3. The message of Ghāsi Dās.
The seven precepts of Ghāsi Dās included abstinence from liquor, meat and certain red vegetables, such as lentils chillies and tomatoes, because they have the colour of blood, the abolition of idol worship, the prohibition of the employment of cows for cultivation, and of ploughing after midday or taking food to the fields, and the worship of the name of one solitary and supreme God. The use of taroi[5] is said to have been forbidden on account of its fancied resemblance to the horn of the buffalo, and of the brinjal[6] from its likeness to the scrotum of the same animal. The prohibition against ploughing after the midday meal was probably promulgated out of compassion for animals and was already in force among the Gonds of Bastar. This precept is still observed by many Satnāmis, and in case of necessity they will continue ploughing from early morning until the late afternoon without taking food, in order not to violate it. The injunction against the use of the cow for ploughing was probably a sop to the Brāhmans, the name of Gondwāna having been historically associated with this practice to its disgrace among Hindus.[7] The Satnāmis were bidden to cast all idols from their homes, but they were permitted to reverence the sun, as representing the deity, every morning and evening, with the ejaculation ‘Lord, protect me.’ Caste was abolished and all men were to be socially equal except the family of Ghāsi Dās, in which the priesthood of the cult was to remain hereditary.