Follow All Commands Of The Guru

Once a Sikh was plastering his wall with mud. Drops of dirty water from his hands soiled Guru Gobin Singhs's (sic) robes. The Guru said, "Someone give him a slap. He who does so will be blessed." At this, all the Sikhs, who were sitting there, jumped on the poor Sikh. Some gave him as many as five slaps, some eight, some ten, until the sikh was almost unconscious.

Then the Guru said, "He who gives this sikh the hand of his daughter, will be blessed." At this, all of them slipped away. Nobody spoke.

"O Sikhs," said the Guru, "if you obey, you should obey all instructions, and not that you obey one and ignore the other. It seems that the first instruction to slap was found easy, while the one to offer a daughter was found difficult to carry out. You should have thought why so many started beating him? Had he committed a murder? So what if a drop of dirty water fell on my clothes? And if you plead that you slapped him under instruction of the Guru, then you should have given him only one slap. Those who beat him, should have thought that if someone had given him one slap already, he should not have been dealt the second one. When the Guru's instruction to give one slap had been carried out, why deal additional slaps? Why did you give him countless number of slaps ? You have beaten him so much that you have pushed him close to death. All slaps above one have been dealt by you under your own perverted appreciation (of my orders)."

From the "Abstracts Of Sikh Studies".