RIVER OF LOVE

CHENAB, AN EMBLEM IN PUNJABI FOLKLORE, EMBODIES LIFE'S CONTRADICTIONS, LOVE'S TRANSCENDENCE, AND THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY'S SYMBOLIC CURRENTS

- HAROON KHALID

CHENAB IS NOT A RIVER. IT IS A METAPHOR, a symbol of life. But not life as a powerful creative force (though rivers are a symbol of that as well), but life as dukkha, borrowing from the Buddhist tradition or maya of the Vedantic philosophy. It symbolises life's fickleness, unreliability, and inconsistency, as articulated in centuries of Sufi poetry. Chenab is a symbol that is understood across the religious traditions of Punjab.

Chenab is pain. It separates life from death, eternal bliss from a life of agony. It separates humans from their real destiny, death. Death not as a permanent loss, but as a gain, a return to humanity's most authentic form. Death as a symbol of marriage, a union of the devotee and the divine. In death, there is no separation between the creation and the creator, between Radha and Krishna, and between Sohni and Mahiwal.

Caught in the waves of Chenab on a halfbaked ghara (earthen pot), Sohni is holding onto the last straws of life. Her Mahiwal, her beloved, is on the other side of the bank, watching her slowly drown. Every day, Sohni used to swim across the river using a ghara to be one with her beloved. But on this day, her sister-in-law, who had caught on to her secret, replaced the ghara with a half-baked one, knowing well enough that she would drown in the river. As the ghara began to melt in her hands, Sohni realised her destiny. This is the climax of this iconic love legend of Punjab that unfolded on the banks of Chenab.

Like other Punjabi legends,