Rituals at River Ganga

THE RITUALS AT RIVER GANGA

The sounds of bells from the temples and hustle-bustle all around didn’t surprise him as it did to his followers. He nestled to his right, on the stairs, where the rush of people, enchanting God’s name in their own way, seemed to be quite subtle. His followers inveighed the people all around and sardonically called them ‘plebian and ingenuous’.

From the place, where he stood, he saw hundreds of people taking bath in the river and chanting hymns. Many were sitting on the bank of the river with saints praying for the salvation of their dead ones. On one side of the river, scores of people had congregated to listen to the aarti in the temple.

He instantly smiled at the constant chants of ‘Har Har Gange’ and ‘Alakh Niranjan’.
One of his followers saw him smiling, “Guruji, what is that you are smiling at?”
His question made him look at him, “I am not smiling. It’s intense happiness that’s on my face.”

Everyone was surprised. One of them questioned, “Intense happiness?”

“I am really happy to see people have so much faith in God.” He replied.

“But don’t you think they are too ingenuous?” One of them asked.

“Are we not ingenuous?” He asked all of them. No one answered. Some of them looked at each other’s faces. He again asked, “Tell me, are we not ingenuous?”

“How?” One of them managed to ask.

“Minutes before we were criticizing these people, calling them different names, mocking at them – weren’t we?” He waited for their affirmation. Two of them nodded.
“Do you know, the people you were mocking at were such big saints, they have spent their whole lives in service of God and you were laughing at them. Why?” He again waited for the answer but this time no one opened up their real faces, “Just because your way of oblation and reciting God’s name is different and theirs is different. This land is a holy land and we have come here to learn from it. Every religion and caste has their own ways of reciting God’s name.”

All of them felt sorry for their conduct but he explained to them that feeling sorry, itself forgives the culprits.

When the rush subsided, all of them, followed by him, went ahead towards the holy river Ganga. The people stood in the water taking bath and reciting their prayers. Some people around were wearing clothes and some were undressing to join the others in the river. The saints all around either wore saffron kurtas or didn’t wear anything at all with the lungi. The different chants by different people made him smile again. This was again the happiness at the belief in God. He inwardly wished that the people remain the same always with their firm belief in God.

One of his followers asked him with folded hands, “I don’t understand why these people are throwing water this way.” He pointed to the one segment of people who were inside the river and carrying water in their hands and throwing it to one side, again and again. He himself was surprised seeing the people throwing the water in one particular direction.

He went to a hindu saint nearby and asked him why the people were throwing water this way. The saint explained to him that they were throwing water towards east and through this way; they thought they were offering water to their dead elders in the next world and thus they were doing it as an oblation to their ancestors.

All of them were surprised. Smiling in the same way, this time, he put down his things on ground and went inside the river to mingle with the people throwing water towards the east. He started taking bath the same way. All of his followers were shocked to see their guru doing that act.

After few seconds, like others, he also started throwing handful of water but towards west side. One of the people in the river came to him and said, “You are doing it the wrong way. You must throw water towards the eastern side.” To that he smiled but continued throwing water towards the western side. Seeing his act, some more people gathered around him. Everyone advised him to do it in the correct way by throwing water towards east but he didn’t listen to any one.

Hundreds of people have now gathered around him. One of them came to him and said, “Your prayers are of no use, your ancestors are not receiving your water. They are in the next world, which is in the east.”

He stopped this time and very calmly replied, “I am not offering water to my ancestors, I am watering my fields and crops in Punjab. All my crops in my village are dying, there had been no rain.”

To this, everyone started laughing and mocked. One of the men said, “Are you crazy? How can your water reach your crops in Punjab, hundreds of miles away?”

He replied, “The same way as yours reaches your ancestors in the next world. My crops are just hundreds of miles away and are much closer when compared to your ancestors who are millions of miles away in the next world.”

None of them had a counter reply. He further asked, “If the water thrown by me cannot reach a few hundred miles away on this very earth, how can water thrown by you to your dead ancestors reach them in the heavens?” No one replied.

He came out of the water and joined his group. Many people from water came after him. He further explained to everyone present there, “The rituals we are usually engaged in are usually logic-less. The main thing is our respect and belief in God. That’s all. These rituals are hollow and do not have any religious value. We should love, respect and take care of the people, friends and religions till we are alive rather then performing these useless rituals. When people die, they do not need anything from us and neither can we send them anything after they have left this world. After death, people get what they have given to the needy, out of their honest earnings, while living on this earth.”

People all around him, including saints, stood there speechless but had lot to ponder upon. Meanwhile, he picked up his things, turned and went towards the way he came from. Many people along with his followers followed him. Those who didn’t, never came to know who he was.

He was Guru Nanak.