The disciple at Kartarpur
The test of the shrouded body
Followers drop away at coins and jewels, and only Bhai Lehna is ready to eat from a shrouded corpse.
This is the janamsakhi story said to have settled the succession, as the Encyclopaedia gives it. Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji led his Sikhs into a jungle where silver and gold coins appeared on the ground, and many stopped to gather them. Further on jewels appeared, and most of the rest stayed behind for those.
Two Sikhs were left, and Guru Ji brought them to a funeral pyre and told them to eat the body lying beneath a shroud. One ran away. Bhai Lehna lifted the cloth to obey and found no corpse there, only Guru Ji himself.
How do we know?
Several traditional accounts tell this story, without close independent support.
This reports what the stories say. The site does not assert or deny the miraculous elements.
- ScholarshipSummarises the anecdote and treats its meaning as lying in the loyalty it depicts.[EoS]
- Later traditionIncludes a version in which Sri Guru Angad Dev Ji is tested on eating a corpse.[Macauliffe]
