Dara’s Discovery of Oneness Beyond Name and Form
By Roshan Shah Dara Shikoh, eldest son of the Mughal Emperor of India, Shah Jahan, and heir apparent to his throne, was born near Ajmer in 1615 C.E. It is said that before Dara’s birth, Shah Jahan had paid a visit to the tomb of the great Chishti Sufi Hazrat Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer and there had prayed for a son to be born to him, since all his earlier children had been daughters. Thus, when Dara was born, great festivities were held in Delhi, the imperial capital, for the Emperor now had an heir to succeed him to the throne. Like any other Mughal prince, Dara’s early education was entrusted to maulvis attached to the royal court, who taught him the Qur’an, Persian poetry, and history. His chief instructor was one Mullah Abdul Latif Saharanpuri, who developed in the young Dara an unquenchable thirst for Sufism. In his youth, Dara came into contact with numerous Sufis and Bhaktas, some of whom exercised a profound influence on him. The most noted among these was Hazrat Miyan Mir (d.1635 C.E.), a Qadri Sufi of Lahore whose disciple he later became. Hazrat Miyan Mir is best remembered for having laid the foundation-stone of the Golden Temple of the Sikhs at Amritsar. After Dara was initiated into the Qadri Sufi order, which he describes in his Risala-i-Haq Numa as ‘the best path of reaching Divinity’, he came into contact with several other mystics of his day, Muslim as well as Hindu, including Shah Muhibullah, Shah Dilruba, Shah Muhammad Lisanullah Rostaki, Baba Lal Das Bairagi, and Jagannath Mishra. Dara’s close and friendly interaction with them led him to seek to highlight the essential sameness or oneness of Sufism and Hindu mysticism. In pursuit of this aim, Dara now set about seeking to learn more about the religious systems of the Hindus. He studied Sanskrit, and, with the help of the Pandits of Benaras, made a Persian translation of the Upanishads, which was later followed by his Persian renderings of the Gita and the Yoga Vasishta. Throughout this endeavour, his fundamental concern was the quest for the discovery of the Unity of God (tauhid), seeking to draw out the commonalities in the scriptures of the Hindus and the Muslims. Dara expresses this concern in his Persian translation of the Upanishads, the Sirr ul-Akbar (‘The Great Secret’) thus: And whereas I was impressed with a longing to behold the Gnostic doctrines of every sect and to hear their lofty expressions of monotheism and had cast my eyes upon many theological books and had been a follower thereof for many years, my passion for beholding the Unity [of God>, which is a boundless ocean, increased every moment. […> Thereafter, I began to ponder as to why the discussion of monotheism is so conspicuous in India and why the Indian [Hindu> mystics and theologians of ancient India do not disavow the Unity of God, nor do they find any fault with the Unitarians. Dara’s works are numerous, all in the Persian language. His writings fall into two broad categories. The first consists of books on Sufism and Muslim saints, the most prominent of these being the Safinat ul-Auliya, the Sakinat ul-Auliya, the Risala-i Haq Numa, the Tariqat ul-Haqiqat, the Hasanat ul-‘Arifin and the Iksir-i ‘Azam. The second consists of writings such as the Majma ul-Bahrain, the Mukalama-i Baba Lal Das wa Dara Shikoh, the Sirr-i Akbar, and his Persian translations of the Yoga Vashishta and the Gita. Dara on Sufism The Safinat ul-Auliya, a biography of several leading Sufis, was Dara’s first work, composed in 1640 C.E., when he was just 25 years of age. Here he stresses the importance of the Sufi pirs or guides, because, he believes, one can attain knowledge of the mystical path only through the assistance of a spiritual master. In Dara’s words: God never leaves his people without saints to guide them. […> Therefore, next to the prophets, there are no other persons than the saints nearer in the presence of God, the Almighty. The true Sufi is a ‘perfect guide’ (pir-i kamil), for, Dara says, ‘No one is more compassionate and magnanimous, erudite and practical, humble and polite, heroic and charitable than the members of this hierarchy of the saints’. The Safinat ul-Auliya is Dara’s second biography of various Sufis. Unlike the Sakinat ul-Auliya, which deals with Sufis of various orders, this book discusses only Qadri Sufis. Dara himself was a Qadri, and as he puts it, ‘Nothing attracts me more than this Qadri order, which has fulfilled my spiritual aspirations’. The Qadri order, one of the most popular and widespread of all the Sufi silsilahs, traces its origins to the Prophet Muhammad through the twelfth century Sufi and Islamic scholar of great renown, Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani of Baghdad. The Sakinat ul-Auliya was completed in 1642 C.E., when Dara was 28 years old, three years after his first meeting with the Qadri Sufi Miyan Mir. In the same year, Dara came into contact with another leading Qadri Sufi, Hazrat Mulla Shah Badakshani (d. 1642 C.E.), who, like Hazrat Miyan Mir, exercised a particularly powerful influence on Dara, which is readily apparent in his description of the practices of the Qadris in the Sakinat ul-Auliya. Dara’s next book on Sufism is the Hasanat ul-‘Arifin or ‘The Aphorisms of the Gnostics’. It consists of the sayings of 107 Sufis of various orders. Explaining the objective behind writing the book, Dara says in his introduction: I was enamoured of studying books on the ways of the men of the Path and had in my mind nothing save the understanding of the Unity of God; and before this, in a state of ecstasy and enthusiasm, I had uttered some words pertaining to sublime knowledge, because of which certain bigoted and narrow-minded people accused me of heresy and apostasy. It was then that I realised the importance of compiling the aphorisms of great believers in the Unity of God and the sayings of saints who have, hitherto, acquired knowledge of Reality, so that these may serve as an argument against those who are really imposters. In the Hasanat ul-‘Arifin, Dara bitterly criticises those self-styled ‘ulama who, ignoring the inner dimension of the faith, focus simply on external rituals. His critique is directed against mindless ritualism emptied of inner spiritual content, and he challenges the claims of the ‘ulama who would readily trade their faith for worldly gain. Thus, he says: May the world be free from the noise of the Mulla And none should pay any heed to their fatwas. As for those ‘ulama who claim to be religious authorities but have actually little or no understanding at all of the true spirit of religion, Dara writes that, ‘As a matter of fact, these are ignoramuses to themselves and learned to the ignorant’, and adds the following couplet: Every prophet and saint suffered afflictions and torments, Due to the vicious and ignominious conduct of the mulla. Two short, yet important, works of Dara on the various stages and practices associated with the Sufi path are the Tariqat ul-Haqiqat and the Risala-i Haq Numa. The former consists of both prose as well as poetry. It begins with a prologue containing the praises of God and His Omnipotence and His All-Pervasiveness. Thus, Dara says, referring to the Divine: You dwell in the Ka‘aba and in Somnath And in the hearts of the enamoured lovers. The text goes on to discuss the thirty planes of the Sufi path, the first of which is detachment from the materialistic world and the last of which is realisation of the Truth. Broadly the same theme is discussed in the Risala-i Haq Numa, where the seeker (salik) is shown as starting from the Alam-i Nasut or ‘The Physical Plane’, and, passing through various stages, finally reaching the Alam-i Lahut or ‘the Plane of Absolute Truth’. Some of the physical exercises employed by the Sufis that are described in the Risala-i Haq Numa are shown by Dara to be similar to those used by the Hindu Tantriks and Yogis. These include astral healing and concentration on the centres of meditation in the heart and brain. Further, he suggests that the four planes through which the Sufi seeker’s journey takes him—Nasut, Jabrut, Malakut and Lahut—correspond to the Hindu concept of the four ‘states’ of Jagrat, Swapna, Shushpati and Turiya. One of the most intriguing works of Dara’s is his collection of poems, the Diwan, also known as the Iksir-i ‘Azam. Some of the verses from the Diwan, given below, suggest the train of Dara’s mystical thought: On the Oneness of God * Look where you can, All is He, God’s face is ever face to face. * Whatever you behold except Him is the object of your fancy, Things other than He have an existence like a mirage. The existence of God is like a boundless ocean, People are like forms and waves in its water. * Though I do not consider myself separate from Him, Yet I do not consider myself God. Whatever relation the drop bears with the ocean, That I hold true in my belief, and nothing beyond. * We have not seen an atom separate from the Sun, Every drop of water is the sea in itself. With what name should one call the Truth? Every name that exists is one of God’s names. On Divine Love O Thou, from whose very name rains Love abundant! And from your message rains Love! Whoever passes through Your street realises That indeed from the very door to the terrace of Your house rains l love! On the Mystical Path * Turn to none except God, The rosary and the sacred thread are but only a means to an end. * All this piety is conceit and hypocrisy, How can it be worthy of our Beloved? * Kingship is easy, acquaint yourself with poverty, Why should a drop become a pearl when it can transform itself into an ocean?. * Hands soiled with gold begin to stink, How awful is the plight of the soul soiled with gold! Day and night you hear of p
Discussion (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to comment!
Leave a Comment
You need to login to post a comment.