One significant element of the Bhakti and Sufi traditions is the essential part played by the Guru/Pir or teacher who instills ideas or preachings into his disciples.
The Guru is equivalent to the Pir, who embodies semi-divine elements in him and is no less than a semi-Divine entity for his disciples, next only to God. Thus, the Guru is elevated to a high pedestal of spirituality and life.
Again, the relationship between the Guru or spiritual preceptor and the disciple is on one hand like that of God and his devotee, and on the other hand like a father and a son, as they are bound together by a stream of thoughts and consciousness – that which is reflected as the concept of Silsila in Sufism.
A regular conversation between Sankardeva and Madhavdeva somewhere in Assam can be said to be somewhere synonymous with an interaction between Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya and Amir Khusrau on the banks of river Yamuna.
Here, one can see the Guru – Shishya / Pir – Murshid camaraderie in a larger plane of spirituality, transcendence, ideas and philosophy, one can also feel other subtle elements, forming threads and paintings of imagination.
This struck me while I was sitting at Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s Dargah in Delhi on a moonlit night near the bank of Yamuna where the Dargah is situated, and my mind went from there to the 13th century when at some given point of a day, Nizamuddin Auliya was presenting an amulet to his favorite disciple, Amir Khusrau, who lies buried right next to his teacher, with Qawwalis or Ghazals being sung in the background, like they were being sung now.
And from there, it travelled to Majuli, where I was, a year back, and to a Namghar, where people were reciting the name of Kṛṣṇa while Sankardeva and Madhavdeva were having a conversation about religion and spirituality, – two entirely different settings, spatially, culturally, but the basic essence of faith, of spirituality, of trance and a bond between the Guru and the disciple is constant.
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I have lately been obsessing over Amir Khusraw and his relationship with Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, more so in the light of Guru-Shishya/Pir-Murshid relationship, salvific discourses and music as a medium of trance.
In the bazar of love translated and with an introduction by Paul Losensky and Sunil Sharma, includes the following couplet by Khusraw dedicated to his teacher/ Pir – Nizamuddin Auliya:
Man tu Shudam, tu man Shudi
Man jan shudam, tu tan Shudi
“I have become you, you have become me, I have become life, you have become my body”,
which espouses surrender and love towards the Guru/Murshid -here, Nizamuddin Auliya, whom Khusrau revered as the most important person in his life.
In the bazaar of love which begins with a couplet by Khusrau on love:
“Man bi dān nazram ki gar miram bi-su̅yam bin garī,
bīn kih chu man chand kas murda-st dar bāzār-I ‘ishq”,
That the authors translate as: “I vow to die that you might look my way, see how many have died in the bazar of love”, talks about Amir Khusrau’s connect with music, as is evident in his poetry, and by extension, with love (here translated loosely as ishq, while ishq in itself encapsulates so much more than love, and love in itself is replete with so many more emotions other than ishq) and also spirituality and salvation.
Amir Khusrau’s deep interest in music has been documented fairly well, though not his involvement in the innovation or introduction of musical instruments as is the case with Sankardeva, who is said to have introduced numerous musical instruments for the propagation of Nam Dharma.
While nothing can be said clearly about the extent of his contribution to the realm of music, there certainly are a number of apocryphal/ near fictitious accounts of Amir Khusrau’s expertise in music and musical instruments, though his connect with music can hardly be denied, and live on through his Qawwalis and Ghazals, apart from his poetry.
He is attributed to the use of different new unique techniques of musical interplay, the chief being the tarana, among many others, so much so that a new style of music, known as the Khusravi style developed.
While the invention and the training of first generation Qawwals is generally ascribed to Amir Khusraw, it is likely that there might have been some form of Qawwali existed even before Khusraw (Paul E. Losensky and Sunil Sharma. In the Bazaar of Love: The Selected Poetry of Amir Khusraw. New Delhi. Penguin India. p 39).
Borgeet, on the other hand are devotional songs dedicated to Lord Kṛṣṇa introduced by Sankardeva his disciples initially in Satras and Namghars that later percolated to the social ethos among the Assamese, popularized by popular singers, re-arranging and re-adapting them, somewhat like Baul songs that have travelled across the world, featuring in radios, televisions and now the internet.
With regard to this, Paul Losensky and Sunil Sharma refer to the numerous Ghazals by Khusraw renditioned into beautiful songs by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan that made them popular among music adherents across the world.
Thus, in the bazar of love, salvation and music, Nizamuddin Auliya – Amir Khusrau and Sankardeva- Madhavdeva, along with many more spiritual teacher-student duos transcend the boundaries of time, space, faith and culture, as all of them march towards spiritual elevation and musical ecstasy, one with and through another.
The author is an independent researcher and writer. Views expressed are that of the author and do not reflect EastMojo’s views on this or any other matter.