________________
OF THE HINDUS.
93
of the goddess: she appears as Mahá Máyá, or Durgá, and frightens her sons into a forgetfulness of their real character, assent to her doctrines, and compliance with her desires: the result of this is the birth of Saraswati, Lakshmi and Umá, whom she weds to the three deities, and then establishing herself at Jwalamukhí, leaves the three wedded pairs to frame the universe, and give currency to the different errors of practice and belief which they have learnt from her.
It is to the falsehood of Máyá and her criminal conduct that the Kabir Panthis perpetually allude in their works, and in consequence of the deities pinning their faith upon her sleeve, that they refuse them any sort of reverential homage: the essence of all religion is to know Kabír in his real form, a knowledge which those deities and their worshippers, as well as the followers of Mohainmed, are all equally strange to, although the object of their religion, and of all religions, is the same.
Life is the same in all beings, and when free from the vices and defects of humanity, assumes any material form it pleases: as long as it is ignorant of its sonrce and parent, however, it is doomed to transmigration through various forms, and amongst others we have a new class of them, for it animates the planetary bodies, undergoing a fresh transfer, it is supposed, whenever a star or meteor falls: as to heaven and hell, they are the inventions of Máyú, and are therefore both imaginary, except that the Swarga of the Hindus, and Bihisht of the Musalmans, imply
