Of truth and falsehood
Guru Nanak gave Mardana, his companion, some money and bade him go to the market and buy a rupee worth of truth and falsehood.
Mardana went from shop to shop asking for a rupee worth of truth and falsehood. The shopkeepers laughed at him and said, “We do not have your stuff in our warehouse.” Eventually, one shopkeeper named Moola, took the rupee from Mardana and gave him a piece of paper on which he wrote: “Death is truth and life is falsehood.” Mardana thanked him and said, “May you earn the pleasure of my Master Guru Nanak.” Moola thereupon requested Mardana to take him to Guru Nanak.
As Moola approached the Guru and bowed before him, the Guru asked him, “What you have written on the paper, have you scribed it on your heart as well?” “Nay Master,” said Moola, “I wrote only what I had heard from someone.” The Guru said, “Death is truth in the sense that it is certain as well as inevitable; and life is false in the sense that it has to end one day; yet, no one knows when that day is to come…”
The Guru’s discourse went on for some more time, hearing which a sense of detachment from worldly affairs gripped Moola. Leaving behind his shop as well as his home, he chose to stay back with the Guru to serve him.
One day the Guru told Moola, “Your fiancée has been missing you all this while. Since you did not show up there, she has been apprehending that you might have passed away or become a recluse, hiding somewhere. She has become so despondent that she even thinks of ending her life. Go, save her and marry her. Running away from life is disobeying God’s will, for it is He who sends us into this world. He is a rasik bairagi (a detached enjoyer). He loves to be busy looking after His Creation, yet remains detached from it. That is the design of life we humans need to emulate. Stay in the world, discharge your responsibilities, yet keep your Lord in your mind. Remember His holy name always with love and gratitude and carry out His will.”
Shortly after this encounter with Moola, the Guru left for his journey to Mecca. When he returned, the Guru halted in Sialkot and sent Mardana to Moola’s house to bring him over.
Moola’s family knew that the Guru was in town and they feared that if Moola meets the Guru, he would leave his business and home and become a recluse again. So they sent Moola into hiding and when Mardana called, they told him that Moola was not at home.
Seeing Mardana returning without Moola, the Guru smiled and said, “Mardana, truth should be the stuff of one’s life and not merely of lip service. Had Moola come to me and told me that he loves his beloved wife so much that he cannot be without her, I would have appreciated his truthfulness. Himself having gone into hiding and bidding his dear ones at home to say that he is not home, is a patent falsehood. He sold you truth and falsehood for a rupee, but his own sense of truth and falsehood is not even worth a pai.”
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