bulleh shah if you wish to be a ghazi take up your sword before killing the kafiryou must slaughter...

8/2/2019 Bulleh Shah If you wish to be a ghazi Take up your sword Before killing the KafirYou must slaughter the swindler

1/20

Introduction to Bulleh Shah's Poetry

By: K. S. Duggal

Hazrat Baba Bulleh Shah

(Saad Ahmad Baksh, Lahore)

Baba Bulleh Shah (1680-1758) was the great humanist, philosopher, rebel,internationalist, teacher and Sufi poet of all times. Baba ji was the disciple ofEnayat Shah Lahori, who himself was a great Sufi of his time. Baba ji wasborn in a noble and aristocratic Sayead family but, as a result of Enayatsteachings, he left the life of nobility and luxury and led quite simple andhumble life. Baba ji was a great poet and use to sing his poetry in the streetsof his city Kasur.

He was a keen supporter of poor and at all fronts he opposedoppression and exploitation of public by capitalistic class. Due to his

anti-extremist and revolutionary behavior, he was given the Fatwa of Kafir(Infidel) by religious authorities. Several times, he was bitten by theextremists but he never bowed his neck. When he died he was thrown onthe garbage outside the boundary of Kasur because he wasnt allowedto bury in the Kasur. But as the time passed, with the increase inpopulation Kasur also expanded and thus, at last, Baba jis grave got itsplace in his Kasur.

After the death of Baba Bulleh Shah, the Government and Muslim Ulmas usedtheir force strongly to destroy the Kalam (poetry) and reputation of Baba ji.Qawals (Asian classical singers) were strictly prohibited to sing the Kalam of

Baba ji publicly. In British India, for about 100 years his Kalam was notallowed to be published. It was after the partition of 1947 that Baba jisKalam was published for the first time, when some Sikhs and Hindus disclosed


2/20

some remnants of Baba jis Kalam. No doubt, a lot of his verses have beendisappeared from the world but still weve his many beautiful verses which arefamous all over the world and people of all castes and religions love andadmire this remarkable poet of history.=============================================

The Sufi cult is akin to mysticism. It is believed in some quartersthat it was born out of interaction between Semitic Islam andAryan Vedantism on the soil of India. This is not the whole truth.Sufism took birth in Arabia in the ninth century. However, theAryan perceptions in Iran and then in India influenced it a greatdeal, more particularly in accentuating the emotional content asagainst the dry-as-dust self-denial of the Arabs. The Arabs laidstress on asceticism and disciplining of the body, while the laterSufis in Iran and India, under the influence of Greek philosophy,Platonic ideology, Christian faith, Vedantist thinking, Buddhist

lore, etcetera believed in leading an emotionally ~rich life. Theydrank and danced and advocated that physical love couldsublimate itself into spiritual love. They had faith in God: theyloved the Prophet but they maintained that the Murshid or Gurucould also lead to realization of the Divine Reality.

Literally speaking, a Sufi is one who is pure or one who goes aboutwith a woollen blanket. In Greek, he is a Sufi who is enlightened. Thecardinal 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 toNirvana.(c) All happenings take place as per the will of God; nothing happensif He does not ordain it,(d) The soul is distinct from the physical body and will merge intoDivine Reality according to a person's deeds,(e) It is the Guru whose grace shows the way and leads to union withGod,

The Sufis believe that there are four stages in one's journey torealization:

(a) Leading a disciplined life as prescribed in Islam (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).

The practitioners of the Sufi cult came 10 India following the Muslimconquerors, more with a view to propagating Islam, There came to be

established several centers at Lahore, Pakpattan, Kasur, Multan andUch in the Punjab, 'However, the most popular sects among them


3/20

were those which combined in them the best of every faith andpromoted it amongst the people, Bulleh Shah, the noted Sufi poet,belongs to this group.

The Sufis loved God as one would love one's sweetheart. God for aSufi is the husband and humankind his wife, Man must serve, love,undergo asceticism, gain enlightenment and then get merged in God,

The Indian Sufis laid stress on repeating the Name (Japu),concentration (Dhyan) and meditation (Habs-1~dam), A Sufi musteschew sin, repent, live a simple and contented life and should lookfor the grace of the Murshid or Guru. The Sufis maintain that thesoul has been separated from the Divine Reality and the suprememission of human life is to achieve union with God.

Like the Iranian Sufis who sang the praises of Yusaf Zulaikha, lailaMajnun and Shirin Farhad, the Sufis in the Punjab idealised theromances of Heer Ranjha, Sohni Mahiwal and Sassi Punnun.Preoccupied with the metaphysical, they restored the use of symbolsdrawn from everyday life around them like the spinning-wheel, boat,dowry, etc. As poets, they employed kafi, baramah, athwara, siharfi,doha, baint and deodh as their favourite poetic forms. Their languageis simple and conversational, light and lyrical. There is no denyingthat they made an indelible impression on the life and thought of thepeople of the Punjab. More important among the Sufi poets who wrote

in Punjabi were Shah Husain (1538-

1599), Sultan Bahu (1629-1691), and Shah Sharaf (1640-1724). Theywere preceded by Farid in the 12th century and followed by BullehShah (1680-1757), Ali Hyder (1690-1785), Hashim Shah (1735-1843)and others in the 17th and 18th centuries.

More important among the Sufi saints who influenced life in thePunjab were: Data Ganj Baksh, Sheikh Farid Shakarganj, QutbuddinBakhtiar Kaki, Moinuddin Chishti, Nizamuddin Auliya, Mian Meer

and Sarmad.

Though he is said to have been born in 1680 A.D., not much is knownabout Bulleh Shah's personal life. The little that has been culled fromthe works attributed to him and the contemporary records testify thathe was born in a village called Uch Gilania in Bahawalpur. Later hisfather Sain Mohammad Oarvesh moved first to a village known asMalakwal and then to Pandoke near Kausur, not far from Lahore.Bulleh Shah was only six years old at that time. Here he was putunder the tutelage of Ghulam Murtza who was the Imam of one of the

mosques in Kasur. There being no regular schools, the practiceobtaining in the town was that the mosque served as an elementary


4/20

school and the Imam of the mosque was entrusted with the task ofteaching children. Ghulam Murtza was a sort of poet who, it is said,had translated Gulistan from the Persian. When Bulleh came of age,he became a Murid of Inayat Shah Qadri of Lahore. This was greatlyresented by his people who were Syeds, while Bulleh Shah's Murshidwas a low-caste Araeen, Syeds draw their lineage from ProphetMohammad. There is evidence of this unpleasantness in Bulleh'sverse. The ardent devotee in him says:

Those who call me SyedAre destined to hell made for them.Those who call me AraeenHave the swings of heaven laid for them.

Nevertheless, according to A.N. Walker, Bulleh Shah's sister had topay the price for it; she remained unmarried. In 1729 when ShahInayat died, Bulleh Shah succeeded him as' the master of ceremoniesin the monastery at Lahore. According to the epitaph on his tomb,Bulleh Shah died in 1757. He never married.

A semi-literate Punjabi peasant, Bulleh Shah's search for truth ledhim on to the spiritual path. And it is when he started enjoying thebeauty of truth that his emotional exuberance drove him to Sufism :singing, dancing and finding expression in verse. However, neither

did he care to prepare a Divan nor did he or anyone else ever recordthe story of his life. His poetry has traveled to us from mouth tomouth mainly through Qawwals. Similarly, his life has come to us inthe form of anecdotes, some of which are reflected in his verse. Maybeit was due to the fact that the Punjab was greatly disturbed between1710-1750. If there were any MSS, they must have been lost. It wasonly in 1882 that one Malik Hira collected his compositions andbrought them out from Lahore for the first time.

His first meeting with his Murshid Inayat Shah is said to have been

meaningfully dramatic. It is said that when Bulleh approached hisspiritual master, Inayat Shah was engaged in transplanting onionseedlings in his orchard. Finding that Bulleh Shah wished to beinitiated into the fold of divine seekers, Inayat Shah remarked, 'It'snot difficult; it is like uprooting here and planting it there.

This clinched the issue. Bulleh Shah became a disciple of InayatShah.

It is said that soon after Bulleh Shah annoyed his Master due to

some indiscretion and he was thrown out of the Daira. Severalmonths passed; Bulleh begged forgiveness, repented, had other


5/20

devotees speak to Inayat Shah who would not relent. Suffering thepangs of separation, Bulleh sang soulful Kafis:

Leaving my parents, I am tied to youOh Shah Inayat! My beloved Guru

Whatever happens is ordained by him.His mandate none dare alter.

My pangs of agony cry aloudSomeone should go and tell my MasterFor whom I pine.

As time passed, he went sort of crazy and in a fit of frenzy he

disguised himself as a dancing girl and barged into his Master'sDaira singing and dancing:

Your love has made me dance allover.Falling in love with youWas supping a cup of poison.Come, my healer, it's my final hour.Your love has made me dance all over.

Discovering that it was none other than Bulleh, singing and dancing

in abandon, Inayat Shah relented and took him back in his fold.

During the period of his estrangement with his Master, Bulleh Shahused to roam about in the streets of Lahore in a deranged state ofmind. In the prime of his youth, with curly tresses flowing on hisshoulders, he was the cynosure of many an eye. It is said, oncepassing through a street he saw a middle aged woman doing thehairdo of a newly-wedded bride. Bulleh Shah liked the hairdo and thenext time he happened to pass that way, he asked the lady to do asimilar hairdo for him. Who would not oblige a charming youth like

Bulleh? It is said that when her husband came to know of it, he gavea severe beating to his wife. As the husband was giving vent to his

jealous anger, there was a knock on the door. Opening the door theyfound it was no other than Bulleh Shah asking the lady to undo hishairdo! 'My husband wouldn't allow it, he beats me,' said Bulleh andput the woman's husband to shame.

Similarly, when Aurangzeb banned singing and dancing as an un-Islamic practice, Bulleh Shah's Master, Inayat Shah, is said to haveadvised him to go from village to village in the Punjab singing and

dancing and thus defy the imperial injunction which Bulleh did withimpunity.


6/20

Bulleh Shah's times were out-of-joint. The Punjab was particularlydisturbed. Before he died in 1707, Aurangzeb was preoccupied in theSouth, leaving the North to be administered by Governors who had tocontend with Marathas and the Khalsa emerging as a formidableforce under Guru Gobind Singh. Then there were incursions from thenorthwest -whether by Nadir Shah or Ahmed Shah Abdali. Therewere also fundamentalists like Sheikh Ahmed Sarhandi who infusedmuch communal hatred and disharmony inconsistent with the Sufiway of life and ideology which laid emphasis on the unity of God,amity and communal cohesiveness. They had little use for formalreligion whether it was Islam or Hinduism. They sneered atmeaningless rituals and ceremonials and propagated liberation ofman from the stranglehold of blind faith.

When Guru Gobind Singh, a great revolutionary of his time, createdthe Khalsa by baptising the Sikhs of Guru Nanak with Amrit atAnandpur Sahib in 1699, Bulleh Shah had just come of age. He was19 years old. Guru Gobind Singh, a mystic in his own' right,launched a relentless fight against the time-worn rituals andceremonials of the Hindu Rajas entrenched in the Himalayan belt onthe one hand and the bigotedness and unjust rule of the Mughals onthe other. With the death of Aurangzeb in 1707 A.D. the Punjab wasplunged into turmoil. The confusion was worst confounded with the

attacks of Nadir Shah and Ahmed Shah Abdali, more particularlybetween 1740 and 1750 A.D. Thus until his death in 1757 BullehShah had to witness disintegration allover the Punjab. He bemoans itagain and again:

The Mughals quaff the cup of poison.Those with coarse blankets are up.The genteel watch it all in quiet,They have a humble pie to sup.The tide of the times is in spate.

The Punjab is in a fearsome state.We have to share the hell of a fate.

What seems to have irked Bulleh Shah, and for that matter hiscontemporary mystics the most, was the widening gulf between theHindus and the Muslims of the day. The root cause of themisunderstanding was Sheikh Ahmed of Sarhand who believed:

"The glory of Islam wlies in ridiculing the non-Muslims. Those whogive quarter to Kafirs disgrace Islam...

The non-Muslims should be kept at a distance like dogs. They must


7/20

not be given any consideration or humane treatment. Violence andinhuman behaviour with them are like saying one's prayers. Inflicting

Jazia on them is to humiliate them. This leads them not to wearrespectable clothes, do themselves up or make any purchases ofluxury goods." Maktoobat-i-lmam Rabbani

The reference to those 'with coarse blankets' in Bulleh Shah's verseis to the Sikhs. They being an upcoming community were a thorn inthe flesh of the Muslim fundamentalists like Aurangzeb who wouldnot tolerate even the Shia Muslims. He had his, own brother DaraShikoh who was a Shia murdered mercilessly. The same fate wasmeted out to Sarmad who was a noted mystic of his time. In hissingle-minded pursuit of Islamization, Aurangzeb had Guru TeghBahadur, the ninth Sikh Guru, executed publicly in Delhi.

Aurangzeb was followed by Bahadur Shah who tried to make friendswith the Sikhs. cultivated Guru Gobind Singh as his ally, butessentially a weak ruler, the newly forged friendship was short-lived.He was followed on the Delhi throne by Jahandar Shah (1712-1713),Farrukh Sayyar (1713-1719), Mohammad Shah (1719-1748) andAhmed Shah (1748-1754). They were all staunch Sunnis. TheGovernors appointed to take charge of the Punjab affairs by themwere no Gless narrow-minded and communal Sunnis. They were:Munim Khan (1707

1713), Abdul Samad Khan (1713-1726), Zakria Khan (1726-1745),Yahiya Khan (1745-1747), Shah Niwaz (1747-1748), Mir Moinuddin(1748-1753) and MuradBegum (1753-1754).

The Hindus who did not play their tune and the Sikhs in generalwere persecuted as never before in the annals of Indian history. In1732 A.D. Haqiqat Rai, a young boy, was executed because it wasbelieved that he had abused Bibi Fatima when provoked by his

Muslim class-fellow with a swearword for a Hindu goddess. FarrukhSayyar's regime saw Banda Bahadur subjected to inhuman torturbefore he was beheaded in Delhi. During this period every Sikh head,alive or dead, had a price fixed on it. Similarly, Zakariya Khan hadBhai Mani Singh done to death by slicing his limbs, one after theother. In 1745 Bhai Taru Singh's skull was dismantled and he wasput to death. Then during the tenure of Abdul Samad and his sonYahiya Khan an attempt was made to wipe out the Sikhs as acommunity altogether. They were either put to the sword or driven tothe bushes in the countryside. It is said that, in what has come to be

known as Chhota Ghalughara, about 7,000 Sikhs were rounded upin Kahnuwan forest and killed,. while 3,000 were captured. Those


8/20

captured were later slain in Lahore and their heads arranged to forma pyramid. Another genocide of the Sikhs took place on 5th February,1762, when Ahmed Shah Durrani massacred 22,000 Sikhs in avillage called Koop Heera. This came to be known as WadaGhalooghara. Both the times Harimandir Sahib (The Golden Temple)at Amritsar was destroyed and the Holy Tank defiled.

The most unfortunate ignominy suffered by the Punjab during thisperiod was the repeated incursions of Nadir Shah, starting in 1739and those of Ahmed

Shah Abdali, whose first attack took place in 1747. These were both achallenge and an opportunity for the Sikhs. Hounded out of theirhearths and homes, they lived virtually on horseback. Organizingthemselves into guerrilla squads, they would attack the retreatingAfghan forces w1th loot and relieved them of their booty and rescuedthousands of Hindu girls accompanying them as slaves. In duecourse of time, they evolved themselves into Misals who wieldedconsiderable influence in the Punjab. And from them emerged a heroknown as Maharaja Ranjit Singh who was the first Punjabi to ruleover the Punjab in the annals of Indian history.

Such were the times when Bulleh Shah emerged as a protagonist ofcommunal amity in the Punjab. Living in Kasur with his Murshid in

Lahore, he could not but be embroiled in the political changes takingplace around him despite the fact that the Sufis tried as far aspossible to steer clear of the contemporary happenings.

Bulleh Shah's was a major voice against injustice. He called GuruTegh Bahadur, the Ninth Sikh Guru, who was beheaded byAurangzeb, a Ghazi. He hailed Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth SikhGuru, as a protector of Hinduism:

I talk about neither yesterday nor tomorrow;

I talk about today.Had Gobind Singh not been there,They would all be under Islamic sway.

He gave no quarter to hypocrisy. He was particularly hard on Mulla~Quazi amd Mufti in the Muslim social hierarchy. f1e accepted nodiscipline. Says he:

I am emancipated, emancipated I am,I am no prisoner of being born a Syed,

All the fourteen heavens are my territory,I am slave to none.


9/20

Only they shout loud while calling others to prayerWhose hearts are not pure .Those who go to Mecca on pilgrimageHave little else to occupy them here.

It needed a great deal of courage for a Muslim to say all this duringthe times Bulleh Shah lived in.

The record of the persecution of the Sufis in India is fairly alarmingdespite the fact that their contribution to Islam and to Indian societyfor promoting amity amongst the various communities is no mean.

Jalaluddin Khilji had Saidi Maula, an eminent Sufi of his time,crushed under the feet of an elephant. Similarly, Alauddin Khilji had

almost got Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya beheaded but for a miraculousescape. It is said that Mohammad Bin Tughlaq had SheikhShahabuddin Bin Ahmad murdered with his mouth filled with dung.A similar fate was meted out to Nasiruddin Chiragh Oehlvi who wastortured with holes bored in his cheeks. Firoz Shah had AhmedBihari executed since Bihari's disciples addressed him as God.

Jehangir had Guru Arjan, a friend of Mian Mir, tortured to death.Aurangzeb had Guru Tegh Bahadur beheaded.

It was, therefore, highly bold of Bulleh Shah to have challenged the

mindset of the bigoted Muslims of his time:

The Mullas and Qazis show me the lightLeading to the maze of superstition.Wicked are the ways of the worldLike laying nets for innocent birdsWith religious and social taboosThey have tied my feet tight.

Be that as it may, Bulleh Shan maintained:

Shariat is my midwife, Tariqat. is my motherThis is how I have arrived at the truth of Haqiqat.

Despite this, when he was denounced as a heretic, Bulleh Shahshouted back:

A lover of God?They'll make much fuss;They'll call you a Kafir

You should say -yes, yes.


10/20

He does not differentiate between the Hindu and the Muslim. He seesGod in both of them. When he decides to ridicule them, he does notspare either:

Lumpens live in the Hindu templesAnd sharks in the Sikh shrines.Musclemen live in the Muslim mosquesAnd lovers live in their clime.

Sick of the sophistications of the academicians, he would rather behappy in the company of the uneducated. He preferred simple folkwith faith to the so called enlightened of his day:

Enough of learning, my friend

For it there is no end.An alphabet would do for me,No one knows when one's life would end.

The Sufis of the Punjab were close to the saints of the BhaktiMovement. Both denounced fundamentalism. While the Sufis laidemphasis on love, the saints emphasized devotion. Some of thespiritual stages of the Sufis have parallels in the saints of the BhaktiMovement :

'Aboodiat' of the Sufis is the 'Seva Bhav' of the saints, meaningselfless service.' Similarly, 'Zuhd' is 'Tapassiya', meaning asceticism,'Tassawar' is 'Dhyan', meaning meditation, 'Habs-i-dam' is'Pranayam', meaning Yoga breathing exercise, 'Zikr' is 'Simran'.meaning repetition of Name, 'Wisal' is 'Milap',meaning union and 'Fanah' is 'Abhedata', meaning merger with theDivine.

There were three main cults of Sufism prevalent in India: Qadri,Suhrawardi and Chishti. Bulleh Shah belonged to the Qadri

denomination. The main features of the Qadri cult were:

(a)Developing the spiritual potential byexercising discipline and self-denial.(b) Discarding rituals and ceremonials of anyfaith, of any type.(c) Disregard for Shariat as such.(d) Man can gain realization of the Divine Realitythrough the intervention of his Murshid orGuru.

Bulleh Shah has delineated his spiritual journey of a Sufi through


11/20

various stages as known to his times in his poetry, these being:Shariat, Tariqat, Haqiqat and Marfat. He started his spiritual journeyas a conformist. Most of the seekers do so.

Shariat is the preliminary stage when the Salik conforms to theSharia or the code of conduct as dictated by Islam. It is sayingprayers five times a day, observing fasts during the month of Ramzan.besides faith in the supremacy of God and Prophet Mohammad as HisMessenger. It is said that Bulleh' Shah knew the text of the HOLYQURAN by heart. The way he quotes the Islamic scriptures in hisverse speaks volumes for it. Says Bulleh Shah:

Understand the One and forget the rest,Shake off your ways of a non-believerLeading to the grave and to hell, in quest.

Tariqat: If Bulleh Shah's verse is any guide, he did not take long toleave Shariat as a spiritual path behind, At best. he employed it as astepping-stone. He moved on to Tariqat. which is an importantlandmark in a Salik's career. The cardinal feature of this stage is theassistance provided by the~ Murshid or Guru. In fact, what Shariadoes in the life of a common devotee, Tarriqat does in the case of aSufi. The literal meaning of Tariqat is manner or observance. Tariqataccording to Bulleh Shah is the Purslat of Baba Farid, the bridge

which helps the seeker pass the arduous path of hard spiritualexercises with the help of the Murshid. The Guru or Murshid is likethe philosopher's stone which converts metal into gold. Good deedsare the dowry that the bride collects at this stage and then qualifiesfor union with the lord. In the first instance, Bulleh Shah discardsthe rituals and the ceremonials prescribed by the Shariat:

Burn the prayer mat, break the water pot,Quit the rosary and care not for the staff.

Having done that. he -"I surrenders to the Murshid who is going tohold h1s hand and cruise him to his destination. Bulleh's love for hisGuru is like that of Heer for Ranjha or Sohni for Mahiwal. It isphysical love sublimated into spiritual love:

Why must I go to KaabaWhen I long for Takht Hazara?People pay their homage to KaabaI bow before my Ranjha.

Haqiqat: The third stage of his spiritual journey to which BullehShah refers time and again in his verse is Haqiqat or the realization


12/20

of truth. The devotee understands and accepts the existence of God.God is truth. God exists in everything around us. This concept hasbeen described in the Sufi idiom as Hamaost. When the Salik comesto realize it. he no longer discriminates between the Hindu and theMuslim. the temple and the mosque. He hears the call of the Muezzinin the flute-strains of an idol worshipper:

Pour not on prayers, forget the fasts.Wipe off Kalma from the sight.Bulleh has found his lover within,Others grope in the pitch-dark night.

What a spark of knowledge is kindled ~I find that I am neither Hindu nor Turk.

I am a lover by creed;A lover is victorious even when swindled.

At this stage Bulleh Shah has little use for books and learning:

The rest is all but idle talk,What counts is the name of Allah, it looks.Some confusion is created by the learned,And the remaining g1ess is entailed in books.

Marfat: This is the last stage of the spiritual evolution of a Sufi. It isthe merging into Divine Reality called Fana and thus attaining thelife eternal known in the Sufi idiom as Baqa. The Murshid helps theseeker arrive at this stage but it is the grace which makes possiblethe ultimate union. The moment this happens, caste and creed ceaseto have any meaning. The Atma (Soul) and Paramatma (God) becomeone. When Bulleh attained this stage, the entire world appeared tohim as a reflection of the Divine Reality, Bulleh has merged in God:

Remembering Ranjha day and night,

I've become Ranjha myself.Call me Dhido Ranjha,No more I be addressed as Heer.I abuse Ranjha but adore him in my heart.Ranjha and Heer are a single soul,No one could ever set them apart.

Be that as it may, Bulleh Shah's Sufism is Quranic Sufism. At leastto start with. When he breaks this code, he hardly ever goes beyondthe limits laid down by his tribe earlier. However later in due course,

he is influenced by the Saint tradition prevalent in the Punjab duringhis times. Like a practicing Yogi, he advocates Habs-i-dam or


13/20

Pranayam which leads to union with God: .

Heer and Ranjha have already met,In vain she looks for him in the orchard;Ranjha rests in the knots of her net.

Similarly, he refers to the ten Dwars of the yogis:

It is for you that I am imbued with greed.Closing the nine Dwars, I went to sleep.I come to the tenth and ask your leave.My love for you is ever so deep.

The place Bulleh Shah gives to his Murshid in his spiritual evolutionreminds one of the importance of the Guru in the Sikh faith asobtaining in the tradition of the Bhakti Movement :

Leaving my parents I am tied to you,O Shah Inayat, my beloved Guru!Keep the promises made,Do come to me.

The immortality of the soul is indicated thus:

I was in the beginning, I'd be in the end,Who could be wiser than me?

In the tradition of the saints of the Bhakti Movement, Bulleh Shahstyles himself as the bride. God is the bridegroom :

How many knots should I tie for my wedding?My learned friend, advise!

The marriage party must come on the prescribed date,Will forty knots be wise?

Unlike the general trend of the Sufi poets, Bulleh Shah is humble. Hefinds faults in himself. He has faith in his Master's mercy. It is thegrace of Godwhich will eventually cruise him across :

I'm a poor scavenger of the court of the True Master.Bare-foot, unkempt hair, I have been summoned from beyond.

In order to kill one's ego and cultivate control over all temptations,


14/20

unlike his contemporaries, Bulleh Shah does not prescribe Zuhd andtorturing the body to submission. on the other hand, like the Saintsof the Bhakti Movement, he believes in love and devotion. At themost, he is seen suffering the pangs of separation and no more:

In my passion of union with him,I've lost all count of form;I laid my bed in the public parkAnd went to sleep in my lover's arms.I am broken, I am bent,Tell him how I am pining for him;My disheveled hair, with the tying band in my hand,Feel not embarrassed, do go and tell him oh messenger!

Bulleh Shah goes a step further. He seems even to have beeninfluenced by what is known as the Bhagwat tradition. He isenamored of Krishna's flute. The flute notes seem to have a peculiarpull for him :

Bulleh Shah was captivatedThe moment he heard the flute,Frenzied he ran towards the MasterWhom and how should he salute?

The tilt Bulleh Shah's Sufism has more particularly in the laterperiod towards the Saint tradition belonging to> the BhaktiMovement could also be due to his having belonged to the Qadri cultof the Sufis. The Qadri cult is close to the Nirgun Bhakti Mat, akin tothe Sikh faith. Its founder was Abdul Qadir Jeelani of Iran. BullehShah's Master, Inayat Shah, was also a Qadari. Says Bulleh :

Come Inayat Qadri!I long for you.Bulleh Shah was no less conscious of reforming his society. He was a

severe critic of the clergy whether Islamic or Brahminic. He ridiculesthem for the way they exploit the people and mislead them with falsepromises. He calls them thugs :

The thugs with their mouths full of frothTalk about life and deathWithout making any sense.With the fundamentalist, he is more severe :If you wish to be a ghazi,Take up your sword :

Before killing the KafirYou must slaughter the swindler.


15/20

Bulleh Shah is credited with the following works:

Kafis 150,Athwara 1,Baramah 1,Siharfi 3,Oeodh49, andGandhan 40.

This is the whole lot that appears in his name in various collectionspublished from time to time. A considerable part of it is unauthentic.

The first time an academician in Or. Mohan Singh Diwana'researched on Bulleh Shah's work, he seems to have found only 50

Kafis genuinely composed by the Sufi Saint. This was in the thirtiesof the twentieth century. Syed Nazir Ahmed of Lahore (Pakistan)compiled a fairly prestigious volume of Bulleh Shah's work in 1976 inwhich he has included 66 Kafis besides a few miscellaneous pieces.Interpolations have been galore. His Kafis at times seem to vary asthey travel from Pakistan to India.

Kafi has no specific mould called Chhand in Punjabi poetics. It has,however, a prescribed manner of presentation as light classicalmusic. Rather than a Raga, some scholars have called it a Ragini.

Long before Bulleh Shah, Guru Nanak wrote three Kafis. We have fivemore Kafis in the Holy Granth, one each of Guru Amardas and GuruRam Das, two of Guru Arjan and one of Guru Tegh Bahadur. TheseKafis are available in Ragas Asa, Suhi, Tilang and Maru. Besideslight classical musicians, Kafi singing is popular with Qawwals whomake their presentations in choruses and carry the audience withthem as if in a trance. Kafis, as text, sing the praises of the Murshidand the Divine Reality, refer to the transitoriness of the world andalso describe the pangs of separation of the devotee from the Guruand seeker from God. At times Kafis deal with social and political

themes as well. Bulleh does it time and again. As regards the form,more often than not, Bulleh provides a refrain which provides reliefas well as underlines the theme of the Kafi:

Strange are the times!Crows swoop down on hawks.Sparrows do eagles stalk.Strange are the times!

The Iraqis are despised

While the donkeys are prized.Strange are the times!


16/20

Those with coarse blankets are kings,The erstwhile kings watch from the ring.Strange are the times!

It's not without rhyme or reason.Strange are the times!

Athwara: Taking week days as the basis, Athwara is generally theexpression of a love-torn beloved (Soul) separated from the lover(God) .The beloved expects the lover every day, waits for him but he isto be seen nowhere. As poetic form. the first couplet of the Athwarahas a longer measure which is sung by the leader of the choralgroup. It is followed by short-measure couplets sung by the rest of the

party. Bulleh Shah's Athwaras are, in fact, Satwaras, starting withSaturday and terminating with Friday. Though a rebel by conviction,Bulleh Shah follows the Islamic calendar in Athwaras and Baramah.A specimen :

I better have a look at my love on SaturdayMaybe I don't come home the next day.What a Saturday it is !Suffering from the pangs of love, I pine.I look for you in dales and deserts,

It's past midnight, I hear the chimes.I miss you.Longing for you every moment,Sleeping at night, I encounter tigers.I cry for help at the top of my voiceSpears piercing my every fiber.I remain yours.

Baramah as a poetic form is a great deal popular in the Indianlanguages. Like Athwara, in Baramah the poet makes every month a

basis for recounting his woes in separation from his lover. An attemptis also made to depict the peculiar climatic features of the month,more often than not with a view to associating them with theemotional intensity of the lover pining for his beloved. In a poetic formBaramah is also like Athwara with the first couplet in a largermeasure to be sung by the leader, followed by short-measure coupletspresented by the rest of the choral group. Baramah can be intenselypassionate at times while describing the plight of the love-tornbeloved in the rainy season or in the long winter nights. A specimen :


17/20

Phagun

The Spring)

The month of Phagun reflects in fieldsThe way someone dresses in flowers.Every branch is laden with blossoms,Every neck has the look of a bower.My friends celebrate Holi.My eyes are a brimming trough.Tears give me a miserable time,I am torn with slings of love .

Whatever happens is ordained by Him.His mandate none dare alter.My pangs of agony cry out aloudSomeone should go and tell my Master,For whom I pine.

Doha is a typical Punjabi poetic form though it has no prescribedmeasure as such. It is in fact a couplet that rhymes and is completein itself. It reveals a fact of life or makes a telling observation. It canbe an emotional outburst or a reference to a political happening or

ridiculing a social foible. A few specimens :

Day before Bulleh Shah was an atheist,He worshipped idols yesterday.He had no occasion to commune with HimThough he sat at home today.Bulleh loves the MuslimAnd salutes the Hindu lord.He welcomes home all thoseWho remember the Almighty God.Bulleh treads the path of love,It is an endless road.A blind man meets the blind,Who should wield the goad?

Siharfi or acrostic is another poetic form which was very popular withthe medieval poets in the Indian languages. There was a time whenevery major poet tried his hand at writing a Siharfi. It is taking analphabet from the script of the language and building the

composition, followed by the next alphabet and so on. Guru Nanakhas a highly sophisticated acrostic called Patti to his credit. It figures


18/20

in the Holy Granth. Bulleh Shah's acrostic is devoted mainly to man'syearning for union with the Divine. A specimen:

Alif -He who meditates on AllahHis face is pale, his eyes bloodshot.He who suffers pangs of separation,No longer he longs his life ~ last.Say -Soulful is my love for you,Whom shall I go and tell?In the swelling waters of a river at midnightA wailing swallow fell.

Gandhan or knots as a poetic form owes its origin to a practiceprevailing among the tribals of the Sunderbans and Ganjibar of the

Punjab (Pakistan) who when they fix a marriage date, tie the numberof knots and the bride's family would then untie a knot every morningso that the marriage ceremony is celebrated on the day decided uponearlier. Bulleh Shah uses this device to depict his wait for his unionwith his Murshid. Every day untying a knot brings him closer to thelong-cherished union with the Master. A specimen :

How many knots should I tie for my wedding?My learned friend, advise!The marriage party must come on the prescribed day,

Will forty knots be wise?Untying the first knot I sat and cried.Since I must go one day, better get the dowry dyed.

Bulleh Shah's language is Central Punjabi but when he isemotionally charged, he waxes eloquent into Lehndi, the South-eastern dialect. There are traces of other Punjabi dialects also in hispoetry which could, perhaps, be attributed to interpolations and thefact that his work has travelled from mouth to mouth. While singingin chorus the Oawwals are known to deviate from the original text.

Bulleh Shah employs classical terms and phrases whether from thePersian or the Sanskrit according to the philosophic content of hisverse. His language is replete with eternal truths, which are incommon use in the Punjab in everyday life. As a poet, some of hisexpressions remain unsurpassed :

The sun has set; its flush only is left.A peacock calls in the grove of passion.

Mohammad Baksh, a great bard of his time, writing in 1864, was,


19/20

perhaps, the first to recognize Bulleh Shah's talent. Says he:

Listening to Bulleh's Kafis Rids one of blasphemy.He, indeed, has swumGod's ocean of eternity.

A question that nags a reader of Bulleh Shah's work is that ifSarmad and other Sufi saints who talked the way Bulleh talked couldnot escape the ire of the fundamentalists and were done to death,how is it that Bulleh could escape this fate? More, when he spoke soendearingly about the Sikhs who were at logger heads with the rulersof the day. There appear to be two reasons for it. Firstly, when BullehShah was at the peak of his glory, Mughal rule was on the decline.

The administration was much too preoccupied with law and order to

take notice of such social aberrations. Secondly, unlike Hinduism,Sikhism is close to Islam conceptually, though it is nearer Hinduismsocially. Guru Nanak who believed, there is no Hindu, there is noMuslim was still venerated in the Punjab as 'Baba Nanak ShahFaqir; Hindu ka Guru, Musalman ka Pir' (Guru Nanak the great manof God! He is the Guru of the Hindu and Pir of the Muslim). EvenGuru~ Gobind Singh, the reigning Sikh Guru, had a large number offollowers among the Muslims like Pir Budhu Shah, Nihang Khan,Ghani Khan, Nabi Khan and others. Writing in his book, Sufis,Mystics and Yogis of India, Banke Bihari says, 'It was a period when

Mughal supremacy was fading out and the Sikhs were gainingsupremacy. He (Bulleh Shah) met Shri Guru Gobind Singhji andothers and heard to his great pain of the atrocious deeds of theMuslims in decapitating the heads of Hindu saints. It was a timewhen a few decades earlier Sarmad had been beheaded by Alamgirfor his pantheistic leanings. ,

Bulleh Shah is classed with Kabir and is said to belong to the Sainttradition of the Sufis. The Punjab witnessed the emergence of the twomain cults of the

Sufis: The Quranic Sufis and the Neo-Platonic Sufis. Amongst theQuranic Sufis in the Punjab are listed: Fard Faqir, and GhulamRasul. Those listed as NeoPlatonic Sufis are: Hafiz Barkhurdar, AliHyder, Ahmed Yar, Muqbal and Waris Shah. Unlike all these BabaFarid, Shah Husain and Bulleh Shah are closer to the saint traditionof the Bhakti Movement. They seek union with the Divine on the linesof the Nirguna Bhaktas. Says Bulleh Shah

I have wiped off the Kalma

And found my Lord within me.The whole world is deceived.


20/20

Bulleh Shah's mysticism is the assertion of the soul against theformality of religion. He came to believe that it is possible to establisha direct link with God. His is the eternal yearning of the human soulto .have direct experience of Divine Reality.

Bulleh Shah's Sufism was no doubt Quranic to start with. But theShariat has relevance as long as duality persists; the moment dualitydisappears, one is liberated from all bonds. This is exactly whatseems to have happened with Bulleh Shah. He qualified himself to

Tariqat. He became liberated. He became a part of the Divinity. Hesees himself in everything around him.

Before the Sufi cult arrived in India, it had crossed many a bridge.

The Saint tradition of the Bhakti Movement was yet anotherinfluence which it imbibed and gave birth to a distinct variety ofSufism which is rooted in the Punjabi soil. It was a happy mixture ofSabar and Takwa, Santokh and Riazat, Takkawal and Toba, Razaand Prem. Bulleh Shah played a prominent role in it. According toLajwanti Raffia Krishna writing in Punjabi Sufi Poets: 'He is one of thegreatest Sufis of the world and his thought equals that of Jalal-ud-din Rumi and Shams Tabrez of Persia.

1995 New Delhi

KS. DUGGAL

========================================================

http://www.apnaorg.com/

bulleh shah if you wish to be a ghazi take up your sword before killing the kafiryou must slaughter...

Documents