"So what does this story have to do with Naam?" my Auntie Jee asked again, just as I thought she had fallen asleep for sure.

 

My holier-than-thou-by-at-least-2-trips-to-Hemkunt-Sahib big sister piped up, "Well it means that we are all lost without the rope of Naam."

 

"No, not quite" my Auntie Jee replied.

 

 Hurray!!! This was the first time in 12-some years that I had seen my sis not quite get the answer. I grinned from one end of my dastaar to the other.

My sis suddenly shouted, "Auntie Jee, you passed a red light!!!"

 

Just then we heard a police siren.Weeeeooo000OOO000oooo

 

Well, this was a historic day indeed. Although it was widely known that my Auntie Jee was the worst driver this side of Gian Khand, she had never had a driving ticket or even a warning. Her speed didn't depend on the road speed limits, rather the speed of her naam! I had seen her driving 75 mph on a 45-speed-limit road and vice versa. When her naam became faster, her driving would be faster too. When riding in her car, I always remember my friend telling me that he wanted to die in his sleep like his grandfather, not like the screaming passengers in his car!!! Well, now there was no doubt Auntie Jee was going to get a ticket and I would be the witness. I could tell this story to our relatives over and over again and each time (as was my long-standing tradition) adding more and more masala.

 

I and the sis were pretty excited; my Auntie Jee was pretty calm as usual. "Oh", she said, "it’s that nice man again".

 

Nice Man "again" - what was she talking about? "That nice man is a police officer who is going to take away your license, Auntie Jee!”

 

She laughed, "Oh no. He probably wants the direction to the rest area or something."

 

We just shrugged. My Auntie Jee pulled over. The policeman came and quite impatiently demanded her license. She looked at him and said, "You don't want to see my license."

 

He blanked-out for a minute and slowly said, "I don't want to see your license".

 

Then my Auntie Jee said, "Only Naam goes with us. WaheGuru WaheGuru WaheGuru."

 

He repeated, "Only Nam goes with us. VaaheGuroo VaaheGuroo VaaheGuroo" and he walked away!

 

My Auntie Jee started the car up and started driving!!!! My jaw was at the bottom of the seat; my sis's was even below that!! "Wh.... Wh... What just happened here, Auntie Jee??"

 

"Well," she replied, "are you going to tell me what that Village simpleton's story has to do with Naam or not".

 

"I.. I..." I started.

 

"OK," my Auntie Jee blissfully interrupted, "You see, we take Naam very lightly. We think doing WaheGuru has no real meaning - most of us do it because someone has told us that it will solve some of our problems, but Naam is a very, very powerful and creative force. Maya (illusion) had taken the rope of consciousness of our real selves and put it around our false selves (ego). So like the Village simpleton, we think we are something else. Only Naam can wake us up and show us who we really are. Once we are self-realized, we can not only affect people's minds around us, we can also, if we choose to, literally create and destroy universes. Naam makes us realize that we really are nothing but WaheGuru - indeed there is nothing but WaheGuru."

 

If I had heard Auntie Jee say this about 20 minutes ago, I would have just shrugged it away; but this Naam stuff is Real!!!! It really works. I couldn't wait to find out how to store Naam inside me and change beautiful people's mind about me, especially that beautiful bibi who sits on the stage singing the keertan “OUCH!!! - Sis cut it out.” My sister was pinching me pretty hard, hmmph she must of read my mind or sumthin, cuz she was giving me a really hard look too! So I smiled very sweetly and said in my softest voice, “Sis you are so beautiful when you get mad at me. If only I cud change your mind about me and get you to quit pinching me SO hard waheguru waheguroo.”  I waz tryin to squirm out of her reach, which is really hard to do when you’re squished between your big sister and your Auntie doing 74 in a 55 zone, while waving at the nice man in the blue squad car. But it seems that waheguru waheguroo naam stuff really works cuz my big sis calmed right down and began rubbing my arm where the pinch mark was starting to turn redder than the light Auntie was about to go thru "again". Screeeech. We came to a very sudden STOP

 

“Wahguru wahguroo, sorry little brother don’t know what came over me guess the Saheed Singhs made me do it,” my sister said apologetically.

 

“Huh?” seems like everytime I get something figured out things get all complicated again.

 

“Don’t worry little brother, even if you are drowning in millions of sins, remembering waheguroo can save you.” Whew, that’s good to know cuz here I am on the edge of this annoying cliff again and I wouldn’t want to go falling off. Cuz in the dark, the ocean down below looks an awful lot like all of my thoughts.

 

kott aghaa geae naas har eik dhhiaaeiaa ||
Millions of sins are eliminated, by meditating on the Naam, the Name of the One Lord.