind Singh to give us that chance for the Guru's grace to prevail in our lives - in the face of absolutely impossible and insurmountable odds. May you be blessed to experience the grace of the Guru in your own life and to let it carry you far beyond what your body and mind could ever do on its own.

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