Life and Writings of Father Besehu 



Q ^ir<mpesT(sui-.pO<siT(B^^Q(ZJ'i^ ^oj/r 

 Qsrrmpsin-^(^0s>^2eO3=iT^p^Q<sir<^Q5i<suSI 

 eOf^m p(SsrLO^<oSis;^isij(Si>(^u:ifr l1_(5)(?lq. 



When the means are sought by which, forsaking sin, the soul ma^ 

 be protected from the evils spread through the world and everlasting 

 happiness mat/ be obtained ; it will be found that devotion, by cutting 

 of the two affections, eaopressed by the terms 1 and mine, by which im." 

 mortal souls are here vainli/ disturbed, is the sole cause of their salvation.' 

 thus said Joseph, who had beheld the shore of the ocean of devoiioti. 



Those who have attained the eminetice of devotion and, despising^ as 

 illusive, the aid of the body, have annihilated their sensitive organs 

 after they have thus rejected with disgust corporeal aid, say what fur^ 

 iher aid they require in this world ? 



His power, who by the fora of devotion has annihilated the two affeC" 

 tions, expressed by the terms himself and his own, supported by the 

 protecting grace of the most High, the King of heaven, is sufficient to 

 shake the three worlds. 



The first of the succeeding verses is an amplification of the thought 

 in the former part of this couplet, the author having judiciously avoid- 

 ed the incongruous figure with which it concludes. This extract is 

 from the thirtieth canto (Meetchi padalam) of the Tembavani j in 

 which, while the holy family are crossing the desert, on their return 

 from Egypt, the Saviour is represented as enumerating in prophecy 

 the several devotees, who in succeeding times are there to devote 

 themselves to austerities and by their example to introduce monastic 

 discipline into the Church. The primitive ascetics Paul, Anthony and 

 Hilarion are first mentioned, but of the many names that follow few 

 can be recognized, as they are either translated into Tamil or altered so 

 as to conform to the orthography of that language. Ejesia Mariyal, 

 celebrated in the concluding verses of the extract is St. Mary the 

 Egyptian, the first female recluse on record in the Christian Church : 

 she was discovered by St. Zosimus in the desert beyond Jordan, where 

 she had passed forty-seven years in the simple attire to which the poet 

 with such delicacy alludes. 



