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XIV
STORY OF THE SHEIKH AND THE BRAHMIN FOLLOWED BY A CONVERSATION BETWEEN GANGES AND HIMALAYA TO THE EFFECT THAT THE CONTINUATION
OF SOCIAL LIFE DEPEND ON FIRM ATTACHMENTS TO THE CHARACTERISTIC TRADITIONS OF THE COMMUNITY.
| AT Benares lived a venerable Brahmin. | |
| Whose head was deep in the ocean of Being and Not-being. | |
| He had a large knowledge of philosophy | |
| But was well-disposed to the seekers after God. | |
| His mind was eager to explore new problems, | 1235 |
| His intellect moved on a level with the Pleiades; | |
| His nest was as high as that of the Anka;93 | |
| Sun and moon were cast, like rue, on the flame of his thought.94 | |
| For a long time he laboured and sweated, | |
| But philosophy brought no wine to his cup | 1240 |
| Although he set many a snare in the gardens of learning, | |
| His snares never caught a glimpse of the Ideal bird; | |
| And notwithstanding that the nails of his thought were dabbled with blood, | |
| The knot of Being and Not-being remained united. | |
| The sighs on his lips bore witness to his despair, | 1245 |
| His countenance told tales of his distraction. | |
| One day he visited an excellent Sheikh, | |
| A man who bad in his breast a heart of gold. | |
| The Brahmin laid the seal of silence on his lips. | |
| And lent his ear to the Sage's discourse. | 1250 |
| Then said the Sheikh; "O wanderer in the lofty sky! | |
| Pledge thyself to be true, for a little, to the earth; | |
| Thou hast lost thy way in wildernesses of speculation, | |
| Thy fearless thought hath passed beyond Heaven. | |
| Be reconciled with -earth, O sky-traveller! | 1255 |
| Do not. wander in quest of the essence of the stars; | |
| I do not abandon thine idols. | |
| Art thou an unbeliever; Then be worthy of the badge of unbelief !95 | |
| O inheritor of ancient culture, | |
| Turn not thy back on the path thy fathers trod; | 1260 |
| If a people's life is derived from unity, | |
| Unbelief too is source of unity. | |
| Thou that art not even a perfect infidel, | |
| Art unfit to worship at the shrine-of the spirit. | |
| We both are far astray from the road of devotion: | 1265 |
| Thou art far from Azar, and I from Abraham.96 | |
| Our Majnun hath not fallen into melancholy for his Laila's sake; | |
| I He hath not become perfect in the madness of love. | |
| When the lamp of Self-expires, | |
| What is the use of heaven surveying imagination ?" | 1270 |
| Once on a time, laying hold of the skirt of the mountain, | |
| Ganges said to Himalaya: | |
| "O thou mantled in snow since the morn of creation, | |
| Thou whose form is girdled with streams, | |
| God made thee a partner in the secrets of heaven. | 1275 |
| But deprived thy foot of graceful gait. | |
| He took away from thee the power to walk: | |
| What avails this sublimity and stateliness? | |
| Life springs from perpetual movement; | |
| Motion constitutes the wave's whole existence," | 1280 |
| When the mountain heard this taunt from the river, | |
| He puffed angrily like a sea of fire, | |
| And answered: "Thy wide waters are my looking-glass; | |
| Within my bosom are a hundred rivers like thee. | |
| This graceful gait of thine is an instrument', of death: | 1285 |
| Whoso goeth from Self is meet to die. | |
| Thou hast no knowledge of thine own case, | |
| Thou exultest in thy misfortune: thou art a fool! | |
| O born of the womb of the revolving sky, | |
| A fallen-in bank is better than thou! | 1290 |
| Thou hast made thine existence an offering to the ocean, | |
| Thou hast thrown the rich purse of thy life to the highway man. | |
| Be self-contained like the rose in the garden, | |
| Do not 'go to the florist in order to spread thy perfume! | |
| To live is to grow in thyself | 1295 |
| And gather roses from thine own flower bed. | |
| Ages have gone by and my foot is fast on earth, | |
| Dost thou fancy that I am far from my goal? | |
| My being grew and reached the sky, | |
| The Pleiads sank to rest under my skirts; | 1300 |
| Thy being vanishes in the ocean, | |
| But on my crest the stars bow their heads. | |
| Mine eye sees the mysteries of heaven, | |
| Mine ear is familiar with angels' wings. | |
| Since I glowed with the heat of unceasing toil, | 1305 |
| I amassed rubies, diamonds, and other gems. | |
| I am stone within, and in the stone is fire: | |
| Water cannot pass over my fire I" | |
| Art thou a drop, of water? Do not break at. thine own feet, | |
| But endeavour to surge and wrestle with the sea. | 1310 |
| Desire the water of a jewel, become a jewel! | |
| Be an ear-drop, adorn a beauty | |
| Oh, expand thyself! Move swiftly! | |
| Be a cloud that shoots lightning and sheds a flood of rain! | |
| Let the ocean sue for thy storms as a beggar, | 1315 |
| Let it complain of the straitness of its skirts | |
| Let it deem itself less -than a wave | |
| And glide along at thy feet! |
