Revolves only because it is my wish.”
Soon after a sparrow passed, flying from the water. Akamnath declared before the king: “If with this body, which is near thy majesty, I should attempt to go upon the water, I could but sink, but under the form of a bird I passed.” The great Mouláná Jamí says:
“The world, with all spirits and bodies,
Is a certain person whose name is ‘World.’”
They say, that Akamnath went to the Kâbah (of Mecca) and saw the house; he asked somebody: “Where is the master of the house?” That person remained astonished. They opened the door of the house of God; Akamnath repeated the question without receiving an answer from them; he then called out: “There is no master of the house in this edifice: this place is unsafe.” Finally, he inquired from the people, why the images which had been in this house, have been thrown out; one answered: “Because an idol is the work of the hand of a man; and because the forms of men, who are created, ought not to be worshipped.” Akamnath observed: “This house, too, is the work of men, and any form therein is that of a man, and the work of men who are created; should it be worshipped?” Having heard this speech, they imprisoned him; but the next morning they found no prisoner: Akamnath was gone. At last, those who returned from the pilgrimage saw him in Hindostan.
“Perhaps shall we find him there in an idol-temple,
That friend whom we missed in a monastery.”
[129] क्षानं उत्तमं The supreme Brahme, in the most extensive acceptation, is with the Hindus a neuter noun (Brahme or Brahma); and the same term (Nom. Brahmá), is one of the three gods who constitute one person.
[130] माया.
[131] जीवात्मा The vital principle or spirit.