Indian Antiquary Vol 58

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 213

OCTOBER, 19:29]
A LIFE OF NAND RISHI
197
In those days there lived also a "hermitess" named Shâm Ded, who roamed about the country. She came to Nand Rishi and condoled with him on the maltreatment accorded to him by his thieving brothers, and said :
Irah-balan naga-ráda rov
Sadha rov teúran-manz Juda gharan gora Pandità rov
Raza hansd rov kavan manz.
A spring has been lost in the stream ;
A saint has been lost among the thieves ; A deeply learned man has been lost in the house of fools ;
A swan has been lost among the crows.
Another night his step-brothers again took Nand Risbi with them for the purpose of stealing, and went to a house in Khudaven village, which they caueed him to enter. The inmates happened to be awake and, suspecting it was a thief who had entered, they spoke to one another, lamenting that they were very poor 80 poor indeed as not to possess even a quilt to protect themselves from the cold of winter-80 that a thief could get nothing from their house. Nand Rishi overheard them and felt pity for their poverty. He then flung his own blanket over them and came out empty-handed. His step-brothers asked him what he had secured and where his own blanket was. He replied:
Khudaven jamátha wuchhim nani Turit tshanimak panani khani.
I found a number of persons naked at Khudaven : I flung my blanket to cover them.
His step-brothers were now convinced that he was a simpleton and quite unfit to join them, and they told his mother that, as he could not learn the art of stealing, he should be set to some other work. His mother told him that, since he disliked theft, he might earn his livelihood by some handicraft. He replied that he would gladly comply with her wishes. She then took him to a weaver to be taught the art of weaving, and was accepted as an apprentice. When his mother was gone, Nand Rishi asked the weaver why he was always alternately raising and lowering his feet. He replied that he was thus raising the warp in order to put in the woof; but Nand Rishiexplained that this movement had another meaning
saying—“When you raise your right foot it is a hint that we were dust and God raised • us to life. When you lower your left foot, it indicates that we shall return to dust." Nand
Rishi next inquired—“ Wherefore have these threads been put together; what is the piece of wood that is shot to and fro in the loom; what are the threads attached to it; and what the board which you are pulling towards yourself ?” The weaver replied that they were warp, shuttle, woof and press-board respectively. Nand Rishi replied:"No; the woof indicates that the world is an inn having two doors; by one we enter and by the other we leave. The shuttle is man, and the thread in its mouth is his daily bread apportioned to him by fate ; so long as it lasts he moves about in this world and when finished he is kept out like the shuttle. The board, which, when you pull it towards you to press home the woof, makes a sound like dag dag and indicates that our desires are killing us." The weaver got per. plexed on hearing this philosophy and thought the apprentice's mind was wandering. He sent for Nand Rishi's mother and told her that her son seemed to have no inclination to learn weaving, as he was not attending to the work, but simply boring him with abstruse philosophical remarks and hampering him in his own work. The mother, in despair, took her som