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Marta’s Story - from the Heart
I had posted a few pictures for Marta and she responded with these lines - true from the heart and reflecting the impact that Nizamuddin Auliya’s shrine can have:
thank you so much for the pictures, I really appreciated. To live so far from Delhi sometime makes me homesick. Even if I know (and feel) His presence everywhere, I wish I could sit again in front of the shrine, and spend a night of mine just there. I am longing to touch the marble of the columns, to lie my forehead on the steps, to listen to the ghazals. So, having the pictures is a great gift for me. I had put one of them on my desktop and when I turn off my Mac I wait for the image to disappear. So thank you so much, dil se!
When I was studying in Delhi at the Jamia Millia Islamia University, I wrote a short paper on Nizamuddin, first in English and then in Urdu. I was 27 years old, very young I would say now that I am 48, and very naive. But I had already felt a strong touch in front of the Dargha, which I didn’t know how to call it yet. Many years later I started to understand my feelings, “to hear the song”, as I love to say now, but that is a long story, an all life long story.
Anyhow, after delivering my paper to the University, I received a letter from the faculty asking me to present within a few days. I did, and I was received by the Chief (I don’t remember the right title) of the Urdu department. He looked at me seriously and told me: “After the first glance at your paper I was going to reject it, because I believed you had it written for you by someone else, obviously an Urdu writing Muslim. Then I looked more carefully, and noticed some recurrent mistakes that only a non-native writer could have made. That was the proof you wrote the paper yourself. But your hand really seems a Muslim hand. Or else a Saint has made the miracle”.
Since then, I have always thought the second one was the true. LOVE MAKES THINGS POSSIBLE.
If you, or anyone wish, I still have that paper in English, and I will be glad to share it on the blog. It is not very professional, it is just a glance on how a foreigner can feel sitting over there and how deep and wild can be the encounter, even for someone who is not aware of anything, as I was.
Marta, please share your paper - I am waiting for it!
Here are some interesting photos from the shrine…
I end with this lovely couplet from the most celebrated of disciples, Amir Khusrau
Khusrau baazi prem ki main khelun pi ke sung,
Jeet gayi to piya moray, haari, pi kay sung.
I, Khusrau, play the game of love with my beloved,
If I win, the beloved’s mine, defeated, I’m beloved’s.
Source: here
Image credit here
January 26th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Thank you for the lovely poetry of Bulleh Shah. His voice and poetry resembles the great Sufi poets of the ages, who had the same refrain of being free from all worldly encumbrances.
Ya Haqq!
January 26th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
[...] reading my post on her, Marta sent her essay on Nizamuddin Auliya that she wrote in 1987. It is a great read, enriched by [...]
January 27th, 2007 at 9:33 am
I am Free My mind is free is not my translation translation i came across this in Zamir Niazi book Press In Chains. This verse is probably translated by MA Akhyar for the book and second one is translated by C. Duggal. I am sorry that i failed to mention the sources and shall correct this error.
January 27th, 2007 at 10:49 am
Manzoor, many thanks!
I have edited the post accordingly and also added the names of translators you provided..
Keep visiting, RR
January 27th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
“Bhulla ke janan main kon”
What a true personality he was. Still he is alive through his words. I like his poetry, not only me but every one.
January 28th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Thanks for the aaho ahho aakah couplet. Another one of my favourites is:
dharamsal vich dharvi rahinde, thakur dware thug
vich maseet kusatti rahinde, aashik rahin alag
(In temples reside the ruffians, in gurudwaras, the thugs
In mosques reside the liars, the true lovers (of the Divine), stay aloof from all these.)
March 13th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
One of Bulleh Shah Kafi
Behad Ramzaan dasda nee
Meyndaa Dholann maahee
Meem de Ohley wasdaa nee
Meyndaa Dholann maahee
Auliyaa mansoor kahaawey
Ramz anal-haq aap bataaway
Aapey aap noon soolee charhaaway
Te kol khaloke hasdaa nee
Meyndaa Dholann maahee
Behad Ramzaan dasda nee,
Meyndaa Dholann maahee
My dear Beloved discloses (unveils) many mysteries.
He dwells behind Meem
O my dear Beloved
He himself tells the mystery of anal-haq (I am the Truth)
He Himself is responsible for hanging Himself (Mansoor)
Then He Himself stands aside and laughs
Oh my dear Beloved
My dear Beloved discloses(unveils) many mysteries
(Prof Saeed Ahmed)
Moreover in which Bulleh shah book can I find these verses? Please helpme in this regards.
paRh paRh ilm hazaar kitaabaN
qaddi apnay aap nou paRhiya naee
jaaN jaaN waRhday mandir maseedi
qaddi mann apnay wich waRhiya naee
aa-vaiN laRda aye shaitan de naal bandeaa
qaddi nafss apnay naal laRiya naee
[yes, yes, you have read thousands of books
but you have never tried to read your own self
you rush in, into your Mandirs, into your Mosques
but you have never tried to enter your own heart
futile are all your battles with Satan
for you have never tried to fight your own desires]
Thanks
Shahid
March 14th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Shahid Saheb
Please get this book
Masterworkds of Punjaabi Sufi Poetry”
“Bulleh Shah Within Reach”
“Volume 1″
Muzaffar A. Ghaffar
Ferozsons (Private) Limited
http://www.ferozsons.com.pk/