Bullhe Shah: Get Rid of Duality

Get rid of duality, there is no confusion.  He is both Turk and Hindu,* there is no one else. Call everybody a holy man, there is no thief. He is contained in every heart.

Why do you make up stories pointlessly, and read the Gulistan and the Bostan?** Why do you quarrel for no reason? Who has taught you this perverse Veda?***

The law† is our nurse, the way is our mother. Next came reality, and we gained something real from gnosis.

***

While the heart is affected by duality, who can say “My ego is dead”? My whole being became Inayat;†† then it got the name Bullha.

 

*”Turk” was used as a standard term in medieval India for “Muslim,” as opposed to Hindu.
**The Gulistan (The Rose Garden) and the Bostan (The Orchard) are two collections of stories that form key texts of the Persian literary canon.  They were both written by Sheikh Saadi (d. 1292) of Shiraz.
***i.e. false teachings
†This verse refers to the traditional four stages of the Sufi path: the law, the way, the recognition of reality, and direct knowledge or gnosis.
††”Inayat” refers to Bullhe Shah’s Pir, Baba Shah Inayat Qadiri (1643-1728).

From Lyric 78
Bullhe Shah Sufi Lyrics
Translated by Christopher Shackle

 

 

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