LAL SHAHBAZ

LAL SHAHBAZ

In the year 1318, in the town of Marwand in Afghanistan, a child was born to a noble Makhdum, sayed Ahmed Kabir, who was a close friend of the King of Tabriz. The little child showed from his infancy signs of a deep spiritual nature. The boy's name was Sayed Usman Shah. Having been born in Marwand he was called Marwandi. It is said that even when very young he had developed occult powers. Sayed Ali, the Monarch of Bagdad, in whose court the young man lived, had a considerable regard for the youth.

The call of the Spirit came to this man who was destined to be the mystic light, the light of Sufism to India and specially to Sind. He had three other friends, Sheikh Bhawaldin, Sheikh Farrid Ganj and Sheikh Makhdum Jalaluddin. They are known to the Sufis as the four great friends. Hazrat Usman Shah and his friends conceived the idea of coming over to India. The King of Bagdad, who loved and revered Usman Shah, entreated him not to leave Bagdad; but Usman Shah, who felt the urge from within, could not see his way to remain, and soon after led his three companions on the holy mission that was destined to liberalise Islam in India, and to pave the way for unity with the Hindus. Many are the stories given about their adventurous journey : tradition is resonant with the voice of miracles. It is said that when the party arrived at the Persian Gulf and after they had reached one particular island they could not find a soul. They had to cross to some other place to secure a boat. The teacher, Shah Usman, said to his companions : "Depend upon God and enter the stream; but take care, you must have no attachment to the things of the world, otherwise the waters cannot give you a safe passage. Here is my begging bowl, lay your hands on it and it shall serve us as a boat." The four entered the stream. In the middle of the river the bowl began to sink and the companions along with it. Usman said to them, "One of you has some burden of the world on your person." Actually Bhawaldin, on of the three companions, had carried with himself a gold brick, calculating that it might be of some use on a rainy day. Marwandi ordered him to throw it into the river, and behold ! as soon as the brick sant, the bowl came up and the friends safely reached the other side.

They came to Mecca and to Medina; and a story is told of how Sheikh Farrid Ganj, who was very handsome, found himself a victim of a woman's wiles. She was a baker's wife to whom Farrid had come to buy some bread. The woman would not loose hold of him, entreated him, cajoled him, but the faqir was made of stern fibre, and soon tore himself away from her. Then the baker's wife began to roar, neighbours came, and the mistress of the oven accused poor Farrid of attempting to assault her. Sheikh Usman when he heard of this is said to have rescued his friend by a miracle. They again set out on their journey.

Sheikh Usman is said to have been challenged on the way by a famous ascetic to bathe in a tub of burning oil. This is a feat which many of the old anchorites seem to have performed. Usman Shah also successfully passed the test. Thus he earned the title of Lal (a ruby) as the ascetic said to him, "Thou art indeed the Lal of Lal ( the ruby of rubies)". This meant that Usman was real gold having been tested by fire. He received no injury; only his robe turned crimson. He wore a red robe up to the end, and was called Lal Shahbaz. Shahbaz means a falcon. This great Sheikh was a great walker of the skies shining with th e glory of the light of the Spirit.

The friends now reached Sind which included in those days Multan and some other portion of the punjab. They reached Sehwan, probably by the frontier hills; it was known as a very important place. It is a very ancient place and was called originally Shivaasthan. It is now a deserted town, with its ruins covering many miles. It had even in those days numerous priests in holy garbs but with corrupt and perverted hearts. When they heard of the coming of this great man whose fame had preceded him, they sent him a cup brimming with milk, thus suggesting that the place was already full of faqirs and that he should seek pastures new. The great man took a flower and placed it in the cup and returned it to the worldly-minded men, suggesting by this reply that there was ample room for him, as he would remain among them floating as a flower. It also suggested that they had sunk into the mire of irreligion and supersitition, while he was coming to them to teach the road of non-attachment and spiritual living. Thus a sacred flower was planted in the soil of Sind.

His three friends went to other lands. Sheikh Bhawaldin went to Uch in Multan (then in Sind). Uch is still known as a very important centre of the Sufis. Somewhere near, the other two also settled, and these places are well known among the group of Sufis. These flowers of Sufism, planted by them in Sind and the Punjab, spread their fragrance and beauty far and wide. They had numerous followers and their descendants are still living. The sight of the annual fairs is simply wonderful. In Sehwan where Lal Shahbaz, (also called Kalandar Lal Marwandi), lived and died, you find during the annual fair thousar of Hindus and Mahommedans camped round about th e tomb, mixing freely, and singing the Sufi songs that ever melt the heart. Wrong things also have entered into the celebration of these holy days, but that is what always happens. There are other centres where the spirit of the ancient Sufis is still found in its original simplicity and purity : the light still burns clear and bright.

Lal Shahbaz and his friends came about six centuries ago, at the time when another great Sufi, Khwaja Hassan Nizami, came and settled at Delhi. He is also known throughout the lenght and breadth of the land. History does not give much information about the lives and struggles of these Sufis, or about the spread of their movement in Sind, till we come to the time about two and a half centuries ago. By that time the seed to have grown into a tree, whose anches gave cool spiritual shade to many weary pilgrims on th e greatest of Sindhi Sufis, who sang in the language of Sind. In a later chapter something of the life and poetry of a few of these men and their successors will be given, but it must be preceded by a summary of the general doctrine of the Sufis of Sind.

THE MYSTIC DOCTRINE OF SIND

The doctrine of the mystic all over the world is the same; it is what is known as the doctrine of the heart which is, says the Sufi, the "Palace of the Beloved". But this doctrine assumes various names and forms in various climes. The speciality about the poetry of the Sufis of Sind is that its phraseology and imagery are derived from the Arabic-Persian as well as from the indian spiritual culture. The Sufi poets of Sind are too many to enumerate; in fact, poetry is still the hobby of the Sindhi scholar as well as of the Sindhi peasant. The cultivator in the field, his little son with a herd of cattle, the camelman on the sandy tracks, the driver driving the immemorial bullock cart through broken roads and innumerable little pits - all these, with a hand on one ear, sing the lyrical songs of the immortal poets, and sometimes indulge in the luxury of making original verses.

Among the Sufi poets of Sind, Latif, Sachal, Rohal, Sami, Bedil, Bekus, Dalpat and Sadik are the best known. Some are known by their original names, others by thier noms de plume, these being very pretty and poetic - Latif, the Benign, Sachal, the True, Rohal, the soulful, Sami, the Master, Bekus, the Impersonal, Bedil, the Heart Lost, Sadik, the Tested, and so on. The poetry of these love-intoxicated singers forms the pleasure and the prayer of the people of Sind.

RADICALISM

Extreme radicalism, that is fearless thinking and acting, is the chief characteristic of the Sindhi poet. Deadly opposition to the priest and brave resistance to the cruel autocratic rulers were the maked features of their lives; they shocked the susceptibilities of the orthodox priest to no small extent. In fact Latif made it the basis of his life to care not a straw for conventional thinking. "Keep a contrary eye, move contrary to the masses. If the world moves down the stream, you move up the stream." "We care not for the people of the world even if they kill us." Like Rousseau he despised the common belief of the herd.

The priests of Islam said, "Satan is the worst of the damned." Latif defied them. "Satan is the only lover, all others are prattlers. Out of the great love of the Lord, the shining one (Satan) embraced disgrace." A true thinker indeed. Can mankind develop progress but by resistance; and is not Satan the principle of resistance ? Sachal followed the same tradition. The priests and the orthodox tabooed all free thinking as heresy (kufr). Sind Sachal : "But the way of heresy the Murshid (teacher) himself taught me." They told him, "you are misled". "Ah," he said, "but being misled is the first step, then comes the right road."

How can a man attain to knowledge unless he knows that he does not know ? Sachal passed through all the bitter trials of doubt that must precede knowledge. "Oh," he said, "there is no greater pain than that of doubt," but it has to be passed through.

Thus Latif sang :

All speak of the open path,

I want one who suggests the complex one.

Go not near the open road,

Seek after the complex one,

Suffer tribulation and come out raimentless.

Only rare ones enter the complex path;

The abode of the Beloved is all confusion for men.

They that walk the wilds

Are never misled;

Who walk the open road

Get plundered on the way.

With the Mullas and Moulvis, they were in perpetual conflict; Sachal said : "So long as these mosques, these so-called holy places, these raised towers, do not crumble into dust, so long the path of spirit cannot be seen clear". Rohal, the Soulful, was nothing short of a present-day extreme radical. Like Shelley he was very angry with kings, "Oh," he said, "what do these gentlemen do ?"

Many kings of the earth,

Gather lacs and untold wealth,

They forget the truth and hoard money;

But die they will; and laid to dust,

Not a pie will they take with them.

They sit on thrones and hold their sceptres,

they call themselves the Lords of earth,

As if it were the property of their father and grandfather.

These tyrants, how do they rule ?

They deprive others of their rights;

They do not measure justice to the aggrieved.

They live on others' sweat,

They eat what is unholy,

They think they win, but

They will depart as in defeat.

Rohal, however, did not leave the priests, the Kazs and the mullas unreproved.

Look at these kazis, they sit with open Korans,

While they take bribes from men;

They speak the letter of the Book,

They are really buying hell.

The Mullas read traditions and the Koran,

they look like Mussalmans,

They are the very devil,

These will defeated die.

Dalpat was so hot on the subject of priests, that his successors still consider it unwise to publish his poems. Many examples could be given of this fearless thinking and living; suffice it to say that the mystic of Sind is like his brother mystics of the world, an enemy of hypocrisy and convention. Not only in the domain of thought, but in morals also, the Sufi is a radical. The only basis of his morality is the recognition of the one Life which he tries to realise. This means an utter identification of oneself with everything in the Universe. This identification means love; and love can never injure: the giving of injury is immorality, and nothing besides. The Sufi recognises no outside authority but th eurge of love from within. Sachal says :

Through virtue and vice, none know God.

Latif said :

Men fight shy of vice;

My Beloved turned his face from me beacause of my virtue.

Dalpat realising that the higher phase of Compassion cannot tolerate either thus complains :

Oh Lord, it is thou who sinnest and thou who do'st good deeds; why didst thou make heaven and hell ?

Redicalism, both in thinkin g and feeling, is what contributes so much to the making of the Sufi.

BROAD - MINDEDNESS

Broad-mindedness and tolerance are the chief virtues of a Sufi, and the Sufis of Sind have fully lived and preached them. The Sufi is not a sentimentalist. He is a person who studies the various religions and, being a radical in thought and affectionate by nature, he soon shakes off the common prejudices that haunt men, and divide and from man. The great poets of Sind have laid great emphasis on this; they refused to call themselves muslims or Hindus.

Says Latif:

As breath pervades everywhere, so Sufis live in every beart.

He instructed the Sufi :

Infidel nor Muslim be, Heaven and Hell are not for thee. Sufi is one who says, "Make, oh make the Beloved thine."

The Truth is one, the Beloved is one, why fight over names ? They asked him : "Oh Latif, what are you, a Shiah Muslim or a Sunni one ?" He replied : "Between the two." They said: "But between the two is nothing." "Yes, yes," he replied, "that `nothing' I am."

Sachal was very forcible in his language when condemning formal religion.

Love forgives all religion. The Lover never entangles himself in either Islam or Hinduism.

Bedil says : "The Lover is sick of religion." Rohal says beautifully :

One is a Hindu, another is a Muslim, a third is the enmity between them. The blind cannot be free from darkness. Who can convince them of the truth ? But oh Rohal, when I entered on th e path of the Beloved, and saw, I found the Lord the very same, the very same. Now tell me, he that sleeps inside the Kaaba shrine, on which side should he stretch his legs ?

Muslims protest if a person sleeps with feet towards the kaaba, so Rohal put before them this riddle. He that lies secure in the Kaaba of the heart, he sees no difference between Hindu and Muslim.

Dalpat the Hindu Sufi sang :

If the Kaaba is the house of God; why not the temple too ? If the Lord lives in the pipal tree, who lives in the babul then ?

In the Mosque and the monastery,

Shines the one resplendent light.

Oh ! Dalpat, I know not how this disharmony entered into men!

MYSTIC PHILOSOPHY

The philosophy of the Sufis is the result of direct experience; they dug it out from their own being; the experiences being almost the same have resolved themselves into a system that is well-nigh perfect, even as the flawless Vedantic system of Shankaracharya. The Sufis of Sind also delved into themselves, and were conversant with Arabic-Persian mysticism as well as the Vedanta of the Indian. Sachal summed it up in a single phrase: "The mystery of negation-affirmation'. Latif spoke of it as "Being-non-being". The Sufi is prepared to pay the price for the finding of the solution of the world-mystery : that is the one object of his life. God says in the Koran, "Man is My mystery, and I am his mystery." This is what the Sufi calls the play between the two, him and the Beloved. Apart from his subjective experiences that may not be clothed in words, the Sufi is a hard thinker; but his thinking is accompanied by a longing of the heart and therefore is often more strenuous than mere gymnastics of the brain.

Sami says :

Love and intellect are the two wings of the bird.

The path of the Sufi consists of three steps. He finds himself in the state of lower affirmation, in which he has identified himself with the wrappings of flesh, emotions, and thoughts . the second step is that of the struggle in which he seeks to unclothe himself of all these garments; he wishes to see the seer and not the seen. In this undertaking he must not only kill his flesh (nafs) and control his emotion (dil), but he must give up all prejudices of the mind. As Latif says, "Come out ye all, and stand naked." This is the state of negation (nafi) which includes the suppression of emotion and thought, as well as of the will, the individuality.

Much misunderstanding has been created by looking at these statements on the surface. For instance, Dr. Iqbal, the poet of Punjab, is scathing in his remarks about the great Sufis concerning this destruction of the individuality; but the Sufis knew better. Latif said :

So long as thou art conscious of thine individuality, so long there is no prayer. Give up your individuality, and then say your prayer.

He also replied to the critic :

This non-being made the servant, Sire; in the subjective they are the same, in the objective they are also the same. Ah, how can you speak of the mystery ? The mystery of the Beloved ! All is mystery.

The third step is therefore that which comes after negation, or vacuum, and that is fulness, full being. This step is again called affirmation (isbat); it may be called re-affirmation, or affirmation in full, in which the lower affirmation and the struggling negation both dissolve. The experience at this stage, the Sufi says, cannot be given in words. "The dumb enjoys the sweets, can he speak ?" (Sami). The Sufis of Sind have also built the whole of their system on this negation-affirmation . This one problem they pondered over, in all its complications. They were on the wings of ecstasy when they thought they had grasped it: but when doubt again entered, and the solution slipped from their hold, they suffered great tearing of the heart, and were in deep depression. This state they called the "Separation from the Beloved"; while the other they called the "Union with the Beloved". In the union the bird of th e soul flies high to the heavens and is all joy. This is what they called "Wine". In separation the poor bulbul finds its wings clipped and broken, and cries most piteously. Sachal put this so feelingly :

What are we ? Oh, what are we ?

Brethren, we know not what we are.

Now we rejoice and say "We know ourselves"

Now we cry, "What are we ? Oh, what are we ?"

Now clouds pour showers cool,

Now burn fires of hell,

Now my heart is full of peace,

Now tears flow in streams.

What are we, Oh, what are we ?

Oh Sachal thou art the very He !

Why should we illusions weave ?

This struggle between affirmation, negation, (this "am" and "am not,") is given in much detail by sachal.

I am not, I am not,

I swear by the most high

I am not, I am not;

In am, am not; in am not, am;

This secret song, I sing and sing.

Sachal says, "In these cogitations, are a thousand kingships lost." It is this struggle of the "am, and am not," "'twixt will and will not" (Shakespeare), that is the path of every struggler. In the world of thought it is "am and am not," in the world of feeling it is "will and will not". These two, affirmation and negation, go hand in hand, simultaneously. the "I" is ever opposite to "not I," the "am" is ever face to face with "am not"; perhaps, these two are always dependent on each other, and the one only lives when the other is; therefore Sachal is surprised when he says, "In am, am not; in am not, am." Latif considered this an endless game. This "veil upon veil" ever rises. This "eternal process going on, from state to state the spirit walks". When the "I" withdraws itself from one cover that is "not I," it again finds itself in another "not I". Both are therefore independent, and the "I", and "am," cannot be seen apart from "not I" and "am not". Shah Latif said, "That is not without this, This is not without That." Your cannot see the "Thing in itself," the real form of anything cannot be seen, therefore "seek not His form; the Beloved thou seekest, upon my word, thou canst not meet Him face to face" (Latif) - "for it ever recedes." (Light on the Path). Asked the pupil then from Latif :

"But without the form it cannot be seen !"

"True," replied the teacher, "Therefore seek it not."

"What shall i do ?" enquired the pupil.

Replied Shah Latif, "Be thou as is a child. Give up incividuality. They that are thus absorbed, they neither stand in prayer, nor do they bend; they enter into the absolute Being, when they enter into non-being." This submitting of the "individual" in the words of Emerson, is what the Sufi calls real exestence, real ecstasy (hal), not the ecstasy which is temporary but the ecstasy that is final and matured.

The scientist looks at matter, finds one form after another, the "the thing in itself" always eluding him; but the Sufi understands this better, knowing that all these forms are strung as beads on the " individual". As long as there is the individual, so long these "not I's" will always haunt; and, as this individual, the "I," is also a something which forms a subject of his thought, it is a part of the "not I," therefore it must also be negatived.

None reached the shore, with the I; give up this I, and thyself will reach. Thyself the Lord, thyself will reach Thyself the Lord. All is beauty; there is no other thout; oh dualist ! give up duality. "The duality of negation-affirmation is annihilated into the absolute thought or absolute beauty."

By this process of thinking the Sufi comes to understand that the "am," the "not am," and the nexus between the two, all three form but variations of consciousness or thought (khial), and therefore Sachal sang as did the ancient Rishis :

As you yourself think yourself to be, so shall you be; know this with certaintly.

These Sufis were the predecessors of Schopenhaur who said, "The world is my idea." Sachal gives us a story of Sikander (Alexander), who went to a mystic and questioned him about the whole world being an idea. The mystic took him to a bathing ghat and both entered the stream for a bath. "Dive for a moment," said the faqir to Sikander. Sikander did so, and what did he see in that moment ? He forgot his kingly consciousness; he saw that he was a poor man, had many little children and a wife that were as poor and miserable as he; and that years and years passed away, and one day a terrible calamity befell him. He gave a start and behold ! he found himself again a king at the bathing ghat, along with the mystic. He was wonder-struck. Sachal said : "Sikander thought years had passed, but it was merely the history of a moment." So he added : "Thou art only thought (khial)."

This whole of this Universe is merely a contraction and expansion of thought, contraction and expansion both disappearing into what is called the Absolute. This is the highes stage of affirmation after negation. This state of consciousness cannot be described in words, but the Sufi whenever he expresses it in ecstasy uses the word "I" (Ana). This "I" is not the "I" of individuality, but it is the "I" that exists beyond neagation, so it is the "Absolute I". "They that dissolved the individual into the absolute, they said `I' in ecstasy." (Bedil).

So sang Latif also :

I (mun) is created in I; I befits I; I conceives I through I.

Many a misunderstanding is caused by students when they hear the mystic and the Vedantist speaking of reality in terms of "I". But the use of the word is technical in the system of Sufi thought. As one of the oldest Persian texts of the Sufis gives :

When the existence absolute comes into indication it is described by the word "I". - Gulshan Raz.

Shankara expressed it in exactly the same form. "It is described by the word I (Aham, Shobdena, Vikhyat). Thus when the Sufi says "Anal Haq" (I truth), the "I" here is really impersonal. We should think of it more in the third than in the first person. Anyhow this third or first person is the One Person.

SPECIES AND GENUS (Sefat and Zat)

While it is true that the final conclusions of the Sufi are largely the result of a subjective process, manifested in ecstasy, still all the earlier stages are thoroughly logical. Just as in the subjective process he uses the two words, isbat and nafi, affirmation and negation, he uses two other words, when he reasons - zat and sefat. These terms mean absolute and qualitative; genus and species; abstract and concrete, and so on.

Beloved ! the colourless came into myriad coulours. The drops, the waves, the streams, all these forms conceal the real water. One is the seed, thousands are the green leaves, myriads the fruits and branches. Originally there is clay, but the poter's pots carry numerous names. Originally there is the sugar-cane, many sweets are but its many forms. Gold is one, ornaments are but its forms - Sachal.

The very species, sefat, we see, are but the forms of a genus, zat, in fact they are in their totality the genus. In the same way the various genii in themselves form the species of an absolute genus, the real zat, in which all the pairs of opposites in here and dissove into a unity.

In Unity all the concrete, sefat, are one; the coloured and the colourless are both one; in Unity duality is dissolved. It is only in the concerete that myriad names are called; in Unity they disappear - Bedil.

Latif called this genus and species, unity (vahdat) and variety (kasrat).

The one became the many; many and the one form the totality.

Dalpat went still futher: he says why call it even one ?

Oh Dalpt! you could call it one, if there were any tow, when there is no two the word one cannot be used.

This is what the Vedantist calls Superimposition. Adhyas, the cause of all illustion, this losing of the one in the many. Why only say chair, table, teapoy, etc., why not think of them as wood ? The forgetting of the one tatality that is forest in the individual trees is the illusion which the Sufi calls tilsam. It is this illusion that he tries to overcome by constant cogitation, concentration and meditation, moved by an intense longing (ishk). They look within and seek.

Turn thy face inside;

Seek not as does the beast outside.

Seek not in the open fields;

Come in, and close the door - Latif.

Thus sang the simple Sufis of Sind of the Eternal Mystery.

UNDERSTAND THE ILLUSION

Oh brother ! you that tread the path,

Come, understand this illusion;

Dissolve duality, and you will know;

Keep off this gradation.

How could you ever forget the secret of negation-affirmation,

Stop this devotion ?

Why be satisfied with mere stories ?

Break thou the idols of Kaaba,

Know thine own secret, give not ear to miracles.

From the absolute you came. Understand this manifestation,

Oh Sachal, why weep so profusely ? Stop this raining of tears.

To the palace of the Beloved (body)

Why give so much tribulation ? - Sachal

ALL IS HE

The Sufi has by this process of reasoning and mystic experience arrived at what is his great word, the chief mantram, "All is He," (Hamaioost). Just as the Vedantist expresses this idea in the word "OM," so does the Sufi express it in the word Vahiadaoo, or Hoo hoo. It comes from his very being : he is engaged intently upon this Hoo hoo. The Sindhi Sufis who came in contact with Vedantist Yogis, adopted the word "OM" too; hence latif:

"If the Guru were to give thee the one curved word (OM) it would be to thee as light in darkness," therefore "keep mim(m) in thy mind, and place alif (a) before it".

This word, call it "OM," Hoo, or Vahiadaoo, is what they call the "Great Word," Ism-e-Azm; it is on this that they meditate. Ia m told it is a practice amongst the Sufis, to concentrate on the word " Ism-e-Azm," which they are given written in an attractive form on a piece of paper; and such is the result of their concentration that they see it everywhere; and their rapturous songs are but the joyful expression of this experience, as sung by an ancient Sufi, the grandfather of Shaha Latif :

ALL IS HE

He Himself is the splendour of the splendid,

He Himself is the soul of beauty,

He Himself is the form of the beloved,

He Himself is beauty complete,

He Himself is teacher,

He Himself is pupil,

He is thought Himself,

All this is known within the soul.

He Himself gives message,

He Himself is the king,

He Himself takes care of Himself,

He Himself sees Himself,

He Himself loves Himself,

He Himself creates abundantly,

He Himself longs for His created,

He is this, He is that,

He is the lord of death, He is the lord of life,

He is foe, He is friend,

He is here, He is there,

He lives in the mind,

He Himself sees the light of Himself.

THE SOUL IS UNCREATED

The Sufis, believing thus in the identification of the universal Soul with the individual soul, do not believe the soul to have been created at any time. It existed, and shall always exist. "Man has no beginning nor end has he." (Latif).

They said to Latif "

god said `Be,' (Kun), and it was, (fayakun), and so were souls created."

He replied :

"Be and it was" was not,

Whisper nor murmur moved,

We saw the Beloved at that moment face to face.

"Be and it was" was not,

Flesh and limb were not,

Adam was not in body yet

Oh Beloved ! I knew you even then.

"Be and it was" was not,

Form and matter were not,

No thought of virtue,

No care for vice;

Extreme oneness was, the flow of Unity,

The eyes of my Soul knew the Beloved then.

Latif said all souls were knit in unity.

As grains knit in a single sheaf lie in utter rest.

A good illustration of the "Monads," establishing thus the beginninglessness of the soul, is found in what he says to the students:

Call Him not creator, not call Him created, oh raw one !

When Latif spoke of "Be and it was," the coming into existence of the Universe, he did not even then speak of it as creation.

The Lord said "Be and it was"

This was his act of sacrifice - Fida.

"In utter reverence he spread the earth." It is not the creation that is brought into being from nothing, but a mere spreading, an unfolding - what the Hindu or the Theosophist speaks of as manifestation by an Ishvara, the Ruler of a System. According to the Koran the Lord (Rab) said at this moment to the soul: "Am I not your Lord ?"

The soul responded "Yes". Latif says that is true, but at the time of manifesting "I said that with my heart," that is, by his choice and will and not by coercion.

Sachal, the Intoxicated, made this more clear :

I am born of none, i am brought up by none,

I left Heaven, and came to earth,

Within Heaven's gates I could not be contained.

There a thought of the earth reached me;

I came of my own free will.

I am contained in every form.

It was love that rused on me,

No father, no mother have I,

Infinite and eternal am I,

My voyage is everywhere,

By mistake I call myself Sachal.

THE MASTER

Belief in the Murshid (Master) is a cardinal principal with the Sufi. He idolises him; his life is laid at his feet, for he is to him the only support of his life, as the one who knows what he yet does not know. It is the Master who places him on the Path; and therefore the Sufi often sings of the Master in superlative terms, calls him the Beloved and the Beautiful One

The Master and God both are before me,

At whose feet shall I first fall ?

I sacrifice myself for the Master who showed me God - Kabir..

Kabir was one of the greates of Sufis, though not so named. The Sufis believe the great Masters exist still on the physical plane; they believe that forty of them are living now, and call them by the name "Abdal". They assign various titles to them, some are Ghoans some are Kutub. Kutub is the pole star. It symbolises to the Sufi the Initiator. The Sufis of Islam generally accept Ali as the Initiator; he is the Gate (Bab) of Initiation. They sing the praises of the Master in abundant joy and in forms of poetic beauty.

Bedil, the Sufi of Sind (Rohri), says:

These men do never die,

They become the Praised Ones,

They shed mercy on the world with myriad hands,

They help the helpless,

They aid the depressed,

They leave not those that follow them when time of danger comes.

They are men only in name,

In reality they are God Himself, These Solitary Ones are mar vellous.

The author of this book has been led to believe, after much contact with many descendants and followers of the great Sufis of Sind, that a great occult centre existed in Sind which was the fountain source of Atma Vdya, or what the Sufi calls Tasawwuf or Theosophy. He has known a very very old Sufi named Kutub Shah, over hundred years old, and benign of face, a holy man and descendant of Sayed Jelani, one of the four who came with Lal Shahbaz centuries ago. This holy man used to say that in Sind, in the district of Kohistan, the mountain regions whose boundaries meet Makran and perhaps Kurdistan, was a place on the mountain tops where great Yogis came and gave teaching to the and that he was also one of the occupients of their teaching. Shah Latif refers perhaps to the same place and calls it Nani, where Nagas (Yogis) live. This matter will be referred to again when dealing with the lives of these Sufis. Kutub Shah used to say that at this place there existed no difference whatever between Islam and Hinduism. There is still a place called Hinglaj on this side, where many people go on pilgrimage, but it does not now enjoy the same reputation for sanctity as it seems to have done in the past. One thing however is certain: the great poet Latif of Sind came into contact with some great master of Yoga and recived tuition from him. He himself had pupils that were of high order.

THE MASTER

The Yogi came out from inside the abode of ecstasy,

The Master effulgent with the glory of the full moon.

The light of th eYogi dispelled all darkness,

His fragrance suffused the earth,

The Fakir awakened in me grace and love.

The face of the Master is as the sun is at dawn,

Diwan Dayaram Gidumal, I.C.S., retired Session Judge, and my fellow-countryman, writed thus of his visit to the Bhit of Latif where he met a very old man:

"He then proceeded to inform me that Abdulrahim was directed by Shah Latif, when he disappeared, to go to Girnar where a fakir 500 years old at once addressed him as Shah's balika or disciple." (Something about Sind, 1882).

The turban on his head flashed as lightning on the cluds,

From him fragrant scent of attar came.

He showed me the abode where the Exquisite One received illumination.

(The deep and utter reverence with which they think of the Master is heart thrilling.)

When walks my beloved the Lord of grace,

Earth cries Bismillah, "Glory to the Lord,"

It kisses the track he makes.

Houris stand enraptured, uterly amazed, By the Lord : The Beauty of the Belove is matchless - Latif.

THE PATH

The path of the Sufi is the same ancient and narrow path, that has been trodeen by every mystic worthy of the name. The Sufis of Sind have trodeen the same road; it is nothing short of "Give up thy life if thou wouldst live". (The Voice of the Silence.)

In fact a fair portion of the poetry of the Sufis consists of the enumeration of the difficulties of the Path.

If thou carest for thy life

Come not into this field. - Sachal.

Love is not a game that children can play.

He that breaks the bonds of body, Jism, individuality, Jio and soul, jan, thus throws himself under the lance; he can play the game. - Latif.

Art thou a Sufi ? Then keep no desire,

Give up thine head and throw it into fire. - Latif.

The whole of the individual man is to be crushed out of existence, before he can attain to anything of hte spirit. Latif gives the picture of the Tavern where are kept jars full of wine. The Master who is the keeper of the Tavern sits on a raised seat, with a terrible knife in his hand and wooden blocks running in a row before him. The aspirants, talibs, the seekers of the wine, come with utter humility before the Murshid, and with bowed head ask the Beloved for a drop of wine. Says the Master: " ` First thine head, then the wine; dost thou accept the condition ?' At the word of the Master some that have craven hearts, turn away. Others kneel down, look into the glorious eyes of the wine-seller, bend and put their heads on the wooden blocks and say : `Strike, oh strike, thou giver of wine, we lay our heads under the knife.'"

The wine-seller cuts the head of his pupil but not all at once; he "cuts, cleaves and carves" the flesh of these "bobles". Latif says he accepts not those that are poor (in heart), he wants the heads of aristocrats, those noble souls that are rich in feeling, thoughts and ideals. And behold ! the seekers neither cry nor weep, sob nor sigh. They shed not a tear, but even say with longing in their hearts:

Oh knife, be not sharp! May'st thou be ever dull, so that the hands of hte Beloved tarry onger on thee,

(that is on me). Thus the Tavern-keeper, who is so soft-hearted, tears out the life of the aspirant and the blood doth freely flow. "Oh Latif, wash thy heart with pain." The Tavern-keeper says to the aspirant,

You desire this wine, but the deadly poison of the snake is in this wine.

He replies :

Give us but a sip, Oh Master, of Thy wine, and take this head. Ah! Had I a hundred necks, forth with I would give them; I am utterly ashamed to give a single neck.

Thus does the pupil pass the test of the Tavern-keeper, and lo ! he that was dead is now alive and the pupil and Master both rejoice. It is the promise of the Koran : Matu kibl, Die, then live !

So shalt thou,

Dead, feed on death that feeds on other men;

And death once dead,

There's no more dying then, - Shakespeare.

Thus the treader of the path enters into the mysteries of life, through the fire of pain.

The lovers are fond of poisoned drinks :

They see poison and rejoice.

They always love the bitter and painful;

Though their wounds may bleed, they will not murmur.

Thus does Latif describe the trials of the Path. He talks of the guillotine and the gallows, the lance and the knife, the fire in which the moth must burn and so on.

How is it, that lovers on gallows rejolce ?

Ah me ! The place of death becomes the throne of grace,

When the eyes of the Beloved meet theirs.

That is th e mystery of the wine, sung of by all Sufie; these love-intoxicated men talk not of ordinary wine, though some who misunderstand these Sufis think so. Latif, Sachal and others did not touch a single drop of wine. Says Sachal, "this is not the intoxication of the drug." It is, as Latif says, "the surma of light", that makes the eyes "ruby red," and the whole world appear rosy red.

These earlier ascetics crushed the animal in man. Latif said : "Be thou thinner than a needle." Much of this asceticism is lacking in the present day Sufi, but his forbears touched neither wine, nor flesh.

Drink thou thine own blood,

There is no better wine than that;

Strike thy teeth into thine own heart,

There is no better meat than that.

Thus lived these knights of the spirit, living plainly and thinking high. This utter desirelessness precedes all spiritual awakening.

Enter into the abode of desirelessness, and see Allah !

The road of the spirit is clear as day,

Only desires have hidden it. - Latif.

"This release from hope" they called light (nur). As Latif says, "They think of freedom from hope as light, while the presence of it is darkness." Sachal speaks of the treader of the path as a great fighter, who has to face opposition from men. His great Sufi hero is Mansur Halai, who held to what he regardded as truth, defied all oppressors, and was flayed alive, but shrank not. Mansur said "I am God," Anal Hak. The priests and the people were wrath with him : they said to him, "Give up your heresy." He stood firm and yielded not and was put to death. Sachal, the poet, idolised mansure.

If thou art a man, speak as mansur,

Otherwise call not thyself Mansur.

On the path of Mansur, are many blows and many burdens.

Oh lover, never do a thing for which men may praise thee; take up some load of calumny,

Let the whole world reproach thee - Sachal.

Truly does the jewel of mysticism echo :

Desire power ardently, but that power

Oh desciple, which will make you appear as nothing in the eyes of man ! - Light on the Path.

These immortal Sufis tried to tread the "Razor Path".

INITIATIONS

The Sufi speaks of definite destinations, manzuls, on the spiritual path. Shah Latif describes them poetically thus :

The Beloved bound me hand and foot

And threw me into the sea.

Now He stands on the shore and speaks :

`Never let thy skirt be wet.'

`Oh knower of the path !' I said,

`How may I unmoist in water be ?

Teach me the way Lore !'

Thus spake He :

Make righteousness thy support (Shariyat).

Understand the law (Tarikat),

Thy heart attune with truth (Hakikat),

Know the place of knowledge (Marfat),

Prove thyself : thus unmoist shalt thou ever keep.

Thus four stages are shariyat, or right physical conduct, tarikat or correct moral feeling, hakikat, or clear mental conception and marfat or spiritual realisation. The Sufi speaks of these various Initiations in details, and links them up with various corresponding planes, asmans, and gives their description, calling them visions, mushahidas. The various planes are Nasut, the physical world, Malkut, the Deva world, Fabrut the plane of "Power," Lahut, and one other which Latif calls Hahut.

The comparative study of these doctrines with, those of the Vedantins, Gnostics, and present-day Theosophists is, to say the least, very interesting and illuminating; the distinguishing feature of the Sufi being that he presents his treasures in poetical forms of great beauty. The bare outline of their soul-entrancing doctrine cannot do justice to the mystics of Sind in any story of their lives.