Alaf Allah Chambe Di Booti - Hazrat Sultan Bahu - RSSB Shabad

These shabads are hymns or spiritual poems written by saints and mystics from different spiritual traditions of the Indian subcontinent. The shabads convey a deep message of truth and are sung with heartfelt devotion. They express the intense longing of the soul for union with the Lord. These songs of devotion are prayers that inspire the true seeker to turn inwards to contact the ultimate Truth – the inner divine music that reverberates within every being.

English Translation:
My Master has planted in my heart
the jasmine of Allah’s Name.
Kalma (nafi isbaat) has nourished the seedling down to its core.
When the buds of mystery unfolded
into the blossoms of revelation,
my entire being was filled with God’s fragrance.
May the perfect Master
who planted this jasmine in my heart
be ever blessed, O Bahu!
You have read the name of God over and over,
you have memorized the holy Qur’an verbatim,
but this has still not unveiled the hidden mystery.
Instead, your learning and scholarship
have sharpened your greed for wealth and riches.
None of the countless books you’ve read in your life
has destroyed your brutal ego.
Indeed, none but the Saints can kill this inner thief,
that ravages the very house in which it lives.
If a master does not end your pain of separation,
he is not worth being called a Master.
If he cannot inculcate spiritual guidance,
who would need such a master?
Why even go to the kind of teacher
who is incapable of giving proper instruction?
If you can reach God by sacrificing your head,
do not be afraid of that death, O Bahu!
They have read thousands of books,
they have come to be known as great scholars,
but the one word, ‘love’, they could not grasp –
so helplessly they wander in delusion.
A lover, with but one glance of love,
can carry millions to their deliverance.
But a million glances cast by a scholar
will not ferry a soul across to salvation.
Vast is the gulf between love and intellect.
Those who have not purchased love
in the marketplace of this life, O Bahu,
will be losers in this world and the next.
Be steadfast in your faith, bold in your step;
only then will you find God.
Every pore of your body will repeat the Name of Allah,
with every breath of your life.
Both within yourself and without
you will then hear the reverberating strains of Hu.
Only they may be called faqirs, O Bahu,
whose very graves breathe Life.

This shabad is published by Radha Soami Satsang Beas.
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