Bhramins Belly: Gateway to heaven?

January 13, 2007 at 8:24 pm | Posted in Sakhis! | Leave a comment

Bhramins (bless them) had a great business going around at the time of the Gurus. Each of them would receive gifts from people for nothing. Yes, nothing. Seems too good to be true? There must be a catch! There is: The reason why these poor villagers gave money/food to them was so that Bhramins could pass it on to their dead forefathers. Don’t know why they suddenly felt need to feed the dead, but hey whatever rocks their boat..

Anyways, so Bhramins had a good business enterprise, advertising in the local Des Pardes (well the equivalent), chilling on the free dollars – if they’re lucky a free cow – and ofcourse always busy in their work “feeding” people’s forefathers (ahem). As the villagers offerings increased, the Bhramins’ bellys also magically increased. Obviously, this was a miraculous expansion and villagers didn’t give it a second glance.

Setha, Gobinda and Bhaga were three well off merchants. They were Hindus and they were no exceptions.. They also merrily fed the Bhramins, thinking the food would somehow go to their forefathers. One day they decided to think logically (First time for everything) and went to ask the all-knowing Guru Arjan Dev Ji about this:

“O Guru, we give Dakshana (offerings) to Bhramins in the names of our dear forefathers every year. Tell us whether all this reaches out forefathers or not?”

Guru ji smiled, “No person can tell whether your forefathers are in heaven or hell. No-one knows which Bhramin will go to heaven or hell.. And even IF a Bhramin reaches your forefathers, how can they recognise the right one out of millions of dead people?”

Good Question. Well frankly neither of them had an answer and they knew that Mr know-it-all talks sense. So they stopped this practice (saved loadsa bucks) and chilled, working hard, helping others and remembering the Big One..