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.
