A stove is better than Bulleh

Main NeevaaN Mera Murshid Uccha
Main UcchiyaaN naal sang laayee

I am lowly my spiritual guide is lofty!
I have tied my fate to such lofty ones!

Bulleh naaloN chullaah changaa
jis te ann pakaaee daa
ral faqeera majlas keetee
bhora bhora khaaee daa

A stove is better than Bulleh
because at least you can cook food on it
Saints sit together to eat
and share their food with each other

Bulleh Pi sharaab tey kha kabab,
par baal haddaan di ag,
Chooree kartay bhan ghar rab da,
ais thuggan de thug noo thug.

O Bulleha, Drench yourself in wine and feast
ignite the fires flaming out of the bones.
stealing, break into the house of God
and swindle the cheat of cheats.

Mulla tay mashaalchi dohaan ikko chit
Loukan karday chananan, aap anhairae vich

Mullah and the torch-bearer, both from the same flock
Guiding others; themselves in the dark

17 Comments

Sidhusaaheb

March 30, 2008 11:06 am

Waah! Zabardast! Mazaa aa gyaa! Thanks for posting this! 🙂

Sidhusaaheb

March 30, 2008 12:37 pm

The amount of wealth that is swindled by the self-proclaimed representatives of God in His name and the amount of black-money that gets accumulated in the ‘houses of God’ can make it appear as if He were the cheat of cheats. All of that should definitely be redistributed among the needy.

I hope I’ve been able to correctly comprehend the point that Baba Bulleh Shah is trying to make here. 😛

LAXMAN SINGH

March 15, 2012 12:31 pm

sir,
in my opinion ,by saying pee sharab………thuggan de thug noo thug,poet says live a hedonistic life,live to the fullest possible even if it asks for doing wat religion forbids(hypocritical religious ideas).u will not be denied heaven for this(choorey kar te bhan….),this way u will cheat the cheats who cheat society by claiming themselves to be men of god an dthat they only can lead u to the house of lord if u fallow as they say.

Reply

Naveed Siraj

March 30, 2008 1:52 pm

Sidhusaaheb, i think that in “thuggan dey thug noon thug”, the scorn is heaped on the head mulla or in general the clergy that has put domga and ritual before faith in unity. I do not think that the Divine (“He” as you put it) is the target but I could be wrong.

RR, the first verse reminds me of Pathanay Khan’s intro “mairaa ranjhan hun koor hor” when he blows my mind with “tussee wee uchhay, tohaadee zaat vee uchee, tusse vich uch day randay, assee kasooree, sadee zaat kasooree, asee vich kasoon day randay”. Could you guide me if I ucchaa [of high esteem] and kasooree [full of blame/blemish/sin] mean what i think they do as i have indicated in brackets or is Uch Sharif and Kasoor also hinted at (perhaps intentionally with duality of meaning] since these two towns have had religious figures with huge following hence town names as well as literal meaning of the words causing this added dimension

I refer to this verse jokingly at work when some colleague pretends to be high and mighty 🙂

March 30, 2008 4:00 pm

Naveed Bhai
Many thanks for the comments – as always illuminating.

Yes you are absolutely right – there is a word play. Bulleh Shah was from Kasur and therefore he calls himself “Kasoori ‘low – sinner-
His master and Pir Inayat’s ancestors had come from Ucch – and here he calls that medieval town – an abode of the Sufis “Uccha” (higher, exalted).

The third dimension also needs to be stated: malamati Sufis often put themselves at the lowest rung of society and relate to those who are looked at as the scum of the earth. It is through this sort of annhilation of ego and self that they make themselves empty of illusions thereby surrendering themselves to divine love.

And, here Bulleh Shah also puts that qasoori element.

Lastly, at another level there is typical Bulleh Shah wit and irony at work too. He did not believe in caste and neither did his murshid – Inayat was an Arain and Bulleh Shah a Syed – they broke the caste barriers. So for the unitiated populace, this was another way of playing up the irony – here a Syed – highest rank in Muslim hierarchy is calling himself ‘low’.

Your joke is therefore absolutely valid and continues the wit of Bulleh’s expression.

Sidhu ji- your interpretation is absolutely correct. Clergy in all religions uses faith for political and economic power – and Sufis/Bhakats had no patience for that….

The more profounder message is how organized religion keeps human spirit in ritualistic darkness not highlighting the real connection between Man and God!

Naveed Siraj

March 30, 2008 4:36 pm

Raza Bhai – The beauty of this word-play (Ucch Sharif & Kasoor) is very touching. Thanks for making the point about the caste difference between the ustad/murshid/divine and shagird/mureed/follower

A thousand prayers for Pathanay Khan; May his soul rest in peace; the whole day i have been humming this kafi

shahidain

March 31, 2008 8:17 pm

For RR, Good work. Keep it up.

For Naveed Siraj, this Ã¢â‚¬Å“tussee wee uchhay, tohaadee zaat vee uchee, tusse vich uch day randay, assee kasooree, sadee zaat kasooree, asee vich kasoon day randayÃ¢â‚¬Â has been added by Pathnay Khan himself we donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t find these refrains in any of the book written on Bulleh Shah. What I believe that there is not any word play, it has only been said to have a high regard/admire for the Murshid.

For Sidhusaahab. I have left a brief introduction on Baba Farid Life and Khawaja Farid Life at Ã¢â‚¬Å“Khawoja Fareed- The mystics voice of Soutern PunjabÃ¢â‚¬Â you might find it informative.

A few couplets said by Bulleh shah regarding Mullas.

Ã¢â‚¬Å“Mulla tay mashaalchi dohaan ikko chit
Loukan karday chananan, aap anhairae vich Ã¢â‚¬Å“

Mullah and the torch-bearer, both from the same flock
Guiding others; themselves in the dark

Ã¢â‚¬Å“Parh parh masley roz sunaavey
Khaanaa shak shubey da khaweyn
Daseyn hor te hor kamaaweyn
Ander khot baahir suchyaarÃ¢â‚¬Â

You deliever sermons everyday
You eat the food of suspicion and doubt
You preach something and act inversly
Inwardly you are corrupt but outwardly you are pious

Ã¢â‚¬Å“dharamsal vich dharvi rahinde, thakur dware thug
vich maseet kusatti rahinde, aashik rahin alagÃ¢â‚¬Â

In temples reside the ruffians, in gurudwaras, the thugs
In mosques reside the liars, the true lovers (of the Divine), stay aloof from all these.

shahidain

March 31, 2008 8:34 pm

“Parh nafal namaaz guzaarey
Uchiyaan baangaa chaaagaa maarey
Mimbar te charh waz pukaarey
Keetaa teynoo hirs khawaar”

You say prayers upon prayers
You scream and yell loudly
Sitting on the pulpit, you deliver sermons
Greed has brought disgrace upon you ( Prof Saeed)

Another version of translation

Endless extra prayers you offer
Jarring prayer-calls are released from your coffer
Mounting pulpit, sermon you proffer
Wretched you became through greed ( Muzaffar Ghafar)

samina

April 1, 2008 9:28 am

BULHE NU SAMJHAWAN AAINAN BHAINAN TE BHARJAIAN
MAN NE BULHYA SADA KAHNA CHAD DE PALLA RAIAAN
AAL-E NABI AULAD-E NABI NUN TOON KION LEEKAN LAINAN

JEHRA SANOON SYED SADDE DOZAKH MILAN SAZAIAAN
JO KOI SANOON RAEEN AAKHE BHISHTEEN PEENGAN PAIAAN
RAEEN SAEEN SABHI THAEEN RAB DIAN BE PARWAAIAN

SOHNIAN PARE HATAIAN NE TE KOJHIAN LE GAL LAAIAN
JE TU LOREEN BAAGH BAHAARAN CHAKAR HO JA RAEEAN
BULHE SHAH DI ZAAT KI PUCHNA-EN SHAKAR HO RAZAAIAN

Naveed Siraj

April 1, 2008 10:43 am

Shahidain – I sort of suspected this since any verse before the kafi is the work of the kafi singer but this appeared in one of Abida’s kafi’s when she covered Bulley as follows

“Tussan uchay tusandi zaat uchi,
Tussan Uch shahar day rahan walay,
Asaan kasoori, sadi zaat kasoori,
Asaan shaher Kasoor day rahan walay”

Taken from http://www.folkpunjab.com/abida-parveen/assan-ishq-namaz-jadoon-neeti-ae-2/

So it must be a lesser known poet albiet a popular one among kafi singers like Abida & Pathanay Khan

Sidhusaaheb

April 1, 2008 12:57 pm

Thank you Naveed Siraj, Raza, Shahidain! 🙂

shahidain

April 1, 2008 3:10 pm

Naveed Siraj

I do agree with your comments. This kafi was first sung by Pathanay Khan and then followed by Abida Perveen. If you recall that we intially thought that ” Umraan-langheean-pabhaan-phaar” is Khawaja Ghulam Fareed kafi, whereas it is written by a poet Mazhar Tirmizi.

shahidain

April 1, 2008 3:49 pm

Samina – A very popular Kafi sung by Abida Parveen. The English translation of kafi is:

BULHE NU SAMJHAWAN AAINAN BHAINAN TE BHARJAIAN
To counsel Bulleh, his sisters in law have come

MAN NE BULHYA SADA KAHNA CHAD DE PALLA RAIAAN
Pay heed to us and give up mixing with the low caste Araeen

AAL-E NABI AULAD-E NABI NUN TOON KION LEEKAN LAINAN
You are a scion of Ali,the Prophet, why must you shame our fair clime.

JEHRA SANOON SYED SADDE DOZAKH MILAN SAZAIAAN
Those who call me Syed, are destined to hell made for them

JO KOI SANOON RAEEN AAKHE BHISHTEEN PEENGAN PAIAAN
Those who call me Araeen, have the swings in heaven laid for them

RAEEN SAEEN SABHI THAEEN RAB DIAN BE PARWAAIAN
The low caste and the high caste, are created by God who cares not for family

SOHNIAN PARE HATAIAN NE TE KOJHIAN LE GAL LAAIAN
He regards the beautiful and cherishes the not so comely.

JE TU LOREEN BAAGH BAHAARAN CHAKAR HO JA RAEEAN
If you wish to enjoy the glory of the Garden, go and serve the Araeen

BULHE SHAH DI ZAAT KI PUCHNA-EN SHAKAR HO RAZAAIAN
Why bother about BullehÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s caste? Obey the command that comes from Saeen

(Translation by K S Duggel)

Naveed Siraj

April 2, 2008 6:43 pm

Shahidain & Samina – “Bulley Nu Samjhavan” appeared on sound track of “Khuda Kay Leeyay”, the GEO production released last year. The kafi is titled banday-ya on the CD

Pathay Khan’s version of this kafi (and incidently tusse vee uchay) is on this link

http://www.apnaorg.com/video/pkhan/

shahidain

April 3, 2008 8:02 pm

Naveed Siraj

Thanks for info

Zafar Awan

October 30, 2013 4:08 pm

I appreciate all the participant of this discussions about the sufis and their poetry. You all are wonderful people. SIDHUSAAHEB I am e specially grateful to you for giving an excellent explaination of one of the most complicated verse of Baba Bulleh Shah, that says ” pee shrab tay kha kabab”. I shall use this explaination to explore this verse further to make it even more easy to understand. Sidhusaaheb you are great. For the last three years, off and on I used to try to solve the mystry of this verse but could not go beyond certain limit. Regards

jahffer

March 16, 2015 3:17 pm

Every word of Bullah Shah is spiritualism and trending towards the self and soul piousness and for that his guidance and teachings train the reader-in-fact that to prefer the needs of others upon yours and to sacrifice yourself by body+blood+bones that one claims of its own in actual property.