Khwaja Ghulam Farid (1841 – 1901)
Original Punjabi Performance by Arieb Azhar
O’ Beauty of Truth, the Eternal Light!
Do I call you necessity and possibility,
Do I call you the ancient divinity,
The One, creation and the world,
Do I call you free and pure Being,
Or the apparent lord of all,
Do I call you the souls, the egos and the intellects,
The imbued manifest, and the imbued hidden,
The actual reality, the substance,
The word, the attribute and dignity,
Do I call you the variety, and the circumstance,
The demeanor, and the measure,
Do I call you the throne and the firmament,
And the demurring delights of Paradise,
Do I call you mineral and vegetable,
Animal and human,
Do I call you the mosque, the temple, the monastery,
The scriptures, the Quran,
The rosary, the girdle,
Godlessness, and faith,
Do I call you the clouds, the flash, the thunder,
Lightning and the downpour,
Water and earth,
The gust and the inferno,
Do I call you Lakshmi, and Ram and lovely Sita,
Baldev, Shiv, Nand, and Krishna,
Brahma, Vishnu and Ganesh,
Mahadev and Bhagvaan,
Do I call you the Gita, the Granth, and the Ved,
Knowledge and the unknowable,
Do I call you Abraham, Eve and Seth,
Noah and the deluge,
Abraham the friend, and Moses son of Amran,
And Ahmad the glorious, darling of every heart,
Do I call you the witness, the Lord, or Hejaz,
The awakener, existence, or the point,
Do I call you admiration or prognosis,
Nymph, fairy, and the young lad,
The tip and the nip,
And the redness of betel leaves,
The Tabla and Tanpura,
The drum, the notes and the improvisation,
Do I call you beauty and the fragrant flower,
Coyness and that amorous glance,
Do I call you Love and knowledge,
Superstition, belief, and conjecture,
The beauty of power, and conception,
Aptitude and ecstasy,
Do I call you intoxication and the drunk,
Amazement and the amazed,
Submission and the connection,
Compliance and Gnosticism,
Do I call you the Hyacinth, the Lilly, and the Cypress,
And the rebellious Narcissus,
The bereaved Tulip, the Rose garden, and the orchard,
Do I call you the dagger, the lance, and the rifle,
The hail, the bullet, the spear,
The arrows made of white poplar, and the bow,
The arrow-notch, and the arrowhead,
Do I call you colorless, and unparalleled,
Formless in every instant,
Glory and holiness,
Most glorious and most compassionate,
Repent now Farid forever!
For whatever I may say is less,
Do I call you the pure and the humane,
The Truth without trace or name.
Khawaja Ghulam Farid: Husn-e-Haqiqi (Beauty of Truth)
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Rumi: The Meaning of Love
Both light and shadow
are the dance of Love.
Love has no cause;
it is the astrolabe of God’s secrets.
Lover and Loving are inseparable
and timeless.
Although I may try to describe Love
when I experience it I am speechless.
Although I may try to write about Love
I am rendered helpless;
my pen breaks and the paper slips away
at the ineffable place
where Lover, Loving and Loved are one.
Every moment is made glorious
by the light of Love.
Rumi: Don’t Go Back To Sleep
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep
You must ask for what you really want
Don’t go back to sleep
People are going back and forth across the door sill
- where the two worlds touch -
The door is round and open
Don’t go back to sleep
~ Rumi
Rabindranath Tagore: Stream of Life
The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.
It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.
It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.
I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.
Lyrics adapted into the Song “Praan” Sung by: Palbasha Siddique
Bulleh Shah: Aik Alif Music Video [Punjabi Translated]
English Translation and Lyrics originally in Punjabi:
Parh parh ilm te faazil hoya
(You read to become all knowledgable)
Te kaday apnay aap nu parhya ee na
(But you never read your inner-self)
Bhaj bhaj warna ay mandir maseeti
(You rush to enter your mosques and temples)
Te kaday mann apnay wich warya ee na
(But never did you enter your own heart)
Larna ay roz shaitaan de naal
(Everyday you fight Satan)
Te kadi nafs apnay naal larya ee na
(But never did you tackle your own Ego {animal impulses})
Bulleh Shah asmaani ud-deya pharonda ay
(Bulleh Shah, you surely try grabbing that which is in the sky)
Te jera ghar betha unoon pharya ee na
(But you never get a hold of what sits inside yourself)
Bas kareen o yaar
(Stop it all my friend)
Ilm-oun bas kareen o yaar
(stop seeking all this knowledge my friend)
Ik Alif teray darkaar
(Only Oneness is what you need)
Bas kareen o yaar
(stop it all my friend)
Ilm-oun bas kareen o yaar…
(Stop with all this {worldly} knowledge my friend)
Jalaluddin Rumi: The Chickpea
A chickpea in a pot leaps from the flame,
out from the boiling water,
Crying, “Why do you set fire to me?
You chose me, bought me, brought me home for this?“
The cook hits it with her spoon into the pot.
“No! Boil nicely, don’t jump away from the one who makes the fire.
I don’t boil you out of hatred.
Through boiling you may grow flavorful, nourishing,
and united with vital human spirit.
I don’t inflict this suffering out of spite.
Once green and fresh, you drank rain in the garden;
you drank for the sake of this fire.
God’s mercy precedes His wrath;
by God’s mercy the sick ones suffer.
It has always been so; this is how God creates all that exists.
Without pleasure, no creatures would come into being.
Without creatures,
what could the burning love of the Friend consume?
Such sorrow may come that you might wish
to be free of this life.
yet the Grace of God will overtake His wrath,
once you are washed clean in the river of suffering.