Being good

In my high school days, followed by throughout the college life, I was quite obsessed with Ghazals and Sufi Qawalis. Only later I realized that when it comes to songs, lyrics and their poetic value is always more appealing to me than the tune itself. In other words (though I am generally opposed to any kind of generalizations), a beautiful poem sung by anybody not having too much of a bad voice like myself would probably be more appealing to me than something gibberish sung by the greatest singers. Instrumental music is, however, different.

But rarely, like in case of Abida Parveen, the divinity of the voice takes same importance as the words themselves; or perhaps it is only that such few voices, in some indescribable way, reveal the true meaning clothed in those words to the deep of our souls.

So When I first heard these lines of Bulleh Shah sung by Abida Parveen, at first it was probably the singer’s voice (which Gulzar elsewhere praised as “Ibaadat ki Awaaz”). But the Punjabi poetry raised a curiosity too, which a few other songs failed to do. It was as if some beauty touched the inner sense, but conscious mind stayed deprived due to language barrier. That time internet was neither as popular as today, nor it was in the reach of my skills. Some of the words made resemblance to my native tongue, giving the whole things a smoky shape. Only after much struggle, I could finally gather meanings of each of the words. It was primarily with help of a Punjabi friend at my college. I never thanked him for this, like I often forgot many a times in other occasions too. Anyway, the words connected together suddenly lit up in their full glory, and remained forever.

Je Rab milda nahteya-dhoteya,
Te Rab milda dadduan machiyan noo;
Je Rab milda jangal phiriyan,
Te Rab milda gaiyaan bachchiyan noo;
Ehh miyan Bulleya, Rab unha-noo milda
Ati dil-eya achiyyan sachhiya noon |

If God could be found by washing and bathing, He would have been found by frog and fishes long ago. If wandering in the woods would have taken to Him, cows and animals would definitely have reached Him. Hey Bulleh, God would only be found by them, who are good and pure at heart.