Let's see whether I am able to reach Your doorstep.
Let's see whether I can make my home there or not.
Ages of suffering cannot open the heart's portal to You,
My destiny is in Your hands, whether I gain heaven or not.
I am forced to dance to Your tune by the breeze in Your lane —
Its perfume absorbs the stink I have collected over lifetimes.
I have no concern with the world — I am ruined in Your name,
I am Your slave, whether I gain Godhood or not.
O Beloved! Why do You shower affection on indifferent strangers?
Just look at my heart, which is Yours no matter how You behave.
My heart, body, mind and soul are drowned in Your intoxication,
But I doubt whether the Shaikh has any feelings for You!1
When I joined Your court You never asked about me.
Has someone now poisoned Your ear against me?
Whomever I meet sings the praises of Your divinity,
But internally what silent strength I've gained no one knows.
This dust of Khak longs to see the Sun.
You've turned it into the dust of Your feet and made it wine.
The company of Meher contains this treasure,
Whether one has yet discovered it or not.
One night in Ghani and Khak's room, Baba composed a ghazal in Gujarati within two hours. It was read to the men at Manzil-e-Meem (and later translated into English by Baba himself):2
The unfathomable and mysterious existence of God
Is in everything, be it earth, air, water or fire.3
He is the sole Master of the universe and the Creator of both the worlds,
Even the smallest particle is proof of this existence, though His presence there is indiscernible.
The candle too burns with the fire of love for God and ultimately destroys itself;
While the moth, being enamored with the glow of its fiery cheek, ultimately dies in its flames and burns itself to ashes.4
The rose bursts out in singing the praise of the Almighty in the early hours of the morning,
While the love-sick nightingale showers his love on the rose by singing melodious songs by its side in the garden.
Love exists in everything animate or inanimate;
Love is manifest every second, in the union of the wall and the door.5
Footnotes
- 1.Shaikh here denotes a religious leader.
- 2.Footnoted explanations to some of the lines are also given by Baba.
- 3.The four chief elements — earth, air, water and fire — all have in them the light of the Creator, hidden in a mysterious way.
- 4.Just see the wonderful effect of love: While the candle sacrifices itself over the Almighty, the moth becomes mad after the candle, and surrenders its dear life to the flames.
- 5.Science has proved to the world that each particle or atom in this universe is enveloped by a sort of electricity around it, which repels or attracts other particles as the case may be. It has also been demonstrated that similar particles repel each other and dissimilar particles attract each other. This magnetism or power of attraction between two dissimilar particles is what we call love. Thus we see that there is love in anything and everything, even the smallest particle or atom in the universe. The existence of love presupposes the idea of the lover and the beloved; separation & union. For instance, male & female in the state of separation are continually attracting each other, and the fruit of their union is the child, which has also love in it. In the state of separation the disciple and Master are two different items. The result of the internal union between the two is God, which is love Universal. Taking the example of water, earth, brick, chunam [lime], wall, wood, iron and door, we shall see that there is love in one and all of them individually and in combination. The union of water with earth is brick; the union of chunam and brick is the wall; and the combination of wood and iron gives rise to a door. The door and the wall in the state of aloofness or separation are of no use at all. The union of the two gives the door the capability of moving to and from, as is evident from the Persian words Dar-o-Divar. i.e., opening and shutting. Thus we see that the beginning and end of everything in the universe is love, as sung in the couplet.