Be a True Follower

Once there was a devotee of God who had a longing to meet God. He did not know punjabi language so he and could not understand the holy book of sikhs ,Guru Granth Sahib Ji. He heard of a priest who translates Guru Granth Sahib Ji and narrates the message of the Satguru in English. He went to the priest and joined his congregation. The priest started describing the greatness and the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev Ji. He conveyed the message of Guru Ji. As Guru instructed he said, God can only be seen by meditating on Him and remembering Him for every moment. Just as you would remember someone you love and he/she is in your mind all the time, remember God and you shall meet Him. The priest was doing holy work but he was only doing it for money. As people would leave, they would present him with some money for his time and that is what priest wanted. The priest himself would not worship God and was concentrating on making as much money as he could.

The devotee of God became a regular follower of the priest. He would come to the priest’s congregation everyday, learn about Guru’s message and while leaving, he would leave some money for the priest. However, in order to travel to the priest’s congregation, the devotee had to cross a river. There was no bridge nearby, so he had to walk 1 mile south to get to the bridge and come back north for about 1 mile. This would take him a lot of time. The devotee decided to ask for a solution from the priest. When he asked, the priest first asked for his fee. The devote paid him and the priest told him that if he worships God from deep within his heart and has trust in Him, God will make him able to walk on water and he will no longer has to walk 2 miles to cross the bridge.

The devotee was impressed. He had a great trust in God and started worshipping him even more than he used to. He would wake up at 3AM in the morning, take a bath and mediate on God. He would also meditate on him while running errands and working. He recited the Name of God for each moment he could.

A month passed and the devotee was walking along the bank of the river and he was getting late. He thought if be walked a mile to the bridge and then a mile back, he would miss the most of the day’s sermon. So he decided to go through the river. As he stepped in the water, he did not become wet and neither did his foot sink in the water. He was actually walking on water. He was filled with joy and thanked God. He crossed the river by walking on the water and reached the congregation of the priest.

After that day, he never crossed the bridge; he would walk on the water to go to the priest's congregation. One day, the devotee invited the priest to his house for a meal to thank him for his guidance. The priest accepted his invitation and headed along with him to his house. As they approached the river, the priest wanted to cross the river from the bridge. The devotee replied that he doesn’t cross the bridge anymore and goes through the river. The priest asked that why does he go through the river, doesn’t he get wet? The devotee replied that he never gets wet, he walks on water. The priest was astonished. The priest asked the devotee to cross the river first.

The devotee crossed the river by walking on water. The priest had never seen anything like this before. He was wonderstruck and filled with astonishment. When the devotee reached the other side, he asked the priest to cross the river. Having not meditated on God, priest hesitated but to preserve his honor he thought to give it a try. As he stepped in the water, he drowned. The devotee had to pull the priest out of the river.

 

Moral : Hypocrites talk about God and teachings of God but they seldom follow the teachings themselves. God is always with the true followers , even if the followers obtains their knowledge about God from a hypocrite.