Hafiz - The Great Sufi Mystic and His Poems
Hafiz Shams-ud-din was not only one of the greatest Sufi mystics, but he was also one of the greatest poets who has ever lived.
The poems of Shams-ud-din were lyrical masterpieces woven with layers and layers of mystical metaphors.
Before you read his beautiful poems, it’s essential to realize that most of his poems are describing his advanced inner experiences in mystic meditation and divine enlightenment. These metaphors are obvious to mystics who have had the same inner experiences.
But the true meaning of these metaphors has always been deliberately hidden from the eyes and curious minds of most scholars.
In the mid-1300s, as a mystic and renowned Sufi, Hafiz lived in dangerous times. The Tongue of the Hidden, as he was called, was often hiding from the cruel rulers and fleeing from town to town. Running away as he continued to draft mystical poems about his inner experiences in divine enlightenment.
As he wrote, his layers of metaphors delighted his spiritual friends but confused the opposing Persian scholars and kings.
Many Scholars are Still Confused
A metaphor is a figure of speech, or a word in a poem that directly refers to a hidden thing, a secret message, or a mystical practice that won’t usually be noticed by casual readers. A metaphor within a metaphor is more delightful to the enlightened reader, but more confusing to an unenlightened reader.
It’s not surprising that poets like Rumi and Hafiz were wildly popular among the Sufi population in ancient Persia. It’s also obvious why the learned scholars in ancient Persia, as well as the modern scholars in the Western world, wildly misinterpreted the true meaning of their spiritual poems.
Let’s take a quick look at a few examples.
The Sahaj Portal Metaphor
One of the profound mystic experiences happens on the inner meditative journey from the crown chakra field of consciousness to the Sahaj Portal gateway into heavenly awareness. This experience is so significant that Shams-ud-din, the Tongue of the Hidden, mentioned it in at least one third of his poems. But most spiritually minded seekers as well as most scholars failed to see the real meaning.
I’ll explain it in detail after reviewing how most modern scholars define some of the key metaphors that Hafiz uses to describe his experiences in the Sahaj Portal.
The Persian Word: باغ means Garden
Most translators refer to the literal meaning of garden — a garden of flowers.
But highly advanced meditators realize that every time Hafiz talks about the garden that he’s talking about the mystic experiences in the crown chakra state of consciousness. The expansion of his soul consciousness in the crown chakra.
When he’s writing about the garden, Hafiz quite frequently describes the immaculate beauty of the red rose, or the blooming of red roses in his garden. Again, most scholars translate these lines as if Hafiz were strolling through the garden in his back yard.
The Arabic word: Ja’d
The most common definition for “Ja’d” is curly hair. When he’s discussing the Sahaj Portal experience, he quite often uses this word.
According to three different contemporary scholars Ja’d means either:
a. The perfumed curly hair of the beloved (friend or guru).
b. The dark curly hair of the beloved (friend or guru).
c. The dark and twisted path of the spiritual journey towards the Beloved (God).
However, Ja’d is an obvious reference to the streams of divine love that float out of the heavenly consciousness of His Beloved Friend (God Consciousness) in the Sahaj Portal and into his consciousness in the Garden (his crown chakra soul consciousness).
The Magian, the Saqi and the Cypress
Most translators seem to believe that the Magian that Hafiz writes about is a person. A Saqi is a sommelier (wine steward) and a Cypress is a tree.
But these are just metaphors for his Beloved Friend. His Beloved Friend is a first level metaphor for the Divine Consciousness that his own soul consciousness will eventually melt into.
Diving into the metaphors even deeper we eventually realize that the great saint Zoroaster was often referred to as the Cypress of Persia, or as the Great Saint/God of the Zoroastrian religion. In many ways the Zoroastrian religion evolved into the mystic Sufi path that Hafiz followed. It’s obvious that Hafiz was honoring Zoroaster in dozens of his poems.
In many of his poems about merging into the Sahaj Portal, Hafiz would say something like, “The Cypress is watching as I leave the garden to visit my Beloved Friend.”
The second most common metaphor used by Hafiz talks about his experiences in the wine tavern, where his Saqi fills his cup with his favorite Divine Wine. His Saqi is his Beloved Friend who is pouring divine consciousness into the eye center consciousness experience of Hafiz.
Saqi is usually translated as the cup bearer, or wine bringer. The term cup is a common spiritual/ symbolic term for the eye center field of consciousness. When Hafiz talks about how his Beloved Saqi is filling his cup/goblet with a divine wine, he’s truly describing the eye center experience when your clear awareness is brilliantly expanded into an enlightened awareness as a river (stream) of divine consciousness that flows into your less-enlightened awareness.
You can only reach the eye center in a state of intense loving awareness. When you arrive in the eye center region of consciousness you have an experience of enlightened bliss that is beyond mental happiness. Hafiz describes the experience as masti, which is often translated as “intoxication.” But it should be translated as “enlightened.”
Unfortunately most translators believe that Hafiz simply enjoys getting drunk - totally plastered - on his favorite wine.
I suspect Hafiz never drank any type of alcoholic beverage, or at least never got drunk on it.
The Ruby Red Lips and the Arched Eyebrows
By now, you’ve probably - or hopefully - come to the inevitable conclusion that in Hafiz’s poems, the Beloved Friend of Hafiz is not a person, or a personal God who lives in Heaven. Hafiz is referring to the divine consciousness that is in the center of the cosmos as well as in the center of every human soul.
In many of his precious poems about the Sahaj Portal experience, he talks about the beautiful red lips or ruby lips of his Beloved Friend. On other occasions he describes the sparkling, moon-like, beauty of His Beloved Friend’s eyes.
In most of these types of poems Hafiz also talks about how he melts/disappears into the eyes of His Beloved Friend or how he “completely” melts away into the words of His Beloved Friend.
Most translators believe that Hafiz is talking about a love affair with a physical person/saint/lover.
But he’s not.
Hafiz poetry is a work of art that portrays the journey of his soul and his subsequent intimate relationship with the river of divine loving consciousness flowing into his soul.
The Sahaj Portal Experience
It generally requires years of devoted meditation to be able reach the crown chakra field of consciousness. After experiencing that field of consciousness, it often takes several additional months or years to learn how to abide (silently rest without being disturbed) in the crown chakra region.
Then, after abiding in your crown chakra consciousness, a new portal of divine consciousness opens up from within the very core of your awareness.
This spiritual portal is shaped like an arched bow, or a slightly opened pair of lips, or like the shape of a single eye with an eyebrow on top and a dark line beneath. The outer edge of the portal is dark red, or ruby red. The inner edge of the portal is an even darker reddish-black color. Within the middle of the portal there is a magnificently brilliant white light. It’s a moon-like color of silvery light, but it’s brighter than any light you’ve ever seen.
The light that the soul experiences in the crown chakra has been described by many mystics as something like the “light of hundred or a thousand suns.” Even with this extremely bright cosmic awareness, the light emanating out of the Sahaj Portal seems to be at least one hundred times even brighter.
The Sahaj Portal is the proverbial “eye of the needle.” It’s the initial gateway to the heavenly regions. And there’s only room for one. There’s only room for divine awareness!
In the very instant that the soul notices this light - the light of God - the soul is totally mesmerized, and the soul’s awareness-of-its-own-awareness immediately disappears.
Hafiz is describing the most profound experience of the soul. He’s describing what it’s like to melt out of the soul’s self-perception and into divine awareness. He’s talking about the final journey of the soul and the first experiences of divine awareness.
He’s describing the end of the billion years’ sojourn of the soul, from its genesis to its final return into the divine consciousness from which it came.
There are still more levels of heavenly consciousness to experience, but this is where it starts. It starts in the Sahaj Portal.
A Sahaj Portal Podcast
One of my favorite spiritual books is the Diwan of Hafiz, by Paul Smith. After 30 years of studying Hafiz, Paul Smith’s translations of Hafiz poems are the most spiritually minded verses I’ve ever read.
Join me and a few of my dearest friends as I read and translate a Sahaj Portal poem from Hafiz. Poem 307 from the Diwan of Hafiz.
Final Notes
Hafiz, Shams-ud-din, was one of the greatest Sufi mystics. I’ve translated dozens of his beautiful poems, and I’ve created over 20 podcasts about the mystic significance to modern seekers.
The Sahaj Portal experience is, without question, a profound event for all highly advanced meditators. Every seeker has the potential to reach this experience and even go further into heavenly awareness within a single lifetime.
Moreover, most spiritually minded seekers can reach the crown chakra and beyond in less than five lifetimes. It does, however, require following the advice and meditation practices of celestially enlightened teachers. And it does require occasionally long stretches of devoted practice.
I lived an ordinary life. I worked in automobile factories as a teenager. I made my way as a programmer and then as a manager in the business world. During this ordinary lifetime I had many of the same experiences as Hafiz.
It’s the life of a mystic. And it’s yours if you want it!
Entire contents copyright 2023 by Greg Leveille.
We all have the capability to become a mystic--to consciously connect with the Universe
Thank you for sharing, this has also inspired me in my own work.