_Khoda Jói_ was a native of Herat, who had passed many years in the service of exemplary and holy men; he relates: “I once saw in a vision holy personages come around me and say: ‘Depart and seek a spiritual guide free from prejudice.’ During many years’ search I was unable to discover such a character; but having once seen in a dream, ‘that Azar Kaiván of Istakhar was one of that description:’ I went near him in company with _Farzanah Khushi_.”
Khoda Jói excelled in the knowledge of Parsi and Arabic; he avoided altogether animal food of every description; he could suppress his breath during four watches (twelve hours), and was in the habit of practising the Hubs-i-dam; he never slept at night, nor ate more than fifty direms weight of food. He never gave utterance to a lie, and whatever he stated had reference to exalted objects and pursuits: even these were uttered only at the solicitation of his friends. He is the author of the volume entitled _Jám-i-Kai Khusró_, “the cup of Kai Khusró,” an admirable commentary on the poetic compositions of Azar Kaiván, and also containing his visions. He arrived in the delightful regions of Kashmir in the year of the Hejirah 1040 (A. D. 1631), where the author met him: in that same year this distinguished personage hastened from this abode of evanescence to the mansions of eternity. Hafiz of Shiraz says:
“O joyous day, when I depart from this abode of desolation; I then seek my soul’s repose and follow the adored object:[334] Fluttering about like a solar mote in the _atmosphere_ of that lip, Until I attain at last to the fountain-head of the radiant sun.”
The Mobed Khushi is the author of the _Bazm-Gah_ (or “banqueting house”), in which treatise when describing the stations of Azar Kaiván’s illustrious disciples and most eminent followers, who are twelve in number; he enumerates them in this order: _Ardashír_, _Kharad_, _Shiroíyah_, _Khiradmand_, _Farhad_, _Suhrab_, _Azádah_, _Bizhen_, _Isfendiar_, _Farshidwird_, _Bahman_ and _Rustam_: the daily food of each of these individuals was much below ten direms weight: and they carried the austerities recommended by Kaiván to the utmost limit, so that no others of his disciples attained to the same rank as these twelve persons. Of Farhád, Farshídwird, and Bahman, some account has been given in the preceding part of this work.