Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji : Message of the 15 Bhagats or saints (Part-8)

54. Message of the 15 Bhagats or saints (Part-8)

Baba Sheikh Farid Shakkar Ganj ji Continue.....

One day, Sheikh Farid ji felt thirsty. So in order to quench his thirst he went to the village from the jungle. He saw a well there. There was a young lady drawing water out of the well, but she kept withdrawing the water and throwing it on the ground. He asked the young lady for some water but she didn’t pay any attention and went on doing what she was doing. He again requested water but the young lady deliberately ignored him and finally answered in an angry tone,” Baba ! Wait a while; I am doing very urgent work. These are not the sparrows of the jungle that you can say die and come back to life and show your power”. After listening to these words, Farid ji felt very bad but at the same time he wondered about how did that lady know about the sparrow incident that happened in the jungle. When the lady stopped throwing water on the ground, She addressed Farid ji and said,” Baba ji now you can have water.” He drank the water and politely asked the lady about her insight about sparrows and also about the reason for throwing water on the ground. The young lady replied,” My sister’s house is at a far distance from here. Her whole family has gone out of town. Her house had caught fire in her absence. So I was extinguishing the fire of her house by throwing water on the ground. Now about sparrow incident, my husband is a true devotee of Almighty God and I am a faithful wife to my husband. I got this power of insight spontaneously, just by keeping myself in my husband’s will. I have never done any penance or any sort of meditation. Baba ji, power of Miracles is God’s gift. We should not try to use and show it. We should live in God’s will and tolerate the intolerable.” The ego in Sheikh Farid ji’s mind vanished after listening to the tone and powerful words of the young lady. He cursed his mind and scolded himself for not becoming a true servant of Allah (God) yet. To become a truthful and humble servant of Allah, he had to adopt the boldness of a tree. He says so in Sri Guru Granth Sahib on page1381 :

Fareed, work for your Lord and Master; dispel the doubts of your heart. The dervishes, the humble devotees, have the patient endurance of trees.

So Baba Farid ji tried to extinguish his pride by meditating on Allah’s name in such a love stricken manner and pleading requests to meet Allah that even listeners are touched within to hear his yearning for Allah. The Bani uttered by him shows the intensity of separation in his mind for God. As mentioned on page 1382 :

Fareed, my withered body has become a skeleton; the crows are pecking at my palms. Even now, God has not come to help me; behold, this is the fate of all mortal beings. The crows have searched my skeleton, and eaten all my flesh. But please do not touch these eyes; I hope to see my Lord. O crow, do not peck at my skeleton; if you have landed on it, fly away. Do not eat the flesh from that skeleton, within which my Husband Lord abides.

Baba Farid ji’s true yearning request was accepted in the court of Almighty Allah. He crossed Marfat(last stage of spiritual development for Muslims). He became enlightened that God, the Almighty already resides in his heart. On the contrary he was looking for Him in the jungles uselessly. As mentioned on page 1378 :

Fareed, why do you wander from jungle to jungle, crashing through the thorny trees ? The Lord abides in the heart; why are you looking for Him in the jungle ?

His level of politeness and humility increased proportionally to his level of spirituality. People worshipped him as a saint of highest level. He had a vast and deep experience of life. He knew that when, with the grace of God, a person is gifted with Holy merits , at the same time, wealth as an evil influence also enters the human mind secretly, in the form of pride and degrades him in the eyes of Allah(God). To solve this situation, Sheikh Farid ji always remained humble as mentioned on page 1384 :

Humility is the word, forgiveness is the virtue, and sweet speech is the magic mantra.

Also on page 1381 it states

Fareed, my clothes are black, and my outfit is black. I wander around full of sins,

and yet people call me a dervish - a holy man.

Farid ji went on molding his mind to unconditional surrender from time to time so that he could be accepted in the house of Lord. As mentioned on page 1378 :

Fareed, become the grass on the path, if you long for the Lord of all. One will cut you down, and another will trample you underfoot; then, you shall enter the Court of the Lord

Only once Farid ji was over whelmed by ego and he suffered a great loss. He always tried to keep himself away from egoistic pride and preached others to do so. As stated on page 1383 :

Fareed, those who are very proud of their greatness, wealth and youth, shall return empty-handed from their Lord, like sandhills after the rain.

Farid ji had immense faith in his Allah Tallah(God). He never took shelter of any body except God. This can be understood from one of the incidents in his life. Once due to his old age, he was unable to walk on his legs. His follower offered him a beautiful wooden stick to walk with. After hardly taking three or four steps he threw the stick away saying,” Farid did not take shelter of anybody but Allah throughout his life then why should I use this lifeless stick in old age for help?” An example of His deep faith in Almighty God probably can’t be found anywhere else. He states this in Guru Granth Sahib ji on page 1379 :

Cursed are the lives of those who place their hopes in others.

After achieving unison with Almighty Allah(God), he now saw His Light. He never thought evil about anyone and doing harm to someone never came to his mind. As stated on page 1381 :

Fareed, the Creator is in the Creation, and the Creation abides in God. Whom can we call bad? There is none without Him.

Also on page 1381 he states :

Fareed, those deeds which do not bring merit - forget about those deeds. Otherwise, you shall be put to shame, in the Court of the Lord.

He stated furthermore on page 488 :

I seek Your Protection - You are the Forgiving Lord. Please, bless Shaykh Fareed with the bounty of Your meditative worship.

He left for his heavenly abode on the year1266 A.D. at Pakpatan(Pakistan) and proved his uttered words. As mentioned on page 488 :

Those whom the Lord attaches to the hem of His robe, are the true dervishes at His Door. Blessed are the mothers who gave birth to them, and fruitful is their coming into the world.

And as stated on page 687 :

My Yatra, my life pilgrimage, has become fruitful, fruitful, fruitful. My comings and goings have ended, since I met the Holy Saint.

Farid ji became immortal after getting the above mentioned blessings from God and left foot prints for us to follow in Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji. He will continue inspiring us to become true lovers of God. As he stated on page 488 :

They alone are true, whose love for God is deep and heart-felt Those who have one thing in their heart, and something else in their mouth, are judged to be false. Those who are imbued with love for the Lord, are delighted by His Vision. Those who forget the Naam, the Name of the Lord, are a burden on the earth.





				SHARE

				54. Message of the 15 Bhagats or saints (Part-8) Baba Sheikh Farid Shakkar Ganj ji Continue..... One day, Sheikh Farid ji felt thirsty. So in order to quench his thirst he went to the village from the jungle. He saw a well there. There was a young lady drawing water out of the well, but she kept withdrawing the water and throwing it on the ground. He asked the young lady for some water but she didn’t pay any attention and went on doing what she was doing. He again requested water but the young lady deliberately ignored him and finally answered in an angry tone,” Baba ! Wait a while; I am doing very urgent work. These are not the sparrows of the jungle that you can say die and come back to life and show your power”. After listening to these words, Farid ji felt very bad but at the same time he wondered about how did that lady know about the sparrow incident that happened in the jungle. When the lady stopped throwing water on the ground, She addressed Farid ji and said,” Baba ji now you can have water.” He drank the water and politely asked the lady about her insight about sparrows and also about the reason for throwing water on the ground. The young lady replied,” My sister’s house is at a far distance from here. Her whole family has gone out of town. Her house had caught fire in her absence. So I was extinguishing the fire of her house by throwing water on the ground. Now about sparrow incident, my husband is a true devotee of Almighty God and I am a faithful wife to my husband. I got this power of insight spontaneously, just by keeping myself in my husband’s will. I have never done any penance or any sort of meditation. Baba ji, power of Miracles is God’s gift. We should not try to use and show it. We should live in God’s will and tolerate the intolerable.” The ego in Sheikh Farid ji’s mind vanished after listening to the tone and powerful words of the young lady. He cursed his mind and scolded himself for not becoming a true servant of Allah (God) yet. To become a truthful and humble servant of Allah, he had to adopt the boldness of a tree. He says so in Sri Guru Granth Sahib on page1381 : Fareed, work for your Lord and Master; dispel the doubts of your heart. The dervishes, the humble devotees, have the patient endurance of trees. So Baba Farid ji tried to extinguish his pride by meditating on Allah’s name in such a love stricken manner and pleading requests to meet Allah that even listeners are touched within to hear his yearning for Allah. The Bani uttered by him shows the intensity of separation in his mind for God. As mentioned on page 1382 : Fareed, my withered body has become a skeleton; the crows are pecking at my palms. Even now, God has not come to help me; behold, this is the fate of all mortal beings. The crows have searched my skeleton, and eaten all my flesh. But please do not touch these eyes; I hope to see my Lord. O crow, do not peck at my skeleton; if you have landed on it, fly away. Do not eat the flesh from that skeleton, within which my Husband Lord abides. Baba Farid ji’s true yearning request was accepted in the court of Almighty Allah. He crossed Marfat(last stage of spiritual development for Muslims). He became enlightened that God, the Almighty already resides in his heart. On the contrary he was looking for Him in the jungles uselessly. As mentioned on page 1378 : Fareed, why do you wander from jungle to jungle, crashing through the thorny trees ? The Lord abides in the heart; why are you looking for Him in the jungle ? His level of politeness and humility increased proportionally to his level of spirituality. People worshipped him as a saint of highest level. He had a vast and deep experience of life. He knew that when, with the grace of God, a person is gifted with Holy merits , at the same time, wealth as an evil influence also enters the human mind secretly, in the form of pride and degrades him in the eyes of Allah(God). To solve this situation, Sheikh Farid ji always remained humble as mentioned on page 1384 : Humility is the word, forgiveness is the virtue, and sweet speech is the magic mantra. Also on page 1381 it states Fareed, my clothes are black, and my outfit is black. I wander around full of sins, and yet people call me a dervish - a holy man. Farid ji went on molding his mind to unconditional surrender from time to time so that he could be accepted in the house of Lord. As mentioned on page 1378 : Fareed, become the grass on the path, if you long for the Lord of all. One will cut you down, and another will trample you underfoot; then, you shall enter the Court of the Lord Only once Farid ji was over whelmed by ego and he suffered a great loss. He always tried to keep himself away from egoistic pride and preached others to do so. As stated on page 1383 : Fareed, those who are very proud of their greatness, wealth and youth, shall return empty-handed from their Lord, like sandhills after the rain. Farid ji had immense faith in his Allah Tallah(God). He never took shelter of any body except God. This can be understood from one of the incidents in his life. Once due to his old age, he was unable to walk on his legs. His follower offered him a beautiful wooden stick to walk with. After hardly taking three or four steps he threw the stick away saying,” Farid did not take shelter of anybody but Allah throughout his life then why should I use this lifeless stick in old age for help?” An example of His deep faith in Almighty God probably can’t be found anywhere else. He states this in Guru Granth Sahib ji on page 1379 : Cursed are the lives of those who place their hopes in others. After achieving unison with Almighty Allah(God), he now saw His Light. He never thought evil about anyone and doing harm to someone never came to his mind. As stated on page 1381 : Fareed, the Creator is in the Creation, and the Creation abides in God. Whom can we call bad? There is none without Him. Also on page 1381 he states : Fareed, those deeds which do not bring merit - forget about those deeds. Otherwise, you shall be put to shame, in the Court of the Lord. He stated furthermore on page 488 : I seek Your Protection - You are the Forgiving Lord. Please, bless Shaykh Fareed with the bounty of Your meditative worship. He left for his heavenly abode on the year1266 A.D. at Pakpatan(Pakistan) and proved his uttered words. As mentioned on page 488 : Those whom the Lord attaches to the hem of His robe, are the true dervishes at His Door. Blessed are the mothers who gave birth to them, and fruitful is their coming into the world. And as stated on page 687 : My Yatra, my life pilgrimage, has become fruitful, fruitful, fruitful. My comings and goings have ended, since I met the Holy Saint. Farid ji became immortal after getting the above mentioned blessings from God and left foot prints for us to follow in Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji. He will continue inspiring us to become true lovers of God. As he stated on page 488 : They alone are true, whose love for God is deep and heart-felt Those who have one thing in their heart, and something else in their mouth, are judged to be false. Those who are imbued with love for the Lord, are delighted by His Vision. Those who forget the Naam, the Name of the Lord, are a burden on the earth.

		SHARE