… I have to say one thing, and that is when coming to me, come bereft of worldly hopes. This disease, this annoyance, I don’t want! Those seeking my friendship have to lose all. This is absolutely true.
– Meher Baba
अब कोई बात भी मेरी, माना के होश की नहीं
आपको भूल जाऊँ मैं, ऐसी तो बेख़ुदी नहीं
जिस का इलाज हो सके, दर्द वो दर्द ही नहीं
जिसमें सुकून नसीब हो वो कोई ज़िन्दगी नहीं
तीर पे तीर खाए जा, और यार से लौ लगाए जा
आह ना कर, लबों को सी, इश्क़ है दिल्लगी नहीं
एक वो रात थी कि जब था मेरे घर वो माहताब
एक ये रात है कि अब चाँद है चाँदनी नहीं
पुर्सिश-ए-ग़म का शुक्रिया क्या तुझे आगही नहीं
तेरे बग़ैर ज़िंदगी दर्द है ज़िंदगी नहीं
तेरे करम से बेनियाज़, मुझे कौन सी शै मिली नहीं
झोली मेरी तंग है तेरे यहाँ कमी नहीं
दौर था इक गुज़र चुका नशा था इक उतर चुका
अब वो मक़ाम है जहाँ शिकवा-ए-बे-रुख़ी नहीं
आह! मेरी शब-ए-फ़िराक़, वाह ! मेरी शब-ए-फ़िराक़
यानि कि आज शाम से, तारों में रौशनी नहीं
दिल की शगुफ़्तगी के साथ राहत-ए-मय-कदा गई
फ़ुर्सत-ए-मय-कशी तो है हसरत-ए-मय-कशी नहीं
तेरे सिवा करूँ पसंद क्या तेरी काएनात में
दोनों जहाँ की नेमतें क़ीमत-ए-बंदगी नहीं
लाख ज़माना ज़ुल्म ढाए वक़्त न वो ख़ुदा दिखाए
जब मुझे हो यक़ीं कि तू हासिल-ए-ज़िंदगी नहीं
इशरत-ए-ख़ुल्द के लिए ज़ाहिद-ए-कज-नज़र झुके
मशरब-ए-इश्क़ में तो ये जुर्म है बंदगी नहीं
अश्क-ए-रवाँ की आब-ओ-ताब कर न अवाम में ख़राब
अज़्मत-ए-इश्क़ को समझ गिर्या-ए-ग़म हँसी नहीं
अर्सा-ए-फ़ुर्क़त-ओ-फ़िराक़ ऐसा तवील तो न था
भूल रहे हो तुम मुझे मैं कोई अजनबी नहीं
देख के ख़ुश्क ओ ज़र्द फूल दिल है कुछ इस तरह मलूल
जैसे मेरी ख़िज़ाँ के बाद दौर-ए-बहार ही नहीं
ज़ख़्म पे ज़ख़्म खा के जी अपने लहू के घूँट पी
आह न कर लबों को सी इश्क़ है दिल-लगी नहीं
मुज़्दा कि ना-मुराद-ए-इश्क़ तेरी ग़ज़ल का है वो रंग
वो भी पुकार उठे कि ये सेहर है शाइरी नहीं
Ab Koi Baat Bhi Meri, Jagjit Singh
https://youtu.be/TzrUzJ0XdVQ
https://youtu.be/4AVmkxfxhgE
Ab Koi Baat Bhi Meri, Kallan Qawwal
https://youtu.be/tobpoPMQWPE
22 December 1957,
… In the afternoon a smaller function was held in Hasman Hall for Baba’s close lovers. It was more like a sahavas than a darshan program. Shaikh Hidayat Khan, one of Baba’s favorite qawaals, had been specially called from Aurangabad. Baba arrived at the hall at about 4:00 P.M., and no sooner had he sat down than a woman rushed forward from the audience and placed her head on his feet. Baba remarked, “This is not the time for bowing down and garlanding. The darshan program is over. I am here now for sahavas.”
Baba asked all to come nearer, and they sat close to him. Replying to Baba’s inquiry, Siganporia said that all Baba’s longstanding lovers were present. He introduced them in turn, during which Baba observed: “God is the most Intimate One, but courage is required to have his close contact. You have to become powder and dust from head to foot, so much so that one has to lose oneself. Have so much love for Him that you become as dust in His love.”
Baba asked the qawaal, “How many times have you sung before me?”
The man said this was his fourth time. Baba whimsically remarked, “This is the fourth time, and there will be a fifth — but after that, not a sixth!”
On a sign from Baba, the qawaal resumed singing this couplet:
Without fana there is no baqa [without annihilation of the mind there is no Realization].
God is unattainable unless the lower self is wiped out.
If the lover asks in the way it should be asked,
What will he not receive?
When the song was finished, Baba asked the group, “Did you follow it?” Very few were familiar with Urdu, and Baba himself answered, “Even if you understood it, so what? Intellect cannot reach the Thing to be understood!”
Praising his voice, Baba urged the qawaal, “Sing a ghazal which, even though not understood, will make all hearts flutter!”
The qawaal sang the following couplet:
Why do you question me about the world of intoxication?
I only know that You alone exist in every heart!
When he was through, Baba asked those present, “Have you read God Speaks?” Some had, but Baba remarked, “Even if some have read it, what then?”
He added: “In addition to what those have read and understood, I have to say one thing, and that is when coming to me, come bereft of worldly hopes. This disease, this annoyance, I don’t want! Those seeking my friendship have to lose all. This is absolutely true.
“God is infinite honesty and compassion. As God, I forgive everything except hypocrisy. I can never forgive that. So never pretend to be what you are not!”
Baba continued, “What does a lover want? He wants deep, sincere love. If he has pure love, what remains for him? The lover should have such deep, unadulterated love that, oblivious of what others think, even he does not know that he loves!”
When he said this, someone clapped. Frowning, Baba reminded him that this was a sahavas, a deeply significant occasion where such displays were inappropriate.
The qawaal resumed singing:
You don’t know when I find or lose You, or become lost in You.
I am physically asleep, but my mind remains awake in Your remembrance!
“It would have been better if the mind also slept!” Baba quipped, and all laughed.
He continued: “The whole universe that you see is a dream, and at present you all are dreaming. Suppose you are sleeping and I appear in your dream and tell you: ‘What you see and experience now is all a dream!’ But you don’t believe it. But when you are awake, you know that what I was saying was quite true. Similarly, whatever pain or pleasure you experience is in reality a dream. This qawaali singing, your hurrying here in the hot sun, and my telling you all this, is in truth only a dream. But as long as I don’t open your [inner] eyes, you won’t believe it.”
Baba turned to the qawaal, “Enough of praise, now let’s hear something about love.”
When the qawaal was about to begin, Baba interrupted him and began explaining about divine intoxication: “As the seeker progresses on the spiritual path, he loses his worldly consciousness, resulting in the mast state. Here he has no consciousness of the world. He eats, drinks, clothes himself, covers his body, but has no thought of it.
“When this state becomes limitless, the person attains the state of a majzoob. Very, very few regain gross consciousness and begin to act in a worldly manner after reaching this state. To recognize a person in such a state is virtually impossible. It means losing all and gaining all.”
Humorously, Baba commented: “Long, long ago I lost everything and became God, but thank God I didn’t lose my sense of humor!”
The qawaal resumed with another couplet:
In my one form are contained all these innumerable forms.
Whom to take as a sinner, whom to believe in as a saint?
After the ghazal, speaking on haal, an emotional state, Baba commented, “Once my old companion and disciple Munshiji arranged a qawaali program here in Bombay. A Muslim boy named Alimuddin in a paroxysm of devotion began jumping up and down. In the course of the singing that day it happened a few times. Even when the ghazal was over, Alimuddin was in the same emotional state. This is called haal or bhav. When a devotee turns into a real lover, he is devoid of this state. In his love, he simply burns within, which cannot be observed outwardly.”
Addressing the qawaal, Baba urged, “Now let us hear some choice truths!”
The qawaal sang: I go on deceiving myself, living in the hope of dying!
Stopping him, Baba commented, “What a beautiful thought! In this state the lover is totally uprooted from the world. All his desires die, except one, and that is to die for the Beloved.”
It was getting very hot in the hall so someone switched on the fan. Baba had it turned off and told the qawaal, “All the doors are shut. It is warm. Baba has had the fan switched off. All are sweating.”
Addressing one man who was overweight, Baba teased him, “It is good for you. You are perspiring and will slim down a bit.” Loud laughter followed Baba’s remark.
He continued jokingly, “It is good you people feel the heat. Had it been cool here you would have said, ‘Baba, now please don’t stop!’ Now you will leave sooner!”
The qawaal resumed:
Let my grief for You be kept safe;
What else does my heart yearn for?
This is my prayer, this is my life!
The singer continued, and intermittently Baba observed, “I am everything. I experience myself as the singer, as the instruments and everything else. This is not mere talk! This is my true experience.”
Baba asked the qawaal to sing one last song. He sang:
The one hovering like a moth around the Divine Flame [the Master]
Is regarded as a fool; but only by fools!
After the music, Baba shed more light on the discourse he had given in Poona about the four types of obedience. Concluding, he stated: “I will now see how you carry out my wishes. Let me test your obedience! In five minutes I want this hall to be absolutely empty!” All burst out laughing at Baba’s clever ways, and they departed happily.
Leaving Hasman Hall, shortly after 7:00 P.M., Baba returned to Ashiana with the mandali. People had come to know of the program and hundreds were lined up outside the hall waiting for darshan. Baba waved to them as he drove past, and thus they were able to have a glimpse of him from a distance.
https://www.lordmeher.org/rev/index.jsp?pageBase=page.jsp&nextPage=4231
Meher Songs 