Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji continued their journey…

Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji continued their journey and reached the district of Jessore. There, there was a great landlord whom people lovingly called Bhoomiya Ji, meaning the lord of the land. In reality, he was a person with a large heart and was always ready to serve the poor and needy. He had established a langar (community kitchen) and a food supply system to ensure that no one in the region would sleep hungry. Thus, all needy people could receive food and clothing without any discrimination. His fame had spread across the nearby areas. When Guru Ji arrived in the town, Bhoomiya Ji heard about the greatness of Guru Ji’s sermons.

He immediately went to Guru Ji’s congregation and humbly requested Guru Ji to visit his house, as he wished to have the honor of serving them.

Seeing Bhoomiya’s insistence, Guru Ji asked what work he did and what was the source of his income through which he was running the langar. Hearing this question, Bhoomiya became hesitant because, due to the immense expenses of the langar, he would occasionally resort to looting.

Since he did not answer, Guru Ji said that they could not visit his house because he was not earning his livelihood through honest labor. Hearing this, Bhoomiya was greatly disheartened and fell at Guru Ji’s feet.

He pleaded, "O Guru Ji! I will obey your every command. Please grant me the honor of hosting you for a meal at my home."

Guru Ji then said, "Think carefully, keeping a vow is a very difficult task."

Bhoomiya assured, "Just command me."

Then Guru Ji said, "Renounce wealth acquired through corruption."

Hearing this vow, Bhoomiya was startled and replied, "Guru Ji, please do not put me through such a difficult test. Ask me anything else, and I will obey."

Understanding his difficulty, Guru Ji said, "Alright, if you do not wish to accept our first vow, then instead of one, you must now follow three vows." Bhoomiya agreed.

Guru Ji said, "Our first vow is that you will never speak a lie."

Bhoomiya said, "True words, Guru Ji, so shall it be."

Then Guru Ji said, "The second vow is that you will never exploit the poor nor allow anyone else to do so. The third vow is that you will never betray the one whose salt you consume." Bhoomiya willingly accepted all three vows.

Guru Ji then said, "However, the meal you will serve us today must be prepared using money earned through honest labor." Bhoomiya agreed to this as well. He went into the jungle, gathered a bundle of firewood, sold it in the market, and used the earned money to buy groceries and prepare food, which he then served to Guru Ji. Guru Ji was pleased and blessed him, saying, "You shall be blessed."

A few days after Guru Ji’s departure, when Bhoomiya needed money to continue running the langar as before, he wondered where he could get money from, since he was not allowed to exploit the poor. So, he planned to steal from the local royal palace. One night, dressed in royal attire and mounted on a beautiful horse, he reached the palace.

There, the sentry challenged him, "Who goes there?" Hearing this challenge, Bhoomiya remembered that he could not lie.

So, he immediately responded, "Sir! I am a thief." Hearing such an unexpected answer, the sentry was taken aback and thought that this must be a distinguished person who had been offended by his harsh tone.

Thus, the sentry said, "Sir! Forgive me, you may enter." Bhoomiya entered, broke the locks of the treasury and storehouses, and tied up a heavy bundle of jewelry. As he was about to leave, he felt hungry and decided to eat something. In the dim light of the kitchen, he picked up a plate containing some food and ate it, which turned out to be salty. The moment he consumed the salty food, he immediately remembered the vow he had made to Guru Ji—not to betray the one whose salt he consumed. That was it! He left all the precious items there and returned home.

The next morning, when the royal staff reported the theft, the king ordered an investigation. However, upon inspection, nothing was actually stolen. The king was astonished that someone would dare to commit a theft at such a secure place but then leave everything behind. He ordered his guards to find the thief. The guards, suspecting various people, began punishing and beating innocent individuals. When Bhoomiya learned about this, he could not bear it. He thought, "I have given my word to Guru Ji that I will not let the poor be exploited. How can innocent people be punished for my actions?"

Unable to tolerate this injustice, he decided to confess his crime before the king. However, the king refused to believe that Bhoomiya could be a thief. The king insisted that Bhoomiya was a kind-hearted man who had only presented himself to save the innocent from punishment. To prove his innocence, Bhoomiya presented the sentry as a witness, which cleared the king’s doubts and led to the release of all the innocent people.

However, now the king himself was so impressed by Bhoomiya’s transformation that he built a Dharamshala (religious inn) in honor of Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s teachings, where daily spiritual gatherings took place. The king became a devoted follower of Guru Nanak Dev Ji. Since he had no children, the congregation once discussed praying for the king to be blessed with an heir.

Thus, one day, the entire congregation collectively prayed to the divine, "O Lord! Please bless our king with a son and fulfill his wish." The prayer was accepted, but instead of a son, a daughter was born to the king. The king, however, raised the newborn child as a boy, believing that the congregation had prayed for a son, so the child must indeed be a son and not a daughter.

As time passed and the child grew up, a marriage was arranged with a girl. When the king took the wedding procession to the bride’s home, on the way through the forest, the prince (who was actually a girl) saw a deer and decided to hunt it down. In doing so, they got separated from the wedding party and lost their way.

While wandering, the prince saw some sages engrossed in devotional singing. Approaching them for directions, the prince respectfully bowed before them. The sages said, "Come, my son!" And at that moment, the prince underwent a miraculous transformation—changing from a female into a real male.

When the wedding party arrived at the bride’s home, a jealous informant whispered to the bride’s family that the groom was not actually a male but a female. To confirm this claim, the bride’s family devised a plan. They said, "Before the wedding ceremony, we have a tradition of bathing the groom in our sacred water."

When the groom was taken for the ritual bath, it was revealed that they had indeed transformed from a female into a real male.