284 



Life and Writings of Father Beschi. 



[April 



On the false Devotees, 



If, said the devotees, everlasting happiiiess he desired, it may he oh' 

 tained by the rule ihou hast propounded and not by seclusion in the 

 wilderness, bathing in fountains, or cherishing long locks of tangled 

 hair, for these and similar acts cannot produce eminent virtue ; all this 

 is utter ignorance. 



Will they call the ranJc bears devotees because their bodies nourish 

 tangled hair and they fail not to bathe in water, or because they un* 

 ceasiugly wa?ider through the leafy woods, or because they feed on the 

 fruits a7id tender roots therein produced ? 



fVill they call the doves that rove amid the heat of the parched de- 

 sert, or the bats hanging from the trees and feeding on their choicest 

 fruit, the greatest of devotees : how without purity of mind can the sins 

 formerly committed be cleared away ? 



As one, who, after having firmly fastened the gates of the threateti" 

 ing battlements, from fear of an invading enemy enflamed by rage, urged 

 by his 0W71 innate fury stabs himself and dies ; so is he, who, although 

 he restrains the five outward organs of sense, is ruled by inward passion. 



A Controversy between the Domestic Life and Retirement. 



In the fourth canto of the Tembavani (Palamatchi padalam), Vira- 

 mamuni introduces a controversy between the youthful Joseph, who, 

 desirous of leading a life of devotion, had retired to wilderness, and 

 an AiJgel in the form of an old-man, on the relative merits of seclusion 

 and social life: from this the following extract is taken. 



jS[rOi—.[r^ikiS<ss^^^O<3=^Q ^sarpsesflLUeif}^ ^ <oisr bw (o (n) 



^rrOiun'QLajT^^^^rrpQufrpsi^^jSJ/DGu^QnujQQji'cQ 



^Ouj[r(B(^<omi^u:^pQ Qr)Q^^O<F<ije:jjDffOs= ^ ^ esr Q (ir) 

 iLj Q eij loSi^ n" (o <£ii IT O lu )m O <g: fr p 



UJ p p pQ CUT i^jS^meSu-LpimpCo ^Quir&^QeLiLi^f^sCj 

 i-}ppp<2i\io!^k^^^m<s(rihup^iU jEGSiiS^'aSleiiOisu ^^ir 

 eSpppeij jn^Oiu mr Q (^0^<isr p<^ ^si\[u ^ssis^ . 



Q<sn- ^(S0[rm<sar^^p^m%5srs O&ir^sssr rrp ^ s rr io GSl2eJ nj ihO su 'Suit 



