INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

ecome silent and run away, while Vadbhag Singh transforms Nahar Singh Bir to a
small child and captures him in a cage. The story explicates that this kind of power
can be evoked from devotion.
In his imprisonment, Nahar Singh Bir now regrets his deeds and asks for forgiveness
by respectfully folding his hands and pulling his own ears in shame.
Vadbhag Singh first suspects that the ghost is deceiving him and sentences him to
death, but kindness comes to him and he says:
- Brother, if you approve of my conditions then I will forgive your
faults. First of all my order is this: from today you become my Sikh,
never pain the heart of any living creature and do seva for the congregation
of true people. Every year the congregation will come here and
the living beings who have forgotten the Name will be enclosed by
bhutpret, jadutona, taviz, masan etc. If there is any other thing of damage
in them, then all the things in them you will catch, because you are the
sovereign of bhutpret, dio, pari, taviz, saman, chal chalindar, jadutona, jin
jan etc. Therefore I entrust this seva to you. Every year you will have to
come and do seva to the congregation. If you approve of these conditions,
that the greatest pir of ghosts is Suleman, after swearing an oath
to him, make a true promise to me and I will let you out. 703
Nahar Singh Bir agrees to these conditions and after swearing an oath he is released
from the cage. To free Nahar Singh Bir from his ghost-birth Vadbhag Singh gives him
a lesson, or more correctly, reads a letter on the teaching of gurbani. By reading, listening
and remembering this teaching the ghost will in due time find salvation. Vadbhag
Singh orders him to dwell in the mountains but return annually during the Holi festival
to help suffering people.
When the rumour spreads from house to house that a saint conquered the terrifying
ghost and brought him on a righteous path, people start to celebrate the miracle
and come in thousands to get darshan from Vadbhag Singh. In this exciting atmosphere
he leaves his reclusive life and, for the welfare of people, reverts to preaching
and teaching of gurbani. At the same time as Vadbhag Singh explains to his new followers
that only God’s shelter can destroy sadness, the narrative concisely elucidates
the source of magic:
Baba ji did not have any magic [jadu], the magic was that from the
mouth of Baba ji like sweet words the nectar of gurbani came out. 704
Within a short time Vadbhag Singh’s followers form a community of servants willing
to help sad people by remembering the divine name. A gurdwara is constructed
703
Jivan Sakhi Baba Vadbhag Singh Ji Sodhi, p. 70.
704
Jivan Sakhi Baba Vadbhag Singh Ji Sodhi, p. 75.
442
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008