The Dabistán, or School of manners, Volume 2 (of 3): translated from the original Persian, with notes and illustrations
Religion
The Dabistán, or School of manners, Volume 2 (of 3): translated from the original Persian, with notes and illustrations
Iran -- Religion; Religions
The Vairágis are not devoted to a particular worship; they say, the
name of Vishnu suffices for the acquisition of _mukt_, or “the union
with God.” This sect was formed during the Káli yúg, and call
themselves also Váichnavas: they renounce the world, and say: “Our way
is opposite to that of the Vêdas and of the Koran: that is, we have
nothing to do either with Muselmans or Hindus.” A great number of
Muselmans adopted their creed, such as Mirza Salah, and Mirza Háider,
two noble Muselmans who became Vaíragis. Of this sect was _Naráin
Dásí_, who sided with _Rámánandis_, which is one of the _Sampradayas_,
that is the first of the four classes before mentioned. The author of
this book saw him in the year 1052 of the Hejira (1642 A. D.) in
Lahore. He was one of those who are freed from the affections of the
world; he honored whomever he saw, and said: “Every body belongs to
the divinity; that is, every body is the house of God.”
“Without thee there is nothing that is in the world:
From thyself demand whatever thou wishest: for it is thyself.”
Píránah Kohely was of the sect of Vairagis, and Kohelí is a tribe of
Kshatriyas; he withdrew from all the affections and troubles of the
world. Having left the Guzerat of Panjab, which is his native place
and the seat of his ancestors, he went to Vizírábád, a city built by
Hakím Ilam eddín, named _Buzín khan_, and chose to settle not far from
the above mentioned Guzerat. He had no faith in pious austerity. He
said, the saints are men who, in a former existence, have brought
affliction upon other men, and on that account do penance in this
world; every pious act joined to some austerity is a requital of their
deeds; those who are fasting have, in a former state, let hunger and
thirst afflict the low and feeble; those who watch at night have, in
his opinion, prevented the servants from sleeping; the Sanyásis,
called Thádéser, who remain years standing upon one leg, he thinks to
be a class of spirits who have not permitted the servants to sit down;
and those who suspend themselves, and others who perform their
devotion in an inverted or strained posture, are a class who used to
suspend their inferiors; and those who visit celebrated places and
sacred mansions of pilgrimage, are a set who, for trifling reasons,
have without pity sent about couriers to different places, without
paying them their hire; the _játis_,[316] that is, those who abstain
from intercourse with women, and from sensual indulgence, are an order
of spirits, who have not provided for their sons and daughters the
subsistence and furniture requisite for the marriage state, and
prohibited to them this enjoyment, for which reason they now are
subjected to retaliating penance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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