Maharaj blessed our pet

प्रभ डोरी हाथ तुम्हारे ,

जीह जन्थ थारे धारे ..

Truly, all beings and creatures are the divine creation of the Almighty Lord, our Guruji Maharaj. This particular satsang is very dear to me as it steered my thought process into a new direction. Many thanks to our beloved Guruji Maharaj for this blessing.

While growing up I was never comfortable around any animals. In fact, I disliked all kinds of pet animals. After getting married, I discovered that my uncle had a small water turtle from the past three years. I saw the turtle and instantly loathed this slow-moving creature. It was smaller than the palm of my hand. I even argued with my uncle about keeping him in the apartment. Anyhow, we decided to keep him.

As this little one became part of our lives, I began to spend more and more time around him. In due course, Guruji Maharaj helped me in realizing the change of heart which was unconsciously happening inside me towards this turtle. The turtle's tank is placed in Guruji Maharaj's room where, with Maharaj's blessings, we play satsangs and shabad gurbani throughout the day. Out of the blue, we started to notice that the turtle switched to an active daytime routine! Each morning I noticed his excitement to see me! I had no idea that a creature as small as the turtle possessed this huge capacity to bestow his unconditional love upon us!

Slowly Guruji Maharaj made me realize that for this turtle, we are his whole world! This thought provoked a stream of immense love in my heart for him! We would often notice him sitting absolutely still and looking at Guruji's swaroop! He is truly blessed by our Guruji Maharaj. Sometimes, we see him standing vertically against the wall of the water tank and directly facing Guruji Maharaj's swaroop!

My uncle traveled to India in February 2020 and returned after a month. He had made arrangements with one of his friends to take care of the turtle while he was away. Unfortunately, his friend backed out one day before his flight to India! He had no option but to leave the turtle in the apartment. He strategically placed enough food in the tank and left his well being in the hands of Guruji Maharaj. Sangatji, Guruji Maharaj took such good care of our turtle! Upon return, my uncle found him hale and hearty! Not only did the water in his tank remained clean but it also did not dry up, which is very unusual! Shukrana Guruji for always taking care of this little one!

One night, in June 2020, Guruji Maharaj blessed me with a dream about our turtle. In this dream, I saw multiple births, deaths, and rebirths of our turtle wherein each time he was reborn as a turtle. This happened multiple times in the same dream. The next morning, Guruji Maharaj blessed me by helping me to accurately interpret this dream. He reminded me of a sakhi from Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji about life, birth & death which I had heard a while ago. Without further ado, I understood that Guruji Maharaj blessed the turtle's circuit of birth-death-rebirth by annulling the effect of his past karmas or actions. And more than likely He would bless the little one with spiritual liberation. This incident also reminded me of Guru Nanak ji's words ,“jammanu marna hukamu pachhanu" — meaning that the birth and death are governed by His hukum only.

I now understand with hindsight that it was my mistake not to like the little turtle in the beginning. Guruji Maharaj blessed us with multiple blessings with this satsang. Now, I adore the turtle like never before and cannot imagine my day without him! May Guruji Maharaj bless him even more! Shukrana Guruji Maharaj for transforming my perception towards pet animals!

Anantam Shukrana Maharaj.