There was once an oil merchant traveling with his container of oil on his head to another town. He was an old man and halfway on his trip, he realized he needed help. So he inquired from a village he was passing through about hiring someone to help him. The villagers pointed out a loitering young man by the name of Juga. Juga agreed to carry the container of oil for a fee of 100 rupees - the oil merchant readily agreed.
Juga picked up the container and started walking a few paces behind the merchant. As the merchant was not a talkative kind, Juga started thinking about how he would spend his 100 rupees. After several thoughts, he decided he would be responsible and invest that money in buying a chicken. The chicken, he further thought, would lay many eggs; from which other chickens would emerge. Then thinking further down the line, those chickens would produce even more chickens and soon he would have a big farm with thousands of chickens. He would then marry the village beauty he had his eyes on and she would bear him many children. The children would soon grow up and help him grow the farm into many farms. Soon he would be the richest man in whole region.
His children would then produce more children, and he would be an old grandfather with hundreds of dotting grandchildren. The grandchildren would come to him asking him many questions about his life and he would feign annoyance at them and tell them to leave him alone. The grandchildren, who would love him so much, would insist that he tell them stories. Then he would give in and tell them stories about his glorious rise to wealth.
But the children, being children, would keep on pestering him for more and more stories, until he would get tired and would angrily shoo them away...
When Juga raised his hand to shoo the imaginary grandchildren away, the oil container came off his head and crashed on the ground, spilling all of the oil.
The horrified merchant turned around and furiously shouted at him, "You idiot!! You ruined my whole day of work!"
Juga shouted back, "You are worried about your stupid day, my whole chicken empire just collapsed!!!"
You might be well-beloved and well-known person in this world, but if you do not realize your true essence, in the spiritual realms you are a nobody!
----- Guru Nanak, Jap Ji, 7th pauri
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