चल बुल्लेया चल ओथे चलिए
जित्थे होवन सारे अन्ने।
ना कोई साडी जात पछाने,
ना कोई सानू मन्ने।
Baba Bulle Shah says let's go to a place where everyone is blind. A land where no one could recognize us with our cast and creed, and no one appreciates us based on who and what we are.
Every walk I have attended with Asif Sahab has an intrinsic value in my life. It is difficult to describe that in words, but you might see a reflection somewhere in between my writeups. Every walk satisfies my appetite in one way or the other. Some quench my thirst for listening to endless stories. Some enrich my awareness of the people, places, and things which existed in some other era. And then there are some which satisfy my wild curiosity.
The last walk I attended was a cocktail of all of those.
We were sitting on the large rocks of the long-lost Aravalli, just behind the tomb of Azim Khan. The gigantic Qutub Minar was in the view. The Sun was about to bid adieu for the day when Asif Sahab began.
'There was a time when we all were formless and shapeless. It was when there was no religion, no caste, no creeds.
It was then we were in "Alam E Arwah", that we were as one soul. We know each other long before entering into this world.'
His words were enough to kick-start my never-ending imagination. I couldn't control my mind at that moment, nor I can control my hand right now.
And then the Almighty took one big bowl of clay and started shaping each of us with his bare hands. Writing the roles one has to play in this physical world. And then we all fall softly one by one on the face of the earth, just as a feather kissing softly the ground.
'And this world - which you and I call physical is 'Alam E Dunya'.
A crucial thing happens between the journey from Alam E Arwah to Alam E Dunya. Somewhere in between that journey, we lose our memory. We can't recall what all happened there. We can't recognize the souls with whom we were together. All those memories wash away like the blackboard before the next class begins.
I could imagine my soft landing on the earth.
Yes, I was there once. I must have been conscious at first when I was shaped into this body. I must have been alone for the first time. I must have been overwhelmed when I commenced my journey to Alam E Dunya.
And then on one alien turn, I must have seen a tunnel of light. By passing through it slowly, all the memories must have vanished.
And then I must have touched the face of the Earth. I must have seen some strange faces looking at me smiling and sobbing. But little did I know that I was trapped under certain labels and identities. I was recognized by a name. A caste was attached to it. A religion must be attached to it. A certain financial status was attached to it. I was identified by the color of my face - my ethnicity must have been important to many.
I was taught quite well to hate people who fall under different labels, recognized by different identities. I was trained to believe that the path I'm following is superior to the others.
When you zoom out on this scenario a little bit, you start seeing that we all are differentiated with barbed wires from the people whose paths are totally different. I was taught to have a super Ill feeling towards them and they must have thought likewise.
All this drama of labels, identities, and recognition goes on and on when something magical happens.
A day comes when someone enters your life and you suddenly travel before the time when the tunnel of light comes into the journey. At his or her first glance you feel that you know that person quite well. You feel that you can trust him with all that you have. Conversation or no conversation, you still feel that there is something between that person and you that can't be described in this so-called physical world
That is the person who was once your companion soul in Alam E Arwah.
And sometimes an incident happens and you start seeing some pattern in it. Some conversation, some colors, or some scenarios. Slowly you start recognizing that pattern and you understand that the exact thing has happened at some other time, some other place.
Yes, we term it as DejaVu today. But terms, theories, and equations have majorly no answers to so many 'stupid' questions that come across our minds.
Some other time...
Some other place...
'Is Jannat (heaven) a time or a place?' Asif Sahab asks us.
After mixed answers, he started explaining about a place called 'Alam E Barzakh'. That is where we all will go when we leave our mortal body and our role ends in Alam E Dunya.
It is difficult for me to describe that but about one thing I'm quite sure about. A light tunnel will again be there on the route to Alam E Barzakh. When I pass through that tunnel, it will be more like a feeling of waking up from a deep and dreamy slumber.
You know the words which I was listening to were more like deadly bullets shot towards me. They were hitting me with an enormous force that the damage it had caused was visible to me. I could see a bloody puncture near my heart. The blood that was oozing out of it was dark, almost black.
When nothing was left to ooze out of that wound, the light started entering into it.
'Alam E Arwah'
I think Baba Bulle Shah must have mentioned Alam E Arwah when he said these lines -
चल बुल्लेया चल ओथे चलिए
जित्थे होवन सारे अन्ने।
ना कोई साडी जात पछाने,
ना कोई सानू मन्ने।
Love, Laughter, and Peace
HRN
