This people think him, perhaps, to be far off.”
When he came to the harbour of Surat, which is one of the principal ports of Hindostán, he met with a Háji (a pilgrim from Mecca) who had come by sea to the harbour; Kaiván Perah asked him: “Whence dost thou come?” He answered: “From the house of God.” Kaiván said further: “Hast thou seen God?” The reply was “No.” “He was perhaps not at home,” rejoined Kaiván, and the Háji remained astonished.
The Vairágis are not devoted to a particular worship; they say, the name of Vishnu suffices for the acquisition of mukt, or “the union with God.” This sect was formed during the Káli yúg, and call themselves also Váichnavas: they renounce the world, and say: “Our way is opposite to that of the Vêdas and of the Koran: that is, we have nothing to do either with Muselmans or Hindus.” A great number of Muselmans adopted their creed, such as Mirza Salah, and Mirza Háider, two noble Muselmans who became Vaíragis. Of this sect was Naráin Dásí, who sided with Rámánandis, which is one of the Sampradayas, that is the first of the four classes before mentioned. The author of this book saw him in the year 1052 of the Hejira (1642 A. D.) in Lahore. He was one of those who are freed from the affections of the world; he honored whomever he saw, and said: “Every body belongs to the divinity; that is, every body is the house of God.”
“Without thee there is nothing that is in the world:
From thyself demand whatever thou wishest: for it is thyself.”
Píránah Kohely was of the sect of Vairagis, and Kohelí is a tribe of Kshatriyas; he withdrew from all the affections and troubles of the world. Having left the Guzerat of Panjab, which is his native place and the seat of his ancestors, he went to Vizírábád, a city built by Hakím Ilam eddín, named Buzín khan, and chose to settle not far from the above mentioned Guzerat. He had no faith in pious austerity. He said, the saints are men who, in a former existence, have brought affliction upon other men, and on that account do penance in this world; every pious act joined to some austerity is a requital of their deeds; those who are fasting have, in a former state, let hunger and thirst afflict the low and feeble; those who watch at night have, in his opinion, prevented the servants from sleeping; the Sanyásis, called Thádéser, who remain years standing upon one leg, he thinks to be a class of spirits who have not permitted the servants to sit down; and those who suspend themselves, and others who perform their devotion in an inverted or strained posture, are a class who used to suspend their inferiors; and those who visit celebrated places and sacred mansions of pilgrimage, are a set who, for trifling reasons, have without pity sent about couriers to different places, without paying them their hire; the játis,[316] that is, those who abstain from intercourse with women, and from sensual indulgence, are an order of spirits, who have not provided for their sons and daughters the subsistence and furniture requisite for the marriage state, and prohibited to them this enjoyment, for which reason they now are subjected to retaliating penance.
This sect do no harm to any living being; which is common to all Vairágis, as well as to neglect devotion; but, in opposition to the creed of the Vairágis, they do not admit the Avatars, and say that God is exempt from transmigration and union; and, according to those who profess the belief in the unity and solitariness of the supreme being, he is not susceptible of (what we call) intimate friendship. Being asked about the history of Krichna, Píránah said: “He was a Rája, devoted to licentiousness, and oppressing mankind.” The writer of these pages saw Píranah in the year 1050 of the Hejira (1640 A. D.), in Vizirábád, and in the same year and in the same place he saw Ananta, who was of the same creed as Píránah, but particularly addicted to the belief of the singleness of God.
Ananta did not advise abstinence to the sick. One of his friends being attacked by a diarrhœa, Ananta gave him substantial and sweet food, until he left this elemental body. One of his disciples wanted to have a vein opened; Ananda, having been informed of it, expressed himself strongly against this operation and prevented it. Thus, the author of these pages saw, in the year of the Hejira 1050 (A. D. 1640) in Guzerat of the Panjab, another of this sect, called Mían Lál, who was venerated by a great number of his sectaries; he abstained from eating any sort of animal food, and showed politeness to every body; like Píránah, he never cleansed his patched garment from vermin, and used to say: “These insects have an assignment for their daily subsistence written upon my body.” Váirágis are also called Mundís;[317] because they shave four parts of their bodies, and one shaved is called Mundí.[317] There arose a dissension between this sect and the Sanyásis; in the year 1050 of the Hejira (1640 A. D.) a battle was fought at Hardwar,[318] which is a holy place of the Hindus, between the Mundís and the Sanyásis, in which the latter were victorious and killed a great number of the Mundís: these men threw away their rosaries of Tulasi wood which they wear about their necks, and hung on their perforated ears the rings of the Jógís, in order to be taken for these sectaries.
[298] स्थूलशरीर.
[299] लिङ्गशरीर called also शुच्मशरीर sukshma sarîra or “subtile body.”