Bulleh Shah

Bulleh Shah

A large amount of what is known about Bulleh Shah comes through legends, and is subjective; to the point that there isn’t even agreement among historians concerning his precise date and place of birth. Some "facts" about his life have been pieced together from his own writings. Other "facts" seem to have been passed down through oral traditions.

Bulleh Shah lived in the same period as the famous Sindhi Sufi poet, Shah Abdul Latif Bhatai (1689 – 1752). His lifespan also overlapped with the legendary Punjabi poet Waris Shah, of Heer Ranjha fame, and the famous Sindhi Sufi poet Abdul Wahad, better known by his pen-name, Sachal Sarmast (“truth seeking leader of the intoxicated ones”).

The verse form Bulleh Shah primarily employed is called the Kafi (Refrain), a traditional style of Punjabi poetry used by Punjabi Sufis and Sikh gurus (such as Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh). In Bulleh's time, Sufi poets often did not adopt the classical languages of Persian and Urdu, instead choosing to write their verses in Punjabi, Saraiki, and Sindhi – languages of the common folk amongst whom they lived.

What is most striking about Bulleh Shah’s poetry and philosophy is his audacious, almost egotistical critique of the religious orthodoxy of his day, particularly the Islamic religious orthodoxy. His poetry is filled with direct attacks on those who claim control over religion, to the point of comparing mullahs to barking dogs and crowing roosters.

Bulleh Shah

Who I am

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 nor Pharaoh.
I know not who I am.

I am neither among sinners nor among saints,
Neither happy nor unhappy,
I belong neither to water nor to earth.
I am neither fire nor air,
I know not who I am.

Neither do I know the secret of religion,
Nor am I born of Adam and Eve.
I have given myself no name,
I belong neither to those who squat and pray,
Nor to those who have gone astray.
I know not who I am.

I was in the beginning; I'd be there in the end.
I know not any one other than the One.
Who could be wiser than Bulleh Shah
Whose Master is ever there to tend?
I know not who I am.

Spiritual purification

Sufis typically spend their lives trying to penetrate the meaning of life while searching for God. Those among them who were poets articulated this exploration through their poetry. ‘Who is the Creator?’ ‘What is the truth?’ ‘What is the meaning of life?’ ‘How can one find God?’ ‘Who am I?’ These are some of the questions Sufis have tried to answer, by dissociating themselves from worldly activity, and moving onto a saintly field where they are no longer bound by conventionally interpreted holy or material boundaries.

Bulleh Shah studied Arabic, Persian and the Quran under his traditional teachers. After that, in an attempt to move to the next level (of mystic realization), he searched for a spiritual guide. Ultimately he found his murshid, in the form of Inayat Shah Qadri. Inayat Shah Qadri  was a Sufi of the Qadri order, who authored many Persian books on mysticism. Much of Bulleh Shah’s verses about love are addressed directly to his spiritual guide, Shah Inayat.

Come my Love, take care of me

Come my Love, take care of me,
I am in great agony.
Ever separated, my dreams are dreary,
Looking for you, my eyes are weary.
All alone I am robbed in a desert,
Waylaid by a bunch of way wards.

The Mulla and Qazi show me the way,
Their maze of dharma that is in sway.
They are the confirmed thieves of time.
They spread their net of saintly crime.

Their time-worn norms are seldom right,
With these they chain my feet so tight!
My love cares not for caste or creed.
To the ritual faith I pay no head.

My Master lives on yonder bank
While I am caught in the gale of greed.
With his boat at anchor, He stands in wait,
I must hasten I can't be late.

Bulleh Shah must find his love,
He needn't have the least fright.
His Love is around, yet he looks for him
Misled in the broad daylight.

Come my love take care of me,
I am in great agony.

Religion

Despite being very critical of religion, Bulleh Shah does not denounce religion as a whole. Nor does he appear to be pushing any other structure of thought to supplant religious notions. His ideas, therefore, cannot be placed into the category of secularism or atheism. In reality, Bulleh Shah seems somewhat critical of all persons in authority - including intellectuals, academicians and jurists - who create obstacles and needless complexities for common people in discovering love, and through love, discovering God. Bulleh Shah preaches a uncomplicated conception of humanity, as the common connection through which persons of all faiths, creeds and opinions can attain a superior and more pure existence, eventually coming closer to God.

Humanist

Bulleh Shah’s writings represent him as a humanist, someone providing solutions to the sociological problems of the world around him as he lives through it, describing the turbulence his motherland of Punjab is passing through, while concurrently searching for God. His poetry highlights his mystical spiritual voyage through the four stages of Sufism: Shariat (Path), Tariqat (Observance), Haqiqat (Truth) and Marfat (Union). The simplicity with which Bulleh Shah has been able to address the complex fundamental issues of life and humanity is a large part of his appeal.

Bulleh Shah’s popularity stretches uniformly across Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims, to the point that much of the written material about this Muslim thinker is from Hindu and Sikh authors.

(Bulleh Shah's verses have also been adapted and used in Bollywood film songs. Examples include the songs Chhayya Chhayya and Thayya Thayya in the movie Dil Se.)

Strange are the times!

Crows swoop on hawks
Sparrows do eagles stalk
Strange are the times!

The Iraqis are despised
While the donkeys are prized
Strange are the times!

Those with coarse blankets are kings;
The erstwhile kings watch them from the ring.
Strange are the times!

Its not without reason or rhyme,
Strange are the times

Says Bulleh, kill your ego
And throw away your pride.
You need to forget yourself
To find Him by your side.

It's all in One contained

Bulleh Shah, a renowned Muslim spiritual leader of the sub continent of Indo-Pakistan, was a Punjabi Sufi poet. His spiritual master was Shah Inayat Qadiri of Lahore and because of this Bulleh was referred to as a saint or spiritual leader. Bulleh's real name was Abdullah Shah, but he was known as Bulleh to his family and that was the name he chose to use as a poet.

Bulleh came from a religious family and his father was a highly religious person. Bulleh wrote primarily in Punjabi, but also in the locally spoken language, Siraiki, which is often considered a dialect of Punjab.

The verse form Bulleh Shah primarily employed is called the Kafi, a style of Punjabi, Sindhi and Siraiki poetry used not only by the Sufis of Sindh and Punjab, but also by Sikh gurus. He held a spiritual position in the eyes of his followers, who were from all over the world, but he was a very secular man who was against the division of human beings for religious reasons. Bulleh Shah's poetry and philosophy strongly criticizes the Islamic religious orthodoxy of his days. His poetry is filled with direct attacks, to the point of comparing Mullahs, the religious leaders, to barking dogs and crowing roosters.
Bulleh Shah is considered to be one of the greatest mystic poets of the Punjabi region. However, the mullahs refused to allow him to be buried in the community graveyard because of his unorthodox views.

Bulleh Shah lived from 1680 to 1757 during the period of the Mughal King Aurangzeb, who was the most communal and orthodox Muslim ruler the subcontinent ever faced. His time was marked with communal strife between Muslims and Sikhs. But in that age Bulleh Shah was a beacon of hope and peace for the citizens of Punjab. While Bulleh Shah was in Pandoke, Muslims killed a young Sikh man who was riding through their village in retaliation for the murder of some Muslims by Sikhs. Bulleh Shah denounced the murder of an innocent Sikh and was censured by the Mullas and Muftis of Pandoke. Bulleh Shah maintained that violence was not the answer to violence.

Bulleh Shah himself became a respected scholar, but he longed for true inner realization. Against the objections of his peers, he became a disciple of Inayat Shah, a famous master of the Qadiri Sufi lineage (Islamic), who ultimately guided his student to deep mystical awakening.

The nature of Bulleh Shah's realization led to such a profound egolessness and non-concern for social convention that it has been the source of many popular comical plays. For example, one day Bulleh Shah saw a young woman eagerly waiting for her husband to return home. Seeing how, in her anticipation, she braided her hair, Bulleh Shah deeply identified with the devoted way she prepared herself for her beloved. So Bulleh Shah dressed himself as a woman and braided his own hair, before rushing to see his teacher, Inayat Shah.

Repeating the name of the Beloved
I have become the Beloved myself.
Whom shall I call the Beloved Now?

Going to Makkah is not the ultimate -
Even if hundreds of prayers are offered

Bulleh Shāh the ultimate is -
When the “I” is removed from the heart.

Peace of mind is elusive and a state of agitation permanent.

With desire of wealth, status and power,
man is lonely;
the soul seeks to find its source.

 Man is a slave to his desires;

unsatisfied he finds misery – satisfied he finds bondage and more responsibility.

Follow their master and God alone,

and with a singularly defined purpose.
One’s will is that of God.

I have been pierced by the arrow of love;

What shall I do?
I can neither live nor die

 When I grasped the hint of love,

I banished “mine” and “thine” from me.
I was cleansed within and without,
Now, Wherever I look, the Beloved pervades,
Ever, new, fresh, is the spring of love!

Religious scholars stay awake at night
But dogs stay awake at night, higher than you

They don’t cease from barking at night
Then they go sleep in yards, higher than you

They [dogs] don’t leave the beloved’s doorstep
Even if they’re beaten hundreds of times, higher than you

Bulleh Shah get up and make up with the beloved
Otherwise dogs will win the contest, better than you

The Iraqis are despised
While the donkey are prized.
Strange are the times!

Those with coarse blankets are kings;
The erstwhile-kings watch them from the ring.
Strange are the times!

It’s not without reason or rhyme ,
Stange are the times!

Says Bulleh, kill your ego
And throw away your pride.
You need to forget yourself
To find Him by your side.

In happiness nor in sorrow, am I
Neither clean, nor a filthy mire
Not from water, nor from earth
Neither fire, nor from air, is my birth

Bulleh! to me, I am not known

Not an Arab, nor Lahori
Neither Hindi, nor Nagauri
Hindu, Turk (Muslim), nor Peshawari
Nor do I live in Nadaun

Bulleh! to me, I am not known

Secrets of religion, I have not known
From Adam and Eve, I am not born
I am not the name I assume
Not in stillness, nor on the move

Bulleh! to me, I am not known

I am the first, I am the last
None other, have I ever known
I am the wisest of them all
Bulleh! do I stand alone?

Bulleh! to me, I am not known

Bulleh Shah experienced class/caste stratification at a very young age. It is interesting that two of the great Punjabi classical poets, Baba Farid and Bulleh Shah, were born to poor village Paish Imam

Baba Farid

families, went through difficult economic circumstances but educated themselves at the highest level.

After having accomplished his scholastic learning Bulleh Shah, like his predecessors, faced the question of epistemology (theory of knowledge) of learning. The question was and is: how and why is knowledge gained? Sultan Bahu had categorized the knowledge through religious madrassas as a marketable commodity used to charm the rulers and mislead the people. For him the real knowledge expands your inner-self and helps you to relate to humanity, nature and the whole universe. Bulleh Shah was sharper in negating the knowledge gained for religious and other establishment-friendly purposes:

Ikko alaf tere darkar/ Ilmoon bas kareen o yar (Only Alaf is required/ Stop acquiring worldly knowledge)

Bulleh Shah goes into details of how knowledge is used by various levels of the religious establishment and how it makes them degenerates and compares them with Satan who was the most learned angel of God but went against God's will. For Bulleh Shah real knowledge came from history and real-life experiences. In another Kafi, he points out that he has acquired the understanding of the world from the course of history where anarchy shows the naked realities hidden under the ongoing status quo. For example in the following Kafi he predicates his understanding of the reality of socio-economic relations within society and how they can be put upside down with the change of time:

Times have gone upside down/ That is how I discovered the secret of love/ The crows are killing eagles/ The sparrows have put hunting birds down/ The blanket [wearing] people have become kings/ The kings are made to beg/ Bullah, this is the dictation from the Supreme/ Who can stop it?

In another Kafi, depicting the triumph of economic greed even over sacred relationships, he says: " Dhee maan noon lut ke le gai" (The daughter got away robbing her mother). Bulleh Shah comes very close to basing human consciousness on material conditions. In a Kafi, he states " Mati qudam kraindi o yar" (O my friend, it is soil that takes every human and non-human shapes). And he finished the Kafi by saying that, in the end, the soil goes back to soil and he thus dismisses the metaphysical concepts of life hereafter. 

Within the confines of "dictations from the Supreme" or history, real knowledge leads one to relate to humanity, nature and the universe. This goal can be achieved only through first surrendering your ego in front of your Murshid and fall in deep love with this relationship:  When I learned the lesson of love/I entered the river of unity/I was trapped in whirlwinds/ Shah Inayat helped me to get across.

Understand the One and forget the rest.
Shake off your ways of an apostate pest.
Leading to the grave to hell and 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 Kalma 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 half alive, half dead.
Emaciated in the ascetic postures feigned,
it's all in One contained,

Seek your 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 all the truth that Bulleh has gained.
It's all in One contained.

Bulleh Shah’s real name was Abdullah Shah, that later transformed into Bulleh Shah out of sheer reverence and affection of the common citizenry of Punjab who ardently adhered to his rebellious message of love, hope and wisdom.

Bulleh Shah’s attachment to his mentor’s philosophy was so strong that under the sheer spell of his devotion, he addressed his master as god, guide, lord, spouse, husband, beloved and friend. His teacher’s guidance made him experience the spiritual ecstasies and a vision that helped him explore the unfathomable realms of inner self. In this process of self realization, he began his journey into a metaphysical learning process which was unique to have enabled him grasp the reality of things on one hand, and yet felt blessed and obsessed by revelations from within. The journey to the path laid down by his master continued to be so intense, so self sacrificing that rapture of being away from his spiritual master, the qualms, the torment his soul faced, never ceased till the end. So intense was this Ishq (a process to find God through an intense longing, fonding and attachment with one’s mentor) that he expressed the fire in him through these words.

He listeneth to my tale and lisseneth to my woe

Shah lnayat my guide my teacher is so,

He leads me to places high and low

Shah Inayat my Master honoureth me,

Gives riddance of wrangles and of me,

My master, my Shah is with me,

Then who can dare put strife to me,

Who dare anyone harm to me,

Shah Inayat graces me,

Gives riddance of wrangles and of me,

My master, my Shah is with Me.

Awake, dear traveler, you’ve got to move on.
Trailing its stars, the night is gone.
Do what you have to do, do it today.
You will never be back this way.

Your companions are calling.
“Let us go.”
Awake, dear traveler, you’ve got to move on.
Trailing its stars, the night is gone.

A pearl, a ruby, the touchstone and dice…
With all that you thirst by the waterside.
Awake, dear traveler, you’ve got to move on.
Trailing its stars, the night is gone.

Cryptic sciences? Enough already!
The first Letter is all you need.
Aleph is all you need.
Knowledge hardly comes in dozens
And who’s to say How long you’ll last?
Aleph is all you need.
Cryptic sciences? Enough already!

You read heaps and write heaps.
And bury your head in books.
The Light is everywhere but where are you,
And you haven’t a clue how to reach it.
Aleph is all you need.

Marking time in extra prayers.
Climbing a minaret and searching.
Mounting a pulpit and preaching…
All this has nothing to do with knowledge.
Cryptic sciences? Enough aldready?
Aleph is all you need.

Not a believer inside the mosque, am I
Nor a pagan disciple of false rites
Not the pure amongst the impure
Neither Moses, nor the Pharoh

Bulleh! to me, I am not known

Not in the holy Vedas, am I
Nor in opium, neither in wine
Not in the drunkard`s intoxicated craze
Niether awake, nor in a sleeping daze

Bulleh! to me, I am not known

Thus found Bulleh Shah’s spiritual quest in the finest expression of his poetry, the Kafis. His tone is satiric, razor sharp that acts like the precision of a surgeon’s lancet, his verses bleeding with pain, the anguish, the qualm of separation and unprecedented genius of his thought process, mercilessly cutting into the social norms, the taboos and established dogmas in the name of religion. He sets out his own aesthetics of the divine love, guidance, faith, virtuosity, love and forgiveness. Like all other Sufis, he preaches negation of the “self” while seeking unity with the divine. His poetry sets liberal standards with strong intonations of religious tolerance and communal harmony. Realizations of truth transformed Bulleh Shah into a true mystic. He purified his heart with the fountain of truth gushing deep inside his soul. Overwhelmed with an obsession of spiritual knowledge, like wine intoxicates the body and mind and thus becomes the principal driving force, Bulleh Shah heroically voiced his wisdom in his following verse.

Put fire to thy prayer rug

and break even thy water mug,

then quit even thy rosary

And let thy staff to the tug

Me tired of reading the Veda book,

Me tired of reading the Quran

And Me no kneeling, me no prostrating,

Nor me forehead down
For God liveth in holy Mecca

Nor he in Mathura resides
For only those who find Him

Who see the light with self besides.

With this verse Bulleh Shah stands tall in the Sufis’ lineage, a stalwart of the Sufis’ school of thought led by Mansoor who was penalized by clerics of the day, declaring his chantings of “Ana-al Haque” (I am the Truth, I am the God) as ‘Kufr’ (negation of God) oblivious of the ecstasies that torment and thus cleanse the soul of a Sufi or saint is a unique phenomenon hardly perceptible or understood by clerics and dogmatists; who go by mere words and not the meanings and context of a scripture. This happened with Mansoor Hallaj and this too happened with Bulleh Shah who met a similar torment to his soul, his inner self.

Bulleh Shah spent rest of his life in total self denial; he did not care at all of the concern and hostility that orthodox mullahs unleashed at him for his rebellious poetry. He danced ecstatically, fearlessly, perpetually and thus treaded the path of spiritual realization and atonement. He preached love and humanism with a firm rejection of any formal religious authority on the affairs of the people. So it was no surprise that on his death in 1758, he was denied a burial in Muslim cemetery and was thus laid to rest in isolation outside the main city of Qasur. But his massage of love, his fight against religious bigots, the traditional hierarchs of different theological schools in the subcontinent, made him a people’s wali or saint. That isolated grave is now a darbar where all including the clergy, the rich and the poor all throng to pay homage to that great soul of Punjab who treaded the path of Sufism, the non traditional mystic way of finding God and a solace for one’s soul.

Me the first, me is the last,

Me don’t know, no one else,

Me the wisest, no one else,

But Bulleya,

Me no knoweth

Who isseth Thee!

O’ Blleya,

Me no knoweth

who isseth Me!

Me know no secret, to me no religion,

Not one to me not known

From Adam and Eve, me not me was born

Me don’t know even the name me own

Me don’t know the people who bow and pray

Me don’t know the people who go astray

O’ Bulleya!

Me no knoweth who isseth Thee!

Me no knoweth who isseth Me!

Me no Arab, nor Lhori,

Me no Hindu, nor Nagauri,

Me no Turkic, nor Pishauri,

Me don’t live in infinity,

Yet, O’ Blleya!

Me no knoweth

Who isseth Thee!

Me no knoweth

Who isseth Me!

Bulleh aashiq hoyo rabb da huyi malaamat lakh
Tenu kaafir kaafir aakhde tu aaho aaho akh!

Bulleh you became god’s lover and for this were disgraced
They call you, “Infidel, infidel”, you reply to them, “Yes, yes!

When he passed away in 1757 in Kasur, the clerics of the town forbade his burial calling him an infidel, so his followers and friends had to bury him outside the city limits. But soon his tomb started attracting thousands of people who came to pay homage or seek for solace or wisdom, and the town of Kasur started growing around his shrine, so that today it is situated at the very heart of Kasur.

There are many popular anecdotes and myths about his life, which have also been presented recently in the memorable theatrical production of Bulleh by the Ajoka group of Lahore. His father, Muhammad Darwaish was a poor imam at a village mosque, so that at a young age, Bulleh was forced to tend cattle to make ends meet. He alludes to these times in the following verse:

Lokaan de bhaanay Ranjha chaak maheen da
Ranjha ta lokaan vich kaheenda
Saadda ta deen eemaan ve vehrhe aa varh mere
Mai tere qurban ve vehrhe aavarh mere

For people you are Ranjha the herdsman
But Ranjha speaks from within the people
Such is my faith and way of life, enter into my courtyard
I am sacrificed to you, enter into my courtyard

Bulleh Shah’s family was proud of their Syed ancestry, which meant that they claimed ancestry of the Bani Hashim clan of the Prophet Muhammad. When he associated himself with his spiritual guide Shah Inayat, who was considered to be from a low-born Arain family, he provoked his clan’s resentment. In his classic satirical manner, he replied to them through these verses and rebelled against the division of humanity based on castes:

Bulleh nu samjhaawan aayaan behnaa te bharjaayaan
Man le Bulleh saadda kehna chadd de pala ‘Raiyaan
Aal e Nabi aulaad e Ali nu tu kyun leekaan laayaan
Jehrha saanu Syed sadde dozakh Milan sazaayaan
Jo koyi saanu ‘Rain aakhe beheshti peengaan paayaan

Bulleh’s sisters and sisters-in-law came to persuade him
Listen to us Bhulleh and forego the company of Arains
Why have you crossed out the ancestry of the Prophet and the lineage of Ali
Whosoever calls me Syed shall receive the punishment of hell
Whosoever calls me an Arain shall sway on the swings of heaven.

Listen to Bulleh Nu Samjhawan Aaiyan by Abida Parveen with Lyrics here.

Later Shah Inayat was also irked by Bulleh Shah’s independent attitude and refused to meet him for a while. Bulleh who had declared his love for his spiritual guide was heartbroken. In order to make amends, he broke more social taboos and became the disciple of a dancing girl. He then came in disguise and performed in front of his old teacher, who he knew was fond of dance. Shah Inayat was touched by this act of dedication and humility and accepted Bulleh Shah back among his company.

Iss ishq di jhangi vich mor boleenda
Saanu qibla te Kaaba sohna yaar diseenda
Saanu ghayal kar ke phir khabar na leyaa
Tere ishq nachaaya kaare thaya thaya

A peacock speaks in this grove of passion
My beautiful beloved appears as my Qibla and Kaaba
You smote me with love and then stopped inquiring
Your love made me dance to the sound of my anklets

Bulleh Shah lived in turbulent times when the Sikhs were rebelling against the Mughal Empire. He is said to have had close relations with the ninth Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Tegh Bahadur, whom he tried to dissuade from seeking revenge upon Muslims for the cruelty that the emperor Aurangzeb had inflicted upon his people. When Guru Tegh Bahadur himself was beheaded, Bulleh hailed him as a Ghazi or a ‘holy warrior’, further provoking the anger of the religious zealots of his time.

When Bulleh Shah’s religious beliefs were brought into question, he replied with these immortal verses:

Na main momin vich maseeta
Na mai vich kufr diyaan reetaan
Na mai paakaan vich paleetaan
Na mai Musa na Firaun
Bulleh ki jana mai kaun

Neither am I a believer in the mosque
Neither am I an infidel
Neither amongst the virtuous nor amongst the sinners
Neither am I Moses nor the Pharaoh
Bulleh, who knows who I am

Listen to Bullah, Kih Jana Main Kaun by the Wadali Brothers with lyrics here.

Bulleh Shah was openly defiant towards those whom he perceived as merchants of religion. In one of his most satirical verses, he compares them with dogs who he says are better at what they do.

Raateen jaagen karen ibaadat
Raateen jaagan kutte tethon utte
Bhowknon band mool na honde
Jaa rurhi te sutte tethon utte
Khasam apne da darr na chade
Bhawen wajan jutte tethon utte
Bulleh Shah koyi rakht vehaaj le
Nai te baazi le gaye kutte tethon utte

Staying awake and praying at night
The dogs are also awake, superior to you
They never stop barking
And go and sleep on a pile of rubbish, superior to you
They never leave their master’s door
Even when beaten with shoes, superior to you
Bulleh Shah you’d better achieve something
Or the dogs will win this contest, superior to you

Baba Bulleh Shah spoke with directness and skill in exposing the deceits of the cruel and the self-righteous while forever re-enforcing the belief in the oneness of reality, which is why he is considered as one of the great Sufi sages of this land.

Bulleh shoh asaan theen wakh naheen
Bin shoh theen dujjha kakh naheen
Par vekhan waali akh naheen
Taaheen jaan judaayaan sehndi e
Mooh aayi baat na rehndi e

Bulleh Shah

Bulleh Shah is believed to have been born in 1680, in the small village of Uch, Bahawalpur, Punjab, in present day Pakistan. Bulleh Shah practiced the Sufi tradition of Punjabi poetry established by poets like Shah Hussain, Sultan Bahu , and Shah Sharaf 

Bulleh Shah’s times were out-of-joint. The Punjab was particularly disturbed. 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.

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 lies in ridiculing the non-Muslims. Those who give quarter to Kafirs disgrace Islam…”

Such were the times when Bulleh Shah emerged as a protagonist of communal amity in the Punjab. 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.

He gave no quarter to hypocrisy. He was particularly hard on Mulla/Quazi and Mufti in the Muslim social hierarchy. He accepted no discipline. Says he:

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.

The man who had been refused by the mullahs to be buried after his death in the community graveyard because of his unorthodox views, today enjoys worldwide reverence and recognition.  The tomb of Bulleh Shah in Kasur and the area around it is today the only place free of collective refuse, and the privileged of the city pay handsomely to be buried in the proximity of the man they had once rejected. This radical change has been possible because people have been impressed in the course of time by the holy way of Bullah’s life and the efficacy of his teachings.

Because of his pure life and high spiritual attainments, he is equally popular among all communities. Scholars and dervishes have called him “The Sheikh of Both the Worlds,” “The man of God,” “The Knower of Spiritual Grace” and by other equally edifying titles. Considered as the greatest mystic poet of the Punjab, his compositions have been regarded as “the pinnacle of Sufi literature.” His admirers compare his writings and philosophy to those of Rumi and Shams-i-Tabriz.

Poetry

Play Bullah on the life of Bulleh Shah

Bulleh Shah practiced the Sufi tradition of Punjabi poetry established by poets like Shah Hussain, Sultan Bahu, and Shah Sharaf 

The verse form Bulleh Shah primarily employed is called the Kafi, a style of Punjabi, Sindhi and Saraiki poetry used not only by the Sufis of Sindh and Punjab, but also by Sikh gurus.

Bulleh Shah’s poetry and philosophy questioned the Islamic religious orthodoxy of his day.

Bulleh Shah’s writings represent him as a humanist, someone providing solutions to the sociological problems of the world around him as he lives through it, describing the turbulence his motherland of Punjab is passing through, while concurrently searching for God. The simplicity with which Bulleh Shah has been able to address the complex fundamental issues of life and humanity is a large part of his appeal.

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 a Hindu and a 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.

A large amount of what is believed to be known about Bulleh Shah comes through legends, and is subjective; to the point that there isn’t even agreement among historians concerning his precise date and place of birth. Some information about his life has been pieced together from his own writings. Other "facts" seem to have been passed down through oral traditions.

Bulleh Shah is believed to have been born in 1680 in the small village of Uch, Punjab, India- which is in present-day Pakistan. His father, Shah Muhammad Darwaish, was a teacher and preacher in a village mosque.

When he was six months old, his parents relocated to Malakwal. His father later got a job in Pandoke about 50 miles south-east of Kasur. Bulleh Shah received his early schooling in Pandoke and moved to Kasur for higher education. He also received education from Hadrat Makhdoom Khwaja Syed Hafiz Ghulam Murtaza Daim ul-Hazoori. (Quite a name) His spiritual teacher was the Qadiri Sufi Shah Inayat Qadiri, ( a little shorter nevertheless ) who was a member of the Arain tribe of Lahore.

Bulleh Shah's time was marked with communal strife between Muslims and Sikhs. But in that age Baba Bulleh Shah was a saint of hope and peace for the citizens of Punjab. While Bulleh Shah was in Pandoke, Muslims killed a young Sikh man who was riding through their village in retaliation for murder of some Muslims by Sikhs. Baba Bulleh Shah denounced the murder of an innocent Sikh and was censured by the mullas and muftis of Pandoke. Bulleh Shah maintained that violence was not the answer

Bulleh Shah died in 1757 in Kasur. Tradition has it that Islamic scholars of the time forbade local imams to carry out Bulleh Shah's funeral, considering him an infidel. However, after he was buried outside of the city, his tomb started attracting thousands of pilgrims from the region, and soon the center of Kasur moved to that place. Today, a large festival (urs) is celebrated at the tomb every year.

More of Bulleh shah’s poetry …..

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 enlightened of his day:

Enough of learning, my friend
For it there is no end.
An alphabet would do for me,
No one knows when one’s life would end.

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.

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.

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?

Bulleh Shah Masjid, Lahore

B

Bulleh Shah was no less conscious of reforming his society. He was a severe critic of the clergy whether Islamic or Brahminic. He ridicules them for the way they exploit the people and mislead them with false promises. He calls them thugs:

The thugs with their mouths full of froth
Talk about life and death
Without making any sense.

With the fundamentalist, he is more severe :

If you wish to be a ghazi,
Take up your sword :
Before killing the Kafir
You must slaughter the swindler.

Bulleh Shah’s mysticism is the assertion of the soul against the formality of religion. He came to believe that it is possible to establish a direct link with God. His is the eternal yearning of the human soul to have direct experience of Divine Reality.

Bulleh Shah’s Sufism was no doubt Quranic to start with. But the Shariat has relevance as long as duality persists; the moment duality disappears, one is liberated from all bonds. This is exactly what seems to have happened with Bulleh Shah. He qualified himself to Tariqat. He became liberated. He became a part of the Divinity. He sees himself in everything around him.

Me no believer—no believe in mosque

And me no pagan, no ritual no task

Me is no pure amongst the impure,

Me no believer—no believe in mosque

And me no pagan, no ritual no task

Me is no pure amongst the impure,

And me no Moses, no Pharaoh endure,

But Me no knoweth.

Who isseth Thee!

O’ Bulleya,

Me no knoweth,

Who isseth Me!

Love Legends, Bulleh Shah

Bulleh Shah’s real name was Abdullah Shah, that later transformed into Bulleh Shah out of sheer reverence and affection of the common citizenry of Punjab who ardently adhered to his rebellious message of love, hope and wisdom.

Bulleh Shah spiritually chose to follow the path of his mentor, Inayat Shah Qadri, who was a famous saint of the Qadirya chain of Sufis in Lahore. Bulleh’s rebellious yet highly rhythmic and appealing utterances attracted intense criticism from his family as well as friends; for his blindly following the Sufi order much different and opposite to that of the Syeds, [the Muslims who claim their lineage from the Holy Prophet Muhammad, PBUH] However, this criticism added even more spur to his rebellious mind. He revolted against those so called hierarchs of spirituality. Bulleh Shah remained steadfast to his master’s philosophy till his death in 1729.

Bulleh Shah’s attachment to his mentor’s philosophy was so strong that under the sheer spell of his devotion, he addressed his master as god, guide, lord, spouse, husband, beloved and friend. His teacher’s guidance made him experience the spiritual ecstasies and a vision that helped him explore the unfathomable realms of inner self. In this process of self realization, he began his journey into a metaphysical learning process which was unique to have enabled him grasp the reality of things on one hand, and yet felt blessed and obsessed by revelations from within. The journey to the path laid down by his master continued to be so intense, so self sacrificing that rapture of being away from his spiritual master, the qualms, the torment his soul faced, never ceased till the end. So intense was this Ishq (a process to find God through an intense longing, fonding and attachment with one’s mentor) that he expressed the fire in him through these words.

He listeneth to my tale and lisseneth to my woe

Shah lnayat my guide my teacher is so,

He leads me to places high and low

Shah Inayat my Master honoureth me,

Gives riddance of wrangles and of me,

My master, my Shah is with me,

Then who can dare put strife to me,

Who dare anyone harm to me,

Shah Inayat graces me,

Gives riddance of wrangles and of me,

My master, my Shah is with Me.

Bulleh Shah Mosque, Kasur

Thus found Bulleh Shah’s spiritual quest in the finest expression of his poetry, the Kafis. His tone is satiric, razor sharp that acts like the precision of a surgeon’s lancet, his verses bleeding with pain, the anguish, the qualm of separation and unprecedented genius of his thought process, mercilessly cutting into the social norms, the taboos and established dogmas in the name of religion. He sets out his own aesthetics of the divine love, guidance, faith, virtuosity, love and forgiveness. Like all other Sufis, he preaches negation of the “self” while seeking unity with the divine. His poetry sets liberal standards with strong intonations of religious tolerance and communal harmony. Realizations of truth transformed Bulleh Shah into a true mystic. He purified his heart with the fountain of truth gushing deep inside his soul. Overwhelmed with an obsession of spiritual knowledge, like wine intoxicates the body and mind and thus becomes the principal driving force, Bulleh Shah heroically voiced his wisdom in his following verse.

Put fire to thy prayer rug

and break even thy water mug,

then quit even thy rosary

And let thy staff to the tug

Me tired of reading the Veda book,

Me tired of reading the Quran

And Me no kneeling, me no prostrating,

Nor me forehead down
For God liveth in holy Mecca

Nor he in Mathura resides
For only those who find Him

Who see the light with self besides.

With this verse Bulleh Shah stands tall in the Sufis’ lineage, a stalwart of the Sufis’ school of thought led by Mansoor who was penalized by clerics of the day, declaring his chantings of “Ana-al Haque” (I am the Truth, I am the God) as ‘Kufr’ (negation of God) oblivious of the ecstasies that torment and thus cleanse the soul of a Sufi or saint is a unique phenomenon hardly perceptible or understood by clerics and dogmatists; who go by mere words and not the meanings and context of a scripture. This happened with Mansoor Hallaj and this too happened with Bulleh Shah who met a similar torment to his soul, his inner self.

Bulleh Shah spent rest of his life in total self denial; he did not care at all of the concern and hostility that orthodox mullahs unleashed at him for his rebellious poetry. He danced ecstatically, fearlessly, perpetually and thus treaded the path of spiritual realization and atonement. He preached love and humanism with a firm rejection of any formal religious authority on the affairs of the people. So it was no surprise that on his death in 1758, he was denied a burial in Muslim cemetery and was thus laid to rest in isolation outside the main city of Qasur. But his massage of love, his fight against religious bigots, the traditional hierarchs of different theological schools in the subcontinent, made him a people’s wali or saint. That isolated grave is now a darbar where all including the clergy, the rich and the poor all throng to pay homage to that great soul of Punjab who treaded the path of Sufism, the non traditional mystic way of finding God and a solace for one’s soul.

Me the first, me is the last,

Me don’t know, no one else,

Me the wisest, no one else,

But Bulleya,

Me no knoweth

Who isseth Thee!

O’ Blleya,

Me no knoweth

who isseth Me!

Me know no secret, to me no religion,

Not one to me not known

From Adam and Eve, me not me was born

Me don’t know even the name me own

Me don’t know the people who bow and pray

Me don’t know the people who go astray

O’ Bulleya!

Me no knoweth who isseth Thee!

Me no knoweth who isseth Me!

Me no Arab, nor Lhori,

Me no Hindu, nor Nagauri,

Me no Turkic, nor Pishauri,

Me don’t live in infinity,

Yet, O’ Blleya!

Me no knoweth

Who isseth Thee!

Me no knoweth

Who isseth Me!

A Beacon of Peace

Bulleh Shah’s writings represent him as a humanist, someone providing solutions to the sociological problems of the world around him as he lives through it, describing the turbulence his motherland of Punjab is passing through, while concurrently searching for God. His poetry highlights his mystical spiritual voyage through the four stages of Sufism: Shariat (Path), Tariqat (Observance), Haqiqat (Truth) and Marfat (Union). The simplicity with which Bulleh Shah has been able to address the complex fundamental issues of life and humanity is a large part of his appeal. Thus, many people have put his kafis to music, from humble street-singers to renowned Sufi singers like the Waddali Brothers, Abida Parveen and Pathanay Khan, from the synthesized techno qawwali remixes of UK-based Asian artists to the rock band Junoon.

Bulleh Shah’s popularity stretches uniformly across Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims, to the point that much of the written material about this philosopher is from Hindu and Sikh authors.

(Bulleh Shah…… Even His name carries great meanings in it… Bulleh is Punjabi word meaning LOST….. He (Bulleh shah) was Lost in love …. the Real Love … and Forever Love…. Everlasting Love . He was like a Moth attracted to Fire….. He (Bulleh Shah) described His feelings but nothing seemed enough. Him like a moth lost Himself in that Fire, and got everlasting tranquility. Sometimes He describes He found that LOVE and now He is compelled to tap with serenity, sometimes He is so Lost in that Love… He doesn’t know who He is any more.. neither water nor fire, neither pure or impure… not awake or Sleeping ……..)

More of his poetry about  his master…..

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 ?

Suphi Poetry

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 :

I take myself to be the beginning and the end;

I do not recognize aught except the One.

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 Qasur, and here he died in 1758. His tomb can be seen in Qasur even today.