Once upon a time in Kabul, during the days of Guru Har Rai, the master of Amritsar, a Sikh retailer ‘was arrested by the Moghuls.

The charge against him, the shopkeeper, was that he weighed his merchandise lesser than actual. They accused him of using weighing scales which were far below legal standards.

The lawmakers of Kabul were bent upon throwing the Sikh, the disciple of the master, into a burning oven, for he was weighing lesser oil than was required to bake bread.

The law of Kabul had neither pity nor sympathy for him. But whatever his fault, his wife and children were all dependent upon him and they cried a lot. He, if alone, could have endured any punishment, but seeing the piteous condition of his family, he too cried out to the Master.

Introduction to Sikhism by G.S.Mansukhani

With all his faults, he had the unique distinction of being the Masier’s disciple. His cry reached the Master who was in Amritsar. Gurjit hears the soft moaning of his Sikh’s children and the sobbing of his wife who lay faint on the cold floor, “Save him, Master, save him!” was their desperate cry.

The Master sat at Amritsar, It is written that a devotee had just arrived at that time and offered five copper coins to the Master.

Gurjit accepted the coins and began, in a meaningless way, putting the coins in high right, then in his left hand, and continued this wayward act for a couple of hours or so. Suddenly, much to everyone’s surprise, he threw the coins to the floor and exclaimed, “Thank God, my Sikh is saved,”

And there in Kabul, at that very time, the balance was trembling in favor of the disciple; the weight of the material he sold was now being tested, now on the night pan, then on the left. They found at last that the weight was quite accurate, It was certainly immaterial whether the man or his family was destroyed or not, but when the Man of Prayer chose to throw the weight of his faith into the balance for being weighed, he was saved. Such is the power of prayer.

The mother covers all the faults of her child. As justice is tempered with mercy, so it is with the Guru, the Personal God of men, A thief no longer remains a thief after having obtained faith in him, and is bound to be saved when he is in distress and calls upon the Master for mercy. Prayers like this, 100, are forms of inspiration.

Man, in his ecstasy, may forget God! But, God never forgets man, no matter what!

Courtesy Thai Sikh Journal.

Article extracted from this publication >>  November 19, 1993