Choosing Bhai Lehna
The bundle of wet grass and the test of the pyre
The Janamsakhis say Bhai Lehna alone passed Guru Ji's tests, including an order to eat a corpse.
The Janamsakhis tell of a day when Bhai Lehna visited Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji in the fields, wearing new clothes, and was told to carry home a dripping bundle of paddy. He lifted it on his head and walked back with mud running down him. When Mata Sulakhni protested at this treatment of a guest, Guru Ji replied that it was not mud but saffron.
The Puratan tells a harder story. Walking with Sikhs in a wild place, Guru Ji made coins appear on the ground, and many stopped to gather them. Then came silver, then gold, and then only two followers were left. They reached a burning pyre with a body under a sheet, and Guru Ji asked who would eat it. One fled. Bhai Lehna asked only where he should begin, and lifting the sheet at the feet, he found Guru Ji himself. In this telling, the new name Sri Guru Angad Dev Ji comes from ang, a part of the body.
How do we know?
The sources conflict on this story, or scholars doubt it.
The Encyclopaedia's entry says the truth of the story lies in the loyalty it depicts, not in the miracles. It is told in the context of a contest with the sons.
- Later traditionRecounts the bundle of wet paddy on new clothes, and the coins, jewels and pyre that thin out the followers.[EoS]
- Later traditionGives the Puratan pyre story, with Gorakhnath as witness and the name Sri Guru Angad Dev Ji explained as from a limb. (p. 50)[McLeod]
- ScholarshipRejects the corpse story as a wonder tale and accepts only the general fact of his devotion. (pp. 77, 142)[McLeod]
