===
1252,
4
===

 

{1252,4}

ghar dil kā bahut chhoṭā par jā-e taʿajjub hai
ʿālam ko tamām us meñ kis t̤arḥ hai gunjāʾī

1) the house of the heart is very small, but it's a cause/'place' for astonishment
2) how is there scope/space in it, for the whole world?!

 

Notes:

gunjāʾī : 'The power of containing; capacity, room (= gunjāʾish )'. (Platts p.917)

S. R. Faruqi:

This theme is very popular among Sufis: that although the heart is seemingly limited, if it would receive Divine attention then the whole universe-- even including the Creator of the universe-- can make a home within it. On this subject, for a bit of discussion see

{1469,3}.

Mir has several times versified the theme of the expansiveness of the heart. Then, there's this verse by Shah Niyaz Barelvi:

sīne meñ qulzum ko le qat̤re kā qat̤rah rahā
uf re samāʾī tirī ū re samundar ke chūr

[having taken a blood-ocean into the breast, hardly a drop remained
oh, your capacity! ah, the atoms of the sea!]

On this there seems to be a slight influence of Maulana-e Rum's [Persian] verse (from the first daftar of the Masnavi):

'The drop that would become a traveler on the sea of oneness,
That drop makes captive all the seven seas.'

Rumi has no equivalent to the insha'iyah style and the powerful image of the 'atoms of the sea' in Shah Niyaz Sahib's second line. But the Maulana has, in the sixth daftar [of the Masnavi], expanded upon this theme and given to his words an extraordinary sense of oneness and mysteriousness, such that (at least as far as the verse goes) Shah Niyaz and Mir have not reached it. God Most High says:

'I am not contained in the skies, nor in the emptiness of space,
Nor in intellects, nor in spirits.
I am contained in the believer's heart, like a guest,
Without likeness, without attributes, without a condition,
So that that heart might mediate the highs and lows
And attain kingship over them.'

Mir doesn't usually have that all-embracing command of Sufistic themes that Rumi does. But in image-making and in the immediacy of 'tumult-arousingness' Mir's side of the balance-scale usually outweighs Rumi's.

Thus in the present verse for the house of the heart to be very small, and then for there to be surprise as to how the whole universe has been contained in it, is a structure that makes an absolutely immediate effect. Then, with regard to ghar , the zila with jāʾe (meaning 'place') is very enjoyable. In

{1374,7},

Mir has based this theme on the 'house' and the 'houseless one', which has given the verse an unusual/unexpected twist. In

{601,8},

the idea of putting the face inside the collar and looking, and the image of a desolate wilderness/jungle, have given the verse a dastan-like or enchanted air.

Mir's verses noted below are devoid of those qualities. From the first divan [{361,4}]:

hai farsh ʿarsh tak bhī qalb-e ḥazīñ kā apne
is tang ghar meñ ham ne dekhī haiñ kyā faẓāʾeñ

[from the earth even/also to the empyrean belongs to my melancholy heart
in this narrow house, what spaces have we seen?!]

From the third divan [{1183,3}]:

yih taṣarruf ʿishq kā hai sab vagarnah z̤arf kyā
ek ʿālam ġham samāyā ḳhāt̤ir-e nā-shād meñ

[this is all the power/sway of passion-- otherwise, what capacity was there?
a whole world of grief has been contained in the unhappy temperament]

FWP:

SETS
MOTIFS == HOME
NAMES
TERMS == THEME; 'TUMULT-AROUSING'

It's a lovely verse. I have nothing special to add.

 

 
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