Two ladies come in to plea for a young man who is waiting outside in a wheelchair. He has been paralyzed for 6 months by an accident. Maharaj says the hukam is to read Jaap Sahib, apply the oil from havan divas to his forehead and three places on his body, and to give him jaal (blessed water). They should also distribute halwa prasad. Moreover, he tells them,
What he needs is Nazar (the guru’s merciful gaze) to cut through his bad karma. Life never ends. The soul continues but the body is a temporary place. When a person dies, his soul does not end. Again he becomes a child. If he doesn’t meditate, his karma will not be clean.
Look at history. At the time of Guru Gobind Singh, people were weak and fearful. By his Nazar, they became brave, with strong character. Guru Nanak’s Nazar turned thieves into devotees. When Mahavir passed by a diseased man who didn’t know who he was, the man was so affected by Mahavir’s Nazar that he ran after him, asking who he was. The subject of karma and Nazar appears throughout the Holy Qur’an. Jesus went to the cross to carry all the sins of the people. Karma existed, and he sacrificed himself to cut it.
Gurbani says that God is like a farmer who cuts his crop whenever he chooses. Never mind. These things happen, but God can fix them by Nazar. Guru Gobind Singh says, “You are the Cause of all actions, providing sustenance to everyone. You take away all difficulties, but we cannot see You.”
There is an Indian belief that the whole world is balanced on a bull, but Guru Nanak said, “No—there is a whole cosmos. What it stands on is dharma.” Enlightenment has its own valuable place. There have been illiterate enlightened people like Guru Nanak, who studied at that School which cannot be seen. Guru Nanak saw that there are crores of suns that are larger than ours, and six hundred years ago he wrote about the eclipse of the sun. The Prophet Muhammad went through 14 worlds and saw Jesus and Moses. Guru Gobind Singh also spoke of 14 worlds where there is life. Guru Nanak said that God created all resources at once.
After Maharaj explains other revelations about the cosmos that enlightened people discovered long before physicists did, the mother of the boy in the wheelchair brings up his subject again. Maharaj answers,
It is karma. God can end karma. They asked Jesus whether a person’s problems came from his parents’ bad deeds. He said, “No, it’s his own.” Because it was a matter of karma, it could be changed by Nazar and faith. Perhaps because of the boy’s accident, a lot of people will be inspired to read path.
At this, they bring in the boy. He is quite unable to move properly. Maharaj tells them to put blessed mustard oil from the havan jyots on his lower back and keep Jaap
Sahib in a high place where he sleeps. But I think the greatest effect may come subtly from Maharaj’s Nazar.