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
results may be obtained through him; as in almost a direct allusion to
this, people say: “An intelligent man of small stature is far superior
to the tall blockhead.” By Rajah _Bali_, they typify generosity and
liberality.
Shidósh was delighted at this interpretation, and said: “They have
also recorded that Krishna had sixteen thousand wives; and when one of
his friends who thought it impossible for Krishna to visit all of
them, said to try him: ‘Bestow on me one of thy wives,’ Krishna
answered: ‘In whatever female’s apartment thou findest me not, she is
thine.’ His friend went into the different apartments, but in every
one of them he beheld the god engaged in conversation with its
mistress.” This story implies, that the love of Krishna was so rooted
in their hearts, that they cared for none besides, having his image
present to their eyes, and dwelling every moment on his beloved idea.
The tradition of Vishnu’s always bearing the Chakra in his hand (a
kind of military weapon), alludes to the knowledge and decisive
demonstration which are unattainable without the aid of soul.
In Mahadeo, they allude to our elementary nature by the serpent twined
round his neck; they mean anger, and the other reprehensible qualities
which result from corporeity; by his being mounted on a bull, the
animal propensities; by the tradition of his place of repose being the
site for burning the dead, is signified, the total dispersion of the
particles of bodies and the perishable nature of things. Mahadeo’s
drinking poison is also to the same purport. In this sense they also
say that Mahadeo is the destroyer of all worldly things; that is,
elemental nature imperatively requires the dissolution of combination
(connection), and that ultimately death comes in the natural course.
They also hold that every angel has a wife (female energy), of a
similar generic constitution, and originally derived from Brahma; and
as we have before stated, the philosophers call the first intelligence
the True Sire, and the universal soul, Eve; and thus he is the head
and the wife the shoulder; the universal soul is the body of the
empyreal heaven; and in like manner the other celestial souls and
bodies have wives of the elementary nature; as they give the
appellation of wife, or energy, to whatever is the manifest source of
action.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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