Ye chaand sa roshan chehra, zulfon ka rang sunahra,
Ye jheel si neeli aankhen, koi raaz hai in mein gehra.
Tareef karun kya uski, jisne tumhe banaya.
In a shikara on beautiful Dal Lake in Kashmir, a young man sings to profess his love to a Kashmiri girl. The song is an assertion of earthly, romantic love, yet it also becomes a paean to the Creator for fashioning someone so beautiful that her eyes resemble blue waters of the lake. Most songs - whether Bollywood numbers, ghazals, English pop, or Sufi renditions - are imbued with sacred and profane interpretations.
The profane meaning remains purely at the level of physical existence, involving praise of skin-deep, ephemeral beauty that will eventually fade. However, such songs also allude to the inner beauty of a realised soul - a spark of the Divine that exists within all.
The Upanishads mark this divinity by declaring: "Aham Brahmasmi" - I am Brahmn; "Tat tvam asi" - So are you. The Isha Upanishad states: "Isha vasya idam sarvam, yat kincha jagatyam jagat" - God permeates everything that moves and does not move. Ishwara exists in all that we see and feel, including our very selves.
Hence, when the singer praises his lover, it is one divine spark praising another, and in doing so, exalting the Self that inhabits all beings. The song, then, is no longer about the ephemeral beauty of lover; it becomes a metaphor for the Divine. We experience nonduality of one realised soul praising another.
Take another example: a song picturised with young people celebrating and dancing on the beach. While hedonism is apparent in the song's visuals, embodying the profane, its lyrics narrate a different story:
"Aayi jag taj ke; ishq sikha jab yaar kare parwah meri/Mujhe kya parwah iss duniya ki/Jag mujhpe lagaye pabandi; main hoon hi nahi iss duniya ki," - When my beloved taught me how to love; when He cares for me, why should I care about this world? The world tries to impose restrictions on me, but I no longer belong to this world.
The more obvious meaning is - a girl wanting to break all rules of engagement and explore unbridled physicality of her relationship with her lover. The exalted meaning, however, is why worry when Beloved (the Divine) is taking care of us? We are merely souls on a short physical journey through this world; it is not our permanent home. For listeners, both sacred and profane interpretations are juxtaposed, and each can camouflage the other, depending on listener's state of mind.
The Sufis viewed Ishq, love, through two different lenses: Ishq-e-Majazi and Ishq-e-Haqiqi . Ishq-e-Majazi is a metaphor for earthly love between two people, signifying attachment to beauty and longing for the beloved on a physical plane. Ishq-e-Haqiqi, on the other hand, is love for God - true Beloved.
Many Sufi poets , such as Bulleh Shah, Rumi, and Rabia, wrote verses on Ishq-e-Majazi, expanding the metaphor towards Ishq-e-Haqiqi. Their quest was simple: when you love God, you see His reflection everywhere. When you take small steps towards the One, the One embraces you. As Kabir says: "paachhe laga Hari fire, kahat Kabir Kabir" - I am so lost in love for the Divine, it is God who runs after me, calling out 'Kabir, Kabir!'
Authored by: Sonal Srivastava
Ye jheel si neeli aankhen, koi raaz hai in mein gehra.
Tareef karun kya uski, jisne tumhe banaya.
In a shikara on beautiful Dal Lake in Kashmir, a young man sings to profess his love to a Kashmiri girl. The song is an assertion of earthly, romantic love, yet it also becomes a paean to the Creator for fashioning someone so beautiful that her eyes resemble blue waters of the lake. Most songs - whether Bollywood numbers, ghazals, English pop, or Sufi renditions - are imbued with sacred and profane interpretations.
The profane meaning remains purely at the level of physical existence, involving praise of skin-deep, ephemeral beauty that will eventually fade. However, such songs also allude to the inner beauty of a realised soul - a spark of the Divine that exists within all.
The Upanishads mark this divinity by declaring: "Aham Brahmasmi" - I am Brahmn; "Tat tvam asi" - So are you. The Isha Upanishad states: "Isha vasya idam sarvam, yat kincha jagatyam jagat" - God permeates everything that moves and does not move. Ishwara exists in all that we see and feel, including our very selves.
Hence, when the singer praises his lover, it is one divine spark praising another, and in doing so, exalting the Self that inhabits all beings. The song, then, is no longer about the ephemeral beauty of lover; it becomes a metaphor for the Divine. We experience nonduality of one realised soul praising another.
Take another example: a song picturised with young people celebrating and dancing on the beach. While hedonism is apparent in the song's visuals, embodying the profane, its lyrics narrate a different story:
"Aayi jag taj ke; ishq sikha jab yaar kare parwah meri/Mujhe kya parwah iss duniya ki/Jag mujhpe lagaye pabandi; main hoon hi nahi iss duniya ki," - When my beloved taught me how to love; when He cares for me, why should I care about this world? The world tries to impose restrictions on me, but I no longer belong to this world.
The more obvious meaning is - a girl wanting to break all rules of engagement and explore unbridled physicality of her relationship with her lover. The exalted meaning, however, is why worry when Beloved (the Divine) is taking care of us? We are merely souls on a short physical journey through this world; it is not our permanent home. For listeners, both sacred and profane interpretations are juxtaposed, and each can camouflage the other, depending on listener's state of mind.
The Sufis viewed Ishq, love, through two different lenses: Ishq-e-Majazi and Ishq-e-Haqiqi . Ishq-e-Majazi is a metaphor for earthly love between two people, signifying attachment to beauty and longing for the beloved on a physical plane. Ishq-e-Haqiqi, on the other hand, is love for God - true Beloved.
Many Sufi poets , such as Bulleh Shah, Rumi, and Rabia, wrote verses on Ishq-e-Majazi, expanding the metaphor towards Ishq-e-Haqiqi. Their quest was simple: when you love God, you see His reflection everywhere. When you take small steps towards the One, the One embraces you. As Kabir says: "paachhe laga Hari fire, kahat Kabir Kabir" - I am so lost in love for the Divine, it is God who runs after me, calling out 'Kabir, Kabir!'
Authored by: Sonal Srivastava
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