Sikh History

Guru Nanak Dev Ji, Malik Bhaago and Bhai Laalo


Guru Nanak Dev Ji was a great traveller and on one of first travels he reached Aimanabad. On arrival he went to stay at a local carpenters house, Bhai Laalo. Malik Bhaago, who was a rich and powerful man in that area asked Guru Nanak Dev Ji to come and d ine with him at a great feast he was holding. It was considered by many as a great honour to dine with Malik Bhaago but Guru Nanak Dev Ji declined the invitation to the feast. Malik Bhaago felt insulted, and duly went to visit Guru Nanak Dev Ji the next d ay. On arrival he remarked to Guru Nanak Dev Ji that, "You insult me by eating this coarse bread of a poor carpenter and refuse to dine with me at my magnificent feast. I have bought some food specially prepared for you, now will you please eat it."

Without replying to Malik Bhaago, Guru Nanak Dev Ji asked Bhai Laalo to bring some bread from his kitchen. He then took Malik Bhaago's bread in one hand and Bhai Laalo's bread in the other, and squeezed both. Malik Bhaago was shocked when blood started dripping out from his bread, and milk dripping out of Bhai Laalo's bread. On observation of seeing Malik Bhaago suprised Guru Nanak Dev Ji said, "The bread that Bhai Laalo has earned is through honest labour and has a sweetness of nectar for me, while your bread carries in it the blood of the many poor workers, from who you have amassed your wealth." Guru Ji then spoke:

If a cloth is stained with blood, it is made foul. Those who suck the blood of the poor by robbing them of their shared earnings, how can their mind be chaste? Nanak, remember with a honest and sincere heart, the holy Naam of the Divine Lord. The worldly show is empty, without meaning, in vain.

Hearing the Guru speak, Malik Bhaago's pride was humbled. He fell at the Guru's feet and received the Guru's word which reformed him and saved him.

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