The Mystic in the Rebel

Abstract

Though popularly labelled as the Rebel poet of Bengal, Nazrul had been digging ceaselessly into the esoteric depth of his Seif and Soul, both taken as complementary to each other in the form of individual and universal concepts respectively. This inward investigation of a seemingly loud and overt social dissenter like him make his readers puzzle, although temporarily, to strike an assessment of him as a poet and philosopher grown out of tariqat and its mystic practice, known as Sufism. That Nazrul wanted to change the existing social order grown in the wake of colonial subjugation, looking for the earthly gain and equitable shares of wealth for people belonging to all classes including the grassroots level, is apparently incompatible with the concept of Islamic mysticism, verily known as Sufism, that does not approve of any worldly gain except enlightened and selfless reunion with God, the source of all creations, peace and eternal light. In fact, in Nazrul there is a duality of this worldly possession and divine selflessness, right from the beginning of his poetic career when he wrote his towering poem ‘Bidrohi’ (The Rebel, December 1921), suggesting diverse interpretations of the conflicting shades of the Self in the word-picture ‘AMI’ or T. In this poem of 141 uneven lines, Nazrul refers to this ‘I’ almost in each line, in a bid to diversify his identity which tends to defy the height of the Himalayan peak or the seat of the Creator, but finally expresses his interest of calming down, suggestive of surrendering to the Universal Self (implied in the last few lines of the text), when he will discover a world of peace at the end of all struggles in an oppression-free world. In this poem he also proclaims himself as a hermit, rather a warrior equipped with the weapon of tunes, and a prince with a royal attire of pale gairik (red ochre, the colour of selfless hermits). (Ami sanyasi, sursainik / Ami jubaraj, momo rajbesh mlan gairik). It reminds us of the Gautam Buddha, the prince who retired from royal affluence, attired in gairik dress. In fact this is a cherished situation of all mystic rebels who are in constant struggle to free them from their sinful self trying to get united with the divine self a symbol of purity, sublimity, stability and peace. This is exactly the practice of all Sufis, since the connotation of Sufism or Islamic mysticism is the seifless experiencing and actualization of the truth analogous with none but God. the Omnipotent. Every Sufi passes through an arduous path of struggle to free him from self-interest and it is certainly his insurgence against the corrupt self. Nazrul did the same thing at individual and collective level while waging his war against all possible forts of subjugation, oppression, tyranny and dominance. A Sufi is selfless, devoid of all mundane possessions and it is the extreme form of poverty, so to say. It is the crown of all mystic saints as well. A Sufi is a metaphor of a wool cloak on purity that resembles his soul. Nazrul echoes almost the same sentiment in his celebrated poem ‘Daridrya’ (Poverty) which starts with a famus line, ‘O poverty, you have made me great, you have given me the honour of Christ’ (Hey daridrya, tumi more korecho mohan / tumi more daniyacho Christer somman). It is also an echo of the saying of Prophet Mohammad (SM), ‘Poverty is my pride’. As we proceed to look further into his poetic and aesthetic quest, a mystic journey underlying his different texts in the form of prose and poetry is identified. The mystic Nazrul appears in many of his texts - either prose or poetry or speeches - that he created till 1942, the year he fell ill losing his speaking power and surrendered to a mysterious silence for more than three decades, breathing his last in 1976. The key concept we propose to look into his texts for Sufi interpretaion is ‘Self or ‘I’ (Individual and Universal) and its relation with Beauty (Amar Sundor, a confessional prose), Struggle and Oved-sundar (Oneness of beauty despite differences of its perspectives). It may be also interesting to identify a careful distinction between religious rituals and divine essence present in almost all religions. The rituals may differ from one religion to another, but the essence of union with God is almost identical in every divine cult. Even this concept has its implicit presence in Buddhism that does not clearly speak of God or divinity, but prescribes the concept of ‘Nirvana’ as the ultimate target of all human beings. This ‘Nirvana’ is somewhat a similar Sufi state of dissolving oneself peacefully into the universal self of God. In short, this paper would briefly investigate some key aspects of Sufism as reflected in the works of Nazrul, who lived a life of 34 years in almost a state of complete silence resembling the moraqaba of a Sufi saint. 2 Family, Tradition and Nazrul’s Individual ‘I’ diversified Are all poets basically and habitually mystic in their physical and mental make-up? The answer is not quite easy to sort out. But one thing seems common to all creators of imaginative texts that they look deep into the metaphysical essence underlying the physical world they usually encounter. This way of looking into inscape of a matter is somewhat identical with mystic investigation. Nazrul, for that matter, any imaginative creator is not an exception to it. But the shaping of mystic journey in Nazrul seemed to have stemmed from the mental structure of his predecessors, since we clearly identify a great sufi saint called Hajrat Nakshband who was son of Syed Mohammad Islam, now recognized as 7th grandfather of Kazi Nazrul Islam (in ‘Nazrul Borshopanji’, prepared by Khilkhil Kazi, 1405-1406 Bengali Year,