Seeking the Beloved (is Seeing the Beloved)

Beloved.

Be.Loved

Be Love

and Let Love be

Some samplings for the Kabir Project.

I'm working on their next cd+book on Mystic Traditions in Kutch.

Though the Kabir project has previously worked primarily around the poetry of Kabir,

A new venture into the work of another 16th century poet- Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai 

has just begun. :) 

Bhitai's words are daggers. are occupying armies.

he leaves no room for sugar-coated-sweet-nothings.

what to do with these eyes?

falling in love

without asking me? 

i am trapped

no retreat for me 

these eyes

brimming with tears

clashing like monsoon clouds

such a heavy downpour

these eyes

crisscross paths

ever since they fell in love

now quarrelling

now making up

hold a steady inward gaze

swim contrary to the world’s ways

choose to go upstream

while others float downstream

Or

I pray

for the dagger

to be blunt

let it linger

a little bit longer

in the beloved’s hand

 ---

if you want love

go to the tavern

cut the head

place it in the barrel

drink brave one

drown in the draught

this lethal drink is cheap

in exchange for the head

Bhitai often juxtaposes Love and Death.

And this is not the physical death he talks of..but the death of the Ego (cutting off your head)

as being the beginning of Limitless Love.

Some of me photographs from Kutch 

 these are the Waee singers who sing Bhitai.

They're the last three singers of this tradition left in India. 

 'Waee' means an intense "pukar" or Immense calling/cry to the source.

And then there are the women of that region. 

Bhitai's poetry is based primarily around the 'Seven Queens'

Seven Love legends from the region of Sindh.

He uses these beautiful folk-tales as metaphors for Divine Love.

Each of these women become the protagonists of his poetry.

Tragic as these Love Legends may seem- The queens of these legends are trapped in fortresses, swallowed by rivers, turned to stone only to realize that their Beloved is not some distant thing projected far into space and time.

But their beloved resides within their own bodies.

 Waves in his forehead. :)