mith bolarraa jee har sajan suaamee moraa
Your mouth has not stopped slandering and gossiping about others. Your service is useless and fruitless. ||1|| (Guru granth Sahib ji – pg 1253)
Once Guru Gobind Singh was out camping and a man brought a bear and wanted to show the play, everybody got very excited to see what the bear could do. The man did so many acts with the bear that it pleased the Guru and the sangat.
Immediately after the show, Guruji asked the Sikhs to prepare karah prashad and did ardas. After which Guruji said to his chauria(the bear’s caretaker), “Bhai, please give prashad to the bear also”. But surprisingly after eating the Parshad the bear died on the spot. The bear’s caretaker now started crying. Guruji then asked the ‘Kazanchi’ (the man who was in charge of the cash) to give him some money with which he can survive and start doing Kirt again.
The Sikhs were puzzeled and requested Guruji to explain the episode.
Guru said, “The Bear was a great Gursikh and sewadar. Once when he was serving prashad in the congregation when another sikh who was bringing the wood to the city, and to the langar, thought he can just go in the congregation and pay obeisance to the Guru, get the prashad and run. So he left his bullock cart working(un-attended), and ran over to the Gurdwara and asked the sewadar to please give him prashad first. On this the sewadar (bear) asked him to “Sit down and wait his turn”
But the Sikh just clamped on him. The sewadar got irritated and said, “Why are you clamping on me like a bear?” “Don’t you understand, you sit down and I’ll give it to you !!” Meanwhile a little prashad fell down and the Sikh quitely picked it up and left.
It was because the sewadar had caused distress and used foul language for a sikh (sangat) that he himself became a bear. And since he was a Sikh and had done sewa in Guru ghar he was redeemed now by giving prashad and doing Ardas.
imT bolVw jI hir sjxu suAwmI morw ]
m i t(h) bo larraa j ee har sajan suaa mee m o raa ||
My Dear Lord and Master, my Friend, speaks so sweetly.
hau sMmil QkI jI Ehu kdy n bolY kaurw ]
ho sa(n)mal thhak ee jee ouh u kadh ae n bo l ai ko u raa ||
I have grown weary of testing Him, but still, He never speaks harshly to me.
kauVw boil n jwnY pUrn BgvwnY Aaugxu ko n icqwry ]
ko u rraa b o l n j aanai p ooran bhagav aa nai ao u gan k o n chi th aar ae ||
He does not know any bitter words; the Perfect Lord God does not even consider my faults and demerits.
piqq pwvnu hir ibrdu sdwey ieku iqlu nhI BMnY Gwly ]
path i th paavan har b i radh sadh aaeae e ik th i l nehee bha(n)nai gh aalae ||
It is the Lord’s natural way to purify sinners; He does not overlook even an iota of service.
(Guru granth Sahib ji – pg 784)
Acknowledgement: http://tuhitu.blogspot.com/