Men of God

EFFORTS AT “REFORMATION”

Kalu next made arrangements for the Upanayan of his son. When the Brahmin priest, after performing the preliminary ceremony, took the sacred thread to put on Nanak’s neck, the boy snatched it away, questioned its value and disposed of the priest after sermonising upon true Upanayan in his usual way.

What is to be done with such a boy? To Kalu, he was becoming a problem and this time he thought of a new corrective. Soon after his daughter Nanaki’s marriage to Jai Ram, an Amil employed to collect land revenue, he arranged for the marriage of Nanak with Sulakhani though he was only 14 years old and again entrusted him with herding the cattle. It was on this occasion that Rai Bular saw him while on his duty asleep but watched over by a cobra. Though the ruler was thus impressed by the strange powers of the boy, Kalu was not. On the other hand, he became more and more pessimistic about the worldly reformation of his son. He tried to make him a husbandman. But the boy said: “The body is the field, good works the seeds, heart the cultivator.. God’s name irrigates.” To another question Nanak answered: “I have sown my field and the harvest is ready. All relations, friends, beggars and the poor will be benefitted.” Then the fond father tried another artifice. He gave the boy money and a horse and a servant to go to Gujranwala to purchase articles of trade and become a tradesman. But on the way in spite of the servant’s protestations he spent the money in clothing a sect of holy men. Cattle-grazing, tillage, trade, none of these succeeded. When all hopes were given up, his mother pleaded that for the sake of family prestige they must put up the show that Nanak had some occupation. But he would do nothing; he sat silent, lay down, ate nothing, drank nothing. Some were certain, but all suspected that Nanak was mad: there was something serious. The physician was called for consultation. To a question from him, Nanak broke silence, laughed and said in this vein: "The body is weeping, the soul crieth, physician, give none of thy medicines. I first feel the pain of separation from God, then a pang of hunger for contemplation on Him..” The physician withdrew, but not before paying homage to the great patient.