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
It is an established custom among the Yogís that, when malady
overpowers them, they bury themselves alive. They are wont also, with
open eyes, to force their looks towards the middle of their eyebrows,
until so looking they perceive the figure of a man; if this should
appear without hands, feet, or any member, for each case they have
determined that the boundaries of their existence would be within so
many years, months, or days. When they see the figure without a head,
they know that there certainly remains very little of their life; on
that account, having seen the prognostic, they bury themselves.
However the Jnánís of India hold this figure to be an illusion, and an
appearance without a trace of reality.
As the Sanyásis are also pious men, I will join an account of them to
that of the Yogís. The Sanyásis make choice of abnegation and
solitude; they renounce all bodily enjoyments; some, in order that
they may not be invested with another body, and migrate from body to
body; a great number, in order to go to heaven; and a multitude, in
order to acquire dominion, that is, to become kings, or very rich men.
When a man becomes a Sanyási, he must give up all desire to return
again into the world. They are distinguished by names, and divided
into ten classes, namely: _Ban_, _Áran_, _Tírthah_, _Áshram_, _Kar_,
_Parbatah_, _Sákar_, _Bhárthy_, _Perí_, and _Sarsatí_. They are
frequently holy men, and abstain from eating flesh, and renounce all
intercourse with women. This class follow the dictates of Datáteri,
whom they also venerate as a deity, and say that he is an incarnation
of Naráyan, and in the retaining of breath attained to such a degree
that he is exempted from death. When he came into the presence of
Gorakhnath, who is the chief of the Yogís, and according to the
opinion of the Sanyásis, an incarnation of Mahádéo, Datáterí, for the
sake of trial, smote Gorakhnath on the head, who took the appearance
of iron. Datáteri told him: “Thou hast not done well; there is no
striking iron.” When Gorakhnath himself bade him to combat, Datáteri
glided off from the body, in the same manner as water glides off, and
reunited safely again. In this sense Śabur Mashedi says:
_“The whole body became water, withhold thy hand from killing me,
As often as thou strikest a blow, my body reunites.”_
Afterwards, Gorakhnath disappeared in the water; Datáteri, having
found and recognised him in the shape of a frog, brought him forth.
When Datáteri concealed himself in the water, Gorakhnath, in spite of
all his searching, could not succeed in discovering him, because he
was mixed with the water, and water cannot be distinguished from
water. Mirzá Baki Alí says:
“When a drop is united with the sea, it becomes sea,
In substance, the bubble and billow are water: solve this riddle.”
Another says:
“From apprehension I became water: it is useless to strike water:
I am astonished that he assailed my fortune.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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