Arabic · noun · Nature & the Garden
Bahr / Dariya
बहर / दरिया
said bahr / dar-YAA
also written: dariya, samundar, samandar
Meaning
Sea; (dariya) river or large body of water.
How Iqbal uses it
The self at full scale. “Khudi is a shoreless sea — if you took it for a brook, there is no help for you.” He even prays to be made stormy: a sea with no turbulence in its waves is no sea at all.
See it in the verse
Bahr / Dariya in Iqbal’s couplets
Khuda tujhe kisi toofan se aashna kar de
Ki tere bahr ki maujon mein iztirab nahin
Ki tere bahr ki maujon mein iztirab nahin
May God acquaint you with some storm — for the waves of your sea carry no restlessness in them.
Restlessness · Adversity
Khudi wo bahr hai jis ka koi kinara nahin
Tu aabjoo ise samjha agar to chaara nahin
Tu aabjoo ise samjha agar to chaara nahin
Selfhood is an ocean that has no shore. If you have taken it for a mere stream, there is no help for you.
Selfhood · Aspiration · Self-Knowledge
Banaya ishq ne dariya-e-na-paida-karan mujh ko
Ye meri khud-nigah-dari mera sahil na ban jae
Ye meri khud-nigah-dari mera sahil na ban jae
Love has made me a river with no visible shore; I fear my own self-guarding may become the bank that hems me in.
Love · Restlessness · Freedom
Nigah paida kar ai ghafil tajalli ain-e-fitrat hai
Ki apni mauj se begana rah sakta nahin dariya
Ki apni mauj se begana rah sakta nahin dariya
Cultivate vision, O heedless one, for radiance is the very nature of things; a river cannot stay a stranger to its own wave.
Awakening · Self-Knowledge · Selfhood