Some centuries ago there was a fisherman living by a big river. This fisherman, even as a little boy, loved Gurū Nānak Dev Jī and often lost himself in dreamily thinking of the Gurū. And when people asked him what he wanted, he always answered:
''I want to sail across the big river with Gurū Nānak Dev Jī one day.''
And people laughed at him, because he was still a little boy. How could he have understood that Gurū Nānak Dev Jī was not on this earth but had been with SATGURŪ JĪ for a long time?
The boy grew up and became a youth and then a man earning his living by fishing, just as his fathers had done. When the time came, he married a woman and had sons and daughters with her. And people stopped asking him what he wanted a long time ago, for he always gave the same answer:
''I want to sail across the big river with Gurū Nānak Dev Jī one day.''
One day he started making an especially beautiful boat, and he was particularly proud of the gleaming white square sail. People congratulated the fisherman on his boat, saying that he would certainly make big catches with this boat. But he shook his head and said:
''This boat is not for fishing. It is for Gurū Nānak Dev Jī. I want to sail across the big river with Gurū Nānak Dev Jī one day, and I want the boat to be especially beautiful.''
''Foolish fisherman, how can a dead Gurū sail with you!'', people cried and left him alone. He had built the boat next to the river on a bank, and when it was finished, he constructed an open shed around the boat so that rain and storm would not damage it, and every day he put fresh fragrant rose petals into it.
The years went by, and the fisherman grew old. His sons started going fishing without him. The fisherman grew older and even watched his grandchildren setting out on the big river to fish.
The fisherman had lost the strength to fish, but he still kept looking after his boat and renewing the rose petals for Gurū Nānak Dev Jī. But one morning, when he was going to get up as usual, he felt that all strength had left him and that he was bound to remain on his bed from now on.
''My boat! The rose petals for Gurū Nānak Dev Jī! What shall become of my boat? Who is going to look after it now?'', he thought and despaired. Then he took courage and asked his sons and his grandchildren to look after the boat. But his request was not met well. First they laughed at him, and then one of his sons said with a disdainful gesture:
''Foolish old man! This is going to stop. The time where such a good boat remained unused because of your silly ideas is gone. Your whole life you made people laugh at us with your foolish wish 'I want to sail across the big river with Gurū Nānak Dev Jī one day.' What were you thinking of? How could you be thinking of this all your life? Enough of this, we will make the boat workable for us."
The old fisherman did not answer but turned his head to the wall and started crying quietly. Slowly, the tears rolled from his tired eyes, and while he let them flow, he prayed to his beloved Gurū Jī.
Some days later, the sun shone on the fisherman's village by the big river, and people were happy not only because of the sunshine, but also because a wedding was taking place in the neighboring village that day. The old fisherman's family had been invited to this wedding as well, and when they had dressed for the wedding and left the house without looking after the old man, who had long become a burden to them, the fisherman painfully rose from his bed. He crossed the room with slow steps, put a shawl around his shoulders and slowly went outside. When he had left the house, he stood still. The light of the sun, which he had not seen for a long time, dazzled him, but then he felt its pleasant warmth and slowly and anxiously walked towards his boat. But the boat was still there. His sons had not taken it away from him yet. He saw at once that the boat was in a good state, but the rose petals had withered and were hardly recognizable.
''I will set out on the river'', the old fisherman thought, ''and even if my wish to sail across the river with Gurū Jī one day has not been fulfilled, the boat still belongs to him. If the Gurū has not come to me, I will come to him.''
He put his hands on the boat's rear, anchored his feet in the sand and started pushing the boat towards the water. He pushed and pushed, but the boat would not move. The fisherman broke into a sweat. His heart was crying with despair and he longed for Gurū Nānak when he suddenly saw a pair of strong hands lying next to his. He knew, and in the terse language of his craft said:
''So you have come.''
And a warm deep voice answered with the same terseness typical of fishermen:
''So I have come.''
They solemnly
pushed the boat into the river together, and a sigh of joy seemed to run
through the old planks when the boat finally felt the water underneath its
keel. They entered the boat and went towards the bow. They stood still next to
the mast. The fisherman looked into the other's eyes questioningly and silently
understood that he could rely on 
him. And while the other went towards the bow,
the fisherman felt a long-forgotten power coursing through him and making him
easily set the heavy square sail. When this was done, he followed the other and
was surprised to see that the rose petals had been transformed into a soft
carpet of many colours whose magnificent scent made the air twinkle. When he
had arrived at the bow, he quietly stood next to the one he had waited for so
long and who now put his hand on his shoulder. The old man turned his head
towards the one he loved so much, looked at him with the shimmering and
wondering eyes of a child and again said to him in the tight-lipped way of the
fishermen:
''So you have come.''
''So I have come'', answered Gurū Nānak Dev Jī in the tight-lipped way of the fishermen. The wind playfully filled the stunningly white square sail and made the boat gain speed. It made the boat go from the shallows onto the wide open river. The wind blew on and on, pushing the boat with full sails through the frothing waves.Swarms of silvery fishes swam through the water, and the Gurū and the old fisherman stood in the bow erect and silent, looking at the lively waves and the route in front of them. Now the wish the fisherman had been harbouring his whole life was fulfilled, and Gurū Nānak was sailing across the river with him. Gurū Nānak Dev Jī and the old fisherman kept sailing through the night beneath the evening star , on and on, across the mighty river, and they sailed into the day beneath the morning star, on and on, across the big river, towards the open sea. And they kept sailing on and on, towards where the wild cries of the seagulls become the song of eternity and where the sky and the water flow into each other.
Note: This story is from my eBook For Sikhs and Sikhism – Behind the Song there Stands a Smithy which you can download here. ~ Elisabeth Meru
Painting "The Boat of Guru Nanak" is courtesy of Iminder Singh: http://iminderarts.com/