And the villagers, one by one, crept through the wood to pray before their Bhagat. They saw the _barasingh_ standing over him, who fled when they came near, and they heard the _langurs_ wailing in the branches, and Sona moaning up the hill; but their Bhagat was dead, sitting cross-legged, his back against a tree, his crutch under his armpit, and his face turned to the northeast.
The priest said: "Behold a miracle after a miracle, for in this very attitude must all Sunnyasis be buried! Therefore where he now is we will build the temple to our holy man."
They built the temple before a year was ended--a little stone-and-earth shrine--and they called the hill the Bhagat's Hill, and they worship there with lights and flowers and offerings to this day. But they do not know that the saint of their worship is the late Sir Purun Dass, K.C.I.E., D.C.L., Ph.D., etc., once Prime Minister of the progressive and enlightened State of Mohiniwala, and honorary or corresponding member of more learned and scientific societies than will ever do any good in this world or the next.
Oh, light was the world that he weighed in his hands! Oh, heavy the tale of his fiefs and his lands! He has gone from the _guddee_ and put on the shroud, And departed in guise of _bairagi_ avowed!
Now the white road to Delhi is mat for his feet, The _sal_ and the _kikar_ must guard him from heat; His home is the camp, and the waste, and the crowd-- He is seeking the Way as _bairagi_ avowed!
He has looked upon Man, and his eyeballs are clear (There was One; there is One, and but One, saith Kabir); The Red Mist of Doing has thinned to a cloud-- He has taken the Path for _bairagi_ avowed!
To learn and discern of his brother the clod, Of his brother the brute, and his brother the God. He has gone from the council and put on the shroud ("Can ye hear?" saith Kabir), a _bairagi_ avowed!
Veil them, cover them, wall them round-- Blossom, and creeper, and weed-- Let us forget the sight and the sound, The smell and the touch of the breed!
Fat black ash by the altar-stone, Here is the white-foot rain, And the does bring forth in the fields unsown, And none shall affright them again; And the blind walls crumble, unknown, o'erthrown And none shall inhabit again!