Nanak Feeding the Yogis

     Guru Nanak as a child was always going off somewhere and meditating. His father, Kalu Mehta, thought he was too spaced out. So he decided to teach him some business, how to make money. So he gave Nanak some money and told him to go with his friend, Bala, to the market place. "Buy some good quality food and pay as little money as you can for it. Then find someone who wants that food and sell it to them for more money. You'll have more money then when you started, that's called profit," he said and sent his son off.

     Bala and Nanak went there and bought some really good quality food. They were walking around the town and they were supposed to be looking for someone to sell to but Nanak was more interested in meditating. He started walking off towards some trees because he liked to be around trees. When he got there some holy men were already there meditating. They told him that they just travel around from place to place and talk about God to people. They do nothing but meditate and think about God. They hadn't eaten in several days.

     When he heard this, Nanak considered it a great honor to give these men the food he had just bought. He talked with them for a while and was really happy to have met them. When Kalu Mehta heard about this he was really mad. "I gave him money to make more money and he just gave it away. I'm trying to teach him something useful and he just wasted my money," he thought. He punished Nanak for not listening. His daughter, Nanaki tried to stop him because she understood her brother better.

     Indeed her brother understood better than anyone. Nanak knew that whatever we can give to people in need we should. Whatever we can do to serve holy people, no matter what we spend, is well worth it. He said "This is the true profit."