( see image information below)
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Khusrau darya prem ka, ulti wa ki dhaar,
Jo utra so doob gaya, jo dooba so paar
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[Oh Khusrau, the river of love Runs in strange directions.
One who jumps into it drowns, And one who drowns, gets across.]
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-Amir Khusrau
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About the Poet: Amir Khusro Dehlavi (1253-1325 AD) was a poet, musician, inventor, philosopher and linguist. Khusro was musician in the court of seven kings in Delhi Sultanat.He wrote poetry in Persian as well as what he called Hindvi ... a combination of local Bhojpuri and Persian, which later evolved into Hindi and Urdu languages.[1] Khusrau has been termed as the "father of qawwali" (the devotional music of the Sufis). He is also credited with enriching the Hindustani classical music by introducing Persian and Arabic elements in it, and was the originator of the tarana style of music. [2]
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Khusrau was a disciple of the Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya who was his spiritual mentor. There is a legend about Khusrau's first meeting with Nizamuddin Aulia [3] .It is said that Khusrau, at the age of eight years, was coerced by his mother to visit the saint's khaneqah (monastary) for the first time . When he reached there, he didn't enter at once - he wanted to test him out. He sat down at the gate and composed the following lines in his heart :
Tu aan shahi ke ber aiwan-e qasrat Kabutar gar nasheenad, baaz gardad
Ghareeb-e mustamand-e ber der aamedBe-yaayad andaroon, ya baaz gardad
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(You are a king at the gate of whose palace / even a pigeon becomes a hawk. / A poor traveller has come to your gate, / should he enter, or should he return?)
(You are a king at the gate of whose palace / even a pigeon becomes a hawk. / A poor traveller has come to your gate, / should he enter, or should he return?)
It is said that Nizamuddin Aulia at once asked one of his servants to go out at the gate and narrate the following lines to a boy who is sitting there :
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Be-yaayad andaroon mard-e haqeeqatKe ba ma yek nafas hamraaz gardad
Agar abla buvad aan mard-e naadanAzaan raah-e ke aamad baaz gardad
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(Oh you the man of reality, come inside / so you become for a while my confidant /but if the one who enters is foolish / then he should return the way he came.)
(Oh you the man of reality, come inside / so you become for a while my confidant /but if the one who enters is foolish / then he should return the way he came.)
Hearing this Khusrau decided that he has come to the right place and entered.
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References :
[2] Read about Amir Khusrau on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amir_Khusro
[3] (a) A very informative and good source for Amir Khusrau's work http://www.alif-india.com/
[3] (b) For more legends about Amir Khusrau see : http://www.alif-india.com/legend.html
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Image Information : This image is from http://www.flickr.com/photos/slack12/1087014722/
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