A collection of teachings of Bulleh Shah.
My dear, first know thyself. First realize the true nature
of your Self. As you are ignorant of your own Self you are drowned in the ocean
of sorrows. Nothing short of the knowledge of Self can make you happy. None can
ever be happy in other million means. Having learnt the mystery from all clever
scholars of the earth, Bulleh Shah addresses every man thus: “My dear, the four
Vedas and the Quran all declare that you are the embodiment of absolute bliss
and knowledge.
Closing your eyes and nose (i.e. all sense organs) be seated
in solitude and meditate on Absolute Reality. Give up desires as they make the
mind outward. Realize the emptiness and illusoriness of this world. Conquest of
mind is possible only by desirelessness. The intellect is the knower of the
external world. But Atman illumines the intellect. That atman is the immortal
part of your being. Bulleh Shah says, My friend, realize this mystery and pass
time in peace.’
In your all pervasive being there is not even the least
perforation through which a blade of grass can enter. As one in sleep sees
various dreams, so we see this cosmos on account of the nescience though it has
never been created. Bulleh Shah says: “ In the world within or without there is
nothing other than your own being. Your self-imposed ignorance has kept you
ignorant of this great secret.
Meditate in your heart of hearts and experience that your
being is the substratum of the cosmic illusion. It is through your being which
is consciousness itself that others can know objects; otherwise no knowledge of
objects is possible. As a boy is afraid of his shadow, so you are bound by the
phenomena which is nothing but the creation so fyour own desires. Bulleh Shah
says: “Who binds the spider? It weaves a net and gets entangled in it. We
create our own bondage and cry for release!”