Kiratpur and the last years
Bhairo and the goddess's nose
A Sikh breaks the idol's nose at Naina Devi and answers the rajas with a joke.
The Dabistan tells this story. When Guru Ji came to the hills, a Sikh named Bhairo went into the temple of the goddess Naina Devi on a mountain peak and broke the idol's nose. The local rajas complained and named him. Guru Ji called Bhairo, and he denied it. The rajas' men said that they recognised him.
Bhairo told them to ask the goddess, and said that if she named him they could kill him. The rajas called him a fool, since a goddess could not speak. Smiling, he asked who the fool was then, if she could not protect her own head or name her attacker. The rajas had nothing to say, according to the author, who adds that most people in the area became disciples of Guru Ji.
How do we know?
Only one account tells this story.
It comes from a near-contemporary who lived among the Sikhs, but it is an anecdote he may have heard from them and not something he saw. It also suits his interest in Sikh views on idols.
- From the timeTells of Bhairo, the idol and the argument with the rajas. (pp. 16-17)[Src]
