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Mera Piya Ghar Aaya: The Homecoming Mehfil-e-Qawwali
In our mehfil-e-qawwali today, a gathering in devotion to Sufi music, we are assembled to witness a beautiful rendition inspired by and dedicated to “Mera Piya Ghar Aaya,” the poetry of Baba Bulleh Shah (the 18th century’s most celebrated Punjabi Sufi poet and philosopher). It carries the weight of the return of the beloved (we’ll find out who the beloved is…hold on) and ultimately the experience of union with the divine, in the restless search for a home for the soul and the Self. The kalam (poetic word/utterance) is soulfully rendered and brought to wider life by the legendary Pakistani Sufi maestro Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Sahab, who emerged from an eminent musical lineage. With my own ancestral roots in Punjab, I was introduced to this musical genre at an early age by my own family; my father, a classically trained music composer, my paternal grandmother, a radio singer trained in Hindustani classical music and my maternal grandmother, who cherished poetry—shayari—and qawwalis. And so I have a deep affinity with this Sufi soulfest and its profound interiority.
Mehfil-e-Qawwali: the set-up for the welcome of the Return
The performance invites an experiential descent into the questions: who are we, and why do we all travel on this journey of becoming? These inquiries resonate in one of Bulleh Shah’s most evocative kalams called “Bullah Ki Jaana Main Kaun” (“Bullah, who knows who I am?”). The qawwali we are about to witness extends into this unravelling of what lies beyond the perceived experience of the self, carrying us across the return threshold to meet ourselves anew. He gives us back an experience of our murshid (spiritual guide) and of what the murshid awakens within. Isn’t that what our heart desires from the return? To get back home, the ghar? the beloved Self…
Ready? Now I dim the lights, ignite the candles, adjust the mics, lay the carpet for the seating of the qawwals (the musicians), and place their tablas, harmoniums and dholaks (musical instruments). I request everyone to grab a seat and get ready to soak in the ultimate boon of this journey: rejoicing the return of the Piya, and with it the path of transformed insight-consciousness for him and so for us. Before the Shahneshah-e-Qawwali (the title given to Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Sahab as the King of Kings of Qawwali) bestows his musical prowess on us, the qawwals begin with the taali, the rhythmic clapping to pick up the tempo slowly.
From Bhulla, the wandering consciousness, to the Murshid, the Return Guide
In this musical incubation process of slowly setting things in motion, I am wondering about the delays that take place before we are ready to invite or truly commit to the return passage towards our Piya. What is that like? What really absorbs us before the fortunate recognition and union with the beloved? For Baba Bulleh Shah, his union with his spiritual guide, Shah Inayat Qadri, is said to have seen many obstacles, an estrangement, and efforts for reconciliation. He had to repeatedly try to win back his guide’s favor and his spiritual journey. Symbolically: to be Bulleh and not Bhulla; that is, to come back on track in his spiritual pursuit, rather than to be a wanderer or bhulla, meaning a forgetful one. The acceptance of his conscious state is what won him back his Guru/murshid—the teacher-disciple relationship. Love, in service of the inner divine, is the true return. For the enriched consciousness, love serves as a guiding light to us as well, opening us to embody the path to our Self’s wisdom.
I hope you have joined the humnawa (the musical ensemble, vocalists, chorus singers and all other musicians) already, clapping along with them…haven’t you?
The taal, alaap and the humnawa—realization resonance in the Boon’s homecoming
The taalis, the tablas, the harmoniums…wow…what an invocation…and so begins the Ustad with the alaap (a free flowing sound vocalization before the kafi, musical verses, begin). The alaap for me represents the anticipation of the homecoming—the acknowledgement of the search, the beloved, the elixir—and the realization of the part of Bulleh Shah’s being that was left behind in the letting go of the unserving self. This recovers what I understand as the boon of boons: the divine love of the transformed Self and its authentic experience through his murshid, his Guru.
Ayo ni saiyon, ral dio ni wadhai (Come let us celebrate)
main waar paaya ni sona maahi (I have found my beautiful beloved)
Ghadiyal devo nikal ni (Remove the time marking bell)
Mera piya ghar aaya (My beloved has come home)
Dhikr—the living Boon in the divine Sufi qawwali encore
As the humnawa build the musical intensity (don’t forget clapping along, a steady 1, 2, 3…and 1, 2, 3), the repetition in qawwali speaks to me of the cyclical transformative quality of the hero’s monomyth, the journey and purposive culmination stage. Moreover, each return draws in another journey to be awakened. The nagma (the musical hook of the qawwali—“Mera piya ghar aaya,” repeated for conscious registration) is a master musical demonstration of the symbolic evocation of the Sufi practice of dhikr—the repetitive remembrance of the divine, carried through this. For it builds our collective participation and the living quality of the boon experience. The more we listen to it in encore, dwell on it, the more it lives to guide our inner restoration and reintegration.
Mera piya ghar aaya
Oh laal ni
Mera piya ghar aaya
Oh laal ni
Mera piya ghar aaya
oh laal ni…
I see that by this third repetition, you are already with the Ustad in his ecstatic musical communion. From Baba Bulleh Shah to Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Sahab to me, and now to you—the verse itself becomes a call to return, or to know the path to return.
In just one place, St. Paul speaks to the Apostles of the apo-katástasis, the reinstatement or redemption of all creatures. The idea is that all creatures are lying in fetters with us, and as we, the children of God, are expecting the revelation of the Holy Ghost within us, so the whole of nature is expecting that spiritual miracle; as man will be redeemed ultimately, so the nature of the animals will be redeemed too. (Jung, Visions: C.G. Jung Seminars, 1930-1934 Vol. 2, 698)
What do you think it is for you in this musical transmission? Could it be the invitation to encounter the spiritual essence of the Self? In the spirit of Jung’s apo-katastasis, an understanding that echoes the essence of the Return stage of Campbell’s hero framework, this return brings something back for the whole. Bulleh Shah’s excitement in welcoming the union is communicated to us through the sustained solo rendering of the repetitive verse. The Ustad’s voice leads, becoming a call to bring the transcendental experience to us, awakening a longing to seek from within the collective. Held and sustained by the musical accompaniment of the humnawa (the symbolic collective), the repetition keeps the journey alive.
It resembles the hero's persistent efforts to accept the challenge of re-entering the world, even after the comfort of the fulfillment experienced through the crossings, trials, and the accomplishments of the journey. The urge toward limitlessness, moving beyond the self, to communicate the importance of pursuing the process of letting go and surrendering is where the numinous bliss happens. Yet to return by addressing the inner absences and welcome a renewed Self back into the community is the actual heroic embodiment. Through the reach of this Sufi qawwali, this experience becomes communicable (Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 188).
Anhad, the boundless sound: the message of the Boon
Piya ghar aaya (My beloved has come)
Saanu Allah milaya (and united us with God)
It fascinates me how Baba Bulleh Shah’s reclamation of his spiritual quest is given to us as a gift of the Anhad, the boundless sound, the qawwali, our symbolic musical embodiment of the return-reunion with the divine. Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Sahab commemorates this through the melismatic expansion of the verses, the symbolic words picked from them, and carefully spaced gaps. That allows the musical presence for the absorption of this intensification, developing the contrast with the vocal improvisations with the fellow qawwal. This really makes space for us to listen to the message of the boon. Close your eyes and imagine the reverb of the sustained musical ornamentation; isn’t it calling you to embody the rhythm?…I can see you swaying with the melody, clapping away…Congratulations…you have embraced your murshid or the path to be one…or at least sensed the deed of the hero which is to remain present with the transitions of the self, placed in the communion with the larger world and its changing, renewing forms. This is where the extraordinary is actually the perceptive view of the lived experiences of the evolving Self.
The goal of the myth is to dispel the need for such life ignorance by effecting a reconciliation of the individual consciousness with the universal will. And this is effected through a realization of the true relationship of the passing phenomena of time to the imperishable life that lives and dies in all. (Campbell, Hero, 205-6)
We hold it today in this Sufi cadence so as to embrace the anhad, the boundless freedom to journey, return and begin again. Are you with me? Mera Piya Ghar aaya/oh laal ni/Aaya na (the return has come, hasn't it)?
Close your eyes and imagine the reverb of the sustained musical ornamentation; isn’t it calling you to embody the rhythm?
MythBlast authored by:
I am Priyanka Gupta, a recent PhD graduate in Psychology with a specialization in Jungian psychology and mythology from the University of Delhi, India (2023). My doctoral thesis explored the hero archetype, delving into the Campbellian structure of the hero's journey through the distinctive prism of Hindu mythology and Native American mythology. As a researcher, I am captivated by the interplay of the meaning of symbols, life, and religions, drawing inspiration and contemplating on the perspectives laid out by Joseph Campbell and prominent Jungian thinkers. Beyond academia and research, I am a writing enthusiast and a passionate painter. My diverse interests converge in a desire to share new perspectives and ideas, propelling me towards a future in teaching and knowledge.
This MythBlast was inspired by the Return stage of the hero's journey and The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
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"The goal of the myth is to dispel the need for such life ignorance by effecting a reconciliation of the individual consciousness with the universal will. And this is effected through a realization of the true relationship of the passing phenomena of time to the imperishable life that lives and dies in all."
-- Joseph Campbell
