If I say I saw a Sufi in Rabindranath Tagore, you may immediately
suspect my Bengali roots. I may plead that I truly did not like Rabindranath's
poetry growing up although I was immersed in poetry from an early age but that
would not help me much either, right? However, it is indeed true that
Rabindranath took many years to finally get a home in my mind. He had to work
towards it. The rebel in me rejected him because everyone around me liked him.
It took me many years to bring myself to read and then appreciate the genius.
However, my love for Rabindranath also flown through my love for Rumi, Bulla,
Waris Shah. The more I read Sufi poetry, the more I saw Rabindranath speaking
in the language of universal love. The language imbibed by Bulla Shah, Waris
Shah, Amir Khusro, Shah Inayat, Rumi. May be he read them too and got
influenced. Or may be all of them heard the same universal lover in their heart
of heart. And it is their heart that tells them what to do. Rabindranath
says,
আমি কান পেতে রই
I train my ears
ও আমার গোপন হৃদয় গহন দ্বারে,
I train my ears to the secret door of my
heart
বারে বারে, কান পেতে রই
Time and again!
He says, it is the
heart which brings the words of the beloved to the mortal world. It is exactly
where he can hear that universal lover speaking. And Bulla Shah agrees:
Murshid man-marziyaaN
My heart follows my Mursheed
Dil araj kare te mai amal
(Thus) I do whatever my heart asks me to
do.
Sufis find love much greater than reasoning. Nizamuddin, who is called
Mehboob-E-Ilahi asks you to love beyond all reasons. He places love above all
the other virtues. He was embodiment of love himself. No wonder his followers
yearned for his love. And said,
Ke taab-e-hijran nadaram
ay jaan,
I
do not want to endure this separation, O sweetheart!
Na leho kahe lagaye
chatiyan.
why do
you not take me to your bosom!
You can hear Rabindranath yearning for his beloved in the same way as these
Sufis:
কী করিলে বলো পাইব তোমারে, রাখিব আঁখিতে আঁখিতে–
Tell me
what do I do to keep you in my eyes forever
ওহে এত প্রেম আমি কোথা পাব, নাথ, তোমারে হৃদয়ে রাখিতে।
Where
do I find so much love that I keep you enticed forever in my heart, my lord!
তুমি আপনি না এলে কে পারে হৃদয়ে রাখিতে।
How can
one keep you there if you yourself do not agree to stay!
Both are asking the lover to come adorn
the heart of the beloved by himself. Both are saying it is beyond them to
"keep" the lover enticed. It is on him to stay close. I start
wondering was not Rabindranath channelling Amir Khusro in the above lines?
Because Khusro is requesting his beloved to come and sit in his eyes forever
too:
आ पिया इन नैनन में जो पलक ढांप तोहे लूँ
Come my
love into my eyes,
let me
cover you with my eyelids
न मैं देखूँ गैर को न तोहे देखन दूँ
Neither
I see anyone hereafter, nor you do!
The eyes and the heart,
the two seats of the beloved get mentioned again and again in both Sufi poetry
and Rabindranath's poems in Puja parv. The lack of peace is felt the most by
the eyes and the heart. I have had discussions with many on whether love can
sustain without the body ever featuring into the lover's mind. My reading says,
it is impossible. Being able to see the lover, the yearning for seeing him and
even touch him is as real as the desire to feel him in one's heart forever. The
fear of losing is forever awake in the heart of the lovers. "ভয় নিত্য জেগে থাকে" The
fear is forever awake. Forever alive. The lovers feel they indeed see the love
in their beloved's eyes in some moments of glory but then they always fear
losing him.
ক্ষণিক আলোকে আঁখির পলকে তোমায় যবে পাই দেখিতে
I get
to see light of your love flickering through at times
ওহে ‘হারাই হারাই’ সদা ভয় হয়, হারাইয়া ফেলি চকিতে।
But I
always fear losing you, and lose I do, in a moment!
Losing one's lover or getting separated from him is something intensely feared
by all the Sufis. Be it Bulla Shah or Waris Shah. The latter requested Heer's
folks to not to send her off with anyone else as her blood has already followed
Ranjha. Can blood that has left the body ever made to return to it, Waris Shah
asked. The following of one's lover is as definite as that. Khusro did not want
to live even a day without the beloved. He also beseeched his beloved
Nizamuddin:
Cheri
tihari hu har koyu jaane
The
whole world knows I am yours
Laaj
meri hai ke tihari, Nizam?
Who
should be ashamed (if I am spurned?)
You
or me?
This constant tussle
between pleading the lover to stay and beseeching him against leaving describes
the tussle of the human heart. The Sufis yearning for the lover is so much that
they want their eyes to live beyond the body to behold the lover in them, at
least once more. Baba Farid thus sings,
Kaga sab
tan khaiyo, mera chun chun khaiyo maas
O crow!
You can eat the whole of me, peck at all my flesh
Do naina
mat khaiyo mohe piya milan ki aas
Just
let go of my eyes, I still hope to see my beloved.
We hear the same cry in Vaishnav Padavali:
না পোড়াইয়ো দেহ মোর
Do not burn my body
না ভাসাইও জলে
Do not let it go
floating in the river
মরিলে বাঁধিয়া রেখো
When I die, keep it
tied
তমালের ডালে
to that dark branch of
the tree
The lover is ready to
stay close to whatever assumes the form of his beloved. They can not take
separation even in death. The Sufi in Rabindranath cries out to the beloved
asking never to forego him. Never to leave his side, ever. He pleads not to
leave him even when he is with everyone, deeply engaged in family and not to
leave him even when he looks completely fearless. The need for the beloved is
forever.
চিরসখা, ছেড়ো না মোরে, ছেড়ো না।
My
friend forever, do not ever forego me.
Never.
সংসারগহনে, নির্ভয়নির্ভর,
In
everyday affairs
Fearless-dependable
নির্জনসজনে সঙ্গে রহো ॥
When I
am lonely, as well as with others
Please
be with me.
Always.
However, they also rejoice losing themselves in the
process. If the Sufi loses his love, he is in pain, however if the sufi loses
himself in love what remains is pure ecstasy!
Khabar e
tahayyur e ishq sun, na junoon raha na pari rahi
Do
you know the update about the wonder of love?
Neither
the passion remained in the end, nor the fairy
na to tu
raha, na toh mai raha, jo rahi so bekhabri rahi
Neither
you remained there, nor me
What
remained was only oblivion.
That death, that oblivion, is to be rejoiced! The oblivion that comes from
losing oneself to the lover. "Mann tu shudam/ Tu mann
shudi" I have become you, and you have become me.
There is immense pride in becoming one. In holding the lover's self in one's
heart. Becoming a mirror. An aks. Khwaja Meer Dard said,
arz o
sama kahaN teri
wussat ko pa sake
The
sky and the earth together can not contain the expanse of you
mera hi
woh dil hai jahaN tu sama sake
It is
only my heart which can enfold the whole of you
The Sufi in Rabindranath sees the lover in death too. He says,
হয়তো ঘুচিবে দুঃখ নিশা
May be
the night of pain will end then
তৃপ্ত হবে এক প্রেমে জীবনের সর্বপ্রেমতৃষা
That
one love will quench the thirst for all the desires of life
Khusro on the other hand keeps the teasing of love alive even in that pain and
says
Bahaq-e-roz-e-visaal-e-dilbar,
In
honour of the day I meet my beloved
Ke daad
mara gharib Khusro
who has
lured me so long, O Khusro!
Sapet
man ke varaye rakhun,
I shall
keep my heart suppressed
Jo jaye
pauN piya ke khatiyan.
if ever
I get a chance to get to his trick.
Do the Sufis ever get to understand the trick of the lover's heart? Is there a
"visaal"? An ultimate union? Or does it remain a question till the
death? The Urs? The marriage of souls? The word, "হয়তো" /"may
be" looms large. Through these "insecurities of love" and
"fear of loss", "anxiety of separation", Khusro speaks to
Rumi, Rumi speaks to Bulla, Bulla speaks to Rabindranath, beyond the boundaries
of language. But then again, who cares much of about insecurities in love? Love
is love's reward after all! And all Sufis sing in unison when Shah Niyaz
says, Ishq me tere koh e gham sar pe liya jo ho so ho! I
have indeed invited the mountain of misery upon my head in your love! But so
what!
Yes! So what!
