Guru Nanak and the Queen of Black Magic
Guru Nanak traveled all over India to spread the word of God, and he walked everywhere on foot. His companions Bala and Mardana always traveled with him. Once they were in a remote part of India called Kamrup where the people were famous for their devotion to black magic. When Guru Nanak reached the outskirts of the city he sat down under a tree and began meditating. While Bala stayed with him Mardana went ahead into the city to find food and drink.
Mardana found the city well and started filling his water containers. While he was there, some girls saw him and were curious about him. They asked him who he was and where he came from. But when he answered they thought he sounded funny because he spoke a different language. One of them said, "He sounds like a sheep, he's bleating like a sheep!"
They both laughed and the other said, "Let's turn him into one!" So she performed magic on the unsuspecting Mardana by putting a thread around his neck. He immediately got on all fours and started bleating, "Baaah, baah, baah." Other people who were watching started to laugh.
Guru Nanak sensed something was going on with Mardana and so he and Bala started walking towards the city. The magic girls saw them coming and decided to turn them in to animals too. One of them tried to cast a spell on Guru Nanak, she said, “Bark like a dog!” But it did nothing to Guru Ji. Instead, the spell was reversed and it was she who began barking like a dog. The other girl tried to defend her friend and raised her arm to cast a different spell, but her arm just froze in the air and she couldn't move it. The girls tried several other spells and whatever they tried to do was reversed back on them.
A woman who was watching became alarmed and ran to tell the Queen of Kamrup what was happening. The Queen was a powerful magician. She came to the city well to see for herself what was going on. She was surprised to see her sisters’ magic had been totally blocked. She tried to do magic to help them and even her magic couldn’t work! Then she tried to do magic against Guru Nanak but that didn't work either. Finally, she gave up and told Guru Nanak, "You are a great magician! Please free my sisters and teach me your magic!"
Guru Nanak Dev Ji, ever loving and compassionate, freed the girls at once. He explained that actually they were just bound by the effects of their own magic. Guru Ji then said, "The real magic is meditation on God."
The Queen of Kamrup fell at the Guru's feet and asked him to stay so they could honorably serve him. He told them that he would stay and gave them some advice: “Listen, you have used your powers for mischief. You have not helped people. Stop tricking people and start saving them. God is inside us. Give that to people. Do your duties well. Show love to people. Meditate on God in your hearts and bring this cozy loving God to every house. This way you will be in bliss when you drop your bodies and go to the next realm. It will bring glory to your soul and light to the world." From then on the women changed their ways and the city of Kamrup became a spiritual center of great compassion.