History
The Magic Of Kartarpur - II
SANGAT SINGH
It was time for Guru Nanak to decide who to pass on the Guruship.
One night Guru Nanak asked Baba Buddha: “Purkha, how much of the night is yet to pass?”
Baba Buddha replied, “It is still a quarter of night yet to go.”
Guru Sahib asked: “How do you know that?”
Baba Buddha replied: “I am a farmer and know from looking at the stars in the sky.”
Guru Nanak asked the same question from Lehna and he replied: “My Satguru, the days and nights are yours. What has passed was as you willed. The rest too will pass by your command.”
Such was Lehna’s humility. He had crossed the seemingly physical and chronological time frame and gone into the ‘Akaal’ timelessness. While Baba Buddha, although saintly in his own right, was still bound in the ‘Kaal Chakkar’ -- the endless cycle of time.
Bhai Lehna, on the other hand, had merged into the timelessness of ‘Jugaad Sach’, that is, a stage before time had started to run its course. The time we know has a beginning and therefore must have an end. It is not an attribute of Waheguru, The Akaal.
Lehna became Angad, the Second Nanak.
Baba Buddha was given the honour to apply the tilak on his forehead.
When he did so, he then folded his hands in humility and asked Guru Angad to impart him updesh (sermon). It is then that this shabad descended:
“Tin ka-o ki-aa updaysee-ai jin gur naanak day-o” [GGS:150.13]
“What updesh can be imparted to one who has been blessed by Guru Nanak Himself!”
Baba Buddha lived long, ultimately to have the unique honour of applying the tilak to five successive Gurus.
November 25, 2015
Conversation about this article
1: Ajit Singh Batra (Pennsville, New Jersey, USA), November 25, 2015, 1:36 PM.
Vaar Ramkali by Satta Balwand at GGS:966: The mode of life (Angad) and his light were the same as those of his Master (Guru Nanak). The Master had merely changed the body". The fact remains that Guruship was a spiritual succession preceded by spiritual transformation and it continued each time Guruship was passed on. Guru Gobind Singh beautifully clarifies the spiritual transformation in Bachittar Naatak. ("Nanak Angad ko baap dharaa ... Tegh Bahadar bhayai").