Attar’s Radical Idea Of Khudi

Some may call Attar and other mystics like him, clandestine atheists, writes SUMIT PAUL. But Attar went beyond belief and nonbelief, he points outMysticism, especially Islamic mysticism, has always fascinated and intrigued readers and its out-of-the fold practitioners. Many mystics have been vaguely atheistic in their poetic works. According to Edward G Browne,western scholar of Islamic mysticism and theology,“Prior to Jalaluddin Rumi, a clutch of Persian and Arabic mystics were not believers in the usual sense of the word.” Omar Khayyam (Edward Fitzgerald rightly called him a ‘fantastic’ Sufi, who loved to drink; please refer to the very first edition of Rubaiyat-e-Umar Khayyam), Fariduddin Attar and Arab mystic Mansur Hallaj — who was excoriated in 922 AD for proclaiming Anal- Haq — Aham Brahamasmi: I’m god — being the foremost among them.Attar began as a believer but gradually turned Beniyaaz-e-Deen — insouciant to religion — and finally died as an ‘enlightened’ ifzeem (archaic and arcane Persian for a clandestine atheist;it came from the word farzeem in Pahalavi, the precursor to Persian and is still in vogue in Dari or Afghan Persian).It’s worthwhile to mention that Attar wrote in Persian as well as in classical Pahalavi, the language of Zoroastrian religious texts Avesta and Zendavesta. The problem with the uninitiated students and readers of mysticism and spirituality is that they interpret everything in terms of god and heaven because most of them have a specific religion and their mystic interpretations are governed by esoteric beliefs. But remember the words of the redoubtable Edward W Said in his slim but immensely profound book Orientalism: ‘Real mysticism goes beyond conventional and canonic religious beliefs and faith in the established parameters of spirituality. An ordinary mind will have to expand itself to accommodate the notion of atheism because atheism is also a peripheral part of spirituality.’ Much before Allama Iqbal and the German maverick Nietzsche,Attar realised the power of khudi — not mere ego but the ‘ultimate ego’,which is pure, pristine and cosmic in nature. He said in Pahalavi,Ehf az khudi un khuda sheefast’ — my khudi has become my god; I need no god of yours. Like Amir Khusro,Attar proclaimed, Har rag-e-jaan taar gushta, haajat-e-zunnar neest — every vein of my body has become a sacred thread. I don’t need janeau (sacred thread worn by Hindus).This line was plagiarised by Khusro from Attar’s Deewaan (oeuvre).When Allama Iqbal said, khudi ko kar buland itna ke har taqdeer se pahle/Khuda tujh se poochhe, bata teri raza kya hai — elevate your ‘righteous ego’ to that level that god must ask before bestowing kismet on you, tell me what you want for yourself — he had Attar on his mind and he explained in a letter to Professors Swanton and A J Arberry that he was influenced by Attar’s revolutionary idea of ‘khudi’ that went beyond any god or godhood and placed man on the highest pedestal. Iqbal almost contemplated relinquishing Islam at that point.Attar never had gone for Haj because Haj entailed qurbani or sacrifice and he was a staunch vegetarian who questioned the so-called god’s permission to kill animals and eat their flesh. He thundered in Pahalavi,F’a hez kihaan,ift neezist khuda — if it’s god’s wish,meat-eating,I repudiate that god. Attar’s disciple Mehroof, who later embraced Zoroastrianism and was hacked to death by fanatic Muslims,defined his master,‘the greatest disguised nonbeliever ever to have walked on earth’—munkir-e-zaat un niha azeemtareen. But the beauty of Attar’s poetry is that it doesn’t appear to be outright atheistic to general readers and even to those reading him in Pahalavi or Persian. But those who’re steeped in mysticism, can discern Attar’s mystic bent of mind which is subtly atheistic.Attar didn’t like to be pigeonholed as a sceptic or atheistic mystic.He went beyond belief and nonbelief. His emphasis on khudi (sublime or ultimate ego) is important in the sense that it etymologically gave birth to the Persian word ‘khuda’ for god. Khuda is khudi and vice versa. In that context,Attar was Upanishadic in his mystic poetry because the Upanishads urge man to go beyond himself and even the so-called god. Such religious-unspecified and aesthetically atheistic poetry of Attar is the need of this time when everyone of us is either a Muslim, Hindu or Christian and we’ve forgotten to sublimate our ultimate ego to become god, nay even beyond that.A world sans any dogma, doctrine and ism was envisaged by Attar and Mansur Hallaj more than a millennium ago.Yet,after so much so-called advancement, we’re killing each other in the name of a concocted god, religion, or sect.Can’t we follow Attar’s superlative idea of khudi and realise our collective potential and make this world a seamless conglomeration of just one denomination: Human race? Am I being utopian?■ Note:At the author’s request, the word ‘God’ is printed in lower case as ‘god.’ Post your comments at speakingtree.in