The corrupt shall ultimately pay

Just off the National Highway 1 near Ludhiana, lies the village of Rampur. In 1705, Guru Gobind Singh spent a week in this village, while on his way to the Malwa region, and onward to Nanded Sahib in Maharashtra. The event was commemorated in the form of a gurudwara, named Reru Sahib after the reru tree (scientific name Mimosa Leucophloea ) at the spot where the Guru rested. The place was almost forgotten when it was re-discovered in 1901 by a holy person, Saint Attar Singh. Meditation and service to the people were his mainstay. His demeanour was most humble. At times, visitors enquired about the saint from the saint himself, and could not realise that they were speaking to the holy one. He believed in honest labour, and tilled the land himself, contributing his earnings to service. A close relative from Ludhiana came to see him, and was unhappy at the ordinary life of the great saint. The relative told him that he made money by being a dalal or a go-between in many corrupt deals, and advised the saint to join him. When the saint said that he was happy in his simple existence, the relative became derisive. Saint Attar Singh then quotes from Guru Granth Sahib:

The hands of the go-between are cut off; this is the Lord’s justice.

O Nanak, in the world hereafter, that alone is received, which one gives to the needy from his own honest labour.

The congregation that witnessed this exchange recorded that the relative suddenly became quiet, like a man cursed. He goes to the nearby Chawa railway station, and boards a train for Ludhiana. At the next station, Doraha, he gets off to buy tea, and on trying to re-board, falls under the train, and both hands are cut off. He pleads that instead of the hospital in Ludhiana, he should be quickly taken to the Saint for his blessings. His last rites were performed by the same congregation at Rampur. Sometimes, the Lord’s justice is swift.