The Secrets of the Self/Part 14
XIVStory of the Sheikh and the Brahmin, followed by a conversation between Ganges and Himalaya to the effect that the continuation of social life depends on firm attachment 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 philosophyBut was well-disposed to the seekers after God.1245 His mind was eager to explore new problems,His intellect moved on a level with the Pleiades; His nest was as high as that of the Anká;[1]Sun and moon were cast, like rue, on the flame of his thought.[2]For a long time he laboured and sweated,1240But philosophy brought no wine to his cup.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 untied.1245The sighs on his lips bore witness to his despair,His countenance told tales of his distraction.One day he visited an excellent Sheikh, A man who had in his breast a heart of gold.The Sheikh laid the seal of silence on his lips1250 While he lent his ear to the Sage's discourse.Then he said: "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.1255 Be reconciled with earth, O sky-traveller!Do not wander in quest of the essence of the stars!I do not bid thee abandon thine idols.Art thou an unbeliever? Then be worthy of the badge of unbelief![3] O inheritor of ancient culture,1260Turn not thy back on the path thy fathers trod!If a people's life is derived from unity,Unbelief too is a source of unity.Thou that art not even a perfect infidelArt unfit to worship at the shrine of the spirit.1265We both are far astray from the road of devotion:Thou art far from Ázar, and I from Abraham.[4]Our Majnún hath not fallen into melancholy for his Lailá's sake:He hath not become perfect in the madness of love.When the lamp of Self expires,1270What is the use of heaven-surveying imagination?"
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,1275 God made thee a partner in the secrets of heaven,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. 1285This graceful gait of thine is an instrument of death: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 sphere,1290A fallen-in bank is better than thou!Thou hast made thine existence an offering to the ocean,Thou hast thrown the rich purse of thy life to the highwayman.Be self-contained like the rose in the garden,Do not go to the florist in order to smell sweet!1295To live is to grow in thyselfAnd gather roses from thine own flower-bed.Ages have gone by and my foot is fast in earth: Dost thou fancy that I am far from my goal?My being grew and reached the sky,1300 The Pleiads sank to rest under my skirts;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.1305 Since I glowed with the heat of unceasing toil,I amassed rubies, diamonds, and other gems.I am stone within, and in the stone is fire:Water cannot pass over my fire!"Art thou a drop of water? Do not break at thine own feet,1310 But endeavour to surge and wrestle with the sea.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!1315Let the ocean sue for thy storms as a beggar,Let it complain of the straitness of thy skirts!Let it deem itself less than a waveAnd glide along at thy feet!