Diwân-e-Goyâ

The Diwân-e-Goyâ is a collection of more than sixty ghazals written by Bhai Nand Lal in classical Persian. This collection is most probably the most famous work of Bhai Nand Lal and its first translation into Punjabi was completed in the early decades of the 20th century. There is no dating of the compilation but it was most likely written in the 1690s during the Anandpur period and as the Zindagînamâ, the Diwan-e-Goyâ was also given its title by the Guru himself after he had read the famous Holi ghazal.

The compilation consists of more than sixty ghazal poems in different meters following a theme of devotional love to the Master (Murshid), worship (ibâdat), mysticism (irfân) and several notions of panentheism (wahdad-al-wujûd). The entire work elucidates Sikh doctrines through the sophisticated terminology of Sufism. The poet is addressing Guru Gobind Singh though the name of the Guru is not mentioned anywhere in the entire collection. This broadened the scope and universality of the ghazals so that Sufis and others could read them aloud and find their personal truth through these Sikh ghazals. It is most likely that these poems were used historically to present the Sikh path and appeal to Muslim Sufis to step onto the path of the Eternal Satguru.

Seeing a decline in the linguistic skills amongst the Sikhs following the fall of the Sikh Empire, the descendants of Bhai Nand Lal in the early 1900s began a project of commenting upon and translating the various works into Punjabi for the benefit of the non-Persian speaking Sikhs. In these commentaries, for the first time they put their family memoirs and oral traditions into writing hereby revealing interesting aspects of the ghazals. For instance, commenting on the third ghazal in the Diwân-e-Goyâ the descendants mention that Bhai Nand Lal wrote the ghazal in response to a ghazal by the 12th century Persian poet Hafez. Bhai Nand Lal follows the structure of Hafez’ ghazal, but subverts the content to highlight the supremacy of the Sikh path. By writing his poem as a response to an earlier poet, Bhai Nand Lal is creating a cosmic meta-communication between two actors – Sufism and Sikhi – where Bhai Nand Lal encourages the Sufis to submit to the will of the eternal Satguru and attain liberation from the cycle of births and deaths. In this way, the poet raises his ghazals from mere poetry to a cosmic communication between two mystical paths.

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