1876.] F. S. Growse— The Prologue to the Bdmdyana of Tulsi Dds, 5 



Ohaupdi. 

 The dust of the guru's feet is a soft and charming eollyrium, like 

 ambrosia for the eyes, to remove every defect of vision. With this having 

 purified the eyes of my understanding, I proceed to relate the actions of 

 Eama, the redeemer of the world. First I reverence the feet of the great 

 Brahman saints, potent to remove the doubts engendered by error. In my 

 heart as with my voice I reverence the whole body of the Faithful, mines 

 of perfection ; whose good deeds resemble the fruit of the cotton-plant in 

 austerity, purity, and manifold uses, and in painful cleansing from impuri- 

 ties : reverence to them, whatever the age or clime in which their glory was 

 consummated. An assembly of the saints is all joy and felicity, like the great 

 tirath Prayag endowed with motion ; for faith in Eama is as the stream 

 of the Ganges ; contemplation on Brahma as the Sarasvati ; and ritual, deal- 

 ing with precepts and prohibitions for the purification of this iron age, as 

 the sun-god's daughter the Jamuna. The united flood of the Tribeni 

 is represented by the legends of Hari and of Hara, filling all that hear with 

 delight : the sacred fig tree by faith firm in its own traditions ; and Prayag 

 itself by the assembly of the virtuous. Easy of access to all, on any day, 

 at any place, curing all the ills of pious devotees, is this unspeakable, spiri- 

 tual chief tirath, of manifest virtue and yielding immediate fruit. 



Doha 2. 

 At this Prayag of holy men, whoever hears and understands and in spirit 

 devoutly bathes, receives even in this life all four rewards.* 



Ohaupdi. 

 In an instant behold the result of the immersion ; the crow becomes a 

 parrot and the goose a swan. Let no one marvel at hearing this, for the in- 

 fluence of good company is no mystery. Valmiki, Narad and the jar-born 

 Agastyaf have told its effect upon themselves. Whatever moves in the water 

 or on the earth or in the air ; every creature in the world, whether animate 

 or inanimate, that has attained to knowledge, or glory, or salvation, or power 



* The four rewards are hdma, artha, dharma, moksha ; that is, pleasure wealth 

 religious merit, and final salvation. 



f Valmiki confessed to Eama that he had once heen a hunter and had taken the 

 life of many innocent creatures, till he fell in with the seven Eishis, who converted 

 him and taught him to express his penitence by constantly repeating the word mara 

 mara. As this is Eama read backwards, it acted as a spell and advanced him to the 

 highest degree of sanctity. 



Similarly Narad confessed to Vyasa, the author of the Puranas, that he was by birth 

 only the son of a poor slave-girl, and had become a saint simply by eating the fragments 

 of food left by the holy men who frequented his master's house. 



Agastya also declared to Mahadeva that by birth he was the meanest of all crea- 

 tures, and had only attained to miraculous powers by the influence of good company. 



