Súraj nath made great proficiency in mastering the breath; for several years, he has chosen his retirement in Pesháver, and is occupied with his own concern. The people think his age scarce less than that just before stated. The writer of this work visited him in the year 1055 of the Hejira (1645 A. D.), and saw several of the Yogies, an account of whom cannot find place in this book.
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.”