GURU NANAK DEV JI while on his eastward journey reached Haridwar. It is a big city in Uttarakhand, on the banks of the river Ganges and is one of the major centres for Hindu pilgrimage. The people, gathered there in large numbers, were bathing in the holy river. GURU NANAK DEV JI observed many people throwing water towards the sun in the east. These people who threw handfuls of water from river Ganges, towards the sun in the east, believed that by this ritual they could offer water to their dead elders in the next world. This next world was in the East from where the Sun rose. SHRI GURU NANAK DEV JI entered the river for purposes of bathing as other common pilgrims were doing. Instead of throwing water to the east, he, however, started throwing water in the opposite direction towards the west where GURU SAHIB farm was. Taking him as a new visitor, the nearby bathers told him that he was not performing the rituals correctly. They advised him to throw water to the east. Guru Nanak Dev continued throwing water towards the west pretending that he was very much absorbed in the ‘holy’ act and had not heard anything. Soon, many people gathered there to tell him that the proper method of performing the ritual was to throw water in the other direction. His water thrown to the west was of no use to him or to his dead ancestors. The pilgrims thought that the GURU SAHIB was acting strangely and soon many hundreds of bathers surrounded him and were tell GURU SAHIB that he was throwing the water in the wrong direction and that it will never get to his ancestors – who live in the East. They flocked to the GURU SAHIB and laughed at what they thought was a very funny action. The leader of the pilgrims approached and asked GURU SAHIB, “Why are you throwing the holy water to the West in the wrong direction?” By this time many thousand of bather were watching GURU SAHIB. “The water is to be thrown towards the rising sun in the east so that it reaches your dead ancestors.”