"Meditate on the mysterious affinity between God and the soul." "Even as you see your countenance reflected in a mirror, or your shadow in still water, so behold Râm in your minds, because He is with all." "He that formed the mind made it as it were a temple for himself to dwell in. Receive that which is perfect into your hearts: abandon all things for the love of God." "God ever fostereth his creatures; even as a mother serves her offspring, and keepeth it from harm." 66 "O God who art the truth! grant me contentment, love, devotion, faith. Thy servant Dâdu prayeth for true patience, and that he may be devoted to thee. "Dâdu saith, 'My earnings are God. He is my food and my supporter. God is my clothing and my dwelling. He is my ruler, my body, and my soul.'" "Listen to God's admonitions, and you will care not for hunger nor thirst, for heat nor cold. If ye subdue the imperfections of your flesh, you will think only of God. When you cease to call on Him, they will return to you.” "Dâdu loved Râma without ceasing: he partook of his spiritual essence, and constantly examined the mirror within him; he overcame all evil inclinations: wherefore the light of Râma will shine upon him." "Sit humbly at the foot of God, and rid yourselves of bodily impurity.". "Be fearless and guide yourselves towards the light of God: there neither sword nor poison have power to destroy, and sin cannot enter." "Afford help also to the poor stranger." "Meditate on Him by whom all things were made. Pundits and Qazis are fools: of what avail are the heaps of books they have compiled?" "Wear not away your lives by studying the Vedas. Meditate on God, the beginning and the end." "Do nothing, O man! till thou hast thoroughly sifted thy intentions: acquaint thyself thoroughly with the purity of thy wishes, that thou mayest be absorbed in God. Endeavor to gain Him: nor hesitate to restore your soul, when required, to that abode from whence it came." The belief of the followers of Bábá-lál is a combina Bâbâ-lâl. tion of the Vedânta and Sufi tenets. It illustrates in like manner that union of speculative mysticism with practical benevolence, of which Buddhism was the earliest expression. This teacher, when asked which is the best religion, replied: "The creed of the lover differs from other creeds. God is the faith and creed of those who love him. To do good is the best for the follower of every faith. And, as Hafiz says,— The object of all religions is alike: all men seek their beloved. What is the difference between prudent and wild? All the world is love's dwelling: why talk of a mosque or a church?" The following sentences 1 illustrate his teaching: "With whom should the fakir cultivate intimacy? With the lord of loveliness. To whom be a stranger? To covetousness, anger, envy, falsehood, malice. Should he wear garments or go naked? Nudity is excusable only in the insane. The love of God does not depend on a cap or a coat. How conduct himself? He should perform what he promises, and not promise what he cannot perform." "Should evil be done to evil-doers? He should do evil to none. Hafiz says, 'The repose of the two worlds depends on two rules, kindness to friends and gentleness to foes.'" "Is it necessary for a fakir to withdraw from the world? What is the world? Forgetfulness of God, not clothes, nor wealth, nor wife, nor offspring." "What is the fakir's passion? Knowledge of God. What his power? Impotence. What his wisdom? Devotion of the heart to the heart's Lord. What is the fakir's dwelling? God's creatures. His kingdom? God." "How do the supreme soul and the living [individual] soul differ? The supreme soul is beyond accident, but the living soul is afflicted by sense and passion. Happiness is attained only in reunion with the One, when the dispersed portions combine again with it, as the drops of water with the parent stream." "The body only separates from God. Blessed be the moment when I shall lift the veil from off that face. The veil of the face of my beloved is the dust of my body." 1 Wilson, I. 349, 350. BUDDHIST CIVILIZATION. As -- Expansion. of the lower to S a distinctive religion, Buddhism has vanished from its native soil; surviving only in those qualities of thought and sentiment out of which it grew, and to which, in their Hindu forms, it gave fresh vigor. But, in the view of universal religion, this is its real triumph. Positive religions affirm their own substance to be sacrifice, the higher, of the special to the ideal. Nature takes them at their word. Their formulas, that seemed final, pass; their sacred names are no longer pronounced with awe; their proscriptive masterships are set aside; their body perishes, and they are changed. But their after-life is their best. The shell of symbol thrown aside, the immortal essence escapes, to work freely as a universal force, and in the whole movement of human life. So with Buddhism in India. Its karma passed into a new soul. Its sainthood returned from the gates of nirvana, to assume fresh forms; veiled by new names and relations, wherein the closer eye may discern its life-beyond-death. But its distinctive triumphs have been without the limits of India. It justified itself also by its expansive power. In the seventh century Hiouen Thsang found, even in the most flourishing Buddhist |