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JULY, 1922)
HIR AND RANJHA
If there were no women in the world the universe would come to an end. Did not God Create all things in couples. The earth and the sky, day and night, man and woman. Is it not said in the Koran, We have created every living thing in pairs' Tell me, Jogi, why do you claim to be a great Saint? You fill your belly and you gorge your appetite like a donkey and you forget to thank God. You send messages by little girls. Your ways are full of deceit. You call yourself a wise man and boast of your knowledge. Tell me what is in the basket underneath this sheet? How much money is there and what is the vessel made of ?"
And Ranjha replied: "The dish is filled with sugar and rice and you have put five farthings on the top of it. Go and see, if you have any doubt in your mind."
So Sehti uncovered the dish and looked at it, and behold, it was full of sugar and rice. And when Sehti beheld the miracle which the Fakir had performed, she besought him with folded hands saying: "I have been your slave from the beginning with all my heart and soul. I will follow your footsteps and serve you with devotion as your maid servant. My heart, my property, all my girl friends and Hîr herself belong to you. I now put all my trust in God's Fakir."
And Ranjha said to Sehti: "I have grazed buffaloes for many years for the sake of Hir. Tell her that the grazer of buffaloes is calling her. Bring Hir the Stal to me, and then you will obtain your lover Murad. Say to her: Take off your veil, my beloved, and come.' Tell me, for God's sake, what fault I have committed and show me your moonlike face. The long snakes of your locks have entangled me. The arrows of your eyelashes have pierced my heart. Love has swept the curtain of shame. I am being pounded incessantly by the heavy artillery of love. You walk as beautifully as a partridge. Very lovely is the walking of my beloved. O sweet is the redness of your lips. Show them to me. I have given up the world and become a fakir for your sake. Either come yourself into the garden or take me into your house my beloved."
And Sehti replied: "I can live only if I meet Murad. I can only go with your message if you will bring me my lover. If you bring Murad I will fall at your feet. His love has ruined me and I am like roasted meat day and night."
And Rånjha replied: "Sehti, be sure that God will bring your lover to you. I will recite such a powerful spell that he will come at once. God by his grace will bring him hundreds of miles in an instant."
CHAPTER 27. (Sehti takes Ranjha's message to Hit and Hir meets Ranjha in the garden.) So Sehti went to Hir and gave her the message of the Jogi, saying: “You got him to tend your buffaloes by deeeit and now you have broken your promise and married Saida. He has turned Fakir and covered his body with dust and ashes. He has ruined his name and honour. By the practice of great austerities, he has obtained the help of the five Pirs, and he has shown me his power by a miracle. Go to him at once as a submissive subject with a present in your hand, for a new governor (Faujdar) has been appointed to rule over us. I have seen each miracle of his more wonderful than the last. It is as if Christ had come down from Heaven to earth."
Hir replied to Behti: "I will go and unveil myself to Ranjha and dispel his sorrow, for my life is the dust of his feet and my heart and soul belong to him. Ranjha is lying stricken sore with the pains of separation from bis beloved. I will go like Jesus and bring him to life.”
So Hir took a bath and clothed herself in silk and scented her hair with attar of roses and all manner of sweet scents. She painted her eyes with antimony and rubbed 'watna and dandasa' on her lips, and the beauty of them was doubled. She put handfuls of earrings in her ears and anklets on her feet. Jewels shone on her forehead. She was as beautiful as a peacock.
