A long time ago there lived three dervishes - Yak, Du and Si. The first dervish came from the north, the second from the west, and the third from the south. These people had a common goal: they strived for the Deep Truth and searched for the Path. The first, Yak Baba, sat and thought until his head began to hurt. The second, Du Aga, stood on his head until his legs became paralyzed. The third, Si Qalandar, read books until his nose started bleeding. Finally, they decided to join forces. The Dervishes retired to a secluded place and began to perform their exercises together, hoping in this way to concentrate the necessary amount of effort to cause the emergence of Truth. For forty days and forty nights, the seekers persistently achieved their goal, and on the forty-first day, as if from underground, the head of a very ancient old man appeared in front of them in a whirlwind of white smoke.
- This is the mysterious Khidr, the fear of people! - exclaimed the first dervish.
“No, this is Qutub, the pillar of the world,” objected the second dervish.
“You are both mistaken,” the third intervened, “I am convinced that this is none other than Abdel, the Changed.”
“I am neither one, nor the other, nor the third,” the spirit said in a powerful, dull voice. “But I am who you can imagine.” Now you seem to be striving for one goal, which you call the Deep Truth?
“Yes, O Master,” the dervishes answered in unison.
— Have you ever heard the saying “There are as many paths as there are human hearts”? - asked the head and, without waiting for an answer, continued, - in any case, here are your paths: the first dervish must go to the land of fools; the second dervish must find the magic mirror, and the third must turn to the Genie of the Whirlpool for help.
Having said this, the vision disappeared.
Left alone again, the three of them began to discuss what had happened, not only because they wanted to collect as much information as possible about all this before setting out on the road, but also because, although they followed different paths, each still believed in only one path - his own, of course. And now their situation was somewhat different, for none of them could say with certainty that his path was the right one, even if this imperfect path partly contributed to the appearance of a mysterious spirit, whose name the dervishes never learned.
Yak Baba was the first to leave the cell. Instead of asking everyone he met, as he always did, whether some learned person lived nearby, Yak Baba now asked about the country of fools.
Finally, after many months, he met a man who explained to him where this country was, and Yak Baba headed there. As soon as he entered the borders of the Country of Fools, he saw a woman carrying a door. The dervish approached her and asked:
- Woman, what are you going to do with this door?
“This morning my husband, going to work, said to me: “Wife, there are a lot of valuable things in our house; make sure no one comes through this door!” When I left, I took the door with me, so that no one would enter through it. Now let me leave you.
With these words, the woman turned away to go her way, but Yak Baba stopped her and said:
“Do you want me to tell you something that will save you from having to carry this burden with you everywhere?”
“Of course not,” the woman exclaimed, “and if you really want to help me, then tell me how to make the door not so heavy.”
“No, I can’t tell you that,” answered the dervish and moved on.
Having walked a little more, he saw a crowd of peasants on the side of the road, who, huddled together in fear, were staring at a huge watermelon that had grown in the field.
“We are meeting such a monster for the first time,” they explained to the dervish, “it, of course, will grow even larger and devour us all.” But we do not dare to even approach him.
- Do you want me to tell you something about him? - asked the dervish.
“Don’t be stupid,” the peasants shouted, “kill him!” And we will reward you. But don’t think about telling us fairy tales, we don’t want to listen to you!
Then Yak Baba pulled a knife out of his pocket, went up to the watermelon and, cutting off a slice, began to devour it. This sight plunged people into indescribable horror. With shouts and screams, they threw a handful of coins to the dervish and began to beg him:
“Have mercy on us, glorious Lord of Monsters, go away and don’t destroy us like you just destroyed this monster!”
Gradually, Yak Baba began to understand that in order to live among fools, one must be able to think and act like them. After several years, he still managed to make several fools reasonable, and as a reward for this he was once awarded deep knowledge. And since he became a saint in the land of fools, the inhabitants of this country retained the memory of him only as “the hero who cut the Green Monster and drank his blood.”
They tried to do the same thing to gain deep knowledge, but of course it didn't work out.
Now let's return to the beginning of the story and see what happened to the second dervish, Du Agha, who went in search of the magic mirror.
If earlier Du Aga found out everywhere about new sages or new exercises and poses, now, no matter who the dervish met on his way, he asked everyone about the magic mirror. He received many answers that only misled him, until he finally realized where to look for this mirror: it was suspended in one well by the thinnest hair. The mirror was woven from human thoughts. But since there were not enough thoughts, the entire mirror was a small piece.
Du Aga outwitted the demon guarding the well, and, taking out a mirror, peered into it and asked for deep knowledge. At that very moment he received it.
The dervish settled in this place and lived a long and happy life, teaching people wisdom. But since his disciples, after his death, did not maintain the certain concentration of thoughts necessary to constantly update the mirror, it soon disappeared. Still, to this day, some people look into their mirror every day, believing that this is the magic mirror of Du Aga.
Well, as for the third dervish, Si Qalandar, he, having parted with his comrades, looked everywhere for the Genie of the Whirlpool. This genie was known by many other names, but Qalandar did not know about it. Over the course of several years, he often found himself in the vicinity of a genie, but passed by because the people he approached either did not know about the existence of such a genie, or did not in any way assume that this was the Genie of the Whirlpool.
And so, many years later, Si Kalandar somehow entered a village.
“Oh people,” he addressed the crowd of villagers, “have any of you heard of the Genie of the Whirlpool?”
“We have never heard of a genie,” someone from the crowd answered him, “but this village is called Whirlpool.”
Kalandar fell to the ground and shouted:
“I won’t leave here until the Whirlpool Genie shows himself to me!”
The genie, who was hiding nearby, jumped out of his hiding place and, spinning like a tornado, roared:
“We don’t like it when strangers come to our village, O dervish!” So I'm here, what do you want?
“I am looking for deep knowledge,” answered Si Qalandar, “and I was told that only you can help me find it.”
And the dervish told under what circumstances he learned about the existence of the gin.
“Yes, I really can help you,” thundered the genie. “You have already done a lot yourself, and now all you have to do is say a certain phrase, sing a certain melody, perform certain actions and refrain from others. Then deep knowledge will be yours.
Having said this, the genie gave detailed instructions to the dervish and disappeared.
Si Qalandar spent whole years learning to correctly perform the rituals and exercises given to him. His diligence and focus earned him a reputation as a worthy and dedicated man. People, watching him, became infected by his example and began to imitate him in everything.
And one day the dervish achieved deep knowledge. His imitators had by then formed an entire community trying to achieve the same thing. They never came to knowledge because they began to study the path of Si Qalandar from the end.
Subsequently, whenever the followers of these three dervishes met, a fierce dispute broke out between them. Some said:
- Here is our mirror. If you are willing to stare into it for as long as it takes, you will eventually achieve deep knowledge.
“Sacrifice a watermelon,” others objected to them. - This will lead you to your goal, as it once led Yak Baba.
“Nonsense,” others laughed at them, “there is only one way - this is to be persistent in studying and doing certain exercises, prayers and good deeds.”
The three dervishes, having finally achieved deep knowledge, found that they could not help their followers, just as a swimmer, carried away by a rushing river, sees a man on the bank being chased by a leopard, and cannot come to his aid.
The adventures of these people - their names mean "first", "second", "third" - are sometimes interpreted as a satire on traditional religion.
The Dervishes who tell this tale claim that it carries a hidden mission that is more important than its surface meaning.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru