What is remarkable about the Heer-Ranjha text is an essential presence of powerful and vital elements of what we call religion and spirituality and a noticeable absence of religious and spiritual discourse.  How can the text touch upon spiritual journeys, spiritual men and women, different religions and conflicts of social norms and spiritual impulses and not talk about doctrine and religion?  My thesis is that the people of the subcontinent possess a deep rooted and ever-present ability to affirm more than one truth.  Overtly religious and formal spiritual discourses coexist with the very elements that these discourses cannot deal with; but the subcontinent has produced cultures that can allow and contain this coexistence.

The Heer-Ranjha text first demonstrates that formal religious and formal spiritual discourse can become insignificant before the unstoppable forces of human love and devotion.  What we have now, in the subcontinent in general, and Pakistan in particular, is the reverse.  Human love and devotion and directness of lived experience have been made secondary to religious and spiritual discourses.  The discourses polarize and fragment society on the basis of religion.  It becomes possible to interact and relate to one another only through rigid and inflexible religious identities, for example Hindus or Muslims or this kind of a Muslim or that kind of a Muslim while the authentic, deeper human connection becomes secondary, thereby giving rise to intolerance. 

The text of Damodar reveals spiritual elements and connections without really addressing religious or spiritual issues overtly.  The experience of devotion and compassion and empathy and the spirit of human connectedness on a heart-level that the text evokes has been used as a metaphor for spirituality by most of the Sufi poets of the Punjab since Damodar.  But while what Damodar wrote has spiritual implications, it is on an unconscious level, embedded within the text.  Thus Heer Damodar is not read consciously as a document on spirituality and religion.  And this is the key that will return the authentic sub-continental ability to allow the coexistence of religion and spirituality and the human experience.

Today we are failing to counter religious and spiritual intolerance effectively because we keep trying to make a case for tolerance or acceptance or compassion within a religious or spiritual discourse or else a totally secular and anti-religious discourse.  We start with Islam and try to counter religious intolerance within an already highly constricted discourse where the ‘rights’ and ‘wrongs’ are clearly defined.  Or if we say religion is a socio-economic phenomenon meant to oppress the masses, our audience becomes a handful of urban elite, because the vast majority of people in Pakistan do have a central and deep experience of religion or spirituality.  Instead of religious discourse, Heer Damodar focuses on real, immediate, authentic and deeply emotional connections between human beings.  The sheer weight of that reality makes religious identity labels inapplicable.  Identities become more flexible, variable and overlapping, thereby changing the relationship with the ‘other’ who needs to be ‘tolerated’.  The interaction is more on a human level, beyond most concepts, naturally leading to more compassion and interconnectedness.  There are other patterns or factors that stand out in the text and will be examined.

PATTERNS IN THE TEXT

1. Devotional Patterns in the Path (Bhakti) of Heer

Love and devotion seem to have had a very central place in the life of the subcontinent.  Many folk and spiritual traditions that have their roots in the area revolve around intense devotional experiences.  Devotion to the goddess, to gods, saints and local heroes in the traditions of Bhakti, Tantra or Sufism were present everywhere and flourished everywhere in India.  The experiences of Heer and Ranjha are clearly rooted in this propensity in the indigenous psyche.  Compared to Ranjha, who manifests the role of the beloved, Heer’s journey into the heart of devotion and transformation can be matched to stages on a devotional spiritual path.  Let us follow the unfolding of love and devotion in the life and being of Heer (in the context of spiritual development).

a) The place of Love

First, according to the text, the place that love has in life is very central and significant.  It is essentially real like life and death, and more powerful than all else.  When the Khehras are bringing the wedding procession to the Siyyals and Heer refuses to leave Ranjha, her mother and relatives consider poisoning her to save the family honor, Heer says:

            “zahr ki pohe mao tehnanon, jehnan kamil ishq puchaye” (398)

            “What harm can poison do, mother, to those who have reached perfect devotion”

Poison can end life, at least overtly, in linear time.  Death has to do with time.  Love and devotion generate experiences that are described as outside time and therefore outside or beyond death.  Mystical experiences are also generally described as outside of time, to be eternal!  Eternity is experienced in an instant, outside time.  According to Heer, love and devotion lead to such experiences.  But let us look at her own journey now.

b) Character before the spiritual awakening

Heer had a very powerful characterright from her youth.  We are going to explore the strength of her character in another section below, illustrating her feminine power or Shakti, but a few examples will suffice here.  When she picks a fight with Noora, someone she has never even met before, she, along with her friends, is willing to kill and die for a cause that they feel is right.  When her uncle Kaido tries to spy on her and expose her relationship with Ranjha, she burns everything that belongs to him in her anger.  Everyone is scared of her.  She is described as walking through the jungles like a lioness.  Also she is described as being proud, arrogant and egotistical with a strong sense of her entitlement.  Right before Ranjha meets her for the first time, when he wants to sleeps on her bed, Luddan who is responsible for guarding the bed, assumes that he will get killed for allowing it.  He sees granting Ranjha his wish as equivalent to sacrificing his life for Ranjha.  But when Heer sees Ranjha on her bed and requests him to play his flute for her, we suddenly see a major transformation in Heer’s character. 

c) Shedding of the false self

The first changewe notice is the breaking down of Heer’s pride and arrogance upon her relationship with Ranjha.  After seeing Ranjha she refers to Luddan, who has allowed Ranjha to sleep in her bed, as chacha (uncle), and apologizes for having abused him.  Heer touches his feet which is a sign of extreme humilityshe would never have shown to one of her servants earlier.

            “Tora trut gaya Heeray da, jo boli it bhatti

             Hoi khak zameen di loka, rahi os mani na ratti

             Gal wich pallu dast pairan tay, ishq machayee matti” (229)

            “Heer lost her command and her pride and rule

             She was dust in the ground, her grandeur gone

             In love and devotion, at the feet of Ranjha”

On the devotional paths to spiritual development, often the first thing that is attacked is the false sense of self and egotism.  Though this happens through a long process, signs of humility and gratitude begin to emerge early on.  Heer not only begs Luddan for forgiveness but also shows gratitude towards him for bringing Ranjha into her life (212). 

d) Opening of the heart

Immediately after meeting Ranjha Heer experiences an intense emotional discharge and feels like crying a lot.  This is the opening of the heartas discussed often in Sufi tradition.  When Heer meets Ranjha and before she can share her feelings with him or can act on them, the text says:

            “Dukh na thammay, duskeen roway, koi bujh sakkay nahin

             Ronday nain karaindi zari, keen thon dukh wandain” (221)

            “Unending pain, continuous crying, no one could know why

             Crying eyes continue craving, and no one to share the sorrow”

There does not seem to be any overt reason for pain yet there is an intense longing or craving with a deep sense of loss in every moment spent without the beloved, sometimes with introversion and hypersensitivity.  Heer has a totally new kind of an emotional opening.  Later of course she wonders how she could have spent a lifetime without him (224).

She has suddenly been pulled out of her grandiose sense of self and narcissism by someone outside of her self, by the beloved.  She addresses him as kamil murshid, a Sufi term for a perfected master/teacher, and says with humility and devotion:

             “Sun sahab toon kamil murshid, main ajiz na azmaeen

             Laggi aa main nal pairan day, chhrak na mainon jayeen

             Daiween pak muhabat sachee, main koon na bharmaeen

             Aakh Damodar suni Ranjhaita! Tairay pairan haith maraheen” (384)

            “Listen my lord, a perfect master, do not put this meek one in a trial

             Here I am stuck to your feet, do not push me away now

             I beg you for your pure and true love, do not turn me away

             Listen my Ranjha, my wish, to end my life in your feet”

e) Devotion

Heer interacts with Ranjha from this place of complete devotion and deep love.  Her focus is undivided.  When her marriage is being arranged to another, she says:

            “Kamil murshid main parna tainda, dooji ja na kai” (433)

            “My perfect master, I am your mate, where else would I turn to”

She tells her mother, “sar sayeen main daindee” (360), meaning, “I would give my head, my life, to my master (sayeen).”  This level of devotion is the hallmark of devotional spiritual traditions in the subcontinent.

Further examples of her intense devotion to Ranjha and the relationship of the lover to the beloved, follow:

            “Asan kamil murshid paya, kujh lorinda nahin…

             Aakh Damodar main Ranjhan dee, oh meray sir da sayeen” (437)

            “I have found my perfect master, who needs anything else…

             I belong to my Ranjha, he, my lord and my master”

            “Payee jhat suraj rushnai, Ranjhay monh wikhaya

             Uthi Heer, payee jhar paireen, tay gal wich palloo paya” (438)

            “Ranjha showed his face, brilliant, like the radiance of the sun

             And Heer got up and fell in his feet, her honor, now his”

The glorification of the beloved is a hallmark of devotional poetry in India.  Comparing Ranjha to the sun, mentioning his radiance, his charm and entrancing effect on people and animals, his perfection; these are things often mentioned in texts and are very typical of Bhakti and Sufi poetry.

f) Estrangement from the familiar

When people start a spiritual path or go through an initiation estrangement from familiar things and people is a common occurrence.  Because of the intensity of her inner emotional life or because of her focus on the beloved, Heer starts to lose interest in and become withdrawn from the typical activities that filled her life before.  So she tells her friends:

            “Asan tan kamil murshid paya, kujh lorinda nahin

            bairi peenghan tusan mubarik, asan son Ranjhan Sayeen” (#281)

            “I have no needs, having my perfected master

             You can have the swings and you can have the boat, for me, my Ranjha Sayeen”

In relation to people, there is a concept of “mehram” in Islam, which means one’s kith and kin; those that a woman does not need to observe purda (veil) with.  These include her father, brothers, sons, brothers of her father and mother and once legally married, her husband.  Every other man is a namehram (not a mehram) to her.  Heer tells her mother:

            “Hik dil aahi, so Ranjhan lita, maye dooja dil naheen

              Mard paraya na chhoohay asanon, namehram hath na layeen” (437)

            “Only one heart I had, which Ranjha took, I have no more to give

              Let no other man touch my body, namehram, keep their hands away”

            “Mama, veer na mehram koi, bajhon dhedo sayeen” (443)

            “Other than my Dhedo sayeen, my uncle, my brothers, are mehrams no more”

g) Trust in the beloved

With this kind of devotion there is often, in spiritual traditions, a sense of being in the custody of the master: of trust in his protection.  When members of Heer’s family want to kill her before the wedding, she says to her friend Hassi:

            “Aakh Damodar kaun marainda, jain sar Dhedo sayeen” (414)

            “Who is it that can harm me, under the shadow of Dhedo sayeen”

Similarly, towards the end, when the Khehras get custody of Heer from the court of the Qazi, and are torturing her as they drag her back to their village, Heer tells them:

            “Sun baitay samait tun Ali, main koon bohot saza wikhainda

             jain da kutta vanjay marainda, so murshid hunay sunainda

             Ke hoya, main bhulli chukki, oh apni laj palainda

             Aakh Damodar tun sun Ali, tainon Ranjha nahin chhurainda” (938)

            “Listen up all, including you Ali, torture me all you can

             When a dog is dying, the master knows

             Even if I falter in my devotion, he would protect his honor

             Listen Ali!  Ranjha would never let you get away with this”

Heer tells them this even though she knows that Ranjha himself is in prison being whipped.   However, her trust in the “master” is so strong that, against all odds and all reason, she knows things will somehow work out.  This is what devotion can do.  Similarly when she is being given to Saida Khehra, she says to her mother:

            “Kahe Damodar mail karesee, aapay sacha sayeen” (371)

            “The true sayeen would himself make our union happen”

Sayeen here could refer to god or to Ranjha.  Ranjha is called sayeen all through the text (360;414;431;642…).  As Ranjha is given the same status as god anyway, it is the same whether the word means god or Ranjha.

h) Surrender

Surrendering one’s intellect and willin favor of the beloved follows this kind of trust and devotion as an obvious and necessary next step.  Heer suffers emotionally and physically for many years after her marriage with the Khehras.  But she sees everything she undergoes as coming from her “master” who alone knows how much more she needs to suffer and who alone holds her cure.

            “Loon loon dakhal keeta Ranjhaitay, ohoye daro laye

             Jeewain jalaye kamil murshid, teeha jaleen maye” (606)

            “Ranjha entered every pore of my body, only he holds my cure

             I submit to burn any which way my master makes me burn”

On the Bhakti and especially the Sufi path, suffering is very much part of the process of inner cleansing and transformation.  Sufis often talk about cleansing by fire and the alchemical process of turning into gold by first being thrown into fire.  The spiritual master puts initiates in situations that will push them up against their blocks: their inner conflicts and psychological knots.  The process of purifying involves facing and resolving all the psychological issues that one has developed over the years.  The initiate trusts that the experiences, including pain and suffering, that come after submitting to the master, have a purpose and only the master knows what that is.  The initiate, like Heer, submits to and accepts the burning willingly since it comes from the beloved master. 

            “Jithay bhavi, banh tithahin, uzr beuzri da naheen

             Mahin namani, kujh na janan, bajhon murshid sayeen

             Athay pahr dhayan tussada, na karsan sans ajayeen

             Akh Damodar was na mainday, jewn janain tewain nachain” (439)

             “Tie me up wherever you like, I would argue not

             Silly me, what do I know, except for my master, my sayeen

             Every breath, every hour of the day, my mind focused on you

             I am not the one in control, I dance however you make me.”

Here Heer is talking about not only accepting what comes her way but also acting herself the way the beloved wants her to move.  The Sufi idea is that you give yourself up, as a corpse in the hands of the washer, to the master once you submit to him.  Then he may do with you what he feels is necessary for you.  Part of my own Sufi initiation was a long ritual in which I presented my teacher with a kafn, a large piece of cotton cloth used for wrapping the corpses of Muslims before burial.  This symbolizes the end of life lived by one’s own intellect and self, in favor of following what the master commands from that day on.  All our actions come from the master, from the Beloved, from the Divine.  Heer adds:

            “Aap rakhai asin day hathon, asin janahan nahin” (437)

            “He himself moves through my hands, I know of nothing”

A similar idea is found in the Tao Te Ching, where if one gets one’s intellect and self out of the way, the action happens through one very naturally.  This is sometimes wrongly interpreted as the path of non-action.  The idea shows up very powerfully in the context of a personalized Divine in the Bhakti traditions of the sub-continent.  In the Gita, for example, the attitude towards action is that if one only stays focused on the Divine Beloved with love and devotion and offers one’s actions to Him, without being attached to the outcomes, then it is the Beloved who acts through one(actually the Divine is acting through one even when one is not acting from that place).  As Heer would say, he moves through my hands.  The Sufi attitude towards this matter is rooted in the Hadith-i-qudsiwhere Allah says: And when I love him, I become the ear with which he hears.

Obviously, with this level of complete submission there is much room for all kinds of abuse to take place, and we see this often.  To whom does one submit?  It often happens without one’s conscious decision or choice.  However, there are indicators along the way confirming the right path, of the authenticity of one’s relationship with the Beloved or teacher or master. 

For Heer, the interventions of the Panj Pir were such indicators; indicators that validated what Ranjha meant in her life.  Before she even met him, they come to her in her dream and give her the premonition of his coming.

            “tan supnay wich Panj Peer gaye, Heer nun sukhn sunaya

             jhawan kar ke bohat Heeray non, kan maror sujhaya

            “Chaita kareen, na qabooleen hor koi, wich iraday aya

             sun kuriye!aye gal asadi, asan tainday pallay paya” (186)

            “Then the Panj Pir, in a dream go to Heer

             They get her attention and tell her clearly

             ‘Watch out! Be careful; don’t accept anyone else

             Listen girl! To what we say, we have given him to you”

When she meets Ranjha she goes into a period of introspection:

            “Tan chori waikhay Heer siyyalay, monhon na mool alaye

             Dharti uttay likhan khatte, aakh na mul sunaye

             Ander gal handaye ninger, dil wich fikr tikaye

            Jay sach janan, sir jan hara, tan peeran aye pallu paye” (216)

            “Heer would steal glances at him, but could not really say

             Drawing lines on the ground, not a word from her mouth

             Playing with what had happened here, worrying in her heart

             The truth finally dawned upon her, the Pirs had brought him to her”

It is the intervention from and the experience of the other levels of reality that allowed her to submit so completely in her devotion to Ranjha. Then again, when Ranjha comes back to her as a jogi, years after her marriage, with his face covered, it is the Pirs who tell her of his identity (745).

i) Acceptance of one’s fate

Given the intensity of the emotional desire to commit and submit and given the support and validation from other and deeper levels of reality, the relationship with the beloved is accepted as part of one’s fate.  It is not uncommon in the devotional spiritual traditions to hear of how the relationship was meant to be or is part of one’s destiny.  For Heer also her devotion to Ranjha had a primary existence that transcended worldly obstacles or concerns.  Thus she explains to her mother:

            “Tithay Adam aidam koyee nahin, jithay hoyee kurmaee” (378)

            “Adam was not even born there, where this wedding took place”

Again, towards the end, in the court of the Qazi trying to show the rightful status of her relationship to Ranjha, she says:

            “Sun Qazi hik araz asadi, aye ikth kahani

             Loh Qalam na arsh na kursi, na nazri aaway pani

             Zamin zamana, chand na suraj, juti jot samani

             Sahab di sonh sun tun Qazi, main tadon Ranjhay dast vikani” (927)

            “Listen Qazi to what I have to say, to the real story

             There were no heavens, no waters, fate had not been written yet

             No sun, no moon, no land, not even time itself existed

             I swear, listen Qazi, even then, I belonged to Ranjha”

j) Burning

With the separation from the self and the intensity of the devotion and the surrender of the will in favor of the beloved, there are times when the beloved is taken awayfrom the lover.  This tears the being and causes the greatest pain the lover can experience.  The burningof the separation from the Beloved is a stage that many spiritual traditions and stories talk about.  Some of the most powerful poetry and art-forms can come out of this painful stage when everything seems to fall apart and fall away from the lover. 

After Heer develops an intense and deep emotional connection to Ranjha and has flashes of union with him she suddenly is separated from him and everything else that she is familiar with.  She has already withdrawn from her usual activities after meeting Ranjha but still her connection with her friends, especially Hassi, is a source of support for her.  Also she is on her territory where people still know her and where she has a history and her identity.  With her vidai (departure of the bride after the wedding) she loses all of that. 

            “Sadqay keetee, main Hassi nusathon, aatan chhor sidhai

             Bairi, baila te pipal, peenghan, Luddan bap te bhai

             Asin jullay an ditheen juheen, phir aawan gal na kai

             na ko koh, na takiya mainon, na ko bap na mai” (483)

            “I’d give my life for you, dear Hassi, I leave you all behind