The Leader Engine ! (Nikki Kahani)

It was a story from about a hundred years ago.
Kartar Singh used to go every day just to watch the train.

One day, a young man finally asked him,
“Baba Ji, why do you watch this train so carefully every day?”

The elderly man smiled and replied,
“I learn something very important from its engine.”

“What is that?” the young man asked.

The elderly man said:
“First, the engine keeps moving towards its destination.
Second, it takes every coach connected to it along with it.
Third, it bears the heat of the fire itself, but does not let the coaches behind it burn.
Fourth, it does not leave its prescribed route—the track.
And fifth… the engine does not need the support of every coach to prove its strength.
In this way, the engine takes all the coaches connected to it along and reaches the destination together with them.”

The young man then asked,
“Baba Ji, then what should a leader be like in Sikhi?”

The elderly man smiled calmly and said,
“A leader should be one who takes the Sangat towards the destination,
faces the difficulties himself,
does not abandon the path,
and does not leave those walking with him behind.
That is what true leadership should be.

The bottom line is simple:
A leader should not consider the coaches—the Sangat—as his property or followers to control.
He should be the engine that takes them along and helps them reach the destination together.”