Dukh Sukh........

Two store owners had their stores next to one another. One store owner, Gurmukh used to close his shop early and go to see Guru Nanak Dev ji. The other store owner, Manmukh asked Gurmukh that why you close your shop early he said he goes to see Guru Nanak Dev Ji. Manmukh also started closing his store early but instead started going to gamble house. Both kept on going to their places.

One day Manmukh and Gurmukh agreed upon a place to meet after visiting their places, so that they can go to their homes together. Manmukh came to meeting place early because the doors to gamble house were locked. He found golden ring lying by the pile of ashes. He was very happy. Gurmukh was on his way to the meeting place and thorn (kanda) punctured his foot. So he was in pain and came to a meeting place limping and bleeding. Manmukh told Gurmukh that he used to go to gamble and do all sorts of bad things and found a golden ring but you used to go to good places and be in the company of holy and still are in pain. Gurmukh told Manmukh there may be something behind this and asked him to go to see Guru Nanak Dev Ji next day. Both asked Guru Ji why it happened like this. Guru ji asked " Do you know what you did in the past life?" Both said no. Guru you told Manmukh, you donated golden ring in the past life and in this life you were going to get many golden rings but every day you used to go to gamble house and do bad things, the golden rings turned into ashes. The one golden ring is left because you could not go to that place on the last day. Guru Ji told Gurmukh, you were supposed to be hanged but because you started coming to sadh sangat, hanging has changed to mere pain of a thorn.

Dukh and Sukh in our present life are the result of deeds done in our previous lives. Gurbani says on 1030 "Sukh dukh purab janam kay kiye, so jane jin datay diye. Kis tu dosh deh tu parani suh apna kiya karaa hai". We can reduce the pains and sufferings of this life by devoting time toward WaheGuru (Naam Japna, Paath, Keertan, doing good deeds etc.). This will neutralize the effects of bad deeds done in the previous lives. All should devote at least 2.5 hours daily for Nitnem and all the time say WaheGuru in your mind. Repeating WaheGuru WaheGuru ..... WaheGuru is the most powerful way especially at Amrit vela. Keep doing that everyday without any break, not only your this life will be better but you will reap the benefits after this life also.

source:sikh.net