in Punjab`s cultural history we face a peculiar problem; how to differentiate between poets and saints. One can challenge it by asserting that you cannot mix apples and oranges. But the matter is not that simple. Almost all our classical poets have been celebrated as poets as well as saints. Who comes first, a poet or a saint, depends on one`s worldview. And this precisely is the nub of the matter. The South Asian mind is highly superstitious,a product of along historical process in a region that has been gifted with immense natural diversity that hampered the efforts to understand its dynamics with primitive rational tools. Hence natural forces were taken as supernatural powers. Irrational and metaphysical explanations compensated forthelack ofrealunderstandingof natural phenomena. Human mind has evolved in a way that it needs to explain things, find a cause and effect relationship. If it can`t do it rationally, it is forced by its internal urges to do it irrationally. One of theresults of this process has been the emergence of hero worship. Gifted individuals who can do extraordinary things are lionised as heroes/ heroines. And those who operate in the domain of religion or spirituality are canonised. The privileged exploit such larger-than-life figures to maintain and perpetuate status quo, and the down-trodden look up to them as divine source of solace in times of hardships. From such a perspective one can try to understand the complex historical situation when it comes to our classical poetssaints.

The first giant we come across in this great line-up is none other than Baba Farid Shakarganj (1173-1265) born in Kothewal in the suburbs of Multan. We are not certain about his date of birth. Some scholars claim he was born in 1188. He was highly educated and widely travelled apart from being a polyglot i.e.

he knew his mother language, Sadh Bhasha, Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit. He was the third head of the famous Chishti Sufi Order that had the largest following in north India. He was made of different stuff; he had nothing but contemptfor power and its temptations as he firmly believed that power rested on exploitation and corruption. He believed what a priest-quoted by Ernest Mandeladdressing a gathering of European aristocrats said in the 14th century: `gentlemen, you are not thieves but what you eat is the fruit of theft.` And Baba Farid says; `O Farid, wood is my bread, hunger for curry I`ve got / Those who have eaten it rich, dense pains their lot (trans; Muzzaffar Ghaffaar).` He succeeded his mentor Bahktiyar Kaki as the leading light of Sufis; he left Delhi and settled in Ajodhan (nowadays called Pakpattan), set up his modest monastery and lived an extremely austere life like saint Francis of Assisi.

Diogenes`s famous quote can help us understand Baba`s worldview. `In a rich man`s house there is nothing to spit but his face. It is the privilege of gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little,` says the Greek sage. Jesus in the New Testament declares; `It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God`. `An element of physical anx-iety in Baba Farid`s time has been identified by Irfan Habib in his book on a later era, (Agrarian System in the Mughal Period).

There was a big jungle near Pakpattan where rebels lived and from where tax was not collected.

This may have influenced the free spirit of Baba Farid,` writes Muzzaffar Ghaffaar in his Baba Farid Ganjshakar / Within Reach.

His monastery was open to all regardless ofcaste,creed and class.

Poverty was celebrated as a blessing as it did not exploit anyone nor infringed the rights of others. He refused to accept donations/gifts from the rich and the powerful including the kings. His conscious act of identifying with the poor and the underprivileged made him the darling of the masses. His abstinence, austerity, love of the people made him a mythical character who was invested with mystical powers, and could perform miracles. This was symbolic acknowledgement of his pro-people way of life which inspired hope in their life which was otherwise full of sufferings.

But sadly the veneration has become so deep and pervasive thatit has resulted in blind devotion.

People throng his shrine with the supplication that he should intercede with the divine powers on their behalf for the resolution of their problems which are mostly mundane. Hard-pressed, they forget what Baba Farid, who was a great poet as well as a grand saint, said in one of his couplets: `O Farid, do not write your destiny in black words if you have subtle wisdom / lower your head and see into your own collar.` He emphasises the role of reason and rationality in the matters that matter. But it suits all to make him sacred to a point that he is seen as a conformist and a supporter of the established order. The elite do it out of their superciliousness as it`s an effective way of keeping the unhappy masses in check.

And the masses do it out of their superstitiousness to keep their hope of alleviating their situation alive. It`s no surprise that they get beaten and insulted by policemen just to go through what is called `Bahishti Darwaza (the Gate of Paradise) at his shrine believing that such an act would wash away their sins and bring good luck.Sadly, all shrines of poets-saints have been reduced to centres of ritualised expressions of controlled spirituality patronised by clergy and officialdom. Such a sanitised expression of spirituality is little more than a display of religious rituals rolled out as a divinely inspired reflection. You would rarely hear the verses being sung at their shrines as they express the scathingly critical view of social conditions and the system.

Baba Farid was the first in our region who openly critiqued the secular and the spiritual with his critical wisdom. His humanist ideals coupled with his oeuvre proved to be the foundation of Punjabi literary tradition. In a nutshell, he never hated the world and its joys.

He wanted a relationship with the world based on the subjugation of egoism: `O Farid, make `P into hemp, little by little mill/Treasures of God are brimming, loot what you will.

Note: 783rd Urs (death anniversary) of Baba Farid was commemorated in the first week of July. soofi01@hotmail.com