TEJINDER NARANG
" VIREH VIREH TU SULTAN--SHEIKH FARID SAHIB"
This is the game in which you lose all to win,
and if you win you are no more. A perpetual loser can only experience Vireh
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Vireh is blessed
sadness of longing in love. It is not denial of love, neither a frustration in
love. It is the silent pull of heart to meet its beloved irrespective of
response from the beloved.
Emotional love has its ups and downs. Vireh is
a state of unqualified and undiminished submission in love. In mysticism it is
the helplessness of the disciple to effectively communicate the intensity of
feelings of his physical separation from the Master. Spiritually the Master and
the devotee never suffer separation. Both are in each other all the time. They
are neither apart, nor do they meet. It is Oneness all the time. Vireh is a
state beyond the realm of love.
The mood in
Vireh is of calm desperation, oblivion of time and space, self-absorption,
totality of material and mental detachment. There could be tears or smile; both
convey the excitement of expectation of a glimpse of the Master. It is that inexpressible
void of spirituality where perhaps both Master and the Lord are envious of the
devotee. But such a feeling is a gift of the Master to the disciple and he
humbly acknowledges with gratitude this sense of surrender to Him.
Can you imagine
a cocktail of joys and sorrows, of pain and pleasure, of unity and duality, of
deep devotion and emptiness, of love and remorse, of inner bliss and nothingness?
This is the game in which you lose all to win, and if you win you are no more.
A perpetual loser can only experience Vireh.
WHEN Jesus
pronounced “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted”, He was
alluding to deep mystical experience of those suffering pain of separation from
the Beloved (Lord). In eastern mysticism such a feeling is called “vireh” and
in urdu/Persian as “hijr”.
Sufi Sheikh Farid (1188-1280 AD) defines Vireh as “Vireh
tu Sultan” as follows
“Vireh—you are the feeling of Supremacy of
Love,
The bravest of the brave.
Body devoid of Vireh is shadow of grave.”
The bravest of the brave.
Body devoid of Vireh is shadow of grave.”
At another
place, Farid Sahib gives a call to a crow to notch and munch his entire corpse
(when dead) save the eyes, so that, his hope of seeing beloved survives.
Another anecdote
of intensity of Vireh--- a lover was waiting for his beloved in a depleted hut
for umpteen years. One night the beloved appears in pitch darkness and lover is
unable to sight him. The lover blazes alight with matchstick his hut—his only prized
possession-- for visibility of Object of his adoration. The beloved departs
after giving a momentary glance to the lover. All is lost in unawareness, for
the Beloved. In fact what is lost was never ours. So there is no loss whatsoever. Yet all is gained spiritually.
Very good.
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