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CONFLUENCE OF OPPOSITES
351 soul dragging it in the end into conditions of existence which one simply shudders to think of. It is dreadful to think of the countless millions of horses, cows, buffaloes, bullocks and goats that have paid with their lives for our stupidity! The horse that was to be sacrificed is the mind, the cow,the lower or sensual ego in the sense of wei (lit, breath), buffaloe, ignorance, bullock, stupidity or stiff-neckedness, and the goat, carnal lust. Of these, the cow has been the source of a great deal of bloodshed in recent times in India. Yet the cow is a mere symbol for the senses, or, in general, sensuality or nafs, as it is termed in Isiam. In Muslim symbology nafs (cm ) is also represented by dog which is the most unclean of animals; for the dog is kuowu to eat up all kinds of things clean and unclean both, and applies bis nose to any thing directly be sees it, while nuts (the ego given to sensuality, is uo better. Sag-i-dunia (dog of the world) is the contemptuous expression of saints for those entangled in the world, on account of their sensuai nasf-parasti (lit. sense-worship, hence the pursuit of lusts). It is this lustful nafs triat is symbolised by cow for the purpose of sacrificial teaching. The occasion of the sacrifice is thus related in the Qur'an (chap ii) :
{ " Aud when Moses said unto his people, verily God commands 1. you to sacrifice a cow, they answered, Dost thou make
a jest of us ? “ Moses said, God for bid that I should be one of the foolish.
- They said, Pray for us unto thy Lord, that he would show 2. ug what it is.
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