This is a collection of Bulleh Shah Poems. Bulleh Shah (1680–1757)
was a Mughal-era Punjabi philosopher and Sufi poet. His poems and teachings are
classic example of Vedanta.
It is a wonder that life is a pleasure to you and death a
terror. But in fact life and death belong to the gross body, the mortal part of
your being. But the immortal part of your being does not undergo any change by
life or death. Your being is the life of
all creatures. As the sky pervades all objects but remains unattached, so you
being the life of the universe never depart from your nature in the least.
There is nothing second or equal to or greater than you. You have neither origin
nor end. You are Bliss absolute. Bulleh Shah says: “Mortality cannot touch your
being. You are beyond time and space. Your being is ever immortal.”
Your desires are harassing you incessantly and have made you
oblivious of your real being. You were the owner of your Atman-empire but your
desires have deprived you of your empire and turned you a beggar. Your treasury
is now empty. Your bonine being is enchained by the slender thread of desires.
Bulleh Shah says: ‘See the fun! The ocean has been compressed in a small
earthen pot! The sun of awareness of your eternal being will reveal its
dazzling luster as soon as the cloud of desires subsides.’
You are ignorant of the affairs of your own home. Being connected
with desires, you have been transformed into them. Shake off the desires like
dirt and dust and be desireless. When desirelessness is established, the seer
within is revealed in its effulgent glory. A grassy field cannot conceal a lion
long. Bulleh Shah says: “Sometimes it happens that having had the missing
necklace in the neck, we search for it madly in the nook and corner of our
house, though it is never lost. You have simply forgotten your real being and
consequently been dropped in a well of miseries out of ignorance.
Your luminous being is the revealer of the visible
phenomena. Your being resides in all eyes as the seer. You are the witness of
threefold states of waking, dream and sleep. But you are beyond these states.
Bulleh Shah says “Your being is ever luminous and does not undergo any change
in any place or time.
Do not harbor any doubt regarding your Self. There is
nothing other than your Self in the universe. Know this for certain and be
free. Accept a knower of reality as your guide and in no time you will be
blessed with illumination. Walk steadily on the spiritual path in strict
accordance with the teachings of the Guru. Your eye of wisdom is covered with
cataract. The eye will be cleansed by the remedy of the Guru’s teachings.
Bulleh Shah says: ‘Ascertain your own being as ever free, pure and awakened and
meditate on it.