Bulleh Shah was a Punjabi Sufi poet who lived through the 17th century. He was a humanist and a philosopher. His first spiritual teacher was Hazrat Shah Inayat Qadri, a sufi spiritual leader of Lahore(city in modern day Pakistan). Bulleh Shah gathered spiritual treasures under the guidance of his spiritual leader and was known for the miraculous powers he had when it came to poetry. Today I want to shed light upon the profound poetry of a man whose sole purpose of life was to educate a person to dwell inside himself and discover the treasure that is hidden therein.
You read several books of knowledge,
But failed to read your own self.
Bulleh Shah is implying here that to have gathered so much knowledge, went so many places in the thrust for knowledge that you forgot who you really were. You did understand what the books or their knowledge is, but failed to understand your own self, so what good has all this knowledge done to you? You should know yourself first and then you should know what or who others are because that is the essence of your existence.
Off you run to enter temples and mosques,
But failed to enter your own heart.
Bulleh Shah is now addressing all the priests and Rabbis that you people have a thirst to enter places of worship, but you never cared to enter your heart. I would like to relate a famous quote here, “If being religious has made you more judgmental, rude and harsh, a backbiter, you need to check if you are worshipping God or your ego.” A person should love everyone else and not try to enforce religious on them. If someone is kindhearted and a nice human being, then you don’t need to enforce religion on them because being a humble person is a basic tenant of every religion. You shouldn’t necessarily go to places of worship to find God but should go inside your heart to find Him.
You wage wars against Satan,
But failed to fight your own ego.
Satan is like a scape goat for everything bad that is going around in the world but that is not the case. In reality, it is your ego that is troubling you. If you want to get rid of the evils in the society, you should get rid of the evils present in your own ego first. You should try to be a humble human being and that is the solution for eternal happiness.
Proclaims Bulleh Shah, you try to fetch floating objects,
But failed to fetch what was at your home.
Ever wonder why a man is so depressed? Psychiatrist would say that this is because a person is not getting his desire fulfilled. Why is this so? It is because we have high hopes. When you get a B on your exam while you were expecting an A is something that you would be upset about. But if you aimed for a C and then got a B, you would be over the moon. That is what Bulleh Shah is saying that you should be happy with what you have and always keep your hopes aligned with modesty.
A very fascinating post once again! Good work writing it! Very eloquently written and I sure did learn a lot, but why do you like it???