ABSTRACT

This chapter describes the figure of the guru that emerges in the context of the author conversations about her dream and the story of Hafiz Mian's own travails that it elicited. Guru Maharaj, an unnamed guru, a figure of imagination, appears at an odd moment in Hafiz Mian's stories though his actual relation to Guru Maharaj, or for that matter, any other guru, never emerges clearly. The guru figures not in his own right but as someone who haunts the possibilities of transgression for a Muslim amil. Though jinns are normally forbidden to take the human form, Hafiz Mian said, they can take human appearance in the presence of pious people like Baba Nihal Shah. Baba ji was successful in gaining access to the soul of Padmini and he knew that unless proper kriya-karma were performed, her tortured soul would continue to wander and be used for various nefarious rites.