Rational religion has two basic ingredients according to George Santanya. One is piety or loyalty to necessary conditions and secondly devotion to ideal ends which means attainment of spirituality. Bab abandoned his family life, detached himself from mundane life and excelled in piety, drank at its deep, using the strength to evaluate himself to the level of spiritual entity. Thus that song, which is cause for spiritual ecstasy starts to enlighten the man in Kashmir. Alas! that song which was initiated by him in the middle of 20th century is dead but aroma of it stays.
The story of Ahad Bab(RA) starts with deity of the self that said “I am” but that self was afraid. It was afraid on account of its being an entity then but in time. The other things that followed caused him to move from the outer to the inner self. That was his introspection that he needed to know his own self or he was in himself the only thing that was at the time. In this process of time, he, as ‘is’ last his consciousness of himself and went back to the original self that was higher and sublime and he turned into state of nature or stark nakedness.
Ergo, Bab turned one of the spiritual heroes of Kashmir. Starting from Lalla Ded to the song of Kashmir Bab we have records to prove that Kashmir was and is the abode of spiritual personalities and persuasions. Lalla was a Muslim Sufi as well as Hindu Shaivate and she played the tune that Guru told her to leave the outer to seek solace from the inner. Sheikh Nor-ud-din Wali (RA), patron saint of Kashmir and remembered by the affectionate name of Nund Ryshi by Kashmiri’s is adored equally with and as high as Lalla Ded. Ahad Bab(RA), shall be remembered with the same affectionate name as he is known today. The relevance between two poets Lalla and Nunda and that of Bab lies between two saints and poets, and 21st century Bab as the song of that poetry.
Privileged as I am, I had occasion to see him at different times with different moods and incantations. At times one would see him violent but after that spiritual stage, he turned peaceful. In Sufism, it is the stage of exercising the six spiritual senses. One could not understand the mind of the ‘Bab’, when he was either in violent or peaceful mood. It is very difficult to understand such a mind while exercising senses. I shudder, if I explain his mind, either when he was in anger or in the state of peace. I can only conjecture that he at the time of anger was fighting a war within himself, between his ego (evil) and the spiritual ‘self’, ‘I am’. For him as Muslim mystic, it was not existentialist ‘I am’ but a fight to reach the truth – Fana-fi-lah—war between the real or spiritual and physical senses. The strength that he had achieved before he had abandoned the physical world, he used the strength against those elements which thwarted his walk on the path to reach the spiritual goal.
Earlier, his piety resulted in such a strength in him that paved way for his consciousness into the universal consciousness. He lost his worldly robes; he fought war against forces of evil within him and finally attaining communion with Him that ushered peace in him and around him. This state of spirituality in the form of spiritual song made him superior spirit. The song, the Bab, was in the beginning in state of search or ‘Sair-ila-Allah’ or journey to God, so he was at times embodiment of fire and other time love. But soon he reached the stage of union (fana) and his song assumed different tone. Henceforth, Bab was relieved of the self. None of us except those who have reached some spiritual intelligence, can understand the mind, the psyche, the conscience, the soul, the spirit and the inner self or being, of such a saint. Such souls may communicate to his disciples some secrets, but Bab would not reveal his inner self, unless the follower could have the knowledge to understand the meaning of his gestures, his moments and his symbols and the like—even guess work could not help. However, his song was the song of peace for those who had faith in him as Peer. His song of peace and love was mingled with the music that was caused by the language of his physical strength.
The song of the Bab is dead but the aroma of it shall continue for years or till Kashmir lives. The aroma of the song of the Bab, shall haunt Kashmiris till eternity and that aroma is manifest in his message of peace and love. This love in Kashmir, is neither Eros, nor Apate, nor Amor but Loll—that sense and behavior of Loll which he granted to those who attended at him. The word ‘Loll’ is immortal in our language but absent in our social ethos at present. Loll, we experienced during many periods of our history but alas we have abandoned it as our cultural heritage.
Having had the privilege to attend at him, I could observe that his eyes, ears, his facial expression, his robust body conferred not only on me but to every body, a state of peace and tranquility to ones mind and spirit. He had assimilated in him the spiritual ethos of the ‘Loll’ that is our cultural heritage. His body and soul was secular and those who did not belong to his faith prostrated before him as if they bowed before a deity. Once I had the opportunity to see a son of a Sikh family, hardly 7-8 years old, physically challenged who played with the body of the saint, and the Bab, remained in peace and composed in bliss. His compassion and Loll for all could not be ascertained easily except by those whose own spiritual intelligence could discern it. He could shower, Loll through his eyes, gestures and through his body language to all who attended at him. He had developed such state of spirituality that he for his devotes was saint in the poetic language like:
So through the eyes love attains the heart:
For the eyes are the scouts of the heart,
And the eyes go reconnoitering
For what it would please, heart to
possess. (G.D Borneilh)
The Bab, and his disciples, had an exchange of eyes and the language of his body spoke to those who were in his presence but his eyes used to reconnoiter all that pleased the hearts of both the parties. Both the parties used to be in full accord, Loll or perfect love, ascended from the heavens to exhaust their arms in exchange with each other.
The Bab is dead and his melody is over but his aroma shall persist and his followers and the people of Kashmir shall continue to be blessed including his family members. Kashmir has never been conquered except by spiritual attainments and the aroma of the song of Bab, shall rekindle the Loll and love that happens to be our cultural heritage. The frozen spiritual ethos presently shall melt and a new era shall begin and the song of the Bab shall rejuvenate and in terms of Mahjoor:
Be ready with symphony of Love,
Flowers will bloom of their own accord,
Let thee just become an apparent cause.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:00:00 IST