Baba remained in seclusion for 16 days. Throughout this seclusion, Baba did not sleep at his usual time, but gave Dr. Ghani the duty of reading the poetry of Hafiz to him during those hours. Ghani would start reading Hafiz's ghazals in the late evening and stop at 4:00 A.M., when Baba would sleep until six o'clock. He only ate one meal a day. During the last week of his seclusion, Baba fasted on fruit juice.
Meher Baba loved the poetry of Hafiz for, like no other, he said "it reveals the secrets of the spiritual path."
Hafiz did not actually write poetry, but recited his inspirations or sang them. Baba was familiar with the following well-known ghazals, which Hafiz recited the very night he became God-realized:
Praise be to God, what wealth I possess tonight;
For suddenly my Beloved came to me tonight.
When I saw the Loved face, I made obeisance;
By the grace of God, I am blissfully happy tonight.
My ceaseless longing has achieved this union,
I am reaping the reward of that longing tonight.
My slumbering fortune has awakened at last;
The most auspicious night of my life is tonight.
My blood will write "Anal Haq" [I am the Truth] on the Earth
Even if I am crucified like Mansur.
You [the Beloved] possess divine wealth, and I am the needy one;
Give me the alms of your Glory, and make me blissful tonight.
Hafiz has lost himself in this ecstasy
Which he possesses tonight.
This is the other poem Hafiz recited after he was made Realized by his Master, Attar:
Last night before dawn
I was given relief from all suffering,
I was given the water of everlasting life.
I drank from the divine goblet,
and I was overpowered by the glory of Divinity.
What a supremely fortunate dawn it was ,
and what an auspicious night —
the night of Qadr when I was given the authority of Godhood.1
As I swooned away with awe and wonder
at the sight of the Loved Face,
The true meaning of lat and manat was revealed to me.2
If my longing is fulfilled, then I am in bliss.
What wonder? For I received what I deserved!
Henceforth, I see my Self reflected in the mirror of the Beloved;
For in it, I see my Real Self.
Footnotes
- 1.The night of Qadr (power) is the night that the Koran was first revealed to Muhammad. In Islam today, the festival of the night of Qadr is an occasion for vigil and prayer.
- 2.Lat and manat were pagan idols in Mecca that the Arab and Hebrew tribes worshiped before Muhammad was recognized as "the Prophet sent from God" and established "Islam, the religion of the One God."