When Guru Nanak Dey ji visited Eminabad, he stayed with Bhat Lalo, a carpenter by trade but a devoted man of God who worked hard to cam his living. In Eminabad there also lived a rich landlord named Malik Bhago, He was very proud and arrogant. It hurt his pride that Guru Nanak should have chosen to ignore him and stay with a low caste carpenter.
Soon he held a general feast to which he invited all persons of the holy order in the town. Guru Nanak Dev Jee, who was also invited, refused to attend the feast. This enraged the Malik who sent his footmen to bring the Guru by force.
When Guru Nanak reached the Malik’s mansion the love and goodwill radiating from his divine form disarmed the latter completely. Reverently he said, “Holy Sir, how is it that you choose to ignore my hospitality and prefer to stay with a carpenter who is of low birth”?
Guru Nanak replied, “The food procured through honest effort contains the milk of human kindness while the tyrant’s food smacks of blood and it corrupts soul.”
So saying, he took in one hand the rich delicacies prepared by the Malik and in the other the coarse bread of Lalo and squeezed them both. And, lo! There spurted out blood, dark and ominous, from the Malik’s food but from Lalo’s bread oozed out milk, warm and fresh.
All those present were dumbfounded, The Malik’s pride was humbled. He distributed his wealth among the needy and resolved to devote the rest of his days to the service of the poor. He begged Guru Nanak to pardon him and to show him the path to righteous living, From thenceforth he became a devoted Sikh and spent his life and wealth in the service of the needy, He realized that Bhai Lalo even though poor lived 4 righteous life dedicated to service of holy men and honest hard work because of which Guns Nanak chose to stay with him and accepted his food.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 27, 1993
