On his eastward journey, Guru Nanak Dev Ji reached the great pilgrimage city of Haridwar, where crowds gathered on the banks of the Ganges at Har Ki Pauri, bathing and throwing handfuls of water toward the rising sun to offer it to their departed ancestors. Guru Sahib entered the river as any pilgrim would — but began throwing water in the opposite direction, toward the west.

When the puzzled crowd corrected him, Guru Sahib explained that he was watering his drought-stricken fields in Punjab, hundreds of miles away. Told that was impossible, he replied that if water thrown by hand could not reach a farm a few hundred miles off on this very earth, how could it possibly reach ancestors in the world beyond? The gathered pilgrims fell silent, and many gave up the hollow ritual, understanding instead that true devotion lies in how we live and give while we are alive.

No structure marked as a Gurudwara survives at Har Ki Pauri itself today; a small room once maintained in Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s name by local Mahants stood at what is now the office of the Bharat Scouts and Guides near Subhash Ghat, confirmed by Haridwar Municipal Corporation records dating to 1935.