Once upon a time there was a beautiful deer who spent every day prancing around in the woods. And every day she noticed a wonderful smell. It smelt better than rain; it smelt better than flowers; in fact, the deer had never smelled anything so enchantingly wonderful. The deer wondered where the smell came from. She began to sniff around, "Sniff, sniff. Maybe this perfume is coming from inside the tree!" She ran over to a tree, but it just smelt like a normal tree.
Once there was a man who came to visit his friend. His friend was a good host, and he said, "Oh, come in. It's great to see you old friend. Please come in, I'll get you something to eat."
Once there was a king who was both good and righteous. He was known far and wide for his wisdom and his kindness to the people of his kingdom. After many years, he began to feel bored with being a king, so he asked his adviser, "How old is my son now? I want him to become king so I can quit this job." The adviser said, "Your son is only 15 years old. The law says he must be 18 years old before he may be crowned as the king." The king said, "No, no no... that is no good at all. I want him to become king now." The adviser said, "You yourself are still a young king. If you were to wait for 3 years, you would still be very young to be retiring from your duties as a king." The king thought this over.
A long time ago in India there was a simple farmer named Dhanna. He lived a quiet life and loved to farm. Every day on his way to his fields, he passed by the house of a pundit who did many rituals and prayers, and Dhanna found this very interesting. One day he saw the pundit serving food to a stone statue. And he asked the pundit, "Why are you bringing food to a stone?" The pundit replied, "This is not a stone! This is a Thakur. If one pleases the Thakur all their wishes come true. You must feed the Thakur first, and only after that can you eat."
Young Gobind Rai was a very playful boy and he and his friends used to go down to the riverside to play almost every day. They weren't the only ones who went there. A lot of people used to bathe at the river Ganga because it was also a holy spot. One of them was Shiv Dutt, a very rich and wise man. At the riverside he built a platform and placed statues of different gods on it to make a kind of altar. He did his prayers and recited his chants in front of this platform. He was a spiritual man and was greatly respected by others.
Gobind Rai was born in the city of Patna in the state of Bihar. Gobind Rai; A divine soul sent from the heavens to help this earth. People always noticed that when he played with his friends, even though he was physically stronger, he was always kind to everyone. He was always having fun, joking around and he laughed all the time. And there were so many games he liked to play with his friends. Sometimes he also liked to do mischief.
Like most children, young Gobind Rai liked to have fun. But unlike most children, he never cried and he was always in a happy mood. His mother dressed him up in princely clothes and put a feather in his turban and he always looked very clean and handsome. He was looked after by everyone and was very well protected. His mother, grandmother and uncle were all very saintly people who played with him and raised him in his early years. They loved him so much. Throughout his childhood Gobind Rai had entertainment, games, friends and everything, he was always happy.
The lion is the king of the jungle. Once there was a lion that was not grateful for being king. Instead he thought he was better than everyone else. He would say, "Look at me I'm the greatest, I'm the strongest, I'm the most virtuous, I'm simply the best". Well his wife told him, "If you are the best, why don't you ask everyone else, maybe they don't think so."
Once a long time ago there was a thief. His father had trained him to be a thief. He was a really good thief because he listened to everything his father taught him about stealing. One thing his father told him was this: "Never listen to anything a saint says. Don't even listen to a single word out of the mouth of a saint. If you hear what saints say, you will not be able to be a thief." He was the best thief around.
A noble King had all his subject do a fast in honor of Vishnu on the day of Ekadasi. There was one man who didn't do the fast though, he was a Sikh of Guru Nanak. "I am constantly fasting. I eat little food and sleep little. I fast from any and all temptation that distract my devotion to God," explained the man. The King was very impressed and wanted very much to meet this Guru. But how would he ever meet this famous saint known as 'Baba Nanak'?