Sarmad

Shri Nathji had often spoken about the saint, Sarmad, who was so completely absorbed in the thought of God that he roamed around nude. When he was arrested for this, he explained his conduct by saying that he was not consciously going around nude, but rather had no consciousness of the act, and it was not, therefore, a sin.

He was, however, beheaded by the intolerant religious priests of the time. As his head was about to be cut off, he saw God in the executioner’s axe and welcomed it, saying:

“Come! O Come! My Beloved! Separate this head from my shoulders! I am thankful that a long story is being cut short, for I have quite a headache!”

Shri Nathji often quoted a Persian verse of Sarmad, which he greatly liked:

Sarmad agarash vafaa-ast khud mi aayad,

Gar aamdanash ravaa-ast khud mi aayad

Behoodaa chiraa dar paye oo mi gardi

Binasheen! Agar oo khudaa-ast khud mi aayad

Sarmad if He loves thee, He shall come of Himself,

If His coming is according to His Law, He shall come of Himself,

Why dost thou run hither and thither in search of Him,

Wait a while! If He be God, He shall come of Himself!

Another verse of Sarmad that Shri Nathji was fond of was:

Sarmad gilaa ikhtasaar mi baayad kard

Yak kaar azeen do kaar mi baayad kard

Yaa tan barzaaye dost mi baayad kard

Yaa kate nazar za yaar mi baayad kard

Sarmad, make the story short,

Do one out of two things,

Either give up thyself to Thy Friend,

Or else remain out of sight of Him!

And then there was the brief two-line verse of Sarmad, which Shri Nathji also quoted often:

Sarmad ghame ishq bulhavas raa na dihand

Soze dile parvaanaa magar raa na dihand

Sarmad the pain of love is not the lot of a greedy man

The burning in the heart of the moth is not the lot of a fly

Indeed, by quoting the verses of Sarmad, Shri Nathji immortalised the saint in the spiritual realm and brought his soul to the eternal union, which Sarmad had always sought.

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Sarmad  (which in Arabic means Eternal or Everlasting) was a renowned sufi saint. He is sometimes called Sarmad the Cheerful or Sarmad the Martyr). He was Armenian Jewish merchant. He had latter settled in the Kashan region in Iran, between Tehran and Isfahan. Because of his Jewish heritage and his later migration to Delhi, he is sometimes called the Jewish Sufi Saint of India. He had an excellent command of both Persian and Arabic, essential for his work as a merchant. Hearing that precious items and works of art were being purchased in India at high prices, Sarmad gathered together his wares and traveled to India where he intended to sell them. He had come to India in the reign of the Emperor Shah Jehan.

 Sarmad first came to Sindh and stayed in Thatta, then a prosperous trading town. However, he met a beautiful Hindu boy by the name of Abhi Chand  and was entranced. He would go and sit at his beloved's door and shower him with poetic praises. The father of the boy, seeing the purity of Sarmad's feelings, allowed him to come to his house. Over a period of time, Sarmad and Abhi Chand became so attached that they could not bear to live apart. The focus of Sarmad’s love then moved to the creator of that beautiful boy. This ardent love ('ishq) created such a radical transformation in his awareness that Sarmad immediately dropped all desire for wealth and worldly comfort. In this ecstatic state, Sarmad abandoned his considerable wealth and, losing all concern for social convention, he began to wander about without clothes, becoming a naked faqir. Later, both Samrad and Abhi Chand of them left Thatta and moved. He became so obsessed with his love that he would go about the streets of Lahore naked and give poetic expression to his feelings, unmindful of public attention.

The eldest son of Shah Jahan, Dara Shikoh was greatly influenced by him and  become a disciple of Sarmad. People in Lahore, flocked round Sarmad and many found him to be a man of great sanctity and supernatural powers. It was Dara Shikoh who brought the miraculous powers of Sarmad to the notice of his father, Emperor Shah Jehan. The following letter which Prince Dara Shikoh had addressed to Sarmad shows the high regard the royal pupil had for his saintly master:

My Pir and Preceptor, Everyday I resolve to pay my respects to you. It remains unaccomplished. If I be I, wherefore is my intention of no account? If I be not, what is my fault? Though the murder of Imam Hussein was the will of God: Who is (then) Yazid between (them). If it is not the Divine Will, then what is the meaning of “God does whatever He wills and commands whatever He intends”? The most excellent Prophet used to go to fight the unbelievers, defeat was inflicted on the army of Islam. The exoteric scholars say it was an education in resignation. For the Perfect what education was necessary?

Sarmad’s reply to the above epistle consisted of two lines, in verse, which when translated says:

My dear Prince, What we have read, we have forgotten Save the discourse of the friend which we reiterate.

 There are a lot of stories of Sarmad about his life in Lahore, his devotion to Mian Mir and how he predicted events. The execution of Dara Shikoh by Aurangzeb led him to Delhi and it was there that he had an immense following. In Lahore there is a saying that the Mughal empire faded away because of the curse of Sarmad who lamented the execution of Lahore’s favorite son Dara Shikoh. Sarmad's reputation as a man of piety and supernatural powers had preceded him and the people of Delhi flocked around him.

When Aurangzeb had usurped the throne, he taunted Sarmad about the succession of his favorite disciple, Dara Shikoh, to the throne, which he had promised him. Sarmad calmly replied: “God has given him eternal sovereignty and my promise is not falsified.”

Once as Aurangzeb went to Jama Masjid to offer Friday prayers, he spotted Sarmad sitting nude in the street. When he rebuked Samrad for violating shariah by being naked, Samrad asked him to cover him with a blanket lying nearby. When Aurangzeb picked up the blanket, the heads of all he had killed to ascent to the throne rolled out of it. To this, Sarmad told the emperor. "Should I hide your sins on my nakedness?" Samrad's fearless attitude was too much for Aurangzeb who soon called his chief Qazi Mullah Qawi, and plotted to do away with Samad. This event took place in the year 1661. As Samrad was very popular in Delhi, Auragzed got the army out in the streets of Delhi to suppress any revolt which may arise as a result of his execution.

Samad was dragged to the Quazi's court where he was accused of defying the shariah by living naked. Further, he was accused of not reciting the full kalima — the Muslim formulae of faith. Sarmad used to exclaim, "There is no God," but did not affirm "except Allah". When pressed to explain, Sarmad said: "I am drowned in negation and have not yet reached the state of affirmation. If I recite the full kalima now, it will be a lie."

Samrad had befitting replies to all of the Quazi's accusations, and this frustrated him even more. To make him relent, the Qazi had Abay Chand flogged in front of Samad. Rhe whip lashed Abhay Chand'd body, but miraculously, the pain was inflicted on Sarmad. Sarmad cried out.

The Qazi ordered him to be execution on the basis of a verse Sarmad had composed, the translation of which is: ‘The mullahs say that Muhammad (peace be upon him) entered the heavens, but Sarmad says that the heavens entered Muhammad’.

It is said that when Sarmad was being led away from the tribunal to the place of execution, he uttered, extempore, a long poem of immense beauty, the last lines of which are:

There was an uproar and we opened our eyes from eternal sleep Saw that the night of wickedness endured, so we slept again.

 Aqil Khan Razi, the court chronicler of Aurangzeb, writes that when the executioner was about to inflict the fatal blow, Sarmad uttered:

The nakedness of the body was the dust of the road to the friend That too was severed, with the sword, from our head.

Sarmad also uttered: My head was severed from the body by that flirt, who was my companion. The story was shortened, otherwise the headache would have been too much for me.

In Delhi, he was buried outside Jama Masjid, His tomb (whose photo is given) stands close to the Jamia Masjid and is visit by people of all faiths.