The desire for the destruction of life did not leave thy heart, and thou didst not cherish mercy for living things.
Parmanand, thou hast not in the company of holy men made current God's pure word.[1]
SADHNA
Sadhna is believed to have been born in Sehwan in Sind and to have been a butcher by trade. He was a contemporary of Namdev. He embraced a religious life by listening to the instructions of holy men. Sadhna never killed animals himself, but pur chased those killed by others and then retailed their flesh. He wiped out the sins of previous births and became purified like fine gold which resists the touch stone. His idol was the salagram or ammonite stone worshipped by Hindus. With this he weighed out meat to his customers. However much or little they required, they received the weight of the salagram.
A Sadhu, or holy man, on seeing the use to which the salagram was applied, thought it ought no longer to remain with a butcher, and resolved to take possession of it. Sadhna gave it up without hesitation. After some time, however, the Sadhu took back the salagram to Sadhna, and told him that, though he had bathed it in the five am-
- ↑ The first duty inculcated in this hymn is, it will be noted, almsgiving. Lust, wrath, covetousness, and slander are to be avoided. Highway robbery and house-breaking, which still prevail in India, are duly reprobated. The life of no living thing is to be taken. This doctrine is accepted by countless Hindus. It has descended to them from the earliest ages. The hymn concludes by showing the value of good example. The good name suggested as an object is not the good name of this world, but the good name which is equivalent to the good will of heaven.
