Nine Lives Quotes

“One day Lal shahbaz was wandering in the desert with his friend Sheikh Bhaa ud-Din Zakariya. It was winter, and evening time, so they began to build a fire to keep warm. They found some wood, but then they realised they had no fire. So Baha ud- Din suggested that Lal Shahbaz turn himself into a falcon and get fire from hell. Off he flew, but an hour later he came back empty handed. "There is no fire in hell," he reported. "Everyone who goes there brings their own fire, and their own pain, from this world.”
― William Dalrymple, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

“There is no fire in hell,” he reported. “Everyone who goes there brings their own fire, and their own pain, from this world.”
― William Dalrymple, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

“because we have two legs and travelling on foot is the right speed for human beings. Walking sorts out your problems and anxieties, and calms your worries. Living from day to day, from inspiration to inspiration, much of what I have learned as a Jain has come from wandering. Sometimes, even my dreams are of walking.”
― William Dalrymple, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

“The water moves on, a little faster than before, yet still the great river flows. It is as fluid and unpredictable in its moods as it has ever been, but it meanders within familiar banks.”
― William Dalrymple, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

“particularly the deeply embedded heterodox, syncretic and pluralist religious and philosophical folk traditions which continue to defy the artificial boundaries of modern political identities.”
― William Dalrymple, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

“Then we were both lectured by our guruji. He told us clearly what was expected of us: never again to use a vehicle, to take food only once a day, not to use Western medicine, to abstain from emotion, never to hurt any living creature. He told us we must not react to attacks, must not beg, must not cry, must not complain, must not demand, must not feel superiority, must learn not to be disturbed by illusory things.”
― William Dalrymple, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

“I grew up in extreme poverty,’ said Hari Das. ‘Like me, my father was a day labourer, who also did theyyam during the season. Today theyyam can bring in much
more than labouring – in a good season, after expenses, maybe Rs 10,000 a month – but in those days earnings were very meagre; maybe only Rs 10 and bag of rice
for a single night.
‘I lost my mother when I was three years old. She had some small injury – a piece of metal pierced her foot – but it went septic, and because she couldn’t afford a
real doctor she saw a man in the village instead. He must have made it worse. Certainly he failed to cure her. She died quite unnecessarily; at least that is what I feel.”
― William Dalrymple, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

“All religions were one, maintained the Sufi saints, merely different manifestations of the same divine reality. What was important was not the empty ritual of the mosque or temple, but to understand that divinity can best be reached through the gateway of the human heart - that we all have Paradise within us, if we know where to look.

Deal only with things that are good. If you trade coal, you will be covered in black soot. But if you trade musk, you will smell of perfume. Good deeds have good effects. Bad deeds have bad effects.

The mullahs are always trying to fight a jihad with their swords, without realizing that the real jihad is within, fighting yourself, achieving victory over your desires and the hell that evil can create within the human heart. Fighting with swords is a low kind of jihad. Fighting yourself is the greater jihad. As Latif said: "Don't kill infidels, kill your own ego".

There is no fire in hell. Everyone who goes there brings their own fire and their own pain, from this world.

The main struggle, especially when you are young, is to avoid four things: desire, greed, pride and attachment. Of course you can't do this completely - no human being can - but there are techniques for diverting the mind.

There are few places in the world where landscape and divinity are more closely linked than in southern India.”
― William Dalrymple, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

“The body is the true temple, the true mosque, the true church.”
― William Dalrymple, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

“Then I went down to the banks of the Yamuna River and said a prayer, asking for the strength to become a Baul and never to give up and go back home and submit to my father. With that prayer on my lips, I threw my sacred thread into the river. ‘For me, that ended for ever my identity as a Brahmin. That very day I changed my name. I had been Dev Kumar Bhattacharyya – any Bengali knows that that is a Brahmin name, with all the privileges that go with it. But a Baul has to name himself as a Das – a slave of the Lord – so I became simple Debdas Baul. The Brahmins had rejected me, so I rejected them, just as I rejected their whole horrible idea of caste and the divisions it creates. I”
― William Dalrymple, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

“At its purest, Jainism is almost an atheistic religion, and the much venerated images of the Tirthankaras in temples represent not so much a divine presence as a profound divine absence. I”
― William Dalrymple, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

“Rama-fication’ of Hinduism.”
― William Dalrymple, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

“Indian historian Romila Thapar has called the new ‘syndicated Hinduism’ of middle class urban India.”
― William Dalrymple, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

“I lost my mother when I was three years old. She had some small injury – a piece of metal pierced her foot – but it went septic, and because she couldn’t afford a
real doctor she saw a man in the village instead. He must have made it worse. Certainly he failed to cure her. She died quite unnecessarily; at least that is what I feel.”
― William Dalrymple, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India