Among the Hindus are recommended as pious exercises, _Mantra_,[147] _Homa_,[148] and _Dandavat_.[149] _Mantra_ signifies prayer; _Homa_ is throwing clarified butter and like things into the fire, and reciting prayers, in order to render propitious a certain divinity; _Dandavat_ is, when one prostrates himself like a stick before the object of adoration, and touches the ground with the forehead. A person asked Bhartari,[150] who was one of those adepts whom they call _Jnánis_: “Dost thou recite mantras?” He replied: “I do.” That person asked again: “What mantra?” He answered: “My breath, going out and in, is my mantra.” That man continued to ask: “Dost thou perform Hóm?” The answer was: “I do.” To the question, “And how?” the reply followed: “By what I eat.” That person further inquired: “Dost thou practise the Dańdavat?” After affirmation, being asked “At what time?” he said, “When I sleep, stretched out to rest.” And this speech reminds me of this sentence:
“_The sleep of the wise is preferable to the adoration of the ignorant._”
The Hindus call _Déva árcháká_[151] the worshipper of an idol, that is, one who is devoted to a divinity: which this people interpret to be performing whatever rite a man himself chooses; because the deity is the intellectual soul; to render it obsequious, is to perform the act which it commands, that is, whenever it wills, to see with the eyes, to hear with the ears, to smell with the nose, and so on, in order to please one’s self. According to their account of the revealed unity of God, all is _HE_. To say so is liable to censure; but it is permitted to assert: “all is _I_.” Should one not attain to this height of philosophy, he may choose the former thesis. The author of the _Gulchén raz_, “the rose-garden of mystery,” says:
“Egotism belongs to God alone, For he is the mystery; think him also the hidden source of illusion.”
This people are masters of themselves in their speeches and actions; they know their origin and their end; and, occupied with themselves, they are imprisoned in the gaol of the world. Sankara Atcharya, who is distinguished among the Brahmans and the Sanyasis, professed this doctrine, and to whatever side he turned his face, contentment followed him. One day the adversaries and deniers of this creed resolved to drive an elephant against him; if he do not fly but remain firm, he is a saint; if otherwise, a bad man. When they had impelled the animal against him, Sankara fled; then they said to him: “Why didst thou fly before an illusion?” He replied: “There is no elephant, nor I; and there was no flight: you saw it in a dream.” All the great men among the Hindus are of this creed, and they agree that, in truth, there is no faith but this, without regard to Avátars and Rakshasas: all the enlightened Pandits have ranged themselves upon this side.