After keeping a vigil for 40 consecutive nights at the tomb of Baba Kuhi (an 11th C. AD Persian poet) the young man smitten by love was rewarded with a visit by angel Gabriel (some suggest the angel was Khizer).
Angel: So you are bestowed with immortality and poetic excellence as promised by Baba Kuhi, now for your third boon, what is your heart’s desire?
Stunned by the beauty of the angel the young man forgot the charms of his sweetheart whom he desired to possess and for winning whose heart he had kept the vigil. So enchanted was he by the grace and radiance of the former that He thought if Almighty’s angel is so intoxicatingly beautiful how beautiful would be the Lord himself. And in a fit of ecstasy these words escaped his mouth
Young man: I want God……..
The realization he was asking for was terribly difficult and required tremendous patience and true faith…he knew it…..it would have been so much simpler to have asked for his lady love…but then he would not have become Hafez, one of the most renowned and loved poets of Iran.
The moment he realized that the beauty of ‘Shakh-e-Nabat” (a lady whom he had seen in the elite part of the city and to whom he had lost his heart to) was merely a reflection of the beauty of the Almighty, he became restless and anxious to reach the all pervading Lord and to delve in mysteries of nature.Nothing else could quench his thirst for eternal knowledge
How can your face show such beauty
While here on Earth
You are the image of inconsistency and faithlessness
(From: “The Diwan of Hafez Shirazi” Ed. By Michael R Brown, Translated by Parham Noori Esfandiani and Alan Dean)
These lines clearly point out his disillusionment with the material world. He began yearning for divine love . Many a times Hafez’s poems are classified as love poems and their meaning taken literary. Though at the earlier stage he has written love poems solely dedicated to Shakh-e-Nabat but all his later poetry is dedicated to divine love.
Directed by the angel to go to Mohammad Attar and consider him as his Spiritual guru, Hafez spend forty years of his life serving his master secretly. The story of his vigil made him known throughout Shiraz and the poetry he now wrote in praise of his Lord were sung in lanes and bylanes of the city. These poems were written essentially as love poems sung in the praise of the beloved with deep spiritual meaning in them. One can understand the contents very well in Indian context as we have had many saint poets like Meera bai, Andal etc. who considered themselves as lovers of Lord.But in Persia of that time his works came under lot of criticism. He was openly called a ‘Kafir’ and his works were constantly scrutinized by religious leaders.
All the opposition did not deter him at all. He also saw the wisdom and mercy of God manifesting through his Master Attar, and he composed many poems praising his Master and begging Attar to fulfill the promise of Union of God. When Hafez went to visit Attar, Attar would ask Hafez to read his latest poem, then he would spiritually analyze it for the sake of Hafez and the other disciples, (this practice continued for forty years). Then the disciples would put tunes to the ghazals and the songs would soon be sung throughout Shiraz, with the fame of Hafez continuing to grow.
But by the end of forty years of serving Attar he became impatient to unravel the mysteries of unknown.That is when he decided to put himself to test again.
This time he entered a circle that he had drawn on the ground. He had made up his mind to enter self-imposed ‘Chehel Nashini’, in which the lover of God sits within a circle for forty days and it was believed that if the devotee was successful in this difficult deed, the lord would grant him his heart’s desire. Hafez managed to perform this difficult task too but by the end of the penance he realized he had no desire left. Thus he reached a stage of God realization where nothing mattered anymore and he wanted nothing. Feeling blissfully light and enlightened he came back to Atttar and during the last eight years of his life he just wrote about the ultimate union. He no longer was the seeker of the beloved but he was the beloved himself. In the poems written during this period one can often see traces of Advaita philosophy.
Only
That Illumined
One
Who keeps seducing the formless into form
Had the charm to win my heart
Only
A perfect one
Who is always
Laughing at the word ‘two’
Can make you know of love
(From ‘The Gift’ Translated by David Landinsky)
The lines…laughing at the word ‘two’ clearly points out his faith in monism as well as critiques the system where God is looked upon as someone or something to be feared. Hafez says he is in me, I am in him and this feeling underlines all his later poems.
In his final years Hafez gathered his disciples around him and began to teach them, using his poems to illustrate the various Spiritual points that he wanted them to understand. Because his fame had become so widespread and people were traveling from all parts of Persia and other countries to be in his presence, that he had to seclude himself to a degree to be able to continue to teach his chosen disciples, and to write his poems that were eagerly awaited by his many devotees, and his enemies who continued to plot against him.
At the age of sixty-nine due to a longtime sickness he left his earthly form to the chagrin of most of Shiraz.People from far and near came to pay their homage to the great poet. Hafez's body was carried towards the Muslim burial ground in the rose-bower of Musalla, on the banks of the Ruknabad, which he loved and praised in his poems, and to where he often walked and sat down to write many of his ghazals.
"The Ulama of Shiraz, with his fellow clergy, refused to allow for Hafez's body to be buried as a Muslim and claimed that his poetry was impious. The long knives that they had been trying to drive into his back were now fully on show, for he was no longer there to defend himself against them with his sharp wit and sense of irony.
"The followers of Hafez and the many citizens of Shiraz began to argue with those who followed the orthodox point of view, and in the heat of the argument, someone suggested that they should ask the poet himself for the solution. The clergy, by now afraid of the size and fervor of Hafez's supporters, reluctantly agreed to the suggestion of tearing up many of his poems into couplets and placing them into a large urn, and to call on a small boy in the crowd to select one couplet from it. The couplet that was selected was couplet no. 7 from ghazal 60:
""Don't you walk away from this graveside of Hafez, because, although buried in mistakes, he is traveling to Paradise."
"Even after death, Hafez had, with tongue in cheek, outwitted his bitter rivals, and this practice of consulting his Divan as an oracle has continued from this incident
To this day people ask the great philosopher poet:
Hafez to ro be Shakh I Nabat
Jawab e swalam ra bede
(Hafez, You are sworn by Shakh I nabat
Give answers to my queries
Angel: So you are bestowed with immortality and poetic excellence as promised by Baba Kuhi, now for your third boon, what is your heart’s desire?
Stunned by the beauty of the angel the young man forgot the charms of his sweetheart whom he desired to possess and for winning whose heart he had kept the vigil. So enchanted was he by the grace and radiance of the former that He thought if Almighty’s angel is so intoxicatingly beautiful how beautiful would be the Lord himself. And in a fit of ecstasy these words escaped his mouth
Young man: I want God……..
The realization he was asking for was terribly difficult and required tremendous patience and true faith…he knew it…..it would have been so much simpler to have asked for his lady love…but then he would not have become Hafez, one of the most renowned and loved poets of Iran.
The moment he realized that the beauty of ‘Shakh-e-Nabat” (a lady whom he had seen in the elite part of the city and to whom he had lost his heart to) was merely a reflection of the beauty of the Almighty, he became restless and anxious to reach the all pervading Lord and to delve in mysteries of nature.Nothing else could quench his thirst for eternal knowledge
How can your face show such beauty
While here on Earth
You are the image of inconsistency and faithlessness
(From: “The Diwan of Hafez Shirazi” Ed. By Michael R Brown, Translated by Parham Noori Esfandiani and Alan Dean)
These lines clearly point out his disillusionment with the material world. He began yearning for divine love . Many a times Hafez’s poems are classified as love poems and their meaning taken literary. Though at the earlier stage he has written love poems solely dedicated to Shakh-e-Nabat but all his later poetry is dedicated to divine love.
Directed by the angel to go to Mohammad Attar and consider him as his Spiritual guru, Hafez spend forty years of his life serving his master secretly. The story of his vigil made him known throughout Shiraz and the poetry he now wrote in praise of his Lord were sung in lanes and bylanes of the city. These poems were written essentially as love poems sung in the praise of the beloved with deep spiritual meaning in them. One can understand the contents very well in Indian context as we have had many saint poets like Meera bai, Andal etc. who considered themselves as lovers of Lord.But in Persia of that time his works came under lot of criticism. He was openly called a ‘Kafir’ and his works were constantly scrutinized by religious leaders.
All the opposition did not deter him at all. He also saw the wisdom and mercy of God manifesting through his Master Attar, and he composed many poems praising his Master and begging Attar to fulfill the promise of Union of God. When Hafez went to visit Attar, Attar would ask Hafez to read his latest poem, then he would spiritually analyze it for the sake of Hafez and the other disciples, (this practice continued for forty years). Then the disciples would put tunes to the ghazals and the songs would soon be sung throughout Shiraz, with the fame of Hafez continuing to grow.
But by the end of forty years of serving Attar he became impatient to unravel the mysteries of unknown.That is when he decided to put himself to test again.
This time he entered a circle that he had drawn on the ground. He had made up his mind to enter self-imposed ‘Chehel Nashini’, in which the lover of God sits within a circle for forty days and it was believed that if the devotee was successful in this difficult deed, the lord would grant him his heart’s desire. Hafez managed to perform this difficult task too but by the end of the penance he realized he had no desire left. Thus he reached a stage of God realization where nothing mattered anymore and he wanted nothing. Feeling blissfully light and enlightened he came back to Atttar and during the last eight years of his life he just wrote about the ultimate union. He no longer was the seeker of the beloved but he was the beloved himself. In the poems written during this period one can often see traces of Advaita philosophy.
Only
That Illumined
One
Who keeps seducing the formless into form
Had the charm to win my heart
Only
A perfect one
Who is always
Laughing at the word ‘two’
Can make you know of love
(From ‘The Gift’ Translated by David Landinsky)
The lines…laughing at the word ‘two’ clearly points out his faith in monism as well as critiques the system where God is looked upon as someone or something to be feared. Hafez says he is in me, I am in him and this feeling underlines all his later poems.
In his final years Hafez gathered his disciples around him and began to teach them, using his poems to illustrate the various Spiritual points that he wanted them to understand. Because his fame had become so widespread and people were traveling from all parts of Persia and other countries to be in his presence, that he had to seclude himself to a degree to be able to continue to teach his chosen disciples, and to write his poems that were eagerly awaited by his many devotees, and his enemies who continued to plot against him.
At the age of sixty-nine due to a longtime sickness he left his earthly form to the chagrin of most of Shiraz.People from far and near came to pay their homage to the great poet. Hafez's body was carried towards the Muslim burial ground in the rose-bower of Musalla, on the banks of the Ruknabad, which he loved and praised in his poems, and to where he often walked and sat down to write many of his ghazals.
"The Ulama of Shiraz, with his fellow clergy, refused to allow for Hafez's body to be buried as a Muslim and claimed that his poetry was impious. The long knives that they had been trying to drive into his back were now fully on show, for he was no longer there to defend himself against them with his sharp wit and sense of irony.
"The followers of Hafez and the many citizens of Shiraz began to argue with those who followed the orthodox point of view, and in the heat of the argument, someone suggested that they should ask the poet himself for the solution. The clergy, by now afraid of the size and fervor of Hafez's supporters, reluctantly agreed to the suggestion of tearing up many of his poems into couplets and placing them into a large urn, and to call on a small boy in the crowd to select one couplet from it. The couplet that was selected was couplet no. 7 from ghazal 60:
""Don't you walk away from this graveside of Hafez, because, although buried in mistakes, he is traveling to Paradise."
"Even after death, Hafez had, with tongue in cheek, outwitted his bitter rivals, and this practice of consulting his Divan as an oracle has continued from this incident
To this day people ask the great philosopher poet:
Hafez to ro be Shakh I Nabat
Jawab e swalam ra bede
(Hafez, You are sworn by Shakh I nabat
Give answers to my queries
1 comment:
Interesting article on Hafez ...
Its quite rare to find someone else interested in Persian Poetry ...
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