God said, 'Even though a man be the lowest social outcast, yet if he be a saint of Mine, he is dear to Me and worthy of worship.'
There is a legend to the effect that Sadhna became the object of further persecution. A king, who was probably incensed against him on account of his religious opinions, ordered him to procure meat for him at an unusual hour of night. Sadhna was unable to do so, and the king thereupon ordered that he should be put to death by being built alive into a wall. While the wall was closing round him, Sadhna is said to have composed the following hymn in the Bilawal measure:—
On account of a king's daughter a man assumed the disguise of Vishnu,
For love of her and for his own object; but his honour was saved.
What merit hast Thou, O Guru of the world, if my sins be not erased?
What availeth it to enter the asylum of the lion, if he allow the jackal[1] to clutch me?
For want of a drop of rain the chatrik suffereth agony;
When its life is gone, even were an ocean at hand, it would be of no avail.
Now that my life is weary and abideth no longer, how shall I be patient?
When a man is drowned, even if a boat be obtained, say whom shall you put into it?
I am nothing, I am nothing, and I have nothing,
At this conjuncture Thy slave, Sadhna, prayeth Thee to protect his honour. [2]
- ↑ The lion here is God, the jackal is the king who sentenced Sadhna to death.
- ↑ The beginning of this hymn alludes to a carpenter's son who, on hearing that a king's daughter desired to marry Vishnu, decked himself out with Vishnu's four arms, club, lotus, discus, and shell, rode on Vishnu's garur, and thus gained the lady's affection. A hostile king was subsequently making war on her father, whereupon she declared she kept Vishnu with her and He would save her people. The carpenter's son
