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
Of the distinguished disciples of the Jnáníndrás, whom the author of
this work saw, are: _Shankar bhat_, _Kanésh bhat_, _Sudarshan Kal_,
_Adab bhat_, _Máhatápindra_, and _Avat_, known under the name of
_Kopál Kúl_. A goldsmith asked Shankar bhat, one of the disciples just
mentioned: “Why do the Jnáníndras, with all their pretensions to
independence, still worship idols?” Shankar said: “Why dost thou work
in gold?” The goldsmith replied: “This is my profession for gaining my
livelihood.” The answer to this was: “And worship too is a trade and a
means to procure food.”
Mulla Shídáyi, a Hindu, who has a name amongst the poets, and
possessed a very impressive eloquence, went one day with the author of
this book to the house of a Jnáníndra, and conversed with him; he saw
his disciples, and having observed the manners of the people of the
house, he was struck with astonishment, and said: “My whole life
passed in devotedness to pious persons; but my eyes never beheld such
independence, and my ears never heard any thing comparable to the
speeches of those emancipated men.”
Hara Ráma púrí was a Sanyási, and one of the Jnánís possessing the
perfection of independence. When he came to Kashmír, being vexed by
the length of his hair, which was like ropes, he cut it off, on the
bank of a river near a house called Bhat jatáyi. Sri Kant Bhat, a
Pandit and Hindu judge, saw it and said: “Whenever thou cuttest off
thy hair, thou shouldst do it in a _tirth_, that is, in ‘a house of
worship.’” Hara answered: “There is a place in the most holy of
mansions, where the heart gets delighted, and on the spot where the
dead are burnt, all obscure points are terminated.” In the year 1051
of the Hejira (1641 A. D.) he went to Kichtovar,[153] and settled in a
plain called _chawgan_, where they played at ball, practised
equitation, and burnt the dead. Maha Singh, the son of Baháder Singh,
Rája of Kishtovár, became his disciple, and by devotion he rendered
himself free of the bonds of exterior things; now he likes the society
of the pious; he is young and conversant with poetry. In the year 1052
of the Hejira (1642 A. D.) a war broke out in Kishtovar, between the
Rája and the rebels of this country. When they made resound the drum
of battle, a general carnage began on both sides of the combatants;
Hara Rámapúrí, having got upon the top of an elevated ground, was
occupied with the sight of it, and at the uproar of the warriors and
the sound of pipes, and clarions, and kettle-drums, he began to dance,
and in the midst of his transport his foot stumbled; he fell headlong
from the mountain, and in rolling down received from a great stone a
head-wound, of which he died. Mirza Rafíah says:
“When the darkness of my heart became enlightened by the knowledge
of wisdom,
Whatever speeches were proffered as her arguments,
They bore upon some errors of my desires;
Thus the whole road was rendered winding from my stumblings.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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