|
Home
|
Meditation
|
Mystic Musings
|
Enlightenment
|
Shiva-Shakti
|
Tarot Reading
|
Bulleh Shah Swami Chaitanya Bharti lovingly addressed as Gurudev is asked by one of the Disciples to speak on Bulleh Shah. Gurudev Answers: It is a very-very sweet story. We can do seven camps talking about him and his songs alone! I love Bulleh Shah very much. He is the only one who is himself a Master but speaks as a seeker. He is a great help to any advanced seekers. And he is a very-very hearty person. He says things in such simple, down-to-earth language. He was already a great and well known scholar when he met his Murshid, His Guru. His Guru was a very simple, ordinary man. Bulleh Shah himself belonged to a high-caste family…like Brahmins in India. He was a Saiyed, from the lineage of Muhammad. His Murshid, his Master, Inayat Khan, was an ordinary man, a low-caste gardener. But he loved his Master tremendously. And once, for some reason, his Master kicked him out. The Master was hard on him and said, “I don’t want to see your face again- just leave.” So Bulleh Shah had to leave; but he kept on weeping day and night for his Master. There are many songs written by Bulleh Shah- and if you listen to those songs, you will also weep, you will also start crying. He was missing his Master like one misses his lover… if one is really in love. And he made every possible effort to please his Master, so that his Master would take him back. He started learning dance. He became a prostitute- a singing- dancing prostitute. In those days there were prostitutes who used to sing and dance to entertain their customers. At that time those kind of prostitutes were called “kanjarees.” A kanjaree means a singing and dancing prostitute. You could hire them for a marriage, or celebration, or any other occasion. And they would come and perform for three-four hours; they would sing and dance. Before meeting his Master, Bulleh Shah knew all scriptures; he was a great pandit, a great scholar- a learned one. He already knew a lot more than his master. But whatsoever he knew did not satisfy him. He was in search of real thing… and his Master had that real thing. Because he loved his Master so much, he could not bear not being in His presence, or the fact that his Master had kicked him out. Every day, he was trying in all sorts of ways to come back, to be accepted again by his Master. In this regard he knew that his Master loved music, that He was a great lover of music and dance, so he became a kanjaree. He went to the kanjarees, stayed with them day and night, started wearing woman’s clothes, and adopted their way of living. And he found out that each year, at some particular place, his Master used to attend a kind of festival. He used to go there and listen to these talented kanjarees. So Bulleh Shah reached there before his Master with a few musicians and started singing and dancing even before his Master arrived. When the Master was sitting and listening to the songs and watching the dance, He immediately sensed that he was Bulleh Shah, even though he had covered his face; he was wearing woman’s clothes and behaving like a kanjaree, like a prostitute. Bulleh Shah started singing songs in praise of his Master- crying and weeping…requesting through the song: “Oh, my beloved one, when will you turn your face towards me? When you will accept me back? On one hand you have closed your doors for me; on the other hand you go on pulling me towards you with the thread of love. Oh, my beloved, when will you turn your face towards me? These were the kind of songs he was singing… …tears start appearing in Gurudev’s eyes. See, even talking about him, I also start weeping…tears come in my eyes. You can also feel it, his deep and pure love- the love that everybody is seeking. So he was singing, dancing and dancing, for hours and hours. All the musicians got tired, they stopped playing, but Bulleh Shah was going on and on and on until he fell down. And at the end, the Master stood up and embraced him, and took him back…many participants of camp also start weeping… I love to talk on Bulleh Shah songs- they are so tremendous, so hearty-each song is full of tears, full of pure love for his Master… and full of wisdom at the same time. Bulleh Shah has no ego of any sort. Though he himself is a great Master, who has traveled the whole path, yet he talks like a friend… like a fellow-traveler and a seeker. You know, with most of the Masters, if you look back at their History, they are just Masters. You hardly know anything about their journey- how they became enlightened- But with Bulleh Shah it is not like that- Even now he can travel with you and you can travel with him- hand in hand. This kind of relationship, this kind of love, has become difficult now, but it still has a lot of meaning. Listening to his songs immediately brings you to the heart. Man has gone astray from his heart. He has to return to the heart. Until you come to the heart, you cannot be at rest. In the head, you cannot have any rest. Head is not a resting place, only the heart is a resting place. Only in the heart you can relax, you can celebrate, you can be. Head is a place for ‘becoming’- proving things to the world and to oneself. When you become “some one,” all the time you remain tense, because you are not what you have become. You can only relax when you leave aside all “becoming”… and just “be” what you are. From Swami Chaitanya Bharti's Book - " Nothing has ever Happened " |
|
|