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Sachal Sarmast
Another immortal poet of Sindh was Abdul Wahab (1739- 1829) well known as Sachal `Sarmast' [Shrine] --- the True Intoxicated One. He was born in Darazan, near Khairpur, and spent all his life there. Here was a great Persian-Arabic scholar, who wrote much in Persian and then became an intoxicated Sufi thinker-poet. He became vegetarian, living mostly on pulses and curds. He had no use for creeds and rituals. And he thirsted for Hindu-Muslim unity. At the beat of a drum and the pull of a string, he would stand up, his hair on end, and dance --- like Sri Ramakrishna. Poet Bedil, who saw him, later wrote, ``There was a unique spectacle of love in Darazan. Sachal was like Mansur; he was an incarnation of love (Ishq Jo Avtar Ho).''
Sachal had no use for empty rituals. ``The Kalma has not at all made me a Musalman; nor did Mohammed send any faith from Araby. I am the Truth --- though I am but a man for men.'' In another place he says: ``If I read the Kalma, I will become a kafir. I will not set foot on the path of Mohammed.'' Elsewhere he says: ` Why this Kaaba and Qibla? All these are excuses.'' He says: ``One should seek knowledge even in China.'' Of mullahs and qazis he says: ``I don't care for them. What do they know of divine love?'' Seeing God in everything and everybody, he says: ``If you look upon yourself as God, you are God; if you see yourself as a beggar, you are a beggar.''
Although the British conquest of Sindh was decades away, Sachal could see the havoc they would play. He wanted the Hindus and the Muslims to unite to prevent such a catastrophe. ``Time has come to overcome these divisions. Be quick to eschew all fruitless, graceless controversies. Let Hindus and Muslims commingle in love. Let it not be too late to save the situation. `` He adds: ``If action is not taken in time, these foreigners will leave behind heaps of corpses.'' What a prophetic view of 1947, more than one hundred years before!
Sachal is in love with Jogis who have had ``a true bath in Gan- ga-Jamuna. I would die a hundred times for this tribe of Jogis.'' He adds: ``I am neither a mulla nor a Brahmin; nor even a page of the Koran. Not-for me the scripture or the Gita. I am neither east nor west, neither earth nor sky. I am a Jogi.''
Some of Sachal's poetry is highly Sanskritized. He says: ``Guru and Govind are the same.'' He talks of making your mind into a ``mandir'' and installing the ``Devi'' in your heart. He says ``Sachu is a pujari of Porbandar.'' He writes: ``O Sadhu, the Lord is one beyond all doubt. He enjoys the scene anywhere and is king at all points. Sometimes he will read the Hindu scriptures, sometimes the Koran. He can be Jesus as well as Mohammed --- and even Hanuman. He can create a bewilderment for His own self, for His own Lila.'' That was Sachal --- Sachu, the True one. To this day he is sung in congregations wherever there is a sizable Sindhi population, Hindu or Muslim. Top
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