Apostle of Nanak Bhagti

t so happened one day that in the very early hours of a morning, the parents discovered the child missing from the house. He was not yet even five years of age. They first searched him in the vicinity and later set out to search him outside the village alongwith some other elderly people. He had taken a bath at 12 midnight at a well and was discovered sitting in deep meditation on a raised and narrow bricked edge of that well outside the village. He was seated cross-legged in samadhi nearly for three hours now in complete solitude. A little sleep could plunge the child deep into the well and surprisingly for that very reason, he had selected that spot.

It appeared as if Bhagat Dhruva had descended from his lofty spiritual heights to re-enact and relive his arduous meditation and tapasaya in a new tiny human frame, but this time for the whole of his life.

Elderly people having spotted him found him in deep ecstasy and total divine absorption. They quietly approached him and physically lifted him up to safe-guard against any sudden fall of the child in the deep well. When questioned as to why he had selected the raised bricked narrow edge of a well for his prayers, thereby risking his very life, he replied “In the process of devotion and love of Sri Guru Nanak Sahib if sleep overtakes, it is then better to fall in the well and die rather than live a life otherwise”. Such was the unique devotional yearning and earnestness of this holy child. This was the state of spiritual awakening in him at that delicate age. Such was the mighty determination and resolution of this spiritual lion even as a tender child of five.

It was really amazing that a child of five years who had taken no spiritual lessons or initiation from a saint or anyone else, had plunged head-long into a spiritual quest unheard of in the annals of spiritual history. Development of such intense love for Sri Guru Nanak Sahib in such an early age is a super-human phenomenon. Sages could not develop this type of intense love for God in their life time. Apparently love-divine had itself incarnated in this holy child. Thus, seated crosslegged in deep meditation, resolved and determined to conquer the unconquerable, he had in the process conquered both sleep and death, worldly attractions and comforts. He was totally indifferent to sleep, food, play, worldly ties, bonds and attachments. He was seldom seen talking to anyone. He was always immersed in some mysterious deep contemplation. Nothing worldly could attract him. Only Baba Nand Singh Ji could do so. Being an incarnation of love-divine, he, as a child, had plunged head-long deep into the ocean of God-love regardless of death, sleep and other comforts. Nothing else could charm and delight him; nothing could detract him from this divine plunge he had so resolutely taken. After this incident, His parents became vigilant, but whenever they tried to check his presence at night, they found him seated on his charpoy in deep meditation like his spiritual preceptor Baba Harnam Singh Ji Maharaj.

He never slept in his life. No one had ever seen him asleep. He had conquered sleep in his tender infancy. A true Brahm Giani, who is always established in the highest bliss has no such want and need as sleep. "Brahm Giani Sada Sad Jagat". Says Guru Arjan Patsha in Sukhmani Sahib. Baba Nand Singh Ji Maharaj was a born Brahm Giani, a born prophet. Baba Nand Singh Ji Maharaj was always immersed in divine ecstasy. He was always established in the highest spiritual state. It is only the mortals in physical state whose needs of sleep and hunger have to be met and satisfied.

Re-birth of the glory of Sri Guru Nanak Sahib flashes in these unique incidents of his childhood. No wonder the divine power and shakti of Sri Guru Nanak Sahib had again incarnated as Baba Nand Singh Ji Maharaj to establish the glory of Sri Guru Granth Sahib in its pristine purity and splendour.

Hidden remained at that time, the spiritual grandeur of this holy child. This incident, however, reveals a glimpse of the splendid divinity in which this blessed child was providentially moulded and sculptured. The grand purpose and mission of his life was abundantly clear at this stage itself.

In view of the above mentioned incident of Baba Ji's childhood, it is evident that tyag and renunciation in its purest form had incarnated in the garb of Baba Nand Singh Ji Maharaj. As would be seen later from the holy events of his life-divine, he had renunciated everything, including renunciation itself. He owned nothing in this world and he also depended on nothing in this world. This renunciation was unique. He was a born Tyagi and he was a born prophet of Love-Divine. From his very infancy, he had only one passion, one yearning and that was direct and physical realisation of his most beloved Satguru, Sri Guru Nanak Sahib. He had given all his love to Sri Guru Nanak Sahib exclusive to everything else called worldly. From his very infancy, he had sacrified everything in the holy fire of burning devotional love of Lord Guru Nanak.

(Personally narrated to us by Bhai Rattan Singh Ji of Kaleran, a direct, intimate and life-long disciple of Baba Nand Singh Ji Maharaj):