Monday, February 4, 2008

Bulleh Shah & Sufi Cult

.. Tere Ishq Nachaya, Theyya, Theyya ..

Your Love has made me dance to a fast beat,
theyya theyya,

come, O Great Physician,
else i breathe my last breath!

Your Love made a house within me,
i filled my bowl with poison and gulped it myself.
come quick O Great Physician, or i will die!

a peacock cries in this grove of love,
my pretty Beloved to me is Kaaba and Qibla.
You smote me with Love but never inquired about me.

Ishq (divine love) and fire are same,
but the heat of the love is intense.
fire burns the wood,
but ishq burns the heart.

water extinguishes the fire,
what is the remedy of love?

Gulam Fareed says:
nothing remains
where Ishq makes its abode.

black is my robe,
i am filled with sins,
people think i am darvish.

O Fareed wake up,
and wander around the world,
find someone blessed,
that you also be blessed.

come, O Great Physician,
else i breathe my last breath!

Your love has made me dance to a fast beat,
theyya theyya,


This is a translation (courtesy http://mysticsaint.blogspot.com/2008/01/abida-parveen-sings-bulleh-shahs-sufi.html) of a Bulleh Shah song.

In my opinion, Bulleh Shah is the greatest Sufi poet ever born on this earth. Some people may not agree with my thoughts and would like to compare him with Rumi and Shams-i-Tabriz. Because of his pure life and high spiritual attainments, he is equally popular among all communities. Scholars and dervishes have called him "The Sheikh of Both the Worlds", "The man of God", "The Knower of Spiritual Grace" and by other equally edifying titles. His writings are surely the pinnacle of Sufi literature.

Literally speaking, a Sufi is one who is pure or one who goes about with a woolen
blanket. The cardinal features of the Sufi cult are:
(a) God exists in all and all exist in God.
(b) Religion is only a way of life; it does. Not necessarily lead to Nirvana.
(c) All happenings take place as per the will of God; nothing happens if He does not ordain it,
(d) The soul is distinct from the physical body and will merge into Divine Reality according to a person's deeds,
(e) It is the Guru whose grace shows the way and leads to union with God,

The Sufis believe that there are four stages in one's journey to realization:
(a) Leading a disciplined life (Shariat),
(b) Following the path delineated by the Murshid or Guru (Tariqat),
(c) Gaining enlightenment (Haqiqat),
(d) On realization of truth, getting merged into Divine Reality (Marfat).

I have always been fond of Sufi music or Sufi spiritual people. The Sufi cult is akin to mysticism. And I think this is the one aspect which has pulled me towards it. I have been several times to the Dargah Shareef of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer and Hazrat Nizammudin Dargah in Delhi. And whenever I go to these places, I feel a kind of aura around their tombs – which I do not feel at other religious places. And this is one thing that takes me again & again to these places.

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