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336 Jijnäsä
For Dara as a seeker of truth as an author, the years 1653-57 were most fruitful. In 1653, he had long discussions with the Hindu ascetic Baba Lal at Lahore in seven meetings in three weeks which were originally written down in Hindi and later translated into Persian by Dara Shukoh's Secretary, Chandrabhan Brahman as Nadir-ul-Nikat. Having unlimited and keen desire to know about other religious systems, Prince Dara Shukoh asked the Hindu ascetic various questions, such as about Nada. the Vedas, the behind the idol worship, about the nature of Jivātmā and Paramātmā, about the belief that those who die in Kashi attain salvation, some questions relating to Rāmāyaṇa, about virāta svarupa of Lord Krishna, importance of the recitation of the sacred work Om, nature of chitta etc. He quotes many of Baba Lal's aphorisms, such as a "Baba Lal told me, 'Be not a Shaikh, be not a Saint, be not a wielder of miracles, be rather a faqir, unpretentious and sincere". As Prof. Bikrama Jit Hasrat writes, "The discourses show the inner soul of the Prince who was capable of viewing different religious tenets sympathetically and was deeply inerested in the science of comparative religion","
After 1657, Dara was truning more and more towards the philosophical and religious works of the Hindus in his quest to understand monotheism and to find answer to some of the doubts in his mind about it. It was during this period (1954-55) that the Persian translations of Gita and YogaVashishtha appeared under his personal supervision, besides his own remarkable work Majma-ulPhrain (1655) and the translation of the fifty-two Upanishads as Sirr-i-Akbar (the great Secret) in 1657. Of these the last two were particularly significant. Bhagwat Gitä had been translated into Persian during Dara Shukoh's great grand-father Emperor Akbar's time by Shaikh Faizi. Dārā describes the translation of Cita done under his supervision. as "an attempt to present the highest and the best tenets of Hinduism" 22
Dārā Shukoh's Majma-ul-Bahrain (the Mingling of the Two Oceans) was a unique work which be completed in the 42" year of his short life, "an outcome of much painstaking and considerable research.... and also in conformity with the two verses of the holy Qur'an", he writes. This treatise of technical terms in the Hindu religion and philosophy and their equivalents in Islamic phraseology attempts to reconcile the doctrines of the "two apparently divergent religions", and is of great interest and importance for a student of comparative religion.
In his introduction to the work he says that Islam and Hinduism, both aim to reach Him who is one and none shares His sovereignty, that after he had ascertained the secrets and the subtleties of the true faith of the Sufis, he thirsted to know the tenets of the religion of the Indian monotheists, and for this he held discussions with erudite Pandits and perfect divines of the Hindu religion who had attained perfection in religious exercises (meditation, etc.), comprehension of God and religious insight. He found that a large sunber of concepts in the two religions had similarity such as in the vision and attributes of God. division of the universe, the constituents of the physical world, devotional exercises, salvation, concepts of sound, soul, mukti and many others. Allah, they (Hindus) call Om, Mazhar-i-Atmam (perfect manifestation) is called Avtar by the Hindus, Qayamat as MahāPralaya, for al-Haq, the Hindus have the word Ananta, for Baṣir they have Drasta, for Firishtā, devata, and Anähat Näha, of the Hindu Yogis is Awaz-i-Mutlaq or Sultan-ul-Azkar of the Sufis, Ismi-Azam (the great name) of the Muslims is Om of the Hindus, Supreme Soul or Para Brahma of the Hindus can be likened to Rüh-i-Azam of the Muslims. The Soul (ruh) in which all the souls are included in called Paramatma by the Hindus and Abul Arwah by the Muslims. The Trimurti viz., Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwar of the Hindus denoting the Gods of creation, duration and
