Rapture Poem by Nadeem Ishaque

Where is the lost love you seek?
O my love, do you have a clue?
Listen, and it will softly speak,
Hidden somewhere inside of you.
You search outside in the city
And inside your dwellings too
Like wandering chickens in squalid dirt
Pecking ceaselessly for a grain or two.
O Bulleh Shah! Love itself beckons
And itself enters heart of the true.

The pious go to Mecca in rapture
My pilgrimage in Love I capture

Cleanse your heart to behold the grace
Of the beauty contained in your gaze
Why partake of world's wanton ways
All you need is Love's warm embrace

Running blindly at a maddening pace
Trapped inside this meandering maze
Having lost world's every winnable race
The love that dwells in your inner space
Smiles at the frivolity of the path you trace

The lost thing is at home for you to greet
Searching the city, loud drums you beat
Love distinguishes not self and the other
It pervades every heart in equal measure
Wise know that heart is God's enclosure
Discover it and find world's only treasure

Examine your faculty of reason, O fool
Nature isn't just your instrument or tool
Ignoring signs of Nature's magnificence
You refuse to believe in God's existence

The Divine is found not in waters pure
(Or frogs and fish would discover)
And not in fields and forests for sure
(Or cows and cattle would uncover)
Not even mosques and temples galore
(Or hanging bats will find in a prayer)

Bulleh Shah, the Divine only to those gets revealed
Who open their heart and let go of ill will concealed

Love bears no armor, not even a sword
Yet lovers with its every move get gored

You have become learned
Thousand books you read indeed
Never read your own self
To it, you seldom pay much heed
In mosques and temples
You search for answers profound
Read your inner script
For there are answers to be found
You fight the devil
Looking for heaven's indemnity
Curb your greed
Fight your own ego and vanity

Bulleh Shah, man has lifted the veil from heaven
But that which dwells within, still remains hidden

If plain truth I speak, harsh resentment I beget
But how can I tell lies when nothing else is left

I have tried in vain to give up my longing
A force beckons, I continue my belonging

O Lord! Let me love your every form, I entreat
Even those from which others in revulsion retreat

(Translation of BULLEH SHAH from Punjabi)