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इश्क़ दी नवियों नवीं बहार || आचार्य प्रशांत, संत बुल्लेशाह पर ( 2014)
2.4K views
5 years ago
Bulleh Shah
Love (Ishq)
Guru-Disciple Relationship
Form and Formless
Religion and Conditioning
Sufism
Duality (Halal-Haram)
Separation (Virah)
Description

The session begins with a bhajan by Bulleh Shah, where his relatives try to persuade him to leave his Guru, who is from a lower caste. They remind him of his high-caste lineage, but Bulleh Shah retorts that he identifies with his Guru's caste, and those who do so will attain heaven. He says that God is carefree, rejecting the beautiful and embracing the ugly, and to attain that joy, one must become a servant of the Guru. Acharya Prashant explains the meaning of another of Bulleh Shah's verses, "Ishq di naviyon navi bahaar" (Love has a new spring every day). He states that when one receives the lesson of love, one becomes afraid of the inherited mosque. This is because religion is not something that can be inherited; it must be found. The process of finding true religion involves first freeing oneself from inherited conditioning. Bulleh Shah, a true Muslim, expresses fear of the inherited mosque and is attracted to the temple (Thakurdwara), which represents a new, concrete symbol for the formless. Acharya Prashant elaborates that love is for the formless, but the mind, being concrete, needs a form to hold onto. The mosque represents the formless and emptiness, which is difficult for the mind to grasp. The temple, with its idols, provides a tangible form. Similarly, Sufis, who were lovers, gave names and forms like Heer-Ranjha or 'Piya' (beloved) to the formless for the sake of worship. However, the ultimate purpose of the form is to lead to the formless. One who gets attached to the form is considered 'yog-bhrasht' (fallen from the path of yoga). He further explains the concept of 'halal' (permissible) and 'haram' (forbidden) for a devotee. For a devotee, anything that brings them closer to the beloved is 'halal', and anything that takes them away is 'haram'. He distinguishes between the longing of a worldly person, which leads them further into the world, and the longing of a devotee, which leads them towards peace and their center. All songs are born out of a sense of separation (virah) and incompleteness; in the state of ultimate union and completeness, there is only silence.