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RELIGIOUS SECTS
are of one blood, and one life animates us both; from one mother is the world born: what knowledge is this that makes us separate? no one knows the varieties of this descent, and how shall one tongue declare them? nay should the mouth have a million of tongues, it would be incompetent to the task. Kabir has said, I have cried aloud from friendship to mankind; from not knowing the name of Ráma, the world has been swallowed up in death.
In this Ramaini, the first passage contains an allusion to the notions of the sect regarding the history of creation. God is called ANTAR, Inner, that which was in all, and in which all was, meaning the first self-existent and all-comprehensive being. Jyotish is the luminous element, in which he manifested himself, and Sabda, the primitive sound or word that expressed his essence—the woman is Máyá, or the principle of error and delusion: the next passage relates to the impotence of the secondary gods, and the unnatural character of religious distinctions: “the woman" is Máy), the self-born daughter of the first deity, and at once the mother and wife of BRAHMÁ, VISHẬU, and SivA. “I and you, 8c.” is addressed by her to them, “no one knows, &c.” is an allusion to the blindness of all worldly wisdom, and the passage winds up with a word of advice, recommending the worship of RÁMA, implying the true God, agreeably to the system of Kabín.
The style of the whole Bijak is of this kind: straggling allusions to the deceits of Májú, to the errors of other sects, and the superiority of their own, being strung together with very little method: it will not, however, be necessary to analyse any more of the
