The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c11.131

v1.c11.131

The Sufi knows no distinction of caste, nor does the Bhakta. Caitanya freely admitted Mongols and Paṭāns within the pale of his sect, and invested them with a sanctity which few even of his Brāhmaṇa followers could venture to assume. "A total disengagement of the mind from all temporal concerns and worldly pursuits", is insisted upon as a *sine qua non* both by the Sufi and the Bhakta, and none can assume the *Khirkā* or the *Kaṇṭhā* without first submitting to this primary condition. Fasts and penances are alike despised by both, and yet both pass their lives in one eternal round of privations. They are voluptuaries in thought and expression, and allegories and lovesongs and *ghazals* figure prominently in all their writings. Concerts, both vocal and instrumental, are their special favourites. Caitanya repeatedly insists upon the miraculous effect of *Saṅkīrtana* in training the mind for divine communion, and devoted much of his time to religious singing and dancing. Fainting in ecstatic devotion is another peculiar characteristic common to the two sects, and innumerable instances are on record of Caitanya, Mansūr Helāj and their followers, swooning away in fits of religious enthusiasm. Nor is this peculiarity confined to the great teachers alone ; even neophytes of very moderate pretensions lay claim to this mark of sanctity. When Sufis fall into this condition "the Sheikh, aided by his Vicars, employs no other means to draw them out of this state of unconsciousness than to rub their arms and legs, and to breathe into their ears the worlds *Lā ilāha ill’ Allāh*". ⁶⁵ The swooning of the Bhakta is called *daśāprāpti*, and the only remedy resorted to for reviving him is the repetition of the name of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa near his ears. Caitanya was particularly subject to these fits, and one of them, coming on whilst he was bathing in the sea near Puri, cost him his life.