ADVICE TO THE PHYSICIAN                                                

After giving up learning from Maulvi Kutabdin, Guru Nanak started meeting saints and hermits. When no saint or hermit was available, he used to stay at home immersed in his own thoughts. If anybody came to the house, he talked as if he had met the person for the first time. Observing Guru Nanak's strange behaviour, his parents used to wonder. Guru Nanak also paid no attention to the timing of his meals.
Seeing the state of Guru Nanak, people began to talk thus,''Money is dearer to Mehta Kalu than his son. For the love of money he is not giving any treatment to his son although he is the only son.'' Hearing the people talk like this, Mehta Kalu one day called Haridas, the village physician, to treat Guru Nanak. Physician took Guru Nanak's  arm to feel the pulse. Guru Nanak pulled away his arm from the Physician's hand and said,''Dear physician why did you hold my arm?'' The Physician replied,'' I caught hold of your arm in order to feel your pulse., I was to diagnose your disease due to which you do not feel the hunger and eat nothing and keep lying down all day. I was to give you medicine after the diagnosis which would have cured you and you would have felt hunger at the proper time.''
Guru Nanak said to the physician,''Dear physician, my body whose pulse you are trying to feel is not sick. This illness is in my mind, deep inside myself. A physician who first recognises the malady correctly and then prescribes the medicine which frees the body from all ailments is a wise physician. Both the body and the mind may attain peace. I shall deem yourself to be an accomplished physician if you treat your malady before reliving me all my illness.''
The physician, on hearing that he himself was ill, was much upset. He asked,''Nanak, which illness do I have? I am quite hale and hearty. Tell me quickly which illness do I suffer from?'' Guru Nanak replied,'' You are sick with serious illness of birth and death. This cycle of birth and death cannot be cured by your medicines. Only the physician who does not himself suffer from this disease can give medicines to cure it. That physician, who is neither born nor dies. You are not that Physician.''
Physician Haridas knew only the cures of the diseases of the body. He did not know the medicine to rid oneself of the maladies of the mind, but he came to understand what Guru Nanak said. He took leave from Mehta Kalu telling him,'' Nanak has no physical ailment. He is immersed in love of God. Dear Mehta Kalu, please stop worrying about your son. He does not need any medicine from a physician.''