ueen Victoria, who ruled India long after the time of the Gurus, had heard some tales about the Sikhs. When she heard of a book written about the travels of Guru Gobind Singh, she had it translated. From this book, the 'Sakhi Pothi' (book of stories),  she read a tale that caught her interest. The story goes like this: Once during the travels of Guru Gobind Singh and his Khalsa set up camp in a deserty area. Guru ji told one of his Sikhs to climb up a very large Jhand tree near by. He told him "Go up there and look for a small plant which is actually a Pipal tree." So the Singh climbed up the tree as high as he could so he could get a good look out for the plant. After a while he wasn't able to spot it, so he climbed back down the tree. When he got to the bottom he noticed a small pipal tree growing in between the roots of the larger tree. "Guru ji, there is a Pipal sapling near the bottom of the tree I climbed, is that the plant you wanted to know about?" Guru ji confirmed, and started to explain a unique phenomenon. He told the Sikh that this sapling would grow to be a large tree too. "When it grows to the same hieght as the Jhand tree, that is when my Khalsa will spread to the four corners of the world and will sit as authority in government. When it grows over the Jhand tree, by the Will of God, the Khalsa order will make a community around the world which will last for 5,000 years. They will be very beautiful, they will take care of each other, they will have peace and prosperity." Up on reading these words of the Guru, Queen Victoria sent an officer to the very village where this tree supposed to be. When the officer reported back from this expedition he confirmed that there is in fact a Pipal tree growing next to a Jhund tree. "It is about 3 meters shorter than the original tree," they told her. She found out that it would take at least 100 years for it to grow as large as the other one. She took assurance from this that her rule in India would not be threatened in her life. Now the Jhand tree is hard to see because the Pipal tree has almost taken over totally. Now is the time of the Khalsa! Let puity, love and service spread! May the Khalsa rise, may humanity flourish in peace and prosperity!