Gangu Shah

Gangu Shah was a very rich banker from Lahore. Times changed and Gangu Shah lost everything he had and got bankrupt. He had nowhere to go and heard of Guru Amardas jee daa darbar at Govindval Sahib. When a person gets hit by adversity, he either becomes devoted to Vaheguru or totally loses faith in him. Gangu Shah was lucky that he got bairaag and started doing sewa in at Govindval Sahib. He did sewa day and night and spoke very little to others. He was constantly reciting baani. One day Guru Sahib became pleased at him and blessed him with amrit naam i.e. Gurmantra. Now Gangu Shah started japping naam day and night. Everybody thought that he was in great bairagi state but Guru Sahib knew everything. Even though he was doing sewa of naam and seemed to be in bairaag but deep inside, he regretted losing all wealth he had. Guru Sahib knows the inside of all and Gangu Shah was not an exception. Guru Sahib knew what he wanted deep inside. One day, happy with his sewa and simran, Guru Sahib called him and asked him to ask for a boon. He just asked for more kirpa. Finally Guru Sahib asked him to go to Delhi and start his old business of banking and not give up Sikhi at any cost. Gangu Shah heard Guru Sahib in disbelief and asked him how he could become a banker as no one would trust him after becoming bankrupt at Lahore. Besides that, he had absolutely no money to start up such a business. Guru Sahib repeated his bachan and asked him to go to Delhi. Gangu Shah did matha tek and left for Delhi. In those days, "hundi" was a very popular way of sending money from one place to another. It was not safe to carry large amounts of cash by hand. So what the travellers used to do was, deposit the money with a banker in the city they lived in, who would then write him a hundi (a signed statement of receipt of money) in the name of another banker from the place of destination of the traveller. It was like a traveller cheque that the traveller would take to the place of destination and get cashed by the banker on whose name the hundi would be.

Gangu Shah had done this work before and was a known name in this field. He had many contacts in Lahore. Above all, he had the lotus-hand of Guru Sahib on his head and very soon he was able to establish himself in Delhi. Soon he became a very rich person again. His hundi was honoured by all bankers in Sirhind, Lahore and other major cities of Punjab. He continued doing his paath and simran but got more and more greedy with more accumulation of money. Such is the nature of maaya. When one does not have maaya one does not realize how more maaya can make a person embroilled in moh (attachment) and lobh (greediness) along with ahankaar (ego). When one gets greedy, Guru Sahib tries to fix his Sikh. When we start compromising Sikhi rehit for worldly things, we should understand this as a sign of our downfall.