|| About Us || Contact Us || Kasur Map || Kasur District Map ||

Bulleh Shah Photo

    The Sufi cult is akin to mysticism. It is believed in some quarters that it was born out of interaction between Semitic Islam and Aryan Vedantism on the soil of India. This is not the whole truth. Sufism took birth in Arabia in the ninth century. However, the Aryan perceptions in Iran and then in India influenced it a great deal, more particularly in accentuating the emotional content as against the dry-as-dust self-denial of the Arabs. The Arabs laid stress on asceticism and disciplining of the body, while the later Sufis 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.

Literally speaking, a Sufi is one who is pure or one who goes about with a woollen
blanket. In Greek, he is a Sufi who is enlightened. 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 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 Muslim conquerors, more with a view to propagating Islam, There came to be established several centers
at Lahore, Pakpattan, Kasur, Multan and Uch in the Punjab, 'However, the most popular sects among them were those which combined in them the best of every faith
and promoted 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 a Sufi 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 must
eschew sin, repent, live a simple and contented life and should look for the grace of the Murshid or Guru. The Sufis maintain that the soul has been separated from the Divine Reality and the supreme mission of human life is to achieve union with God. Like the Iranian Sufis who sang the praises of Yusaf Zulaikha, laila Majnun and Shirin Farhad, the Sufis in the Punjab idealised the romances of Heer Ranjha, Sohni Mahiwal and Sassi Punnun. Preoccupied with the metaphysical, they restored the use of symbols drawn 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 language is simple and conversational, light and lyrical. There is no denying that they made an indelible impression °on the life and thought of the people 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). They were preceded by Farid in the 12th century and followed by Bulleh Shah (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 the Punjab were: Data Ganj Baksh, Sheikh Farid Shakarganj, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki, Moinuddin Chishti, Nizamuddin Auliya, Mian Meer and Sarmad.
Though he is said to have been born in 1680 A.D., not much is known about Bulleh Shah's personal life. The little that has been culled from the works attributed to him and the contemporary records testify that he was born in a village called Uch Gilania in Bahawalpur. Later his father Sain Mohammad Oarvesh moved first to a village known as Malakwal and then to Pandoke near Kausur, not far from Lahore. Bulleh Shah was only six years old at that time. Here he was put under the tutelage of Ghulam Murtza who was the Imam of one of the mosques in Kasur. There being no regular schools, the practice obtaining in the town was that the mosque served as anelementary school and the Imam of the mosque was entrusted with the task of teaching 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 greatly resented by his people who were Syeds, while
Bulleh Shah's Murshid was a low-caste Araeen, Syeds draw their lineage from Prophet Mohammad. There is evidence of this unpleasantness in Bulleh's verse. The ardent devotee in him says:

Those who call me Syed
Are destined to hell made for them.
Those who call me Araeen
Have the swings of heaven laid for them.

Nevertheless, according to A.N. Walker, Bulleh Shah's sister had to pay the price for it; she remained unmarried. In 1729 when Shah Inayat died, Bulleh Shah succeeded him as' the master of ceremonies in 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 led him on to the spiritual path. And it is when he started enjoying the beauty 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 record the story of his life. His poetry has traveled to us from mouth to mouth mainly through Qawwals. Similarly, his life has come to us in the form of anecdotes, some of which are reflected in his verse. Maybe it was due to the fact that the Punjab was greatly disturbed between 1710-1750. If there were any MSS, they must have been lost. It was only in 1882 that one Malik Hira collected his compositions and brought 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 his spiritual master, Inayat Shah was engaged in transplanting onion seedlings in his orchard. Finding that Bulleh Shah wished to be initiated into the fold of divine seekers, Inayat Shah remarked, 'It's not difficult; it is like uprooting here and planting it there. This clinched the issue. Bulleh Shah became a disciple of Inayat Shah. It is said that soon after Bulleh Shah annoyed his Master due to some indiscretion and he was thrown out of the Daira. Several months passed; Bulleh begged forgiveness, repented, had other devotees speak to Inayat Shah who would not relent. Suffering the pangs of separation, Bulleh sang soulful Kafis:

Leaving my parents, I am tied to you
Oh Shah Inayat! My beloved Guru
Whatever happens is ordained by him.
His mandate none dare alter.
My pangs of agony cry aloud
Someone should go and tell my Master
For 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's Daira singing and dancing:

Your love has made me dance allover.
Falling in love with you
Was 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 Shah used to roam about in the streets of Lahore in a deranged state of mind. In the prime of his youth, with curly tresses flowing on his shoulders, he was the cynosure of many an eye. It is said, once passing through a street he saw a middle aged woman doing the hairdo of a newly-wedded bride. Bulleh Shah liked the hairdo and the next time he happened to pass that way, he asked the lady to do a similar 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 gave a 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 they found it was no other than Bulleh Shah asking the lady to undo his hairdo! 'My husband wouldn't allow it, he beats me,' said Bulleh and put 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 have advised him to go from village to village in the Punjab singing and dancing and thus defy the imperial injunction which Bulleh did with impunity. Bulleh Shah's times were out-of-joint. The Punjab was particularly disturbed. Before he died in 1707, Aurangzeb was preoccupied in the South, leaving the North to be administered by Governors who had to contend with Marathas and the Khalsa emerging as a formidable force under Guru Gobind Singh. Then there were incursions from the northwest -whether by Nadir Shah or Ahmed Shah Abdali. There were also fundamentalists like Sheikh Ahmed Sarhandi who infused much communal hatred and disharmony inconsistent with the Sufi way of life and ideology which laid emphasis on the unity of God, amity and communal cohesiveness. They had little use for formal religion whether it was Islam or Hinduism. They sneered at meaningless rituals and ceremonials and propagated liberation of man from the stranglehold of blind faith. When Guru Gobind Singh, a great revolutionary of his time, created the Khalsa by baptising the Sikhs of Guru Nanak with Amrit at Anandpur Sahib in 1699, Bulleh Shah had just come of age. He was 19 years old. Guru Gobind Singh, a mystic in his own' right, launched a relentless fight against the time-worn rituals and ceremonials of the Hindu Rajas entrenched in the Himalayan belt on the one hand and the bigotedness and unjust rule of the Mughals on the other. With the death of Aurangzeb in 1707 A.D. the Punjab was plunged into turmoil. The confusion was worst confounded with the attacks of Nadir Shah and Ahmed Shah Abdali, more particularly between 1740 and 1750 A.D. Thus until his death in 1757 Bulleh Shah had to witness disintegration allover the Punjab. He bemoans it again 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 his contemporary mystics
the most, was the widening gulf between the Hindus and the Muslims of the day. The
root cause of the misunderstanding was Sheikh Ahmed of Sarhand who believed: "The glory of Islam wlies in ridiculing the non-Muslims. Those who give quarter to Kafirs disgrace Islam... The non-Muslims should be kept at a distance like dogs. They must not be given any consideration or humane treatment. Violence and inhuman behaviour with them are like saying one's prayers. Inflicting Jazia on them is to humiliate them. This leads them not to wear respectable clothes, do themselves up or make any purchases of luxury goods." Maktoobat-i-lmam Rabbani The reference to those 'with coarse blankets' in Bulleh Shah's verse is to the Sikhs. They being an upcoming community were a thorn in the flesh of the Muslim fundamentalists like Aurangzeb who would not tolerate even the Shia Muslims. He had his, own brother Dara Shikoh who was a Shia murdered mercilessly. The same fate was meted out to Sarmad who was a noted mystic of his time. In his singleminded pursuit of Islamization, Aurangzeb had Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Sikh Guru, executed publicly in Delhi. Aurangzeb was followed by Bahadur Shah who tried to make friends with the Sikhs. cultivated Guru Gobind Singh as his ally, but essentially 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) and Ahmed Shah (1748-1754). They were all staunch Sunnis. The Governors appointed to take charge of the Punjab affairs by them were 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 Murad Begum (1753-1754). The Hindus who did not play their tune and the Sikhs in general were persecuted as never before in the annals of Indian history. In 1732 A.D. Haqiqat Rai, a young boy, was executed because it was believed that he had abused Bibi Fatima when provoked by his Muslim class-fellow with a swearword for a Hindu goddess. Farrukh Sayyar's regime saw Banda Bahadur subjected to inhuman tortur before he was beheaded in Delhi. During this period every Sikh head, alive or dead, had a price fixed on it. Similarly, Zakariya Khan had Bhai Mani Singh done to death by slicing his limbs, one after the other. In 1745 Bhai Taru Singh's skull was dismantled and he was put to death. Then during the tenure of Abdul Samad and his son Yahiya Khan an attempt was made to wipe out the Sikhs as a community altogether. They were either put to the sword or driven to the bushes in the countryside. It is said that, in what has come to be known as Chhota Ghalughara, about 7,000 Sikhs were rounded up in Kahnuwan forest and killed,. while 3,000 were captured. Those captured were later slain in Lahore and their heads arranged to form a pyramid. Another genocide of the Sikhs took place on 5th February, 1762, when Ahmed Shah Durrani massacred 22,000 Sikhs in a village called Koop Heera. This came to be known as Wada Ghalooghara. 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 this period was the repeated incursions of Nadir Shah, starting in 1739 and those of Ahmed Shah Abdali, whose first attack took place in 1747. These were both a challenge and an opportunity for the Sikhs. Hounded out of their hearths and homes, they lived virtually on horseback. Organizing themselves into guerrilla squads, they would attack the retreating Afghan forces w1th loot and relieved them of their booty and rescued thousands of Hindu girls accompanying them as slaves. In due course of time, they evolved themselves into Misals who wielded considerable influence in the Punjab. And from them emerged a hero known as Maharaja Ranjit Singh who was the first Punjabi to rule over the Punjab in the annals of Indian history. Such were the times when Bulleh Shah emerged as a protagonist of communal amity in the Punjab. Living in Kasur with his Murshid in Lahore, he could not but be embroiled in the political changes taking place around him despite the fact that the Sufis tried as far as possible to steer clear of the contemporary happenings. Bulleh Shah's was a major voice against injustice. He called Guru Tegh Bahadur, the Ninth Sikh Guru, who was beheaded by Aurangzeb, a Ghazi. He hailed Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru, 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.

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.
Only they shout loud while calling others to prayer
Whose hearts are not pure .
Those who go to Mecca on pilgrimage
Have little else to occupy them here.

It needed a great deal of courage for a Muslim to say all this during the times Bulleh Shah lived in. The record of the persecution of the Sufis in India is fairly alarming despite the fact that their contribution to Islam and to Indian society for 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 miraculous escape. It is said that Mohammad Bin Tughlaq had Sheikh Shahabuddin Bin Ahmad murdered with his mouth filled with dung. A similar fate was meted out to Nasiruddin Chiragh Oehlvi who was tortured with holes bored in his cheeks. Firoz Shah had Ahmed Bihari 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 light
Leading to the maze of superstition.

Wicked are the ways of the world
Like laying nets for innocent birds
With religious and social taboos
They have tied my feet tight.
Be that as it may, Bulleh Shan maintained:
Shariat is my midwife, Tariqat. is my mother
This is how I have arrived at the truth of Haqiqat.
Despite this, when he was denounced as a heretic, Bulleh Shah shouted back:
A lover of God?
They'll make much fuss;
They'll call you a Kafir
You should say -yes, yes.
He does not differentiate between the Hindu and the Muslim. He sees God in both of
them. When he decides to ridicule them, he does not spare either:
Lumpens live in the Hindu temples
And sharks in the Sikh shrines.
Musclemen live in the Muslim mosques
And lovers live in their clime.

Sick of the sophistications of the academicians, he would rather be happy in the
company of the uneducated. He preferred simple folk with faith to the so called The Sufis of the Punjab were close to the saints of the Bhakti Movement. Both
denounced fundamentalism. While the Sufis laid emphasis on love, the saints
emphasized devotion. Some of the spiritual stages of the Sufis have parallels in the
saints of the Bhakti Movement :
'Aboodiat' of the Sufis is the 'Seva Bhav' of the saints, meaning selfless 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 the Divine.
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 by
exercising discipline and self-denial.
(b) Discarding rituals and ceremonials of any
faith, of any type.
(c) Disregard for Shariat as such.
(d) Man can gain realization of the Divine Reality
through the intervention of his Murshid or
Guru.
Bulleh Shah has delineated his spiritual journey of a Sufi through various stages as He started his spiritual journey as a conformist. Most of the seekers do so.
Shariat is the preliminary stage when the Salik conforms to the Sharia or the code of
conduct as dictated by Islam. It is saying prayers five times a day, observing fasts
during the month of Ramzan. besides faith in the supremacy of God and Prophet
Mohammad as His Messenger. It is said that Bulleh' Shah knew the text of the HOLY
QURAN by heart. The way he quotes the Islamic scriptures in his verse speaks
volumes for it. Says Bulleh Shah:
Understand the One and forget the rest,
Shake off your ways of a non-believer
Leading to the grave and to hell, in quest.
Tariqat: If Bulleh Shah's verse is any guide, he did not take long to leave Shariat as a
spiritual path behind, At best. he employed it as a stepping-stone. He moved on to
Tariqat. which is an important landmark in a Salik's career. The cardinal feature of
this stage is the assistance provided by the~ Murshid or Guru. In fact, what Sharia
does in the life of a common devotee, Tarriqat does in the case of a Sufi. The literal
meaning of Tariqat is manner or observance. Tariqat according to Bulleh Shah is the
Purslat of Baba Farid, the bridge which helps the seeker pass the arduous path of
hard spiritual exercises with the help of the Murshid. The Guru or Murshid is like the
philosopher's stone which converts metal into gold. Good deeds are the dowry that
the bride collects at this stage and then qualifies for union with the lord. In the first
instance, Bulleh Shah discards the 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 to hold h1s hand
and cruise him to his destination. Bulleh's love for his Guru is like that of Heer for
Ranjha or Sohni for Mahiwal. It is physical love sublimated into spiritual love:
Why must I go to Kaaba
When I long for Takht Hazara?
People pay their homage to Kaaba
I bow before my Ranjha.
Haqiqat: The third stage of his spiritual journey to which Bulleh Shah refers time and
again in his verse is Haqiqat or the realization of truth. The devotee understands and
accepts the existence of God. God is truth. God exists in everything around us. This
concept has been described in the Sufi idiom as Hamaost. When the Salik comes to
realize it. he no longer discriminates between the Hindu and the Muslim. the temple
and the mosque. He hears the call of the Muezzin in 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 is the merging into
Divine Reality called Fana and thus attaining the life eternal known in the Sufi idiom
as Baqa. The Murshid helps the seeker arrive at this stage but it is the grace which
makes possible the ultimate union. The moment this happens, caste and creed cease
to have any meaning. The Atma (Soul) and Paramatma (God) become one. When
Bulleh attained this stage, the entire world appeared to him 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 least to start with.
When he breaks this code, he hardly ever goes beyond the limits laid down by his
tribe earlier. However later in due course, he is influenced by the Saint tradition
prevalent in the Punjab during his times. Like a practicing Yogi, he advocates Habs-idam
or 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 evolution reminds one of
the importance of the Guru in the Sikh faith as obtaining 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 Shah styles 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. He finds faults in
himself. He has faith in his Master's mercy. It is the grace of God
which 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, unlike his
contemporaries, Bulleh Shah does not prescribe Zuhd and torturing the body to
submission. on the other hand, like the Saints of the Bhakti Movement, he believes in
love and devotion. At the most, 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 park
And 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 been influenced by what is
known as the Bhagwat tradition. He is enamored of Krishna's flute. The flute notes
seem to have a peculiar pull for him :
Bulleh Shah was captivated

     An interesting incident of this period in the life of Bulleh Shah presents a graphic picture of his ecstasy, generosity and fearlessness of public opinion. It is said that as a result of disgust from people's attitude, Bulleh Shah purchased a few donkeys so that people should ridicule him. They started calling him "The man with donkeys." During those days, a poor man's wife was abducted by a Muslim Chieftain. In despair, the husband went to Bulleh Shah, and asked for his help in recovering his beloved wife. After a few moments spent in thought, Bulleh Shah told the man, "Go and see, my friend, if there is any music or dance going on somewhere near about." The man soon came back and reported that a group of eunuchs was dancing in the village nearby, accompanied by a band of musicians. "That is good, " said Bulleh Shah. "Come now and sit on one of my donkeys, and we shall both go to watch the dance. " As soon as the saint arrived at the dance, he joined the group and also started dancing. He got into an ecstasy and asked the man, "Where does the Muslim Chieftain live ?" The man told him that he lived in a certain part of the city near the orchard of dates and the grove of mangoes. Then Bulleh Shah called out with directed attention :

There is a mango grove, it is said,
and an orchard of dates.
The owner of donkeys calls you,

Wake up, if you are asleep.
Sorrel is thus hulled in the mortar,
Sorrel is thus hulled, my friend!

     The moment he uttered these words, the abducted woman ran out from the nearby garden and came to Bulleh Shah. Bulleh Shah stopped dancing and called to the husband, "Here is your beloved wife, brother! Take her home and guard her well." Then once more wrapped in ecstasy, he continued to dance to the bewitching music. The gossips lost no time in going to Bulleh Shah's father, an orthodox Muslim, and told him all that had happened. Not only was his son now hiring out donkeys, but he had also started to dance with the eunuchs. Greatly distressed and enraged, the saint's father, with a rosary in one hand and a staff in the other, hastened to the place where his son was dancing. " Ah! it is you, father" said Bulleh Shah as he heard his name called. He looked at his father intently and began to sing :

People have only chaplets but my father has a rosary.
The whole of his life he has toiled hard,
But has not been able to uproot a single hair.
Sorrel is thus hulled in the mortar .
Sorrel is thus hulled, my friend !

As the son, filled with spiritual ardor, gazed at his father, the inner eye of the father was opened and he had a divine vision. With a serene and radiant smile on his face, .he joined his son in the ecstatic dancing and singing, and as he danced, he sang over and over again :

Blessed are the parents whose sons
are dyed in such divine color !
They bring salvation even to their parents.
Sorrel is thus hulled in the mortar.
Sorrel is thus hulled, my friend !

     The beginning of love is fascinating, but its path is difficult and its destination far. Even a small error or omission on the part of the lover can become a cause of great annoyance for the beloved. 'That creates a mountain of calamities for the lover. Such a thing happened to Bulleh Shah, when his Master got annoyed with him for an omission on his part. Some writers have attributed the reason for his Master's annoyance to Bulleh Shah's open criticism of rituals and customs practiced by Muslims, and this was not to the liking of Inayat Shah. This reason, however , does not appear plausible, because criticism of external observance .is common to all Sufi saints, and it was not unknown in the Qadiri tradition. They were certainly not the worshippers of this system. The second reason given for the annoyance is quite different in nature. It is said that once Bulleh Shah invited his Master on the marriage of one of his relatives,
The Saint deputed one of his disciples to represent him at the function. This disciple belonged to the Arain caste and was poorly clad. Now, Bulleh Shah's family was proud of belonging to the clan of Sayyiads. They did not give proper attention in receiving this poorly clad man. Even Bullah happened to make this omission. At least he should have shown proper respect to the representative of his Master, But under the pressure of his family or the fear of public opinion, he did not give the guest due honor. When the disciple returned from the marriage, the Saint asked him how the marriage was celebrated. He told his Master the whole story , and complained that because of his low caste and tattered clothes, neither Bulleh Shah nor his family showed him due respect. The Saint replied, "How dare Bullah behave like this ?" And then added, "What have we to get from this useless man ? We shall change the direction of the flow of water from his fields to yours !" He had only to utter these words to bring a calamity in Bullah's life. As soon as the Master changed the direction of his grace, his spring turned into autumn. His inner visions vanished, leaving him dry and barren. Light changed into darkness and bliss into mourning. It was a stunning blow to Bullah. One who has never experienced inner bliss and who has never had a glimpse of the divine glory of his Master within, his case is quite different. But the one who has enjoyed the wealth of inner experience and who is suddenly deprived of this treasure, he alone knows the pangs of such a torture. In fact, the lord of spiritual wealth is the perfect Master, and there is nothing in the hands of the disciple. Apparently, the disciple is himself seeking the Master, and with his own effort treads the path and progresses on it, as shown by the Master. But, in reality the disciple cannot search for the Master with his mind and meager intellect, nor can he find the true path with his own power and cleverness. N or can he rise to spiritual realms with his own endeavor. Finding the true path and achieving spiritual progress are all gifts of the Master's grace. Bulleh Shah has himself written, "The Guru does whatever he wills." But to realize this he had to suffer the annoyance of his Master and cross the frightening ocean of the fire of separation. As soon as his spiritual experiences were stopped, Bullah hastened to his Master, but the Master turned his back on him and asked him to leave the place. For one thing, the annoyance of his Master '. for another the command not to see him! What greater torture could there be for a disciple ? Bullah was miserable. He began to burn in the fire of repentance, and his condition was like that of a fish out of water . In the compositions of Bullah, many references can be found of this heart-rending state of his mind. In many of his kafis there is a touch of his personal life. No one can say with certainty when these kafis were written. But the descriptions in these poems bespeak of such a mental state. The pain of separation erupts in them like turbulent waves. "In poignancy of emotion, sincerity of feeling, ardor and longing, these kafis are matchless. " From the kafi given below it is evident; that the memory of the bliss of union with the beloved and the pain of separation from him are continuing to burn Bullah to shes like a house on fire. He cannot give up love, but in the separation of his beloved, he can find peace neither by day nor by night. He is not blessed with the sight of his beloved, but without seeing him, fire rages within his breast, and his heart is breaking. It is hard to bear such a state of mind, but it is also impossible to relinquish love. So he hangs between life and death :

I have been pierced by the arrow of love,
what shall I do ?
I can neither live, nor can I die.
Listen ye to my ceaseless outpourings,
I have peace neither by night, nor by day.
I cannot do without my Beloved even for a moment.
I have been pierced by the arrow of love,
what shall I do ?
The fire of separation is unceasing !

Let someone take care of my love.
How can I be saved without seeing him?
I have been pierced by the arrow of love,
what shall I do ?
O Bullah, I am in dire trouble !
Let someone come to help me out.
How shall I endure such torture ?
I have been pierced by the arrow of love,
what shall I do ?
I can neither live, nor can I die.
In another kafi he describes his pain thus :
He left me, and himself he departed;
What fault was there in me ?
Neither at night nor in the day do I sleep in peace;
My eyes pour out tears !
Sharper than swords and spears are the arrows of love !

There is no one as cruel as love ;
This malady no physician can cure.
There is no peace, not for a moment,
So intense is the pain of separation !
O Bullah, if the Lord were to shower
His grace, My days would radically change !
He left me, and himself he departed.
What fault was there in me ?

     As the period of separation became longer, Bullah's condition became worse. On the one hand~ there was the pain of separation, on the other, the ridicule of people. He prostrates before the memory of his Master, and repeatedly entreats him to show his face to him at the earliest.

Why do you tarry , my Beloved ?
O Bullah, now narrate your love story.
He alone knows who has experienced love.
There are rebukes within, taunts without
Such is the comfort I have found in love !
My eyes have taken to the habit of weeping.
For one, it is death, for another, reproach from the world.

The pain of separation has tightly squeezed my life.
O Love, I have cried out my heart in anguish !

     Bullah was full of repentance over his blunder. He was keenly desirous to be forgiven by his Master. In his mind he pleads to his Master to heal his wound of separation, and to apply. balm to his heart by showing his face to him.

I suffer from the pain of my mad love.
Come, dear Ranjha, cast a glance at me,
and forgive me my faults.
From the throne of Hazara set out Ranjha,
the Master of artless Heer.
The bridegroom visits the homes of all others;
What is the flaw that vitiates Bullah?

     Bullah does not only describe the state of his suffering, but also hurls complaints at his Master. On the one hand, he regrets his own lack of wisdom, on the other, he reproaches his Master, who, after piercing his heart with the arrow of love, has hidden himself and has never inquired after him.

Inflicting a wound you hid your face;
Who has taught you such thefts, my Love?
With your fancy you captivated my heart,
But then you never showed your face.

This cup of poison I have drunk myself ;

Indeed I was unripe in wisdom!

     He calls his Master "the beloved Thug of Lahore" and complains that he has robbed him with his love, and made him useless for the world.

Never be taken in by its guiles ;
It gives not peace in forest or city.
When the traveler left after casting a glance,
Suddenly a noose was hung round my neck.
He then showed no concern for me.
Oh, I have met the "beloved Thug of Lahore" !

     To be incessantly weeping in separation of his Master had become the usual routine for Bullah. This separation of his had assumed the proportions of madness, and he started roaming in streets and lanes. The intense longing to see his Master produced a kind of fire within him, to extinguish which he began to think out some plans. "I He knew that his Master was a lover of music. It is said that Bulleh put on the garb of a woman, got hold of a sarangi and went to the house of a dancing girl. He learnt dancing from her and became an adept in it. He then took along with him a drummer and a harmonium player and went to the tomb of a holy man in whose memory an annual function was being celebrated. Shah Inayat had also come to attend it. While all other dancers and singers got tired and sat down, Bullah, in ecstasy, continued to dance. His voice was extremely doleful and heartrending. It is .said that Bullah sang many kafis on the occasion. At last even Inayat Shah's heart melted. With a voice full of compassion he said, " Are you Bullah ?" Bullah ran and fell at his Master's feet and replied with his eyes full of tears, "Sir, I am not Bullah put Bhulla. " I The Master is never indifferent to his disciple. When he realized that the fire of repentance and separation had purified Bullah and turned him into pure gold, he forgave him his lapse and pressed him to his heart. The reason why the Master put Bulleh Shah to such a hard test -the torture of burning in the fire of separation and longing ~ was to make him fit to receive the invaluable wealth of the Word of God. With this spiritual treasure he was not only to become rich himself, but also to make other seekers the recipients of this wealth. When the fountain of the Master's grace started flowing once again, the arid fields of Bullah began to revive, and the fragrance of the flowers of bliss spread all around. According to the author of Qanun-i-Ishq, the Master pressed Bullah to his heart, took him along with him, and intoxicated him with the wine of union. Bullah's soul got dyed in the hue of his Master's soul, so that no distinction remained between the two. One of Bulleh Shah's kafis gives a graphic description of his state of merging in the Master (Fana-fil-Sheikh) :

Repeating the name of Ranjha
I have become Ranjha myself.
O call me ye all "Dhido-Ranjha,"
let no one call me Heer .
Ranjha is in me, I am in Ranjha,
no other thought exists in my mind.
I am not, He alone is.
He alone is amusing himself.

  The Master is one with the Lord. So, merging in the Master is transformed into merging in the Lord. This state is expressed by Bullah in the following lines of two kais

1. You alone exist, I do not, O Beloved!
2. Repeating the name of the Beloved
I have become the Beloved myself.
Whom shall I call the Beloved now?

    The same thought is conveyed by Jesus Christ in the Bible thus : "At that day ye. shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." Arriving at this stage, the illusion of duality disappears, and the glory of the Beloved is seen to pervade everywhere. Bulleh Shah declares that love for the Lord has so radically changed him that his individual self or ego has been totally eliminated. He has now realized his true Self hidden behind the veil of the physical body. His identification with the Supreme Being has opened for him the floodgates of divine light. In this light no one has remained a stranger. All have become His own.

I have got lost in the city of love,
I am being cleansed, withdrawing myself
from my head, hands and feet.
I have got rid of my ego,
and have attained my goal. Thus it has all ended well.
O Bullah, the Lord pervades both the worlds;
None now appears a stranger to me.

     In the transcendence of the finite to the Infinite; all disputes of religion, of good and evil, disappear. To Bullah now all began to appear as virtuous; none seemed to him as evil or a stranger.

Remove duality and do away with all disputes;
The Hindus and Muslims are not other than He.
Deem everyone virtuous, there are no thieves.
For, within every body He himself resides.
How the Trickster has put on a mask!

     Saturated with the love of God, Bullah became the personification of compassion and forgiveness. He began to see the divine in every being, and distinctions of caste and religion, friend and foe, ceased to have any meaning for him. The following incident of his life illustrates this sublime state of his mind in a beautiful way: It is said I that "once Bulleh Shah was engaged in meditation inside his chamber. It was the month of Ramzan. Some of his disciples were sitting outside eating carrots. After some time a group of orthodox Muslims who were keeping the fast happened to pass them. When they saw the disciples sitting at a faqir's abode and violating the fast, they were enraged. " They shouted in an angry voice, " Are you not ashamed of eating in the month of Ramzan, and that also at the abode of a faqir?" The disciples replied, "Brother believers, take your path. We are feeling hungry. That is why we are eating. " The group of believers felt suspicious about their faith. So they asked, "Who are you?" They replied, "We are Muslims. Don't the Muslims feel hungry?". The believers again commanded them to stop eating, but the disciples did not heed. The believers who were on horses, alighted. They snatched the carrots from the hands of the disciples, and threw them away. They also gave a few blows to them. As they were about to leave, it struck them that the pir of these impious people must have been cast in the same mould. So they turned back to ask him what kind of instruction he had given to his disciples. They went to his chamber and said, "Who are you?" Bullah who was meditating with his eyes closed, raised his arms and moved his hands. They asked him again, "Why don't you speak? Who are you?" Bullah once again raised his arms. The riders taking him to be a mad man, went away. Soon after they left, the disciples entered the chamber, raising a hue and cry that they had been beaten. Bullah told them that they must have done something to provoke the believers. The disciples denied to have done any such thing. Bullah said, "What did they ask you?" The disciples replied, "They asked us who we were, and we said we were Muslims." Bullah retorted, "That's why you were beaten. You became something and you suffered. I didn't become anything, and they said nothing to me." To consider oneself something emanates from the sense of .ego. Such a person is still under the sway of maya, and has not had a vision of Truth so far. One who has had such a vision comes to know his true Self and gets liberated from the bondage of caste, religion and country. There are numerous instances in the poems of Bulleh Shah, which show that the soul, like the Lord, has no religion, no caste, no country. All these distinctions are born out of time and space, but the soul is unborn and timeless. It has neither a beginning, nor an end, nor is it bound by the limitations of caste and religion. Bullah recognizes only the primeval relationship of soul with God :Having realized the Truth within, Bulleh Shah became the embodiment of Truth himself. He spent the rest of his life in disseminating the message of this Reality. Till the end of his sojourn in this transient world he was engaged in meditation of the Lord, and guided all those who came in contact with him, on the same path. His magnetic personality, his pure living and his divine writings spread his fame far and wide. Many a seeker after Truth was attracted by his charm and derived much spiritual gain under his guidance. The last years of his life he passed in Kasur, and here he died in 1758-1759. His t6mb can be seen in Kasur even today. It is mentioned in Bang-i-Auli-va-i-Hind : Bulleh Shah was an evolved soul, a perfect faqir and a true lover. Through the love for his Master he realized the Lord. In his love one finds poignancy, ardor and longing besides sincerity, sacrifice and renunciation. Under the canopy of love he made his offerings of caste and learning. His love for his Master never wavered for a moment despite the fire of separation and longing through which he passed. His writings, as also his life, manifest transcendence of physical love ( of the Master) to divine love ( of the Lord). Indeed, this is. the path of all true mystics, all true lovers of God. Whosoever has attained union with the Lord has done so by traveling on this path, and whosoever will attain this union, will do so by becoming a traveler on this path of love. Bulleh Shah's life and writings are replete with subtle secrets of the path. They do riot only strengthen the love of a true lover, but also encourage him to undergo the severest hardships for reaching the spiritual goal. The life and compositions of Bulleh Shah will serve as a lighthouse for times immemorial to true seekers of spiritual realization.

E-Mail:- [email protected]    E-Mail:- [email protected]

Mr.Shahid Rafique

Copyright © 2002-2007 Kasur Net Work.com All Rights are Reserved