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90
RELIGIOUS SECTS
a thief; now a liar, now a murderer; men, sages, gods, have run after it in vain; its mansion has a hundred gates.
93. The snake of separation has attached itself to the body, and darted its fangs into the heart: into the body of the Sádh it finds no admission: prepare yourself for what may happen.
94. How is it possible to reach the city when the guide cannot point out the road? when the boat is crazy, how shall the passengers get clear of the Ghát?
95. When the master is blind, what is to become of the scholar? when the blind leads the blind, both will fall into the well.
96. Yet the master is helpless when the scholar is unapt: it is blowing through a bambn, to teach wisdom to the dull.
97. The instruction of the foolish is waste of knowledge; a maund of soap cannot wash charcoal white.
98. The tree bears not fruit for itself, nor for itself does the stream collect its waters: for the benefit of others alone does the sage assume a bodily shape.
99. I have wept for mankind, but no one has wept with me; he will join in my tears, who comprehends the word.
100. All have exclaimed, master, master, but to me this doubt arises : how can they sit down with the master, whom they do not know?
The preceding will serve as exemplifications of the compositions of this school: they are necessarily unsatisfactory, as amongst some hundreds of similar passages the business of selection, when confined to the few admissible in this place, is unavoidably perplexing and incomplete: they are, however, sufficient for the present purpose, as the perusal of the entire work from which they have been selected would not convey any more positive notions of the doctrines of Kabir: these we shall now proceed to state according to the authority of the Sukh Nidhán.
The Sukh Nidhán is supposed to be addressed by
