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Bulleh Shah - poems and musings
I am free, my mind is free,
I can be imprisoned nowhere.
Today Bulleh Shah’s Urs (death anniversary) celebrations have commenced in Qasoor, Pakistan. Bulleh Shah was an iconoclastic Sufi poet from the Punjab who rejected convention, orthodox religion and conventions. His message of peace and individuality continues. In all respects he was ahead of his times. This time delegates from India will also attend the ceremonies and his timeless verse shall be sung.
Centuries before we knew existentialist thought, this was uttered by a small town Sufi poet:
I know not who I am
I am neither a believer going to the mosque
Nor given to non-believing ways
Neither clean, nor unclean
Neither Moses not Pharaoh
I know not who I am
I am neither among sinners nor among saints
Neither happy, nor unhappy
I belong neither to water not to earth
I am neither fire, not air
I know not who I am
(Translation by K S Duggal)
Another poem berates the classes and hierarchies that divide people:
Let us go O Bullah
let us go then you and I
to the kingdom of the blind;
where none debates our caste or creed
none respect us thus.
This transient world
is neither thine nor mine;
all is finite
why then this quarrel
this contest
for all is ephemeral there in.
Mullah and the torch bearer
are both alike,
professing to light the path for others
themselves dwell in darkness.
(from ‘Kalaam Bulleh Shah’ printed by Pakistan International Printers, Lahore )
On the futility of ritual and uttering that Reality is about unity of all existence - Ik Nukte vich Gal Mukdi Eh (Its all in One contained):
Understand the one and forget the rest.
Shake off your ways of an apostate pest
Leading to the grave to hell and to torture.
Rid your mind of dreams of disaster.
This is how is the argument maintained.
It’s all in One contained.
What use is it bowing one’s head?
To what avail has prostrating led?
Reading kalam you make them laugh.
Absorbing not a word while the Quran you quaff.
The truth must be here and there sustained.
It’s all in One contained.
Some retire to the jungles in vain.
Others restrict their meals to a grain.
Misled they waste away unfed .
And come back home
Emaciated in the ascetic postures feigned.
It’s all in One contained.
Seek you master, say your prayers and surrender to God
It will lead you to mystic abandon
And help you to get attuned to the Lord.
It’s the truth that Bulleh has gained.
It’s all in One contained.
(Translation by K S Duggal)
What an inspiring corpus of verse Bulleh Shah has left for us.
Wish I was in Qasoor, too.
Please do watch Abida Parveen singing here and here.
Jahane Rumi Links: On the rejection of meaningless formal learning here and on freedom of the mind here; and on love sickness here.
August 26th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
What profound thoughts and what an emancipated mind!
‘This transient world
is neither thine nor mine;
all is finite
why then this quarrel
this contest
for all is ephemeral there in.’
Sufi thought could rid our world of all its woes!
Thanks for sharing.
August 26th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
I know it would take up too much space, but it would’ve been nice to see the original Punjabi version posted here. What could be the solution? Links to pages featuring the Punjabi text perhaps…
Meanwhile, I had the good fortune of being able to pick up, from Hasan Abdal, the first eight titles featured at http://www.sufiwisdom.org/books.html and found these to be quite useful.
August 27th, 2007 at 7:07 am
i have two things in common with late-great bulleh shah: qasur, where he was buried and where my ancestors were born (i have yet to visit qasur), and a vague sense that my still inchoate philosophy shares some elements with his.
i wish i spoke better punjabi.
August 28th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Bulleh Shah a famous name in punjabi poetry…wat a classical poem nd songs dis man introduced dey r just fabulos…
August 29th, 2007 at 4:13 am
Amazing. The translations by K S Duggal are quite well done…had not seen them before.
August 31st, 2007 at 5:24 pm
RR, Thanks. I do hope KS Duggal is available locally in Pakistan. BTW have you had the chance to browse through Ferozsons publication - Muzzafar A Ghaffar 2 volume work titled Masterpieces of Punjaabi Sufi Poetry BULLEH SHAH. Other volumes in the series are on Guru Nanak, Shah Hussan & Baba Fareed. I am waiting for upcoming books from this publisher for past 2 years.
September 4th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
wat a classical poem nd songs dis man introduced dey r just fabulos…
September 4th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Book by K S Duggal(English Version) is not available in Pakistan. However you can get the maximium portion of this book from http://www.apnaorg.com/. There are only two books in English on Bulleh Shah, written By Muzaffar Ghaffar and Prof Saeed Ahmed (http://www.sufiwisdom.org/books.html) are available in Pakistan. I have personally met both authors. They enjoy command over the punjabi sufis kalam . They are doing a wonderful job to revive the sufiana Kalam.
“moonh aaee baat na rehndee ey”
Words that come on my tongue cannot be held back.
If I tell a lie, something is left out;
If I speak out the truth, there is a blaze.
My mind fears both the alternatives;
But haltingly my tongue speaks out.
Words that come on my tongue cannot be held back.
Whosoever found the secret from the mystic,
He searched for the path within himself.
He is a blissful dweller of that temple,
Which knows neither rise nor fall.
Words that come on my tongue cannot be held back.
Respect and regard to all is essential,
But I know the inner reality of all.
In everyone there dwells the form of the Lord.
In some it is manifest, in some it is latent.
Words that come on my tongue cannot be held back.
Here, in this world, darkness prevails.
This world is a slippery courtyard.
Enter within and see who is there.
In vain do the foolish seek Him without.
Words that come on my tongue cannot be held back.
Here the world has been made manifest.
It has a strange secret of its own.
From a single Form a flash bursts forth,
Even as a spark ignites gunpowder.
Word that come on my tongue cannot be held back.
O Bulleh the Lord is not apart from us
Other than the lord none does exist
Alas! we do not have the seeing eye
That’s why life is a tale of suffering
Words that come on my tongue cannot be held back.
(Translation by J R Puri)
January 28th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Refernce “First Kafi”
Bulha, ki jaana maeN kaun-
——————————————————————————–
This is one of the most famous of Bulleh Shah’s kafis. In his quest for the nature of his self, it has a special place. Viziers are often asked, “As a man, where have I come from, and where am I going?†But, it has rarely been asked, “Who is this ‘i’ who comes and goes?â€
In answer the question “who am I ?†Bullah says that he does not belong to any particular group or class. He is neither a pious worshipper and a believer, nor is he a member of the group of profligates. He is not committed to the Vedas nor to any other holy book. He is neither fully awake, nor fully asleep. He is neither affected by joy, nor by sorrow. He is neither among the wicked, nor among the virtuous. All these are contingent facts, dependent on something; but his essence is necessary, independent of everything.
He goes on to say that he is neither made of water nor of earth, neither of fire nor of air. He belongs neither to one country nor to another, neither to this religion nor to that. In fact, in regard to religion, he does not believe in its institutional and organized form. All the material elements of which man is made are perishable, but his essence is everlasting.
At the end, we get a clue as to what he really is, and from what source he comes. His reality is neither his body nor his mind, but his soul. The individual, shorn of all covering, is left with only the soul as its essence. The soul is immortal, and is not subject to the laws of time and space. It is free from the constraints of birth and death, of growth and decay. It is a spark of the absolute, and will ultimately marge back into him. It is in this sense that Bulleh Shah claims that he is the beginning as well as the end, and that he recognizes none except the one Lord.(J R Puri)