Thou art compassionate, Thou art the jewel and the ruby.
Nama hath been absorbed in the True One.
Man cannot hope to obtain bliss until he has learnt to know God who is within him.
The inscrutable Being invented a play —
God is concealed in every heart,
No one knoweth the nature of the soul's light ; 2
What we ourselves have done Thou knowest.
As an earthen vessel is produced from clay,
So Vitthal created the world.
The soul's entanglements depend on its acts ;
It is itself responsible for what it hath done.
Namdev representeth, the soul obtaineth the result of its thoughts ;
The soul which always remaineth fixed on the Inscrutable One, becometh immortal.3
TRILOCHAN
TRILOCHAN, a name which literally means three- eyed, that is, seer of the present, past, and future, was a celebrated saint of the Vaisya caste. His birth is said to have taken place in the year A. D. 1267 .4 He
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either lived at or visited Pandharpur in the Sholapur district of the Bombay Presidency, and was a contem porary of Namdev, who mentioned or addressed him in his hymns. Inquiries at Pandharpur and the neigh bouring city of Barsi have, however, failed to furnish any information regarding Trilochan. The following legend passes for history among his ad mirers. He had a perfect faith in and love for saints, but they visited him in inconveniently large num bers, and there were only he and his wife to attend and wait on them. He thought that they were not served as he could have wished, so he resolved on engaging a servant if he could find one who was accustomed to minister to holy men. He continued to search for such an attendant, but not finding one became sad at heart. It is said that God was not pleased at the sorrow of his saint, and sent him a candidate for service. Trilochan asked the candi date who he was, whence he had come, and whether he had parents and a house and home. The man replied that he had no parents or home. He had merely come to be engaged as a servant. He could wait on the saints of God without assistance from others, as his life had been spent in such service. He gave his name as Antarjami, which interpreted means Searcher of hearts. Trilochan was highly pleased and ordered his wife to engage him and cheerfully supply all his wants. She was cautioned to consider his pleasure as her first duty.
Antarjami performed menial services for the saints, such as cooking, drawing water, washing their feet, shampooing and bathing them, in such a manner that Trilochan' s house became famous for its hospitality ; and a large crowd of saints began to live with him and consume his substance. Thirteen months passed in this way, until one day Trilochan' s wife went to visit a female neighbour. The latter inquired why she was so dirty and looked so miserable. She re plied that her lord had taken into his employ a
servant who required so much attention that she had to spend all her days grinding corn and cooking for him. This was reported to Antarjami and he promptly disappeared.
When the time came to wait on the saints, Antar jami could not be found. Trilochan became very much grieved, and, rebuking his wife, told her that it was through her indiscretion Antarjami had left their service. When Trilochan' s grief had lasted for three days it is said that he was comforted by divine interposition. He consequently applied him self to the praise and contemplation of the one true God. His sorrow was then dispelled.
The following hymns of Trilochan are found in the Granth Sahib :-
SRI RAG Trilochan admonishes mortals.
The heart feeleth great worldly love, O mortal, through which man forgetteth old age and the fear of death.
0 fool, thou art pleased on beholding thy family, like a thief on espying his neighbour's house.
When the powerful myrmidons of Death come with a rush,
1 cannot withstand them.
May some friend come and speak to me ! 1
Come to me, my God, throw Thine arms around me !
Come to me, my God, and rescue me !
In various pleasures and royal state, O mortal, hast thou forgotten God, and deemest thyself the only immortal one in this world.
Deceived by mammon thou hast not thought of God, and hast lost thy life, O heedless man.
Mortal, thou must tread a difficult and terrible path where neither sun nor moon hath entrance.
When man hath abandoned the world, he forgetteth his worldly love.
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To-day it hath become clear to mine understanding that Dharmraj will keep his eye on man.
There his very powerful myrmidons will rub men between their hands, and none may withstand them.
If any one give me instruction, let it be this that God is contained in every place.1
GUJARI
A Hermit, a Sanyasi, a Brahmin called Jai Chand, a Jogi, and a Kapria held a religious discussion in which each maintained the superiority of his own sect. They came in the heat of their arguments to Trilochan, and he, knowing that they were all hypocrites, addressed them each in turn as follows : —
To the Hermit. — Thou hast not cleansed thy heart from tilth, although thou wearest the dress of a hermit.
To the Sanyasi. — In the lotus of thy heart thou hast not recognized God ; why hast thou become a Sanyasi ?
To the Brahmin. — Thou hast gone astray in error, O Jai Chand,
And not recognized God the Primal Joy.
To the Jogi. — Eating in every house thou hast fattened thy body ; thou wearest a patched coat and beggar's ear rings for gain.
Thou hast rubbed on thyself the ashes of the cremation- ground, but, being without a spiritual guide, thou hast not found the Real Thing.2
Why mutter spells ? Why practise austerities ? Why churn water ?
Remember God the Dweller at ease, who hath created the eighty-four lakhs of existences.
To the Kapria. — O Kapria, why earnest thou a water- pot ? Why wanderest thou to the sixty-eight places of pilgrimage ?
Saith Trilochan, hear, O mortal, having no corn why layest thou a threshing-floor ?
8o BHAGATS OF THE GRANTH SAHIB
Last thoughts determine man's future state. At the last moment, he who thinketh upon his wealth and dieth in that thought,
Shall be born again and again as a serpent.
0 my friend, forget not God's name.
At the last moment, he who thinketh of a woman and dieth in that thought,
Shall be born again and again as a prostitute.
At the last moment, he who thinketh upon a boy1 and dieth in that thought,
Shall be born again and again as a hog.
At the last moment he who thinketh of a mansion and dieth in that thought,
Shall be born again and again as a sprite.
At the last moment he who thinketh upon God and dieth in that thought,
Saith Trilochan, shall obtain salvation, and God shall dwell in his heart.
DHANASARI
Trilochan, engaged in his devotions, neglected his worldly calling, and this led to his straitened domestic circumstances. Thereupon his wife became discon tented and upbraided God. The following is Trilo chan' s remonstrance. He endeavoured to console her by telling her that her distress was the result of her sins.
Why slander God, O erring and ignorant woman ?
Thy woe and weal are according to thine acts.2
Though the moon is attached to Shiv's forehead, and daily batheth in the Ganges ;
Though Krishan the avatar of Vishnu became incarnate in the moon's family ;
Yet the stain contracted on account of his misdeeds is ineffaceable from his head ;
Arun, the charioteer, whose lord is the sun, the lamp of
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the earth, whose brother was Garur, the king of birds, was born without feet on account of his sins ;
Shiv, the remover of many sins, the lord of the three worlds, wandered to many places of pilgrimage, but never reached the end of them :
The act of cutting off Brahma's head was never effaced from his person.
Although ambrosia, the moon, the all-yielding cow, Lakhshmi, the miraculous tree, the steed with seven faces, and the physician arose from the ocean, the lord of rivers,
Yet on account of its deed the brackishness of the ocean departeth not ;
Although Hanuman who burnt the fortress of Lanka and uprooted the park of Rawan, took the wound-healing plant to Ram Chandar and made him happy,
Yet, on account of his act of theft the curse that he should never have more than a loin-cloth was not effaced from his person.
The result of past acts is never effaced, O wife of my house ;
Wherefore repeat for me the name of God ;
Trilochan repeateth God's name.1
The Sursari is the Ganges, so called because it is suron ki sari, the river of demigods or divine heroes. It is said to flow from Shiv's head.
Krishan belonged to the Chandarbans, or family of the moon. Ram Chandar, on the other hand, belonged to the Surajbans, or family of the sun.
The moon fell in love with the wife of Brihaspati, the spiritual guide of the gods, and took her away. The dark spot in the moon is said to be the stain resulting from this act. In Sanskrit and cognate literature the moon is masculine.
Arun was son of Vinata by Kashyap. Vinata prematurely hatched an egg, and the offspring was born without thighs, hence he is called Anuru, thighless, or Vipad, footless. He cursed his mother, and prayed that, for having brought him forth before the due time, she should be a slave to her rival, Kadru. At his mother's earnest entreaties, however, he modified the curse, and said that her next son would deliver her from bondage. Arun, in later Hindu mythology, appears to be the same as the dawn and the charioteer of the sun.
Garur, or Garuda, Arun's younger brother, was chief of the feathered race, and an implacable foe of serpents. In a contest between his
PARMANAND
PARMANAND resided at Barsi, north of Pandharpur. His era and history are not known. It is said that he had the same love and affection for God as the milkmaids had for Krishan. In his riper years he used to sing the praises of God with the zest of a boy of twelve or fourteen years of age, and he thus largely contributed to the magnification of God's name. The beauty and deeds of Krishan' s external and internal body were ever present to him, so it is no wonder that he sang the graces, the splendour, the loveliness, and the pastoral and sylvan sports of that great king with all the en thusiasm of earnest faith and devotion.
Parmanand used to be so absorbed in the love and contemplation of God that tears, it is said, flowed continually from his eyes, and times without number he experienced an alteration and stoppage of his voice during his paroxysms of ecstasy. He
mother and her rival, the latter was successful, and, in accordance with conditions previously agreed on, made Vinata her slave. Garur brought nectar from heaven to purchase her freedom. Vinata was released. The nectar was taken back by Indar, but recovered by Garur. Garur is represented as the vehicle of Vishnu and as having a white face, an aquiline nose, red wings, and a golden body.
Shiv cut off Brahma's head, and it would never leave his hand till at last it fell from it at the pilgrimage of Kapalmochan.
The Rikhi Agast once invited the ocean to a banquet. It failed to answer the invitation, whereupon Agast became angry, took the ocean in his hand and drank it off. He afterwards voided it as urine, and hence its brackishness.
Ram's brother Lakshman was wounded, and Hanuman, on the advice of the physician Sukhen, took the bisalya plant to heal the wound.
Hanuman, the monkey-god, once plundered a holy man, leaving him only a loin-cloth. The holy man cursed him and said : ' Only a loin-cloth shall remain with thee also. Thou shall never be able to put on other clothes.'
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used to make seven hundred protestations to God daily, often on the muddy road. A merchant once offered him a silken cloth to protect his knees. He declined the offer and told him to give it to a more needy person, as he himself would be satisfied with an old cloth instead. This the merchant granted him.
Parmanand defended the utterance of God's name as a devotional exercise by saying that prayers are often not felt, because while repeating them men's minds are apt to wander ; but the continual utter ance of God's name must ever result in heartfelt devotion.
In his hymns Parmanand called himself Sarang, by which he meant that he longed for God as the sarang or chatrik longs for its yearly raindrops.
Parmanand' s writings are believed to excessively increase men's love for God. It is said to be im possible for one to read them without contemplating God or bearing an image of Him in the mind. A list of Parmanand' s works is given in the Asht Chhap or the Eight Marks of the followers of Vishnu.
The following hymn of Parmanand's composition is found in the Granth Sahib.
SARANG
O man, what hast thou done by hearing the Purans ?
Thou hast performed no steady worship, and not given alms to the hungry.
Lust hast thou not forgotten, wrath hast thou not for gotten, covetousness hath not left thee ;
Slander hath not left thy lips, and fruitless hath been all thy devotion.
O sinful man, by highway robbery and house-breaking hast thou filled thy belly.
Thou hast committed the folly from which on thy depar ture to the next world infamy will result.
G 2
The desire for the destruction of life did not leave thy heart, and thou didst not cherish mercy for living things.
Parmanand, thou hast not in the company of holy men made current God's pure word.1
SADHNA
SADHNA is believed to have been born in Sehwan in Sind and to have been a butcher by trade. He was a contemporary of Namdev. He embraced a religious life by listening to the instructions of holy men. Sadhna never killed animals himself, but pur chased those killed by others and then retailed their flesh. He wiped out the sins of previous births and became purified like fine gold which resists the touch stone. His idol was the salagram or ammonite stone worshipped by Hindus. With this he weighed out meat to his customers. However much or little they required, they received the weight of the sala gram.
A Sadhu, or holy man, on seeing the use to which the salagram was applied, thought it ought no longer to remain with a butcher, and resolved to take possession of it. Sadhna gave it up without hesitation. After some time, however, the Sadhu took back the salagram to Sadhna, and told him that, though he had bathed it in the five am-
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brosias,1 worshipped it with sandal, sweet basil, and so forth, his worship was unacceptable. ' The sala- gram is pleased with thee/ said the Sadhu, ' and I have sinned by taking it/ By this time, how ever, Sadhna' s thoughts took a different turn. He became wrapped up in the love of God, abandoned everything he possessed, and bent his steps towards the forest to enjoy the uninterrupted worship of God.
On the way he saw some of his relations at a distance. He concealed himself and avoided them by taking another route lest any of them should put pressure on him to return. On arriving in the evening at a village, he went into the house of a married man and asked for something to eat. The lady of the house on seeing Sadhna young and handsome fell in love with him. She prepared exquisite food for his repast and induced him to stay. At night she proposed to elope with him. Sadhna spurned her, and said he would not do such a thing even though she were to cut his throat for refusing. Understanding by this that, if her hus band's throat were cut, Sadhna would be ready to accede to her wishes, she forthwith went and killed her husband. On returning to Sadhna she told him what she had done, and repeated her immoral pro posal. Sadhna replied, ' O unworthy woman, thou hast lost thy reason ; how can I agree to what thou proposest ? ' In her despair she raised loud cries and invented a false accusation against him : ' I believed this person to be a holy man, and accordingly entertained him. He hath now killed my husband, and made improper overtures to me.' Sadhna was arrested and taken before a magistrate. When asked what he had to say, he, with the meekness and unwillingness to throw blame on others, which have characterized so many Hindu saints, pleaded
guilty to the charge. He thought to himself, ' Since God hath placed me in this position, no one will accept my denial/ He then composed the following hymn : —
Even though Thou, O God, consign me to hell, I shall not dispute it or turn away from it.
Even though Thou bestow heaven on me, I shall not rejoice or praise it.
If Thou reject me, I cannot constrain Thee ; if Thou accept me, I shall not be puffed up with excessive joy.
He by whom Thou standest shoulder to shoulder is dyed with Thee.
Let him whom Thou orderest cheerfully burn his body.
My mind desireth not death, yet Thou mayest, if it please Thee, put me in the fire.
What the Beloved desireth ought to be the heart's desire also.
The judge sentenced Sadhna to have his hands cut off. The punishment was duly carried out, and Sadhna was then discharged. He set out without a frown on his forehead notwithstanding his bar barous mutilation.
There is a tradition, which, however, is not found in the Bhagat Mai, that the woman who had brought the false accusation against Sadhna of having killed her husband with the object of abducting her, burned herself on her husband's funeral pyre. On seeing this Sadhna said, ' No one knoweth the way of a woman ; she killeth her husband and becometh a Sati/ However this expression originated, it has passed into a proverb.
Sadhna' s devotions proved so successful that, it is said, new hands then sprouted from his body, and he was released from all pain of future birth. ' So efficacious/ says the author of the Bhagat Mai, 1 is the love of God/ In the Mahabharat it is stated that, even were a man to study the four Veds, it would not avail him unless he loved God. And
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God said, ' Even though a man be the lowest social outcast, yet if he be a saint of Mine, he is dear to Me and worthy of worship.'
There is a legend to the effect that Sadhna became the object of further persecution. A king, who was probably incensed against him on account of his religious opinions, ordered him to procure meat for him at an unusual hour of night. Sadhna was unable to do so, and the king thereupon ordered that he should be put to death by being built alive into a wall. While the wall was closing round him, Sadhna is said to have composed the following hymn in the Bilawal measure : —
On account of a king's daughter a man assumed the disguise of Vishnu,
For love of her and for his own object ; but his honour was saved.
What merit hast Thou, O Guru of the world, if my sins be not erased ?
What availeth it to enter the asylum of the lion, if he allow the jackal x to clutch me ?
For want of a drop of rain the chatrik suffereth agony ;
When its life is gone, even were an ocean at hand, it would be of no avail.
Now that my life is weary and abideth no longer, how shall I be patient ?
When a man is drowned, even if a boat be obtained, say whom shall you put into it ?
I am nothing, I am nothing, and I have nothing,
At this conjuncture Thy slave, Sadhna, prayeth Thee to protect his honour.2
Sadhna's tomb is at Sarhind in the Panjab, but the sadhu in charge of it can give no information regarding him.