DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.641#0207
200 THE HINDOO MYTHOLOGY.
repetitions of the name of his god till the evening sundhya;
and after this he continues repeating the name of the idol
till he falls asleep.
The following story is universally credited among the
Hindoos in the neighbourhood of Calcutta:—Some years
ago, a European, with his Hindoo clerk, Varanushee-
ghoshii, of Calcutta, and other servants, passed through the
Sunderbunds. One day, as this European was walking in
the forest, he saw something which appeared to be a human
being, standing in a hole in the earth. He asked the clerk
what this could be; who affirmed that it was a man. The
European went up, and beat this lump of animated clay till
the blood came; but it did not appear that the person was
conscious of the least pain—he uttered no cries, nor mani-
fested the least sensibility. The European was over-
whelmed with astonishment, and asked what it could mean.
The clerk said, he had learnt from his shastrtis, that there
existed such men, called yogees, who were destitute of pas-
sions, and were incapable of pain. After hearing this ac-
count, the European ordered the clerk to take the man
home. He did so, and kept him some time at his house:
when fed, he would eat, and, at proper times, would sleep,
and attend to the necessary functions of life; but he took
no interest in any thing. At length the clerk, wearied with
keeping him, sent him to the house of his spiritual teacher
at Khiirdu. Here some lewd fellows put fire into his
hands ; placed a prostitute by his side, and played a num-
ber of tricks with him, but without making the least im-
pression on him. The teacher was soon tired of his guest,
and sent him to Benares. On the way, when the boat one
evening lay to for the night, this yogee went on shore, and,
while he was walking by the side of the river, another reli-
gious mendicant, with a smiling countenance, met him:
repetitions of the name of his god till the evening sundhya;
and after this he continues repeating the name of the idol
till he falls asleep.
The following story is universally credited among the
Hindoos in the neighbourhood of Calcutta:—Some years
ago, a European, with his Hindoo clerk, Varanushee-
ghoshii, of Calcutta, and other servants, passed through the
Sunderbunds. One day, as this European was walking in
the forest, he saw something which appeared to be a human
being, standing in a hole in the earth. He asked the clerk
what this could be; who affirmed that it was a man. The
European went up, and beat this lump of animated clay till
the blood came; but it did not appear that the person was
conscious of the least pain—he uttered no cries, nor mani-
fested the least sensibility. The European was over-
whelmed with astonishment, and asked what it could mean.
The clerk said, he had learnt from his shastrtis, that there
existed such men, called yogees, who were destitute of pas-
sions, and were incapable of pain. After hearing this ac-
count, the European ordered the clerk to take the man
home. He did so, and kept him some time at his house:
when fed, he would eat, and, at proper times, would sleep,
and attend to the necessary functions of life; but he took
no interest in any thing. At length the clerk, wearied with
keeping him, sent him to the house of his spiritual teacher
at Khiirdu. Here some lewd fellows put fire into his
hands ; placed a prostitute by his side, and played a num-
ber of tricks with him, but without making the least im-
pression on him. The teacher was soon tired of his guest,
and sent him to Benares. On the way, when the boat one
evening lay to for the night, this yogee went on shore, and,
while he was walking by the side of the river, another reli-
gious mendicant, with a smiling countenance, met him: