298 SKETCH OF THE 



What difference should that occasion ? — Great — a drop of wine added to the water in 

 the decanter will impart its flavor to the whole, but it would be lost in the river. The 

 Paramatma, therefore, is beyond accident, but the Jivdtmd is afflicted by sense and passion. 

 Water cast loosely on a fire will extinguish the fire ; put that water over the fire in a 

 boiler, and the fire will evaporise the water, so the body being the confining caldron, and 

 passion the fire, the soul, which is compared to the water, is dispersed abroad ; — the one 

 great supreme soul is incapable of these properties, and happiness is therefore only obtained 

 in re-union with it, when the dispersed and individualized portions combine again with it, 

 as the drops of water with the parent stream ; hence, although God needs not the service 

 of his slave, yet the slave should remember that he is separated from God by the body 

 alone, and may exclaim perpetually, Blessed be the moment when I shall lift the veil from 

 off that face. The veil of the face of my beloved is the dust of my body. 



What are the feelings of the perfect Fakir P — They have not been, they are not to be, 

 described, as it is said — a person asked me what are the sensations of a lover ? I replied, 

 when you are a lover, you will know. 



PRAN NATHIS. 



These are also called Dhamis: they owe their origin to Pran Nath, 

 a Khetriya, who being versed in Mohammedan learning, as well as 

 in his own, attempted to reconcile the two religions : with this view, he 

 composed a work called the Mahitdriyal, in which texts from the Koran, 

 and the Vedas are brought together, and shewn not to be essentially 

 different. Pran Nath nourished about the latter part of Aurungzeb's 

 reign, and is said to have acquired great influence with Chattrasal, Raja 

 of Bundelkand, by effecting the discovery of a diamond mine. Bundel- 

 kand is the chief seat of his followers, and in Punna is a building conse- 

 crated to the use of the sect, in one apartment of which, on a table 

 covered with gold cloth, lies the volume of the founder. 



As a test of the disciple's consent to the real identity of the essence 

 of the Hindu and Mohammedan creeds, the ceremony of initiation, 



