Be thou earth in the footsteps of the pure.
As from this earth thou mayst come to dust,
Break through the dust, and attain the human nature.”
The Mobed Paristár, the son of Khurshíd, who was originally of Isfashán, assumed the elements of body in Patna; the Mobed, when a youth, was accepted by divine favour, and through the aid of the Almighty became one of the Yekánah Bín, or “seers of unity.” Having in his early years entered into the service of Azar Kaiván, he obtained a perfect sanctity through the society of his holy master’s disciples. He however devoted himself chiefly to the Mobed Sarósh: he was the author of the Taprah-i-Mobedi, or “the Sacerdotal Kettledrum.” In the year of the Hejirah 1049 (A. D. 1640) he came to Kashmir, where the author of this work was admitted into his society. From the nightfal until sunrise, the Mobed Paristár gave himself up to the Saráíst, which in the celestial language, or the Desatir, they call Faró, or “downward:” this rite, according to them, consists in elevating the feet in the air, and standing on the head; which position is called in Hindi Kapal Asan[336] or “head-seat.” He of a sudden quitted the body and entered the bowers of Paradise. A Mobed has said:
“If thou be a wanderer upon the path of spirituality,
Fix not on the (external) robe, the motion of thy heart,
For nothingness will be the dwelling of thy body:
Although in reality thou continuest to move.”
The Mobed Peshkár, the son of Khurshíd, was also born in Patna, and one year younger than Perishtar (his brother). He became unrivalled during his age, in the Hindi chaunts and poems of that sect. He was the servant of the leader Azar Kaiván and his disciples, and whilst in the service of the Mobed Sarósh he attained the knowledge of God, and of himself, and he became eminently divested of prejudice and exempted from human infirmities: being totally unfettered by the bonds or chains of any sect whatever, and studiously shunning the polemic domains of prejudice: in short, the eulogium of one creed and the abhorrence of another, entered not into his system. He came to Kashmir with his elder brother, with the purpose of departing from thence to Kathay: he was noted for the imprisonment of the breath, concerning which the Mobed Húshíyár said: “He once suppressed his breath and plunged into the water, where he remained immersed during two watches (six hours), after which interval he again raised his head above the surface.”
Hemistich: “Wherever he may be, O God, guard him in safety!”