His mother supervised his education but it must have been irregular because he was often found under the influence of ecstatic states. It seems that his education remained informal to the end Whatever he expressed or wrote after-wards, it was in the light of his own spiritual vision and knowledge.
His mother taught him the essential Sufi exercises dhikr (invocation of Allah and His Names) and he probably needed no more guidance after that. He was initiated to walk the path of Sufis intuitively. His spiritual experiences and vision enriched his mind and spirit with so much knowledge that he far excelled his contemporary Sufi masters and Sufi poets in Tasawwuf(Sufism) and Suluk (all about the Sufi Way and its stations and states). In a book he remarks:
Though we have little of formal learning, / Yet the spirit has been
blessed with holiness by esoteric knowledge.
In fact he may be called a bom saint.
He was the greatest teacher and propagator of Faqr (spiritual poverty) which is the shining guiding star in his teachings. He may be considered one of the great Rcvealers in the history of Sufism.
Hadrat Sultan Bahu believed in wahdatul wujud (Oneness of Being) and in his prose and poetry7 he expressed this view openly and earnestly. Even in the first verse of the first ghazal he declares;
I know for sure that in this universe is no object of worship
but He.
He alone exists in both worlds. He alone is the goal.
And then
I say One, I seek One;
I plant Him like a rose in my heart.
I find Him One and
find none else but "He".
Like all the Sufi poet-teachers he never forgets that he is a Murshid (spiritual director). Even when he is expressing his feelings, he isteaching. He sings and teaches. He teaches and sings. He invites and calls the seekers of truth to gather in the teaching hall of the murshid in order to learn wisdom and receive blessings:
Come away my wise friend, let's go to the tavern.
Drink deep like a man and remember nothing else but the
goblet and the glass.
Pawn the prayer-rug and get the goblet.
Cleanse your heart and soul
and don't be clever.
He tells the disciples to find out the Truth in the depths of their
innermost consciousness:
Cross the valley,
come close to your own self,
see the abode of the Beloved inside your own soul.
0 friend, know your beloved nearer than yourself.
Make haste, don't be unaware of the beloved's nearness.
Again, like all the teachers of the Path, the persuasions and warnings
are mingled in his address:
0 man of God, if you seek the way of God,
then such as it is, it's nothing but troubles and torments.
0 friend, what else is there but torment,
this is the way of purity:
no one is accepted but those who are poor.
But most of the time in his ghazals as if setting an example, he is talking of his own moods and spiritual states and stations (waridat and ahwal-o-maqaniat). He speaks of love as a dominant passion of his spiritual nature He can sacrifice his life for that:
Intoxicated with His love,
I've washed my hands of the universe.
I'm drunk to the soul:
I'm sporting with my life in the bazar.
O Friend, intoxicated with love.
I've become oblivious of "this" and "that",
I've girdled my loin and
I'm sporting with my life in the bazar.
I'll take a goblet from the tavern, I'll certainly drink deep
that I become free from world and religion,
that I cast fire into this world.