Sultan Ba-HU, Sufi Poet-Mystic

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Sultan Ba-HU, Sufi Poet-Mystic

 

 

Lately, I've really been enjoying the mystical poetry of Sultan

Bahu, 1628 -- 1691, a Sufi Master (Qadriya Order) of the Light and Sound

of God who lived in northern India. The name "Bahu" means, "with God."

 

 

The following ecstatic poems translated from Punjabi sometimes

contain the word "HU," pronounced: "HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO," a Name of God

which symbolizes and imitates to some extent, the unpronounceable Name

of God -- the Sound Current -- Music of the Spheres.

 

Sultan Bahu:

 

Then, in an ecstasy of love,

you will repeat the Name of HU constantly,

devoting every breath of your life

in contemplation of Him.

Only when your soul merges

in the Essence of the Lord,

will you deserve the name 'Bahu.'

 

 

HU is within, HU is without,

HU pervades everything;

where then is Bahu to find HU [God]?

He has wounded his own heart,

he has tortured his own soul

with austerities of all manner,

with worship of all kinds.

Having read millions of books,

he has also come to be called 'wise.'

But the name 'faqir' befits only him, O Bahu,

whose very grave breathes life!

 

 

Mystics live in this world as HU personified;

they practice the Name that is the essence of God.

They live in HU --

beyond religion,

beyond belief and unbelief,

beyond life and death.

If you explore the Path within yourself,

you will find God nearby, through the Royal Vein.

He now lives in me and I in Him, O Bahu:

not only distance from Him

but even nearness to Him

have become irrelevant!

 

 

Lovers remain completely intoxicated

in the ecstasy of their Beloved.

They offer their souls to the Beloved

while still living

and thus immortalize themselves

in this life and the hereafter.

 

 

Lovers are always engaged

in inner contemplation of the Beloved.

They even deny themselves their nightly sleep --

so absorbed are they

in their practice of God's real Name.

They are restless day and night;

they cry in the pain of their separation from God.

Bahu hails the good fortune of those devotees

who rightly devote themselves

to the lesson of Oneness.

 

 

HU is within, HU is without,

HU always reverberates in my heart.

The wound in my heart aches constantly

with the unabating pain of HU's love.

The darkness of ignorance departs

from the heart lit by HU.

I sacrifice myself to the one, O Bahu,

who has realized the significance of HU.

 

 

-- Sultan Bahu, "SULTAN BAHU," J.R. Puri, RS Bks

 

 

Allah HU Akbar, God is Great, PEACE,

 

James

 

 

 

 

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