Dadu Dayal and Sahaja

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Dadu Dayal was a saint from Rajasthan in northern India. "Dadu" means brother, and "Dayal" means "the compassionate one". He lived in the second half of the sixteenth century (1544-1603). His songs are in a Hindi dialect known as Braj Bhasa, being a mixture of Hindi and Rajasthani.

Like the earlier saint Kabir, Dadu came from one of the many low artisan castes that had converted to Islam. He lived in the Jaipur region of Rajasthan, most probably as a pinjari, a cotton carder. He married and had a family of two sons and two daughters.

He gathered around himself a group of followers, which became known as the Dadu-panth. This organization has continued in Rajasthan to the present-day, and has been a major source of early manuscripts containing songs by the North Indian saints.

Dad himself did not write down any of his compositions. These were recorded by his disciple Rajjab. Another disciple, Janagopal, wrote the earliest biography.

Dadu clearly experienced the bliss of Sahaja, and alludes to it in his songs, some of which are presented in translation in the linked pages.

Surviving songs do not record the name of Dadu's guru, but it is possible that he was given realisation by one of Kabir's sons. Certainly much of the imagery used in his songs is similar to that used by Kabir, and similar also to that used by the earlier Sahajiya Buddhists and Nath yogis.

Of his many followers, only Sundardas achieved the bliss of Sahaja.

Dadu and Realisation

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When realisation came to me, I was filled with joy and all fear departed from me.
I found pure deliverance in the realm of the unapproachable, the unthinkable.
The Unapproachable has come near, the message of the Unthinkable abides with me always, the Unutterable find utterance.
From separation I have come to Union.
The bonds of self are loosened, all error has fled, and the light of the Brahman shines upon my soul.
Dadu

Dadu says: I am neither Hindu nor Muslim
I am not attached to any of the six philosophical schools.
I love the merciful God.

In cutting Brahma up into bits the sects have divided him.
Dadu says: abandon limited thought in favour of the unlimited and become non-sectarian [nipakh].

Dadu says: since I am non-sectarian, the people are all in anger against me.

I have found that God is unchangeable, immortal, fearless, self-existent,
Almighty, pure, unimaged, unseen, infinite and incomprehensible.
Worship is due to Him and Him alone.
Dadu

Dadu and Sahaja

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When by touching the touchstone we have become dispensers of happiness, the false idea that there are two will have been driven away.

O brother, we have become one, when, united in bewilderment (Mohan),
The true word has entered our minds. (refrain)

When we have found the secret of Malayagiri
All such errors as family and caste will have been driven away.

When the Hari-water has been found close by, then drop mixing with drop will have merged in Sahaja.

When all the various disparities and errors have vanished, says Dadu, one will be united within a single body.

[the Malayagiri is a range of mountains in western India]

Touching the touchstone avail yourself of gold (liberation), of the happiness-giving sahaja surati.
On the creeper of delusion hangs the fruits of sensuality.
Do not lose yourself on it, o friend!

O my mind, without Ram the body fades away,
When it returns to dust, tell me, what is there left to be done? (refrain)

As long as your body is healthy do not forget Him.
This wordly existence is like the parrot on the silkcotton tree.
Do not rejoice in it!

This is your opportunity: recognizing Jigjivan, comprehending, seeing Him you will obtain happiness.
Do not lose yourself in many different bodies!

Dadu says: Do not allow yourself to be beguiled!

[Jagjivan is the life-giving aspect of Vishnu]

Through samjami (yogic self-control) he will become one who always imparts sanctity, no impurity will stick to his soul.
The lotus (ie Sahasrara) of this person will bloom, the Brahma-knowledge will blossom.

Play in the sea of happiness and sins unlimited will disappear.
Become a pure being and unite with the Creator! (refrain)

To the passage of the inaccessible proceed, and unite real being with real being.
Approach the seat of the Guru and be absorbed in the house in the state of one liberated.

That man will worship, he will be engrossed in the play of love.
The Beautiful One shall be served in sahajaim; on Mount Kailasa the merging is performed.

No difference between night and day is visible, sahajai occurs spontaneously.
Dadu, behold his sight, o servant, addicted to this liquor!

---------------
Translations (slightly modified) from:
"Crossing the ocean of existence: Braj Bhasa religious poetry from Rajasthan: a reader" (Wiesbaden, Germany: Otto Harrassowitz, 1983)

Dadu and Sahaja -2

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Where there is no two, there is Sahaja, there joy and sorrow become one.
Sahaj neither lives nor dies; it is the state of complete nirvana ...
Amidst all duality hold your consciousness in the vacuity of Sahaja,
and drink nectar when you have attained the final state of arrest
and then there is no fear of death or of the flux of time.

One's self is a tender plant wherin blooms the flower of Sahaja;
The true guru teaches how to achieve it in a natural way,
But very rare are the persons who can understand it.

Prana and pyanda [the vital breath and body], flesh and blood, ears and nose,
All play wonderful sport in Sahaja.

When consciousness reaches the Sahaja state, waves of duality vanish,
Hot and cold become the same, everything becomes one.

Come, says Dadu, let's go to that land where neither moon nor sun can go
Where neither night nor day can enter and all is merged in Sahaja.
[moon and sun, ie left and right channels of the subtle system]

Sundardas

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Sundardas (1596-1689) was a disciple of Dadu Dayal, and perhaps the best known of the early Dadu-panth.

He was sent to live in Dadu's household at the age of six. Although Dadu died soon after, he most probably gave realisation to the young child before his death.

Sundardas clearly experienced Sahaja:

Rare is the person who feels thirsty for drinking the juice of meditation on the name 'Rama'.
We then become the residents of the supreme region which is at the top of the brain.
There exists the lake of ambrosial juice.
As for the ambrosial juice it is exceedingly dear, though it can be available throughout the year.
One who drinks that becomes immortal.
Even kings like Bharthari have totally left to enjoy the kingly pleasure;
and after besmearing the body with ashes have become unconcerned like Goraknatha and Kabira.
Sundardasa says that he too was benefitted spiritually by the grace of his Guru, Dadu Dayal

In one song Sundardas recorded his Sahaja lineage:

That perfectly pure Sahaja is in everything and with that Sahaja all religious people gather together.
Sankara began his sadhana in this Sahaja,
Sukdeva, Sanaka and others also followed this Sahaja way.
Devotees like Soja, Pipa, Sena and Dhana all have drunk of this Sahaja-bliss in the natural way.
Raidas was also a sadhaka of Sahaja, and Guru Dadu also realised infinite bliss in this Sahaja path.

Bibliography

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Further reading on Dadu and the Dadu-Panth:

Winand M.CALLEWAERT
Dadu and the Dadu-panth: the sources
In: The Sants: studies in a devotional tradition of India. Edited by K.Schomer & W.H.McLeod (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1987):181-189

Winand M.CALLEWAERT (ed)
The Hindi biography of Dadu Dayal (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1988)

V.H.DATE
A rosary from the Saints of Rajasthan (Jodhpur: Laxmi Devi Vyas, 1982)

Daniel GOLD
The Dadu-panth: a religious order in its Rajasthan context
In: The idea of Rajasthan. Vol.2: institutions. Edited by K.Schomer et al (Manohar: Anerican Institute of Indian Studies, 1994):242-264

S.D.GUPTA
Obscure religious cults (Calcutta: Mukhopadhyay, 1969. 3rd ed) esp. pp362-363

R.L.HANDA
History of Hindi language and literature (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1978) esp. pp95-99

Shahabuddin IRAQI
Historical and religious dimensions of Dadupanthi sources
Islamic Culture (Hyderabad) 1997;71(3):37-66

David N.LORENZEN
Praise to a formless God: Nirguni texts from North India (Albany: SUNY Press, 1996)

W.G.ORR
A sixteenth-century Indian mystic (London: Lutterworth Press, 1947)

Karine SCHOMER
The doha as a vehicle of sant teachings
In: The Sants (see above)

S.C.SHOBA
Social life and concepts in medieval Hindi bhakti poetry (Delhi: Chandrayan, 1983)

S.G.SIDDONS
Extract and translation of one of the Granthas, or sacred books, of the Dadu-panthi sect
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 1837;v6:481-487,751-756

Monika THIEL-HORSTMANN
Crossing the ocean of existence: Braj Bhasa religious poetry from Rajasthan: a reader (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1983)