“They call loud to God seeking him, This people think him, perhaps, to be far off.”
When he came to the harbour of Surat, which is one of the principal ports of Hindostán, he met with a Háji (a pilgrim from Mecca) who had come by sea to the harbour; Kaiván Perah asked him: “Whence dost thou come?” He answered: “From the house of God.” Kaiván said further: “Hast thou seen God?” The reply was “No.” “He was perhaps not at home,” rejoined Kaiván, and the Háji remained astonished.
The Vairágis are not devoted to a particular worship; they say, the name of Vishnu suffices for the acquisition of _mukt_, or “the union with God.” This sect was formed during the Káli yúg, and call themselves also Váichnavas: they renounce the world, and say: “Our way is opposite to that of the Vêdas and of the Koran: that is, we have nothing to do either with Muselmans or Hindus.” A great number of Muselmans adopted their creed, such as Mirza Salah, and Mirza Háider, two noble Muselmans who became Vaíragis. Of this sect was _Naráin Dásí_, who sided with _Rámánandis_, which is one of the _Sampradayas_, that is the first of the four classes before mentioned. The author of this book saw him in the year 1052 of the Hejira (1642 A. D.) in Lahore. He was one of those who are freed from the affections of the world; he honored whomever he saw, and said: “Every body belongs to the divinity; that is, every body is the house of God.”
“Without thee there is nothing that is in the world: From thyself demand whatever thou wishest: for it is thyself.”
Píránah Kohely was of the sect of Vairagis, and Kohelí is a tribe of Kshatriyas; he withdrew from all the affections and troubles of the world. Having left the Guzerat of Panjab, which is his native place and the seat of his ancestors, he went to Vizírábád, a city built by Hakím Ilam eddín, named _Buzín khan_, and chose to settle not far from the above mentioned Guzerat. He had no faith in pious austerity. He said, the saints are men who, in a former existence, have brought affliction upon other men, and on that account do penance in this world; every pious act joined to some austerity is a requital of their deeds; those who are fasting have, in a former state, let hunger and thirst afflict the low and feeble; those who watch at night have, in his opinion, prevented the servants from sleeping; the Sanyásis, called Thádéser, who remain years standing upon one leg, he thinks to be a class of spirits who have not permitted the servants to sit down; and those who suspend themselves, and others who perform their devotion in an inverted or strained posture, are a class who used to suspend their inferiors; and those who visit celebrated places and sacred mansions of pilgrimage, are a set who, for trifling reasons, have without pity sent about couriers to different places, without paying them their hire; the _játis_,[316] that is, those who abstain from intercourse with women, and from sensual indulgence, are an order of spirits, who have not provided for their sons and daughters the subsistence and furniture requisite for the marriage state, and prohibited to them this enjoyment, for which reason they now are subjected to retaliating penance.