[395] The founder of this sect was Patanjali, born in Havriti-varcha, he taught in Bhagabhandara. His school is theistical, called sa Jswara Sankhya, or “philosophy with the Lord.” God is the supreme ruler, a spirit or a soul, distinct from other spirits or souls, untouched by those evils to which these are subject; indifferent to all good or bad actions and their consequences, as well as to all transitory conceptions; he is omniscient; teacher of the earliest things which had a beginning that is, of all mythological divinities; himself infinite, and illimited by time. Patanjali insists upon austere religious practices, exterior and interior, to which he ascribes wonderful effects.
[396] सूर्य मखाः
[397] अष्ट भुवन लोकः
[398] सर्व प्रभादेव.
[399] महाज्योतिः
[400] नमस्कारः
[401] The Dabistán (p. 269, edit. of Calc.) affords a curious specimen of a Sanskrit prayer transcribed in Persian characters; this prayer is here restored to its original form in Devanagari. The literal translation of it, subjoined, shows that it is composed of a series of epithets encomiastical of the sun; these epithets have been most freely amplified in the paraphrase which the author of the Dabistán has given of the original prayer:
महज्योतिः उत्तमोदयः नृस्वादः लोकनः आहारः सुदर्शनः दृष्टिः मिथनः महावतारः उत्तमप्रकासः पथ्वी स्मरणः महादातामुक्तसङ्गः आत्मदाता शरीरज्योतिः स्व आत्म वुधनाथः सर्व ज्योतिः आतपः प्रकाशः औपमिकः स्वर्ग दाता देवसहायः
“Thou art the great light—most gloriously rising—the delight of men—resplendent—granter of food—agreeable to sight—the eye of heaven—the promoter of union—the great incarnation—the most excellent manifestation—mindful of the earth—the chief bestower of the devotion to emancipation—the dispenser of life—the light of bodies—the lord of intellect and of interior life—all illuming—the radiance of the day—the effulgency—the supreme light—only like thyself—the donor of heaven—the companion of the gods.”
[402] स्वर्ग लोकः heaven.