TAOSHOBUDDHA 1
AN EXCERPT FROM MARAQBA-I-RUMI MARAQBAS AOUND THE COMPOSITIONS OF RUMI By ENLIGHTENED TAOSHOBUDHA 2
SHRINE JALALUDDIN RUMI
At sunset of December 16, 1273 A.D. 5th Jamadi-u u-'l-Akhar 672 A.H. at the age of 66 6 solar years or 68 Lunar years Jalaluddin Rumi left the world of finiteness and duality to enter the magnanimity of Allah at home in Qonya.
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SHRINE JALALUDDIN RUMI
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Jalaluddin Rumi May Allah be pleased with him? Human beings climb the ladder of egotism, But in the end everyone must fall from this ladder, The higher you climb, the more foolish you are, For your bones will be more badly broken When you die to yourself and come alive through God, In truth you have become one with God, in absolute unity. RUMI MASNAVI IV: 2763-7
INTRODUCTION: ver since I have known myself I have known Rumi. There is something deep within that draws me near to Rumi. As a result when I decided to allow these talks to be compiled in a book form I have chosen the words of Rumi to adorn the book and begin each talk with the words of Rumi. Sri Aurobindo writes in epic Savitri: On the dumb bosom of this oblivious globe Although as unknown beings we seem to meet Our lives are not aliens nor as strangers join, Moved to each other by causeless force! The soul can recognize its answering soul Across dividing Time and, on life’s roads Absorbed wrapped traveller, turning it recovers Familiar splendors in an unknown face 5
And touched by the warning fingers of swift love It thrills again to an immortal joy Wearing a mortal body for delight There is a power within that knows beyond Our knowings; we are greater than our thoughts And sometimes earth unveils that vision here To live, to love are signs of infinite things Love is a glory from eternity’s spheres. SRI AUROBINDO SAVITRI BOOK V THE BOOK OF LOVE: CANTO 2
It is therefore appropriate to make the life and the works of the mystical Sufi be known to you. ‘Leaves form a Sufi Heart’ is basically Naqshbandi oriented, and Rumi belongs to Maulvi order of Sufis. However his contribution in the development of consciousness is so significant that Rumi easily remains the part of any Sufi order. The words of Maulana Rumi are immensely significant. There have been very few people who have moved and transformed as many hearts as Jalaluddin Rumi. In the world of the Sufis, Maulana Rumi is the emperor. His words have to be understood not as mere words, but sources of deep silences, echoes of inner and the innermost songs. He is the greatest dancer the world has ever known. Twelve hundred years have passed since he was alive. His dance is a rare kind of dance. It is a kind of whirling, just the way small children whirl. Standing on one spot they go on moving round and round. And perhaps everywhere in the world small children do that and their elders stop them saying, ‘You will become dizzy, you will fall, you will hurt yourself,’ and, ‘what is the point of doing it?’ Jalaluddin Rumi made a WHIRLING a SUFI DANCE meditation. 6
Maulana Jalalludin Balkhi was born on September 29, 1207 A.D. or 6th Rai'u-'l-avval 604 A.H Mazar-i- Sharif Persia. This place is now known as Aghanisthan. His name is Jalalludin Mohammad. Even though he was born in Afghanistan, in Turkey and ancient Rome he is recognized as 'Rumi' meaning ‘from Rome.’ In the wake of Mongolian attacks his family moved to Anatolia, Turkey when he was only five. He is known mostly as Maulana Jalalludin Balkhi in Afghanistan but in Turkey, to oppose his birthplace claims, Turkey is claiming that Jalalludin Balkhi is from Turkey and not Afghanistan. It is true that the far northern part of Afghanistan's area where he was born was known as Turkistan one time but to conclude he was an Afghan to the end. This is what historians say but to me Rumi is existential. A master like Rumi is far beyond such controversies. Rumi is cosmic and so is his message. He is the son of a well known Sufi preacher and jurisprudent Bahau-d-Din Waled Sultan-'l-Ulema. From the early age Rumi was trained in traditional Islamic fields, and later in the ways of Sufism. After the death of his father in 1231, Rumi took the role as a preacher and doctor of law. Along with this Rumi followed the Sufi path that was so dear to his heart. In 1221 he was married to Gevher Khatun daughter of Lala Sharafu'd-Din of Samarqand when he was nineteen. He had a second wife as well however nothing more is known. His son is Muhammad Baha'u-'d-Din Sultan Walad. His daughter married a local prince and left Qonya (Konya). Jalalludin Balkhi had great influence on people around the world from his great works. His father was his first teacher. Burhanu-'d-Din Serr-Daan el Muhaqqiq el Husseini of Balkh was his other teacher. Later in Life at age 37 on Saturday, November 28, 1244 A.D. or 26th of Jamadi-ul akhar 642 A.H., he met Shams-e-Din Muhammad Ibn Malik-dad Tabrizi who 7
greatly inspired Rumi. It was Shams in whose association Rumi’s spiritual world underwent a major revolution. Shams led Rumi to the zenith of mystical experience. For two years Shams and Rumi remained inseparable. On March 14, 1246, 21st Shewwal, 643, when Rumi was 39 Shams left Qonya and Rumi for the first time and vanished never to be seen again. Some say that the grief over his loss caused Rumi to institute the legendary Sufi Whirling Dance a technique of Meditation for his followers. Later these followers came to be known as WHIRLING DERVISHES. In many of his poems Rumi speaks of his love for Shams. Rumi used Shams as an anology for God. The pain and separation from Shams represented the pain of Rumi’s separation and longing for unity with God. After Shams disappearance Rumi gave up his public preachings. And he devoted himself to train his disciples, and also bring out vast out pouring of mystical poems. Such mystical outpourings brought recognition as one of the greatest literary and Sufi figure of all times. Rumi composed many verses in praise of Shams. It is said that each time Rumi wrote something he brought for Shams who asked him to throw the writing in the well which Rumi did without a second thought. This continued for some time. And when 40th time Rumi brought the writings for Shams he did not ask him to throw in the well. Masnavi is complete now said Shams. And with this inner transformation attained fruition in Rumi! Rumi acknowledged this in the following verse wherein he narrates that Rumi could not become Maulvi or the learned or enlightened one until he felt the role and love for Shams within and thus accepted Shams as his Master:
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maElvI hrigj n zud maEla@ rUm ta gulame zMj tbrejI n zud Such is the role of the master in the dissolution of ego. Maybe a few times when Shams asked Rumi to throw the writings in the well Rumi would have felt hurt. This is natural. This is Sufi methodology. It is not that each seeker has to go though this. Out of such observations many pseudo masters arise. However a real master devises the design based on the inner of the seeker. Slowly and slowly Rumi improved in his perception and insights. New insights came. This continued until the fruition happened. The veil of Ego vanished. And from the inner being manifested the light of a thousand suns as Masnavi and Divan-I Shams, Rumi became the Enlightened one. Only this much for now! Shams shrine is close to Maulana Jalalludin Balkh's shrine. Rumi traveled far and wide. However, after the Mongolian invasion of Afghanistan, Konya; Turkey remained his permanent settlement till his death on December 17, 1273. His mausoleum exists in the garden presented to his father by a king of the time. In his life time, Maulana did not organize his followers and impose any rules which were to be followed. It was only after his death that his son, Sultan Walid established a school for his followers and wrote books in order to prevent the breakup of the believers. His works include Fih-i-ma-Fih, Diwan-iKabir, Mecalis-i-Seba, Rubalier, Mektubat and Menewi. His work is mainly on the universal meaning of Islam and the soul.
WORKS OF RUMI: 9
Divan-I Shams: In the praise and love for Shams Rumi composed Divan-eShams. The pangs of separation and agony that he felt for Shams are expressed as Love Divine or the love of the aspirants for the Divine. A compendium of 35,000 or more verses in praise of Shams is in Dari or Afghani Language. These are verses of shorter lyric poetry in the form of ghazals, tarjiyat, and quatraints or rubaiyat. Rubaiyat is a collection of poems wherein the message is conveyed in four lines. This is called quatrants. This collection spans to thirty years of Rumi’s work. It began with the presence of Shams and continued until Rumi died. However with the disappearance of Shams in 1246 a new dimension was added to Rumi’s works. Compared to a sober Masnavi, the individual poems of Divan are more ecstatic in nature. These verses are an outpouring of rapturous emotions that express love’s intoxication for God. These speak of a deeper longing of an enchanting heart. One third of these verses are addressed to Shams, and Rumi’s outstanding achievement lies in his transformation of the passion of worldly or baser love or ishk-I mazazi into a union with the divine or ishk-I haquqi. Masnavi: Mathnavi or Masnavi is Rumi's most famous work in 7 books. Masnavi is a narrative epic that contains 24,660 (25,000) rhythmic couplets in Persian and some in Arabic over the last fifteen years of Rumi. Masnavi is considered as the ‘QURAN OF PERSIA.’ Masnavi is regarded as the greatest spiritual masterpiece ever written. It uses largely colloquial and didactic style that combines the explanations of the main theme of Sufi mystical life and doctrine with a mixture of illustrative tales, parables, and analogies. Masnavi is 10
regarded as a spiritual handbook that guides the aspirants along the Sufi path of God. Masnavi is simple yet profound wisdom that expresses the power of thought and language. And now even after so long still remains as breathtaking as it was when Rumi composed it for the first time. Fihi ma-Fihi: Fihi ma Fihi is another work of Rumi. It came as introductory discourses on metaphysics that happened during later years of Rumi. This is the compilation of talks on Metaphysics that Rumi gave to his dicciples. Didactic in nature, like the Masnavi it uses analogies to explain Sufi teachings. The Sufi path is one that strives to attain spiritual perfection through the transformation of self or nafs. As it is essential for attaining nearness to God! Thus the primary goal of the Sufi is to transcend or ‘nought’ the self or ego or nafs which veils human heart from God. Nafs distorts human perception of truth. Also it inhibits human capacity from attaining fruition and reflecting Divine attributes. Sufism focuses itself on turning individual souls to God. From a material, transitory, outer world, of duality conflict and death to an inner world of love, harmony, bliss, oneness, and immortality! Rumi used his mystical insights, vision, and love for Shams as a vehicle for this transformation in every himan heart. A lover never seeks without being sought by his beloved. When the lightening bolt of love has pierced this heart, Be assured that there is love in that heart, When the love of God grows in your heart, Beyond any doubt God loves you dearly. 11
MASNAVI III 4393-6 These words of Mevlana Rumi are immensely significant. There have been very few people who have moved and transformed as many hearts as Jalaluddin Rumi. Bahauddin Naqshband is another such master who initiated an entirely new tariqat for transformation as Naqshbandi silsillah. In the world of the Sufis, Mevlana Rumi is the undisputed emperor. His words have to be understood not as mere words instead as deep insights of the one who has known and experienced truth. As whispers of deep silences, these echo the innermost melody in an enchanting heart. Sufi Whirling- Meditation technique: Also Rumi is the greatest dancer the world has ever known. Twelve hundred years have passed since he was alive. His dance is a special kind of dance. It is a kind of whirling, just the way small children whirl; standing on one spot they go on round and round. And perhaps everywhere in the world small children do that and their elders stop them saying, ‘You will become dizzy, you will fall, you will hurt yourself,’ and, ‘What is the point of doing it?"’ Jalaluddin Rumi made a meditation out of whirling. A Sufi Whirling dance as Meditation! Rumi whirled for thirty six hours continuously. He fell down and attained to something that each seeker aspires to attain. Rumi attained Enlightenment. And the path came to be recognized as that of Sufi Dervish Dancers. Whirling became as an important meditation technique among Sufis. George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff used this technique. Accordingly the meditator goes on whirling for hours as long as the body allows him. He does not stop on his own. In 12
whirling a moment comes that he sees himself utterly still and silent, as a center of the cyclone. Around the center the body is moving, but there is a space which remains unmoved; that is his being. Rumi himself whirled for thirty-six hours continuously and fell, because the body could not whirl anymore. But when he opened his eyes he was another man. Hundreds of people had gathered to see. Many thought he was mad: ‘What is the point of whirling?’ Nobody can say this is a prayer. Nobody can say this is great dance. Nobody can say in any way that this has something to do with religion, or spirituality. But after thirty-six hours when they saw Rumi he was so luminous, so radiant, so new, so fresh now reborn, in a new consciousness. They could not believe their eyes. Hundreds wept in repentance, because they had thought that he was mad. In fact he was sane and they were all mad. This is how it always happens. Whenever a Buddha is born, or a Jesus, or an Al Hilaj the crowd your priests, your society, your sanity considers such happening as madness. His is how we go on torturing the Jesus, the Buddha, the Al Hillaj and many more such flowers that have blossomed. And down these twelve centuries the stream has continued to be alive. There are very few movements of spiritual growth which have lived so long continuously. There are still hundreds of dervishes. ‘Dervish’ is the Sufi word for sannyas or renunciation. You cannot believe it unless you experience, that just by whirling you can know yourself. No austerity is needed, no self-torture is needed, but just an experience of your innermost being and you are transported into another plane of existence from the mortal to the immortal. 13
The darkness disappears and there is just Light Eternal. The words of Rumi have to be understood very carefully because he has not spoken much just a few small poems. His statement, ‘Move within, but do not move the way fear makes you move’ is not only so beautiful but is filled with the fragrance of the unknown and unknowable. An ecstatic Rumi sings: Do not move the way fear makes you move. Move the way love makes you move. Move the way joy makes you move. Move not out of fear. Remember your all so-called religions are based on fear. Their God is nothing but fear. And their heaven and hell are nothing but projections of your fear and greed. Rumi’s statement is very revolutionary. Do not move because of fear. All the religions say to people, ‘Fear God!’ Mahatma Gandhi used to say, ‘I do not fear anybody but God.’ This is the most stupid statement anybody can make. You can fear everybody, but never fear God because God can only be approached through love. God is not a person but the universal heartbeat. If you can sing with love and dance with love an ordinary activity like whirling out of love, joy and celebration are enough to reach to the innermost sanctum of being and existence. Man lives out of fear. Your relationships are the outcome of fear. Fear is so overwhelming like a dark cloud covering your life that you say things which you do not want to say, but fear makes you say them, and interact the way you do. You do things which you do not want to do. It is fear that makes you do them. A little intelligence is enough to see this. 14
Millions of people are worshipping stones carved by them. They have made their Gods and then they worship them. It must be out of great fear, because where can you find God? The easier way is to carve a God in beautiful marble and worship. And nobody thinks that this is sheer stupidity, because everybody else is doing it in different ways. Somebody in the temple and somebody else in the mosque and another in the synagogue; it does not make any difference as it is all the outcome of fear. The essential thing is the same, that what you are doing is out of fear. Your prayers are full of fear. Rumi is making a revolutionary, an extraordinary statement. He says: ‘Move within, but do not move the way fear makes you move.’ Then what is the way to move within? Why not move playfully? Why not make your religion playfulness? Why be so serious? Why not move laughingly? Just like small children running joyously after butterflies or pebbles on the see shore for no special reason. Just the joy of the colors, the beauty of the flowers, and the butterflies is enough for him to move joyfully and playfully and then be so immensely happy. Out of twenty-four hours find a few such moments of benediction which are fearless. The moments that are desireless, and fearless but full of something of the beyond! A moment when you are not asking for anything! You are not asking for any reward and you are not worried about any punishment; you are simply enjoying the whirling, the going inwards. In fact, just in the beginning it may look a little difficult. As you move a little inwards you become automatically joyful, playful, and prayerful. Gratitude arises in you that you have never known before. A space opens up deep within. This is infinite. This is your inner sky. Your inner sky is not less rich 15
than the outer sky. It has its own stars and its own moon and its own planets and its own immensity. It has exactly as vast a universe as you can see outside. You are just standing in between two universes: one is outside you; and the other is inside you. The outside universe consists of things, and the inside universe consists of consciousness, of bliss, of joy. Move within. But do not move the way fear makes you move, because fear cannot enter inwards. Why can fear not enter inwards? Fear cannot be alone. And when you move inwards you have to be alone. Fear needs a crowd. Fear needs companionship, friends, even foes may do. Fear needs security. There are the custodians of religion to give you security the eternal security. But to be alone, to move inwards, you cannot take anybody with you. You have to be more and more alone. Not only can you not take anyone, you cannot take anything either. Your wealth, your power, your prestige nothing you can take with you. Inside you cannot take even your clothes! You will have to go all nude and alone. Hence fear cannot allow you to move inwards. Fear moves outwards. Fear takes you in the outer dimension of duality and conflict. Fear takes you towards money. Fear takes you towards power. Fear moves towards God. Fear moves in all directions except inwards. This is what your religiousness is. This is what your worship is. And this is the basis of your so called spirituality. To go inwards the first requirement is fearlessness. Fearlessness is the beginning of LIFE BEYOND. A LIFE OF MEDITATIVENESS. I began the first volume of Leaves from a Sufi Heart with the words of a master: imla jae maEka tae raek dU<ga braeje mh;r ihsab tera 16
pF<Uga muhBbt ke vae ksIde sun ke h<s pFega Aajab tera You are wondering how to make friends with the fear. One has not to make friends with darkness, death or fear. One has to get rid of them. One has to simply say good-bye forever. It is your attachment. Friendship will make it even deeper. It is erroneous to think that by becoming friendly with fear you will be able to move inwards, or be religious. Even the friendly fear will prevent it. In fact, it will prevent it even more. However it will prevent you in a friendly way. Now fear will advise you, not do such a thing. There is nothing inwards. You will fall into nothingness and returning from that nothingness is always impossible. Beware of falling into your inwardness. Cling to things.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; This is the way of fear. What has to be done to overcome fear? Fear is the outcome of ego. Fear evolves out of ignorance. Fear has to be understood. You do not have to make friends with fear. And it disappears. What are you afraid of? When you were born you were born naked. You did not bring any bank balance either - but you were not afraid. You come into the world utterly nude, but entering like an emperor. Even an emperor cannot enter into the world the way a child enters. The same is true of entering inwards. It is a second childbirth; you again become a child -the same innocence and the same nudity and the same nonpossessiveness. What do you have to be afraid of? In life you cannot be afraid of birth. It has happened, now nothing can be done about it. You cannot be afraid of life. It is already happening. You cannot be afraid of death. Whatever 17
you do it is going to happen. Things happen on their own accord. So what is the fear? Even your so called learned people enquire, ‘What will happen after death?’ And I have always wondered that this is the understanding of the people who are learned. One day I was not born and so too you were not born and there was no worry. Was there any worry then? I have never for a single moment thought that when I was not born what kind of trouble, what kind of anxiety, what kind of anguish I had to face. Did you worry about this? I was simply not! So were you! Now the same will be the case: when I die or you die. Once Confucius was asked by his most significant disciple, Mencius, ‘What will happen after death?’ Confucius said, ‘Do not waste time. When you are in your grave, lie down and think over it, but why bother now?’ So many people in their graves are thinking! You will think that there seems to be no problem. In every cemetery and there are millions people are simply lying. They do not even get up to inquire, ‘What has happened, what is the news today?’ They do not even change sides. They are so relaxed. And when people die, others close their eyes out of fear: ‘The poor people will go on seeing in the grave.’ It makes you afraid that thousands of people in their graves are looking – ‘Close their eyes.’ Fear of what will happen after death is unnecessary. Whatever is to happen will certainly happen. And you cannot do anything for this beforehand. You do not know so there is no question of doing any homework, getting ready for the kind of questions you will be asked or what kind of people you will meet, learning their manners, their language. We do 18
not know anything. There is no need to worry. Do not waste time. But it is fear, fear that something is going to happen. After death you will be so alone and even if you call from your grave nobody is going to listen. People close the grave completely just out of fear. If you leave some window open and dead people start looking from there, they would make anybody afraid! The fear exists only because you do not know the beauty and the bliss; and also the joy of drowning in nothingness. Fear is meaningful because you know nothing of the ecstasy that opens up as you fall inwards. It needs a little taste. Meditation is a taste. There is nothing for you to believe, just experiment. If thousands of mystics have experienced something within, at least hypothetically, you can also have a look. Perhaps there may be something that you are missing. Perhaps there is something that you have not understood. Therefore it is better to experiment scientifically. For this there is no question of fear. Just a little intelligence is needed. I mean intelligence not friendliness with fear but. You need the intelligence of an adventurer heart, the courage of those who go into the unknown. They are the blessed ones after the experience. Because they find the meaning and the significance of life! So go into this experiment with trust that so many masters have ventured and came out blissful.
An ecstatic Rumi sings in Masnavi: 19
O heart, if you recognize any difference Between joy and sorrow, You will be torn apart. Although what you desire tastes sweet, Dosen’t the Beloved desires you to be desireless? O, the life of loverslies in death: You will not win the beloved’s heart Unless you loose your own! MASNAVI I: 1747-8; 1751
Now something from Divan-I Shams: You are my sky, and I am the eart, bewildered: What makes You constantly flow from my heart? I am soil with parched lips! Bring kindly water That will transform this soil into a rosebed! How does the earth know what You sowed in its heart? You have impregnated it, and You know its burden! DIVAN –I SHAMS 3048 At another occasion Rumi’s love for Shams overflows the mystical wine as an elixir: 20
My heart has become a pen In the beloved’s fingers: Tonight he may write a Z, And perhaps tomorrow a B He cuts and sharpens His pen well To write in riqa and naskh; The pen says, ‘Lo , I obey, For You know best what to do.’ DIVAN-I SHAMS: 2530 At sunset of December 16, 1273 A.D. 5th Jamadi-u-'l-Akhar 672 A.H. at the age of 66 solar years or 68 Lunar years Jalaluddin Rumi left the world of finiteness and duality to enter the magnanimity of Allah at home in Qonya. I have simply created a quest for Rumi in you for now and…!
LA ILLAHA ILL ALLAH
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MARAQBA-E-MASNAVI EPITAPH OF RUMI: MY WHOLE LIFE IS CONDENSED IN THESE THREE WORDS: I WAS RAW, NOW I AM COOKED AND BURNT. THIS IS THE DEATH THAT BRINGS RESURRECTION. 22
Jalaluddin Rumi is one of the greatest Sufi mystics ever born. He is the only mystic whom Sufis have called Maulana. Maulana means, our Beloved Master. There are very few people that I love immensely. Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi is one of them. And the reason I love him is that he was not life-negative. But he was life-affirmative. And the Maraqba that he gave seven hundred years ago among a small stream of mystics was the Maraqba of a certain kind of dance. This called as WHIRLING. His followers are called whirling Sufis. You must have seen small children whirl. And everybody stops them, because the fear of the parents is that the child may fall. Or may have a fracture, may get hurt. But in spite of all prohibitions, children love to whirl. And nobody has inquired why children love, all over the world, irrespective of race, nation, religion, to whirl. Jalaluddin Rumi, seeing children whirl, thought that there must be something that the children feel but they cannot express, and perhaps they are not fully aware what it is. So he tried whirling himself. Rumi whirled for thirty six hours continuously and he was amazed that if you go on whirling there comes a moment when the center of your being remains static and your whole body, mind, brain, everything, whirls. 23
And that center, which does not whirl, is you, the center of the cyclone. This is your being. The whirling is almost like a cyclone. And exactly in the middle of the cyclone you will find a point which has not moved at all. Every wheel needs a center on which to revolve. This center has to remain without any movement. You see in bicycles, in bullock carts, wherever there is a wheel; there is something in the center which remains unmoving. Once Jalaluddin became aware that you can find the unmoving center of your being, he whirled for thirty-six hours non-stop, without eating, or drinking. He was determined to whirl to his totality. In the process he did not hold back anything. He decided to continue unless he falls, he is not going to stop. Thirty-six hours he whirled. A great crowd watched. The crowd went on changing. As people had to go to eat and then they came back again. People had to do their work and then they came again. Thirty-six hours is a long period. And after thirty-six hours he fell down. And people heard a great laughter. Jalaluddin was laughing loudly, and he said, 窶郎ou think you have seen me falling, I have also seen myself falling. These thirty-six hours I have not moved a single inch. Now I do not have to go to Mecca in search of God. I 24
have found him. In the unmoving center of my own being he is.’ The followers of Rumi do not have great scriptures or any rituals, except whirling. In addition there are a few beautiful compositions by Jalaluddin Rumi, which he used to sing after whirling and falling. He will get up and he will be so drunk. In that drunkenness he will sing a song, and those songs have been collected. That is the only literature the followers of Rumi have. Jalaluddin Rumi wrote these three lines as his own epitaph: NOT MORE THAN THREE WORDS, MY WHOLE LIFE IS CONDENSED IN THESE THREE WORDS: I WAS RAW, NOW I AM COOKED AND BURNT. THIS IS THE DEATH THAT BRINGS RESURRECTION. I WAS RAW, NOW I AM COOKED AND BURNT. Jalaluddin says, ‘These three words contain the essence of my whole life.’ If you are separate, or divided within you are raw. If you are harmonious within and part of the synergistic cosmic harmony you are cooked. And if you disappear 25
absolutely, without leaving even a shadow of the ego, you are burnt. Patanjali has called this state NIRBEEJ SAMADHI: seedless Samadhi, when the seed is burnt. Now there will be no more misery, no more coming and going, no more constant change of form. Now you will abide in the eternal as eternal. Jalaluddin also sings: LISTEN TO THE REED. IT IS LAMENTING. IT TELLS OF SEPARATION FROM THE WHOLE. THE SONG OF REED IS THE LAMENT. ‘EVER SINCE THEY SEPARATED ME FROM THE REED BED, MY LAMENT HAS MOVED MAN AND WOMAN TO TEARS. EVERYONE WHO IS LEFT FAR FROM HIS SOURCE REALLY WISHES BACK TO THE TIME OF UNION. ‘Listen to the reed... everyone who is left far from his source wishes back to the time of union.’ We are all searching for our source. We are all like reeds searching for the reed bed from which we have been torn. Jalaluddin had a special love for the reedflute. 26
‘Do not ask why God created the flute’, continues a folk song. ‘He really wanted the people to understand Rumi.’ Otherwise how would people have understood Rumi? That is why he created the flute. When a man attains to the ultimate he becomes a flute. A song arises. And then goes on never to end. Buddha sang it for forty-two years day in and day out, year in and year out, for forty-two years he continued a song. Mahavira did the same. And so did Holy Prophet, Shah Bahauddin, and Jaluddin Rumi. AND IT IS THIS SONG THAT WE ARE LISTENING TO AND GOING INTO RIGHT NOW. FROM WHERE DOES THIS SONG COME FROM? It comes out of deep inner silence. It is condensed silence. It evolves out of your ABSOLUTE EMPTINESS. YOU BECOME JUST A PASSAGE TO GOD, A HOLLOW BAMBOO, A FLUTE, AND GOD STARTS SINGING THROUGH YOU.
%skae gane dae Apna gIt mere haeQae< se AaEr muHe gungunane dae %ske sNnaqe kae. Usko gane do apna geet mere hothon se Aur mujhe gungunane do uske sannate ko!! 27
LET HIM SING HIS SONG ETERNAL THROUGH MY LIPS AND LET ME ECHO HIS ETERNAL SERENITY ERELONG!! ALHAM DIL ALLAH!!!
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