Meditation-Times-October-2009-PDF-Ashiyaana

A DOWNLOADABLE E-MAGAZINE Vol II * OCTOBER 2009 * Issue X Meditation leads to Ultimate Flowering

Introducing various Masters & Dimensions of Spiritual Sojourn

TM

an oasis of love www.taoshobuddhameditations.com

MEDITATION TIMES A Downloadable Monthly E-Magazine

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A PRODUCTION OF www.taoshobuddhameditations.com Published by: www.taoshobuddhameditations.com Country of Origin: Trinidad & Tobago, West Indies.

Chief Editor/Graphics Layout & Design: Swami Anand Neelambar Editorial Team: Swami Anand Neelambar, Taoshobuddha International Contributors: Hadhrat Maulawi Jalaluddin Ahmad Ar-Rowi, Lars Jensen Assistant Contributors: Ma Prem Sutra, Swami Dhyan Yatri, Sufi Lakshmi Sahai

In This Issue  Editorial

For Queries, Comments, and Suggestions and to submit Contributions, you can email the following persons:

Taoshobuddha: taoshobuddha@gmail.com Swami Anand Neelambar avatar411@gmail.com

 Khalil Gibran  Omar Khyyam  North American Tour of Taoshobuddha

You can also visit www.youtube.com\taoshobuddha01 www.scribd.com\taoshobuddha

 The Prophet

www.scribd.com\avatar411

 On Judgement  Al Hallaj Mansoor Also you can check the blog at

 Amir Khusaroo  Shah Bahuddin Naqshband  Aashiyaan – the wine of consciousness

http://bodhidharmameditation.blogspot.com/ http://www.taoshobuddhameditations.myeweb.net/ http://meditationtimes.myeweb.net/

 How shall I cross  Life’s innocent questions

In our Next Issue The birth of Khalsa

MEDITATION TIMES Published by Taoshobuddha Meditations Trinidad, West indies

EDITORIAL

Aashiyaan means a sanctuary or an oasis in the desert. It is a resting place not an abode. It represents this world. We are here for only a couple of days. We are on vacation on our eternal sojourn.

In this issue of Meditation Times, we the editorial team has included the mystics who are more or less contemporaries. Omar Khayyam, Amir Khusaroo, Jalaluddin Rumi with an exception of Khalil Gibran who belonged to another era yet still deep down as far as awareness is concerned they all are contemporaries. Although separated by time and space their inner being pulsates one way.

Aashiyaan is really a Sufi word. And thus this issue is about the inner mysteries of Sufism. One of the alchemical mysteries is LOVE. Love transforms.

Love is inexplicable. Love is the pulsation of the beyond in our finite mental frame. Our minds can be limited by the boundaries of our thoughts...but love is beyond our thoughts and has no limits in time or space.

Love touches the feet of the Beloved and connects us to a dimensionless dimension in a vortex of ever expanding horizons.

Aashiyaan is this vortex. Aashiyaan is this matrix to world of alchemy...a world that is engulfed by love in its purest unconditional form.

It is love for its own sake. It is not a love that requests or asks for anything. It is love because it is love. The nature of water is to wet...however you come upon it...you shall get wet. Love is of the same nature. Its nature is to elevate and transmute the heart...however you come upon it you shall be transformed.

This love is not to be confused with what we now call love. What we now call love is a mere shadow and pale reflection of the real stuff. However even this mirage has the capacity to give impetus to a weary heart. And this is the magical alchemy of love. Even its lesser manifestations and pale reflections can give a sincere seeker a glimpse of the beyond.

Our sojourn is long and many times weary and dreary. Sometimes we see a mirage in the desert and think it is the aashiyaan...in a way it is an aashiyaan ‘cause the glimpse of that mirage gives us hope to continue our sojourn. After many pursuits of this illusive nature we come to realize that the aashiyaan is not outside our self...but is our very own self.

We project the aashiyaan and then we chase after it. And only our exhausted attempts reveals...that which we seek is within the inner sanctums of our being. ....Hence the mystery and magic of the word Aashiyaan. It is an oasis...it is a mirage...it is yet it is not. And in its not being it is the very being of being. Nirvana as Buddha calls it.

It is the place the flame of the candle goes when it is put out. It is the goose that is out...because the goose was never in....Aashiyaan is the gateless gate to enlightenment.

Khalil Gibran (1897- 1931) Introduction Kahlil Gibran... the very name brings so much ecstasy and joy that it is impossible to think of another name comparable to him. Just hearing the name, bells start ringing in the heart which do not belong to this world. Kahlil Gibran is pure music, a mystery such that only poetry can sometimes grasp it, but only sometimes.

You have chosen a man who is the most beloved of this beautiful earth. Centuries have passed; there have been great men but Kahlil Gibran is a category in himself. I cannot conceive that even in the future, there is a possibility of another man of such deep insight into the human heart, into the unknown that surrounds us.

He has done something impossible. He has been able to bring at least a few fragments of the unknown into human language. He has raised human language and human consciousness as no other man has ever done.

Through Kahlil Gibran, it seems all the mystics, all the poets, all creative souls have joined hands and poured themselves.

Although he has been immensely successful in reaching people, still he feels it is not the whole truth, but just a glimpse. But to see the glimpse of truth is a beginning of a pilgrimage that leads you to the ultimate, to the absolute, to the universal.

- The Messiah, Vol 1, Chapter #1 There are men who have found the truth and remained silent, because they don't know how to express it. Kahlil Gibran is just the opposite -- he has not found the truth, but he is capable of expressing.

And for the humanity which lives in darkness, even his poetry appears as if it is coming from the source of self-knowing.

- The Messiah, Vol 2, Chapter #5

Kahlil Gibran has written tremendously beautiful words. They come so close to Christ, to Zarathustra, to Lao Tzu, to Gautam the Buddha, and there is every possibility many people will think that Kahlil Gibran is enlightened. He may even surpass Lao Tzu and Buddha and Christ as far as expression is concerned; his expression may be far more beautiful because he is a skilled poet, a very skilled painter. He has the sensitiveness to appreciate beauty, but howsoever he is appreciating it is unconscious.

- Philosophia Ultima, Chapter #10 Kahlil Gibran in his wonderful book THE PROPHET says lovers should be like pillars of a temple -supporting the same roof, but not too close to each other. Like pillars.... If they come too close, the whole temple will fall; if they go too far away, then too the whole temple will fall. They cannot come too close; they cannot go too far. They should be like pillars of a temple, supporting the same roof.

This is the art, the knack. If you want your love to be eternal, don't come too close, because if you come too close then the need to go far away arises. If you come too close then you trespass on each other's freedom - and everybody needs a space of his own. Love is beautiful when it co-exists with your space; if it starts trespassing on your space then it becomes poisonous.

And lovers always behave foolishly and stupidly.

When they are in love they don't listen to anything; they try to come too close and then they destroy their love. Had they been a little wiser, they would not have come too close and then they would have remained close forever.

- Tao: The Three Treasures, Vol 1, Chapter #5 I want to include another book by Kahlil Gibran, JESUS, THE SON OF MAN. It is one of the books which is almost ignored. Christians ignore it because it calls Jesus the son of man. They not only ignore it, they condemn it. And of course, who else cares about

Jesus? If Christians themselves are condemning him, then nobody else cares about it.

Kahlil Gibran is a Syrian from very close to Jerusalem.

In fact in the hills of Syria, people -- a few people at least -- still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus.

Amid those high- reaching cedars, anyone, even a fool, is bound to be amazed, mystified. Kahlil Gibran was born in Syria under the cedars reaching towards the stars. He comes very close in representing the real man Jesus -- closer than the four so-called disciples who wrote the gospels. They are more gossips than gospels. Kahlil Gibran is closer, but Christians were angry because he calls Jesus the son of man. I loved the book.

The book related different people's stories about Jesus: a laborer, a farmer, a fisherman, a tax-collector -- yes, even a tax-collector -- a man, a woman, all possibilities. It is as if Kahlil Gibran is asking many people about Jesus -- the real Jesus, not the Christian Jesus; the real Jesus, made of flesh... and the stories are so beautiful. Each story needs to be meditated upon.

Another book by Kahlil Gibran, THE MADMAN. I cannot leave it out, although I confess I wanted to. I wanted to leave it out because I am that madman about whom he is talking. But I cannot leave it out. He talks so meaningfully, so authentically about the very innermost core of the madman. And this madman is no ordinary madman, but a Buddha, a Rinzai, a Kabir.

I wonder -- I have always wondered -- how Kahlil Gibran could manage it. He himself was not the madman, he himself was not the enlightened one. He was born in Syria, but lived unfortunately in America.

But there are wonders and wonders, questions without answers. How did he manage? Perhaps he did not manage it himself... perhaps something, someone -- what Sufis call Khidr, and Theosophists call K.H., Koothumi -- must have taken possession of him. He was possessed, but not always. When he was not writing he was a very ordinary man, in fact more ordinary than the so-called ordinary man: full of jealousy, anger, passions of all kinds. But once in a while he became possessed, possessed from above, and then something started pouring through him... paintings, poetry, parables.

- Books I Have Loved, Chapter #9

Again and again I come back to Kahlil Gibran. I have loved him and would have liked to help him. I have even waited for him, but he is not born yet. He will have to seek for some other master in the future. THE WANDERER is my choice for this number.

THE WANDERER, by Kahlil Gibran, is a collection of parables. The parable is the oldest method of saying that which is profound; that which cannot be said can always be said in a parable. It is a beautiful collection of small stories.

Many a times someone of ordinary consciousness, in certain rare moments is touched by the Divine. His consciousness then becomes one with the whole. In that state of awareness whatever is spoken or written is of tremendous value. Such words can transform anyone. He need not be a mystic. Khalil Gibran is such a being who has been touched by the totality whenever he held pen in his hand. The compositions like ‘The Prophet’; ‘Messiah’ bear ample testimony to this. Now the biographical sketch!

Khalil Gibran was born in Bechari (Bsharri), Lebanon, a mountain village of Maronite Christians. A child of multifarious talent, he was versatile in modelling, drawing, and writing. He began writing at an early age. Khalil’s mother, Kamila, took her children to the United States of America and later settled there in Boston. His father, Khalil, owned a walnut grove, therefore he remained in Lebanon. The family settled first in Boston, where she earned living by selling laces and linen. Within a year she managed to save enough money to help her son Peter to open a small dry goods store.

Gibran returned to Lebanon in 1897 for two years to study Arabic literature in Beirut at ‘Al-Hikma College’. Gibran’s artistic talents were recognized and he was introduced to F. Holland Day, a photographer, who taught him art and literature.

Through Day Gibran was given entrée to Boston society. In the process he acquired valuable contacts.

Khalil’s mother died of cancer when he was only 20.

His sister Marianna supported him while he established himself as a writer and painter. Gibran’s most ardent benefactress was Mary Haskell. She was the headmistress of a progressive girl’s school in Cambridge. She supported her protégé financially for most of his career and edited his English – language books.

In 1904 Gibran had his first art exhibition in Boston.

His first book, AL-MUSIQA (1905) was about music. It was followed by two collections of short stories and a novel in 1912. From 1908 to 1910 he studied art in Paris with August Rodin. In 1912 he settled in New York, where he devoted himself to writing and painting. Though concerned with the transcendental in his books, the basic subject in Gibran’s art was naked human bodies, tenderly intertwined.

Gibran’s first works were written in Arabic and are considered central to the development of modern Arabic literature. Gibran also wrote for journals published by the Lebanese and Arab communities in the U.S. From 1918 he wrote mostly in English and managed to revolutionize the language of poetry in the 1920s and 1930s. His first book for the publishing company Alfred Knopf was THE MADMAN (1918), a slim volume of aphorisms and parables written in biblical intonation somewhere between poetry and prose.

Usually Gibran used prophetic tone to condemn the evils that torment his homeland or threaten the humanity at large. He chose a combination of beauty and spirituality as his style of writing. Later this came to be known as ‘Gibranism’. ‘I am a stranger to myself.

I hear my tongue speak, but my ears find that voice strange. I may see my hidden self laughing, crying, defiant frightened, and thus does my being become

enamored of my being and thus my soul begs my soul for explanation. But I remain unknown, hidden, shrouded in fog, veiled in silence.’ -The Poet.

Gibran’s best-known work is THE PROPHET. It is a partly autobiographical book of 26 poetic essays, which has been translated into over 20 languages.

The Prophet, who has lived in a foreign city 12 years, is about to board a ship that will take him home. He is stopped by a group of people, whom he teaches the mysteries of life. The resulting 26 sermons are meant to transform the listeners. In the 1960s The Prophet became a counter culture guide and in the 1980s the message of spiritualism overcoming material success was adopted by Yuppies. Critics have not treated the book well. Its mystical poetry is frequently read at weddings even today. Gibran’s other popular books include THE EARTH GODS -1931, a dialogue in free verse between three titans on the human destiny.

Khalil took to excessive drinking. This explains the fact he was not a mystic like Rumi, Bahauddin etc.

Excessive drinking caused liver disease. Possibly accelerated by alcoholism, Khalil died in New York on April 10, 1931. Upon his death, his body was shipped back to his hometown in Lebanon, where alongside his tomb The Gibran Museum was later established.

In his will Gibran left all the royalties of his books to his native village.

All are ill – because all are separated from the source of life. And unless you join yourself with the source of life again, you will not be healthy. Only in God is health and wholeness and holiness. Only the presence of God heals. But we have forgotten completely about God. We have started living on our own, as if a tree has forgotten about its roots and has started living in the branches – it is going to die, it will become ill.

That’s why the whole of humanity is ill. And Freud and company are right about ninety-nine point nine percent of people: people are ill! They are no more connected with the source of life. But that point one percent is the hope. There are people who are connected with life.

And I would like to say to this philosopher: there are people whose health is contagious. When a Buddha moves, his very movement heals people.

That is the meaning of the miracles of Jesus – the miracles that he heals blind people and suddenly eyes are there, and he heals the deaf and dumb and they start listening and tallying, and he heals the crippled and they are no more crippled.

These are payables. It is not about the physical crippledness: it is something about the spiritual crippledness. And whenever a man of God moves, or people who are fortunate come and live in the company of a man of God, they ARE healed, spiritually healed. Their spiritual wounds start disappearing, they again start growing roots. And soon the roots find the sources of life, the waters of life, and all is green again, and all is blooming again. And the spring has come, and the celebration. That celebration is Sufism.

OSHO - The Perfect Master

OMAR KHAYYAM (May 18, 1048 - December 4, 1122)

T

he Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer Omar Khayyam was born at Naishapur in Khorassan in the latter half of our Eleventh, and died within the First Quarter of our Twelfth Century. In his own country, Omar Khayyam is renowned for his scientific achievements, but not as a poet. I present to you a multi facet Omar Khayyam.

Rarely people know Omar Khayyam other than a mystical poet.

The English scholar and poet Edward FitzGerald rediscovered the rhymes of Omar Khayyam in the mid-nineteenth century. It was David FitzGerald, who made the western world intoxicated with the essence and the Rubiyyat of Khayyam.

Omar Khayyam - Persian: ‫خ یام عمر‬, was born in 1048 AD, in Neyshapur, Iran and he died in 1123 AD, Neyshapur, Iran. He was a person of many talents a Persian polymath, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer and poet. He also wrote treatises on mechanics, geography, music and was a physicist. At school he studied Persian mathematics, Persian poetry, Persian philosophy. However his main interest were Poetry, Mathematics, Philosophy, Astronomy He has also recognized as a mathematician and astronomer of the medieval period. He is recognized as the author of the most important treatise on algebra before modern times as reflected in his Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra giving a geometric method for solving cubic equations by intersecting a hyperbola with a circle.

He also contributed to calendar reform and may have proposed a heliocentric theory well before Copernicus.

His significance as a philosopher and teacher, and his few remaining philosophical works, have not received the same attention as his scientific and poetic writings.

Zamakhshari referred to him as ‘the philosopher of the world’. Many sources have also testified that he taught for decades the philosophy of Ibn Sina in Nishapur where Khayyam lived most of his life, breathed his last, and was buried and where his mausoleum remains today a masterpiece of Iranian architecture visited by many people every year.

Outside Iran and Persian speaking countries, Khayyam has had impact on literature and societies through translation and works of scholars.

The greatest such impact was in English-speaking countries. The English scholar Thomas Hyde (1636– 1703) was the first non - Persian to study him.

However the most influential of all was Edward FitzGerald (1809–83) who made Khayyam the most famous poet of the East in the West through his celebrated translation and adaptations of Khayyam’s rather small number of quatrains in Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

Omar Khayyam was born at Naishapur in Khorassan in the latter half of our Eleventh, and died within the First Quarter of our Twelfth Century.

Khayyam’s full name is Ghiyath al-Din Abu'l-Fath Umar ibn Ibrahim Al-Nisaburi al-Khayyami Persian: ‫خ یام اب راٌ یم ب ه عمر ال ف تح اب ُ ال دی ه غ یاث‬ ‫ و ی شاب ُری‬and was born in Nishapur, Iran. It was then a Seljuk capital in Khorasan now present day Northeast Iran, rivalling Cairo or Baghdad. One dubious source mentions that Khayyam’s father may have been a convert, presumably from the Zoroastrian religion to Sunni Islam, and so Khayyam was a first generation Muslim. Other biographers of

Khayyam do not support this claim. Most describe him as a Shi'a Muslim. He is thought to have been born into a family of tent makers – literally, alkhayyami in Arabic word that means ‘tent-maker’.

However later in life he would make this into a play on words: Khayyam, who stitched the tents of science, has fallen in grief's furnace and been suddenly burned, The shears of Fate have cut the tent ropes of his life, And the broker of Hope has sold him for nothing![3] He spent part of his childhood in the town of Balkh presentday northern Afghanistan, studying under the well-known scholar Sheik Muhammad Mansuri. Subsequently, he studied under Imam Mowaffaq Nishapuri, who was considered one of the greatest teachers of the Khorassan region.

According to a well-known legend called Three Schoolmates, two other exceptional students studied under the Imam Mowaffaq at about the same time: Nizam-ul-Mulk (b. 1018), who went on to become the Vizier ( a high ranking government officer) to the Seljukid Empire, and Hassan-I-Sabah (b.1034), who became the leader of the Hashshashin (Nizar Ismaili) sect. It was said that these students became friends, and after Nizam-ulMulk became Vizier, Hassan-I-Sabah and Omar Khayyám each went to him, and asked to share in his good fortune. Hassan-I-Sabah demanded and was granted a place in the government, but he was ambitious, and was eventually removed from power after he participated in an unsuccessful coup against his benefactor, the Vizier. Omar Khayyám was more modest and asked merely for a place to live, to study science, and to pray. He was granted a yearly pension of 1,200 mithkals of gold from the treasury of Nishapur. He lived on this pension for the rest of his life.

This legend is dubious and is rejected by many scholars in part due to the 30-year age difference between Khayyam and Nizam-ul-Mulk, which makes it unlikely for the two to have attended school together, also considering the fact that the three men grew up in different parts of the country. The

popularity and spread of the legend is notable.

However the fact remains that the three men were the most prominent figures of their time and represented three dominant approaches to reform and betterment of the society, namely, scientific discovery, represented by Khayyam, armed rebellion, represented by Hassan-I-Sabah, and strengthening the power establishment and the rule of law and order, represented by Nizam-ul-Mulk.

Omar Khayyam was famous during his times as a mathematician. He wrote the influential Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra in 1070, which laid down the principles of algebra, part of the body of Persian Mathematics that was eventually transmitted to Europe. In particular, he derived general methods for solving cubic equations and even some higher orders. Also he was the first Persian mathematician to call the unknown factor of an equation (i.e., the x) shiy (meaning thing or something in Arabic). This word was transliterated to Spanish during the Middle Ages as xay, and, from there, it became popular among European mathematicians to call the unknown factor either xay, or more usually by its abbreviated form, x, which is the reason that unknown factors are usually represented by an x.

‘Cubic equation and intersection of conic sections’ the first page of two-chaptered manuscript kept in Tehran University.

In the Treatise, he also wrote on the triangular array of binomial coefficients known as Pascal’s triangle.

In 1077, Omar wrote ‘Sharh ma ashkala min musadarat kitab Uqlidis’ (Explanations of the Difficulties in the Postulates of Euclid). An important part of the book is concerned with Euclid’s famous parallel postulate, which had also attracted the interest of Thabit ibn Qurra. AlHaytham had previously attempted a demonstration of the postulate. However Omar’s attempt was a distinct advance and his criticisms made their way to Europe, and may have contributed to the eventual development of nonEuclidean geometry.

Omar Khayyám also had other notable work in geometry, specifically on the theory of proportions.

Omar worked on Theory of parallels to explain the difficulties in the postulates in Euclid's Elements.

References of this can be found in the History of non-Euclidean geometry and Parallel postulate

of Euclid uses the so-called parallel postulate (numbered 5). Objection to the use of parallel postulate and alternative view of proposition 29 have been a major problem in foundation of what is now called non-Euclidean geometry.

The treatise of Omar can be considered as the first treatment of parallels axiom which is not based on ‘petitio principii’ but on more intuitive postulate.

Khayyam refutes the previous attempts by other Greek and Persian mathematicians to prove the proposition. And he, as Aristotle, refuses the use of motion in geometry and therefore dismisses the different attempt by Ibn Haytham too. In a sense he made the first attempt at formulating a nonEuclidean postulate as an alternative to the parallel postulate.

Geometric Algebra Treatise on Demonstrations of Problems of Algebra Whoever thinks algebra is a trick in obtaining unknowns has thought it in vain. No attention should be paid to the fact that algebra and geometry are different in appearance. Algebras are geometric facts which are proved by propositions five and six of Book two of Elements. —Omar Khayyam

Omar wrote a book entitled Explanations of the difficulties in the postulates in Euclid’s Elements.

The book consists of several sections on the parallel postulate (Book I), on the Euclidean definition of ratios and the Anthyphairetic ratio (modern continued fractions) (Book II), and on the multiplication of ratios (Book III).

This philosophical view of mathematics has had a significant impact on Khayyam’s celebrated approach and method in geometric algebra and in particular in solving cubic equations. In that his solution is not a direct path to a numerical solution and in fact his solutions are not numbers but rather line segments. In this regard Khayyam's work can be considered the first systematic study and the first exact method of solving cubic equations.

The first section is a treatise containing some propositions and lemmas concerning the parallel postulate. It has reached us from a reproduction in a manuscript written in 1387-88 AD by the Persian mathematician Tusi. Tusi mentions explicitly that he re-writes the treatise ‘in Khayyam’s own words’ and quotes Khayyam saying that ‘they are worth adding to Euclid’s Elements (first book) after Proposition 28.’ This proposition states a condition enough for having two lines in plane parallel to one another.

After this proposition follows another, numbered 29, which is converse to the previous one. The proof

In an untitled writing on cubic equation by Khayyam discovered in 20th century, where the above quote appears, Khayyam works on problems of geometric algebra. First is the problem of ‘finding a point on a quadrant of a circle such that when a normal is dropped from the point to one of the bounding radii, the ratio of the normal’s length to that of the radius equals the ratio of the segments determined by the foot of the normal.’ Again in solving this problem, he reduces it to another geometric problem: ‘find a right triangle having the property that the hypotenuse equals the sum of one

leg (i.e. side) plus the altitude on the hypotenuse. To solve this geometric problem, he specializes a parameter and reaches the cubic equation x3 + 200x = 20x2 + 2000. Indeed, he finds a positive root for this equation by intersecting a hyperbola with a circle.

This particular geometric solution equations has been further investigated and extended to degree four equations.

of

cubic

As regards more general equations he states that the solution of cubic equations requires the use of conic sections and that it cannot be solved by ruler and compass methods. A proof of this impossibility was plausible only 750 years after Khayyam died. In this paper Khayyam mentions that his will is to prepare a paper giving full solution to cubic equations: ‘If the opportunity arises and I can succeed, I shall give all these fourteen forms with all their branches and cases, and how to distinguish whatever is possible or impossible so that a paper, containing elements which are greatly useful in this art will be prepared.’

This refers to the book ‘Treatise on Demonstrations of Problems of Algebra (1070)’ which laid down the principles of algebra, part of the body of Persian Mathematics that was eventually transmitted to Europe. In particular, he derived general methods for solving cubic equations and even some higher orders.

Binomial theorem and extraction of roots From the Indians one has methods for obtaining square and cube roots, methods which are based on knowledge of individual cases, namely the knowledge of the squares of the nine digits 12, 22, 32 (etc.) and their respective products, i.e. 2 × 3 etc.

We have written a treatise on the proof of the validity of those methods and that they satisfy the conditions. In addition we have increased their types, namely in the form of the determination of the fourth, fifth, sixth roots up to any desired degree. No one preceded us in this and those proofs

are purely arithmetic, founded on the arithmetic of The Elements.

—Omar Khayyam Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra

This particular remark of Khayyam and certain propositions found in his Algebra book has made some historians of mathematics believe that Khayyam had indeed a binomial theorem up to any power. The case of power 2 is explicitly stated in Euclid’s elements and the case of at most power 3 had been established by Indian mathematicians. Omar was the mathematician who noticed the importance of a general binomial theorem. The argument supporting the claim that Omar had a general binomial theorem is based on his ability to extract roots.

Khayyam - Saccheri quadrilateral The Khayyam – Saccheri quadrilateral was first considered by Omar Khayyam in the late 11th century in Book I of ‘Explanations of the Difficulties in the Postulates of Euclid’. Unlike many commentators on Euclid before and after him including Saccheri ), Khayyam was not trying to prove the parallel postulate as such but to derive it from an equivalent postulate he formulated from ‘the principles of the Philosopher’ (Aristotle): (A Saccheri quadrilateral is a quadrilateral with two equal sides perpendicular to the base. It is named after Giovanni Gerolamo Saccheri, who used it extensively in his book Euclid vindicatus (1733), an attempt to prove the parallel postulate using the method Reductio ad absurdum. Since the Saccheri quadrilateral was first considered by Omar Khayyam in the late 11th century, the quadrilateral has alternatively been named the Khayyam Saccheri quadrilateral.

For a Saccheri quadrilateral ABCD, the sides AD and BC (also called legs) are equal in length and perpendicular to the base AB. The top CD is called the summit or upper base and the angles at C and D are called the summit angles.

The advantage of using Saccheri quardrilaterals when considering the parallel postulate is that they place the mutually exclusive options in very clear terms: Two convergent straight lines intersect and it is impossible for two convergent straight lines to diverge in the direction in which they converge.

Khayyam then considered the three cases (right, obtuse, and acute) that the summit angles of a Saccheri quadrilateral can take and after proving a number of theorems about them, he (correctly) refuted the obtuse and acute cases based on his postulate and hence derived the classic postulate of Euclid.

It was not until 600 years later that Giordano Vitale made an advance on Khayyam in his book Euclide restituo (1680, 1686), when he used the quadrilateral to prove that if three points are equidistant on the base AB and the summit CD, then AB and CD are everywhere equidistant. Saccheri himself based the whole of his long, heroic, and ultimately flawed proof of the parallel postulate around the quadrilateral and its three cases, proving many theorems about its properties along the way.

Astronomer Like most Persian mathematicians of the period, Omar Khayyám was also famous as an astronomer.

In 1073, the Seljuk Sultan Sultan Jalal al-Din Malekshah Saljuqi (Malik-Shah I, 1072-92), invited Khayyám to build an observatory, along with various other distinguished scientists. One being Shamse Tabrizi, his mentor and the father of Kimia Khatoon,who he fell in love with. Eventually, Khayyám and his colleagues measured the length of the solar year as 365.2425 days. Omar’s calendar was more accurate than 500 years later the Gregorian calendar. The modern Iranian calendar is based on his calculations

Calendar reform Omar Khayyam was part of a panel that introduced several reforms to the Persian calendar, largely based on ideas from the Hindu calendar. On March 15, 1079, Sultan Malik Shah I accepted this corrected calendar as the official Persian calendar.

This calendar was known as Jalali calendar after the Sultan, and was in force across Greater Iran from the 11th to the 20th centuries. It is the basis of the Iranian calendar which is followed today in Iran and Afghanistan. While the Jalali calendar is more accurate than the Gregorian, it is based on actual solar transit, (similar to Hindu calendars), and requires an Ephemeris for calculating dates. The lengths of the months can vary between 29 and 32 days depending on the moment when the sun crossed into a new zodiacal area (an attribute common to most Hindu calendars). This meant that seasonal errors were lower than in the Gregorian calendar.

The modern-day Iranian calendar standardizes the month lengths based on a reform from 1925, thus minimizing the effect of solar transits. Seasonal errors are somewhat higher than in the Jalali version, but leap years are calculated as before.

Omar Khayyám also built a star map (now lost), which was famous in the Persian and Islamic world.

Heliocentric theory It is said that Omar Khayyam also estimated and proved to an audience that included the then prestigious scholar Imam Al Ghazali, that the universe is not moving around earth as was believed by all at that time. By constructing a revolving platform and simple arrangement of the star charts lit by candles around the circular walls of the room, he demonstrated that earth revolves on its axis, bringing into view different constellations throughout the night and day (completing a one-day cycle). He also elaborated that stars are stationary objects in space, which, if moving around earth, would have been burnt to cinders due to their large mass.

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Omar Khayyáms poetic work has eclipsed his fame as a mathematician and scientist.

He is believed to have written about a thousand four - line verses or quatrains (rubaai's). In the English speaking world, he was introduced through the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám which are rather freewheeling English translations by Edward FitzGerald (1809-1883).

Other translations of parts of the Rubáiyát (Rubáiyát meaning ‘quatrains’ wherein the message is contained in four lines) exist, but FitzGerald’s are the most well known. Translations also exist in languages other than English.

Ironically, FitzGerald’s translations reintroduced Khayyam to Iranians ‘who had long ignored the Neishapouri poet.’ A 1934 book by one of Iran’s most prominent writers, Sadeq Hedayat, Songs of Khayyam, (Taranehha-ye Khayyam) is said have shaped the way a generation of Iranians viewed the poet.

Omar Khayyam’s personal beliefs are not known with certainty, but much is discernible from his poetic oeuvre.

Poetry These poems were translated by Edward FitzGerald and are potentially more revealing of the thoughts of Edward than Omar.

And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before The Tavern shouted – ‘Open then the Door!

You know how little time we have to stay, And once departed, may return no more.’

Alike for those who for TO-DAY prepare, And that after a TO-MORROW stare, A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries ‘Fools! your reward is neither Here nor There!’

Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss'd Of the Two Worlds so learnedly, are thrust Like foolish Prophets forth; their Words to Scorn Are scatter'd, and their mouths are stopt with Dust.

Oh, come with old Khayyam, and leave the Wise To talk; one thing is certain, that Life flies; One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies; The Flower that once has blown forever dies.

Myself when young did eagerly frequent Doctor and Saint, and heard great Argument About it and about: but evermore Came out of the same Door as in I went.

With them the Seed of Wisdom did I sow, with my own hand labour’d it to grow: And this was all the Harvest that I reap’d ‘I came like Water, and like Wind I go.’

Into this Universe, and why not knowing, Nor whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing: And out of it, as Wind along the Waste, I know not whither, willy-nilly blowing.

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

Views on Religion Despite strong Islamic training, there have been widely divergent views on Khayyam. According to Seyyed Hossein Nasr no other Iranian writer/scholar is viewed in such extremely differing ways. At one end of the spectrum, there are nightclubs named after Khayyam and he is seen as an agnostic hedonist. On the other end of the spectrum, he is seen as a mystical Sufi poet influenced platonic traditions.

Robertson (1914) believes that that Omar Khayyam himself was un - devout and had no sympathy with popular religion, but the verse: ‘Enjoy wine and women and do not be afraid, God has compassion,’ suggests that he was not an atheist. He further believes that it is almost certain that Khayyám objected to the notion that every particular event and phenomenon was the result of divine intervention. Nor did he believe in an afterlife with a Judgment Day or rewards and punishments.

Instead, he supported the view that laws of nature explained all phenomena of observed life. One hostile orthodox account of him shows him as

‘versed in all the wisdom of the Greeks’ and as insistent that studying science on Greek lines is necessary. Roberston further opines that Khayyam came into conflict with religious officials several times, and had to explain his views on Islam on multiple occasions; there is even one story about a treacherous pupil who tried to bring him into public odium. The contemporary Ibn al Kifti wrote that Omar Khayyam ‘performed pilgrimages not from piety but from fear’ of his contemporaries who divined his unbelief.

Although a great number of quatrains erroneously attributed to Khayyam manifest a more colorful irreligiousness and hedonism, nevertheless, the numbers of his original quatrains that advocate laws of nature and deny the idea of resurrection and eternal life readily outweigh others that express the slightest devotion or praise to God or Islamic beliefs.

The following two quatrains are representative of numerous others that serve to reject many tenets of Islamic dogma.

Philosopher O cleric, we are more active than you, even so drunk, we are more attentive than you, You drink the blood of men, we drink the blood of grapes [wine], Be fair, which one of us is more bloodthirsty? ‫ب اش خُش م س تّ ب ادي ز اگ ر خ یام‬ ‫ب اش خُش و ش س تّ اگ ر رخّ ماي ب ا‬ ‫ا ست و ی س تّ جٍان ك ار عاق بت چُن‬ ‫ ك ً او گار‬،ّ‫ب اش خُش ٌ س تّ چُ و ی س ت‬ which translates in Fitzgerald's work as: And if the Wine you drink, the Lip you press, End in the Nothing all Things end in — Yes — Then fancy while Thou art, Thou art but what Thou shalt be — Nothing — Thou shalt not be less.

A more literal translation could read: If with wine you are drunk be happy, If seated with a moon-faced (beautiful), be happy, Since the end purpose of the universe is nothing-ness; Hence picture your nothing-ness, then while you are, be happy!

ً‫ساق ّ اِ رف تٍاو د پ یص ز آو او ك‬ ‫ساق ّ اِ خ ف تٍاو د غرَر درخاك‬ َ‫ب ش ىُ مه از ح ق ی قت َ خُر ب ادي ر‬ ‫ساق ّ اِ گ ف تٍاو د ٌرآو چً ا ست ب اد‬ Fitzgerald has boldy interpreted this quatrain as: Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss’d Of the Two Worlds so learnedly — are thrust Like foolish Prophets forth; their Words to Scorn Are scatter’d, and their Mouths are stopt with Dust.

A literal translation, in an ironic echo of "all is vanity", could read: Those who have gone forth, thou cup-bearer, Have fallen upon the dust of pride, thou cup-bearer, Drink wine and hear from me the truth: (Hot) air is all that they have said, thou cup-bearer.

But some specialists, like Seyyed Hossein Nasr who looks at the available philosophical works of Omar Khayyam, maintain that it is really reductive to just look at the poems (which are sometimes doubtful) to establish his personal views about God or religion; in fact, he even wrote a treatise entitled ‘alKhutbat al-gharrå’ (The Splendid Sermon) on the praise of God, where he holds orthodox views, agreeing with Avicenna on Divine Unity. In fact, this treatise is not an exception, and S.H. Nasr gives an example where he identified himself as a Sufi, after criticizing different methods of knowing God, preferring the intuition over the rational (opting for the so-called ‘kashf’, or unveiling, method or intuition) ‘... Fourth, the Sufis, who do not seek knowledge by ratiocination or discursive thinking, but by purgation of their inner being and the purifying of their dispositions. They cleanse the rational soul of the impurities of nature and bodily form, until it becomes pure substance. When it then comes face to face with the spiritual world, the forms of that world become truly reflected in it, without any doubt or ambiguity.

This is the best of all ways, because it is known to the servant of God that there is no reflection better than the Divine Presence and in that state there are no obstacles or veils in between. Whatever man lacks is due to the impurity of his nature. If the veil be lifted and the screen and obstacle removed, the truth of things as they are will become manifest and known. And the Master of creatures [the Prophet

Muhammad]—upon whom be peace—indicated this when he said: “Truly, during the days of your existence, inspirations come from God. Do you not want to follow them?” Tell unto reasoners that, for the lovers of God [gnostics], intuition is guide, not discursive thought."

—‘Umar Khayyam

The same author goes on by giving other philosophical writings which are totally compatible with the religion of Islam, as the ‘al-Risalah filwujud’ (Treatise on Being), written in Arabic, which begin with Quranic verses and asserting that all things come from God, and there is an order in these things. In another work, ‘Risalah jawaban li-thalath masa˘il’ (Treatise of Response to Three Questions), he gives a response to question on, for instance, the becoming of the soul post-mortem. S.H. Nasr even gives some poetry where he is perfectly in favor of Islamic orthodoxy, but also expressing mystical views (God's goodness, the ephemerical state of this life ...

Thou hast said that Thou wilt torment me, But I shall fear not such a warning.

For where Thou art, there can be no torment, And where Thou art not, how can such a place exist?

The rotating wheel of heaven within which we wonder, Is an imaginal lamp of which we have knowledge by similitude.

The sun is the candle and the world the lamp, We are like forms revolving within it.

A drop of water falls in an ocean wide, A grain of dust becomes with earth allied; What doth thy coming, going here denote?

A fly appeared a while, then invisible he became.

Giving some reasons of the misunderstaning about Omar Khayyam in the West, but also elsewhere, S.H. Nasr concludes by saying that if a correct study of the authentical Rubaiyat is done, but along with the philosophical works, or even the spiritual biography

entitled Sayr wa sulak (Spiritual Wayfaring), we can no longer view the man as a simple hedonistic wine - lover, or even an early skeptic, but, by looking at the entire man, a profound mystical thinker and scientist whose works are more important than some doubtful verses.

Khayyam himself rejects to be associated with the title falsafi(literary philosopher) in the sense of Aristotelian one and stressed he wishes ‘to know who I am’. In the context of philosophers he was labelled by some of his contemporaries as ‘detached from divine blessings’.

However it is now established that Khayyam taught for decades the philosophy of Aviccena, especially ‘the Book of Healing’, in his home town Nishapur, till his death. In an incident he had been requested to comment on a disagreement between Aviccena and a philosopher called Abu’lBarakat (known also as Nathanel) who had criticized Aviccena strongly.

Khayyam is said to have answered ‘[he] does not even understand the sense of the words of Avicenna, how can he oppose what he does not know?’

Khayyam the philosopher could be understood from two rather distinct sources. One is through his Rubaiyat and the other through his own works in light of the intellectual and social conditions of his time.

The latter could be informed by the evaluations of Khayyam’s works by scholars and philosophers such as Bayhaqi, Nezami Aruzi, and Zamakhshari and also Sufi poets and writers Attar Nishapuri and Najmeddin Razi.

As a mathematician, Khayam has made fundamental contributions to the Philosophy of mathematics especially in the context of Persian Mathematics and Persian philosophy with which most of the other Persian scientists and philosophers such as Avicenna, Biruni, and Tusi are associated. There are at least three basic mathematical ideas of strong

philosophical dimensions that can be associated with Khayyam.

Mathematical order: From where does this order issue, and why does it correspond to the world of nature? His answer is in one of his philosophical ‘treatises on being’. Khayyam’s answer is that ‘the Divine Origin of all existence not only emanates wojud or being, by virtue of which all things gain reality, but It is also the source of order that is inseparable from the very act of existence.’

The significance of postulates: (i.e. axiom) in geometry and the necessity for the mathematician to rely upon philosophy and hence the importance of the relation of any particular science to prime philosophy. This is the philosophical background to Khayyam’s total rejection of any attempt to ‘prove’ the parallel postulate and in turn his refusal to bring motion into the attempt to prove this postulate as had Ibn

al-Haytham because Khayyam associated motion with the world of matter and wanted to keep it away from the purely intelligible and immaterial world of geometry.

Clear distinction made by Khayyam, based on the work of earlier Persian philosophers such as Avicenna, between natural bodies and mathematical bodies. The first is defined as a body that is in the category of substance and that stands by itself, and hence a subject of natural sciences, while the second, also called ‘volume’, is of the category of accidents (attributes) that do not subsist by themselves in the external world and hence is the concern of mathematics. Khayyam was very careful to respect the boundaries of each discipline and criticized Ibn al-Haytham in his proof of the parallel postulate precisely because he had broken this rule and had brought a subject belonging to natural philosophy, that is, motion, which belongs to natural bodies, into the domain of geometry, which deals with mathematical bodies.

There is a great Sufi book -- I would like to call it the greatest book in the world because nothing is written in it; it is absolutely empty. It is almost twelve hundred years old, and the first man who purchased it was Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi.

His disciples were very intrigued, very curious, because he never read that book in front of anybody. When all are gone he would close the door and pull out the book, which he used to keep under his pillow, and then he would read it. Naturally it was creating much curiosity, "What kind of mysterious book is it?" People tried in every possible way. Sometimes a few disciples were found on the roof, removing tiles and looking underneath to see what Jalaluddin Rumi is reading, but they could not figure it out. The day Jalaluddin Rumi died, they were more concerned with the book than Jalaluddin Rumi... and they loved the man. They loved him as Sufis have never loved any other master. Mevlana means beloved master.

That word is used only for Jalaluddin Rumi and for nobody else. In twelve hundred years in the world of the Sufis there has never been a more charming, more beautiful, more loving, more human being than Jalaluddin Rumi. But even the disciples forgot that their master had died. They rushed and pulled out the book from underneath the pillow and they looked, and they were amazed -- the book was absolutely empty! There was nothing to read. But those who were very close and intimate devotees, they understood the meaning. Words have to be dropped. Only then can you have silence.

The whole teaching of the book is be silent. First let the words go, then the sounds, and there remains an emptiness, nothingness, just a pure space. That purity is what meditation is all about. For twelve hundred years the book has not been published because no publisher was ready to publish it. Obviously the publisher asked... there is nothing to publish in it. Finally one Sufi master published it himself. Now it is available -- but it is just empty pages. It is called THE BOOK OF BOOKS. Move from sound to silence.

Osho - The Great Pilgrimage - From Here To Here

NORTH AMERICAN TOUR OF TAOSHOBUDDHA

STATUE OF JOHN HARVARD AT HARVARD SQUARE, HARVARD CA

TAOSHOBUDDHA IN FRONT OF THE STATUE OF JOHN HARVARD, CA

TAOSHOBUDDHA AT THE FOUNTAIN IN FRONT OF SCIENCE CENTRE HARVARD UNIVERSITY

SWEDENBORG CHAPEL, HARVARD CA HARVARD UNIVERSITY

PEOPLE QUEUED TO ENTER THE CHAPEL FOR THE TALK OF TAOSHOBUDDHA 22‐9‐09

TAOSHOBUDDHA TALK ‘MEDITATION THE MISSING DIMENSION IN EDUCATION’ AT SWEDENBORG CHAPEL HARVARD 22‐09‐09

MEDITATION THE MISSING DIMENSION IN EDUCATION AN EXCERPT OF TALK BY TAOSHOBUDDHA AT SWEDENBORG CHAPEL, HARVARD SQUARE , 50,QUINCY STREET CA MA SEPTEMBER 22, 2009HA

I am happy that you all could make here this evening at such a short notice. I welcome you all at Swedenborg Chapel at Harvard Square, CA this evening. This evening’s topic is not only eye opener for those who are in authority to look into the education systems throughout the world instead through this I share my insights into meditation and how it can bring about a new dimension into the life’s of the youth. The youth today is the backbone of the humanity. It is our responsibility to mould this life energy into a direction that it is a blend

between the inner and the outer. Inner and the outer are two wings. And without one you can simply limp. The two are complimentary to one another and therefore cannot be negated.

Before I begin this evening’s talk I must take you into retrospect. It was the year 1893, the same month of September as it is now. However, it was eleven day earlier on September 11. 1893 that a simple, but elegant, unique in his gestures, radiant, and serene monk travelled all the way from the

shores of the east in India. He came to attend the Parliaments of Religions at Chicago. Vivekananda was the name assumed by this wandering monk. No credentials, unknown, unaware of the ways and means of this world that he was plundering into he set his feet on the shore of United States of America.

He was not even the official representative.

However, the date for the registration at the parliaments had expired. He was an orator by divine rights. And a messenger from Heavens! None could stop him the opportunity to enter the Parliament of Religions. Heavenly forces brought him into contact with one Professor of this very Harvard University – Professor Henry John Write. The way was paved the registration. This very ‘Harvard University’ opened a new avenue for the merger of the wisdoms of the East and the West.

Once again, this day twenty ‐ second of September in the year 2009 the history seems to repeat itself.

Things have diluted somewhat. Instead of Vivekananda it is Taoshobuddha here once again bringing the wisdom of the east to merge in the stream of the west to create a new confluence where the weary traveller can sojourn for a while feel resurrected and full of vitality to continue life’s journey. Also instead of Professor John this time it is a Harvard Scholar a Don Mr Ward Williamson and a Samaritan a long time friend Subhash Sehgal whose combined efforts have made this event possible. It is a new beginning. Let us all cherish it to the very core of our being that such opportunities come our way more often than not.

‘Meditation the missing dimension in education’ is indeed a revelation for the educationists so that they can look into the education system.

As a student or an educationist, you either spend or help someone go through nearly one third precious years of life in acquiring all that is deemed necessary to plunder into the outer world of competition, conflict, and duality, where everything is measured in terms of money, efficiency, and speed. After spending nearly 20‐25‐27 years of your youthful life of vigour you are decorated with degrees, credits, honors of various kinds and colors.

It is said, ironically, you are now ready to the world that lies ahead of you. Have you wondered that after spending nearly one third of your life’s precious

years when you leave the universities to enter the outside world are you a balanced human being. Are you capable to deal with the unique questions the life poses to you? Are you blissful deep within? Are fully ready to enter the mysterious world, with unique way and means, that is inviting you in all its glamour and glitter?

I can answer on your behalf. But I leave this for you to introspect deep within the silence of your being.

If the answer is a capital NO then we need to revisit our systems of education at schools colleges and universities. Certainly, something is grossly missing in your education system. And that which is missing is Fourth Dimension or Dimension of the Being. It is Meditation. Meditation is the missing dimension in education.

When we look at ancient systems of education in the east the universities at Nalanda, Takshila and the system of teaching we find something unique. In such companies, the students were prepared inwardly to venture into the life ahead of us.

Let not any hasty conclude that I want the entire education system into older one. Remember life does not move backward. Life always moves forward. Wise never lament for that which is not.

But certainly learn from the wisdom of the past and translate or present the old into new jargons. Each master does this. He is the link between the past and the present. Like a bridge under which life energy flows, he connects the two shores.

My purpose of this talk this evening is to bring a new awareness and deep down a realization that indeed ‘Meditation is the missing dimension in our education system’. This realization is the first step for journey forward into a new horizon.

Meditation is that link or bridge or the master within that connects the two shores – the inner and the outer and in the process prepares you to face the intricate situations that life presents as you interact in the outer world of objects and beings.

Let us embark on a journey that we create balanced, harmonious, and blissful human beings who are the essence of life....

THE PROPHET Critics and all those who have read or commented on ‘The Prophet’ have not treated the book well.

None has been able to reach the very core of the being of Khalil Gibran and his essence.

And without this you cannot understand a mystically overflowing Khalil Gibran.

THE PROPHET is the best-known and widely read work of Khalil Gibran. It is a partly autobiographical book of 26 poetic essays. These contain the wisdom and the insights of Khalil Gibran. Because of its significance and relevance to the modern man it has been translated into over 20 languages.

The Prophet, is partly autobiographical in nature.

Whatever Khalil spoke are his insights. These he presented through the character of Almitra – the disciple who asks the questions seeking answers.

Another character, Almustafa – the master, has answered these questions. It is autobiographical in the sense that it narrates the store of someone who has lived in a foreign city for 12 years. He is now about to board a ship that will take him home. A group of people, whom he teaches the mysteries of life, stops him.

The resulting 26 sermons are meant to emancipate the listeners. In the 1960s The Prophet became a counterculture guide and in the 1980s the message of spiritualism overcoming material success was adopted by Yuppies. Critics and all those who have read The Prophet have not treated the book well.

None has been able to reach the very core of the being of Khalil Gibran and his essence. And without this you cannot understand a mystically overflowing Khalil Gibran.

However its mystical poetry is frequently read at weddings even today. Gibran's other popular books include THE EARTH GODS (1931), a dialogue in free verse between three titans on the human destiny.

Now let me take you into ‘The Prophet’.

THE COMING OF THE SHIP Almustafa, the chosen and the beloved, who was a dawn onto his own day, had waited twelve years in the city of Orphalese for his ship that was to return and take him back to the isle of his birth. And in the twelfth year, on the seventh day of Ielool, the month

of reaping, he climbed the hill without the city walls and looked seaward. There he beheld the ship coming with the mist.

As he saw the ship approaching the gates of his heart were flung open. His joy flew far across the sea. With closed eyes and prayed in the silences of his soul. But as he descended the hill, a sadness enveloped him. He thought in his heart how shall I go in peace and without sorrow. Nay, not without a wound in the spirit shall I leave this city. Long were the days of pain I have spent within its walls. Also long were the nights of aloneness. Who can depart from his pain and his aloneness without regret? Too many fragments of the spirit have I scattered in these streets. Too many are the children of my longing that walk naked among these hills, and I cannot withdraw from them without a burden and an ache. It is not a garment I cast off this day! Instead it is like a skin that I tear with my own hands. Nor is it a thought I leave behind me, but a heart made sweet with hunger and with thirst. A lament – a sadness envelops Almustafa.

Introspection begins deep within.

Yet I cannot remain stuck any longer. The time has come for me to leave. The sea that calls all things unto her calls me now and I must embark. For to stay, through the hours burn in the night, is to freeze and crystallize and be bound in a certain mould. Fain willing or eager to do something, would I take with me all that is here. But how shall I? A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that give it wings.

Alone must it seek the air? And alone and without his nest shall the eagle fly across the sun. Comming down the hill the chosen one – Almustafa introspects. Flow along with him to understand the mystical meaning of ‘The Prophet’.

Now as he reached the foot of the hill he turned again towards the sea. There he saw his ship approaching the harbour. Upon her prow – the front of the ship he saw the mariners, the men of his own land. As this happened his soul cried out to them. And he said: Sons of my ancient mother, you riders of the tides, how often have you sailed in my dreams. And now

you have arrived in my awakening, which is my deeper dream.

Ready am I to go overflows the joyous Almustafa.

Also my eagerness with sails awaits the wind full set.

Only another breath will I breathe in this still air.

Only another loving look cast backward. Then I shall stand among you, a seafarer among seafarers. And you, vast ocean, sleepless mother, who alone are peace and freedom to the river and the stream, only another winding will this stream make. Only another but last murmur in this glade and I shall join you! And then shall I come to you, a boundless drop to a boundless ocean.

And as he walked he saw from afar men and women leaving their fields and their vineyards and hastening towards the city gates. And he heard their voices calling his name. And shouting too from the field to field telling one another of the coming of the ship.

And he said to himself: Shall the day of parting be the day of gathering? And shall it be said that my eve was in truth my dawn? And what shall I give unto him who has left his plough in mid furrow, or to him who has stopped the wheel of his winepress? Shall my heart become a tree heavy-laden with fruit that I may gather and give unto them? And shall my desires flow like a fountain that I may fill their cups? Am I a harp that the hand of the mighty may touch me, or a flute that his breath may pass through me? A seeker of silences am I, and what treasure have I found in silences that I may dispense with confidence? If this is my day of harvest, in what fields have I sowed the seed, and in what forgotten seasons? If this indeed be the hour in which I lift up my lantern, it is not my flame that shall burn therein. Empty and dark shall I raise my lantern. Moreover, the guardian of the night shall fill it with oil and he shall light it. These things he said in words. But much in his heart remained unsaid. For he himself could not speak his deeper secret.

And when he entered into the city all the people came to meet him, and they were crying out to him as with one voice. And the elders of the city stood forth and said: Go not yet away from us. A noontide have you been in our twilight, and your youth has given us dreams to dream. No stranger are you among us, nor a guest, but our son and our dearly beloved. Suffer not yet our eyes to hunger for your face. And the priests and the priestesses said unto him: Let not the waves of the sea separate us now, and the years you

have spent in our midst become a memory. You have walked among us a spirit, and your shadow has been a light upon our faces. Much have we loved you. But speechless was our love, and with veils has it been veiled. Yet now it cries aloud unto you, and would stand revealed before you. And ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation. And others came also and entreated him.

But he answered them not.

He only bent his head; and those who stood near saw his tears falling upon his breast. And he and the people proceeded towards the great square before the temple. And there came out of the sanctuary a woman whose name was Almitra. And she was a seeress. And he looked upon her with exceeding tenderness, for it was she who had first sought and believed in him when he had been but a day in their city. And she hailed him, saying: Prophet of God, in quest for the uttermost, long have you searched the distances for your ship. And now your ship has come, and you must need to go. Deep is your longing for the land of your memories and the dwelling place of your greater desires; and our love would not bind you nor our needs hold you.

Yet this we ask ere you leave us, that you speak to us and give us of your truth. And we will give it unto our children, and they unto their children, and it shall not perish. In your aloneness you have watched with our days, and in your wakefulness you have listened to the weeping and the laughter of our sleep. Now therefore disclose us to ourselves, and tell us all that has been shown you of that which is between birth and death. And he answered, People of Orphalese, of what can I speak save of that which is even now moving your souls?

ON LOVE: When love beckons to you follow him.

However, his ways are hard and steep.

And when his wings enfold you yield to him...

LOVE IS AN UNSEEN BUT REALIZED TRUTH.

Then said Almitra, ‘Speak to us of Love.’ And he raised his head and looked upon the people, and there fell a stillness upon them.

And with a great voice he said: When love beckons to you follow him. However, his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him.

However, the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you believe in him, Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden. For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. As he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches, they quiver in the sun. Therefore, shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth. Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself. He threshes you to make you naked. He sifts you to free you from your husks. He grinds you to whiteness. He kneads you until you are pliant.

And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast. All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart. But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure, Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor into the season less world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed. For love is sufficient unto love. When you love you should not say, ‘God is in my heart,’ but rather, ‘I am in the heart of God.’ And think not you can direct the course of love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself. But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires. To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness! To be wounded by your own understanding of love And to bleed willingly and joyfully. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving. To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy! To return home at eventide with gratitude.

And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

Love is an unseen but realized truth. Like a fresh breeze it comes. And when it comes it gives the

promise of eternity. Love possesses you. However, the moment you try to possess love it is no more.

Love needs freedom to blossom into beautiful flower.

Just as a tree needs freedom to grow. Space is freedom. Surrounded many trees the freedom is lost and the does not grow to its full potential. Such is the case with human beings as well.

MARRIAGE Togetherness brings distance. Moreover, distance brings togetherness beyond time and space.

Therefore let there be distance in marriage!!!

Then Almitra spoke again and said, ‘And what of Marriage, master?’

And he answered saying: You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore. You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days. Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God. But let there be spaces in your togetherness. And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone. Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness. This is an important aspect of marriage. Indian Poet Laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore has written a beautiful story wherein he speaks of this space between your togetherness.

A man of meagre finances has fallen in love with a well to do rich girl. The girl is very rich. She has orchards. The boy was unaware of all the riches of the girl. He loved her truly. The love started overflowing their being that the boy decided to marry the girl. To this girl agreed. She said, ‘She has an orchard with a stream dividing the orchard into two.

To reach the other side of the orchard one has to cross the stream either by a small boat or the bridge that connected the two shores.’ Surprisingly the boy continued to listen. The girl further continued, ‘On either side of the stream I will build house one for you and the other for me. These houses will have the decor of individual choice.’ The boy who was up to now was listening quietly became anxious. But he still continued to listen. The girl continued, ‘Sometimes I will invite you to my place and other time we spend time together in your house. Other times we will meet over the bridge, in the orchard or sail together in a boat. And thus will continue our lives.’

A bemused boy want to know what kind of marriage is this. He never heard such a concept of marriage.

And perhaps you too have never heard of this kind of marriage. Normally the married couple live together.

However, they are never together even in their togetherness. They start taking things and one another for granted.

Togetherness brings distance. Moreover, distance brings togetherness beyond time and space.

This is what Khalil was referring to when he said let there be distance in marriage. A very deep understanding really! This is the only model that can save the marriage. Also it will set new trends in human relation and freedom with love and trust.

CHILDREN They (children) come through you but not from you.

Though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

For they have their own thoughts.

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, ‘Speak to us of Children.’

And he said: Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you. And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls. For, their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them,

but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness; for even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

What a beautiful insight? People read ‘The Prophet’ but do not seem to understand. And to hide their lack of understanding go on praising the book. I have yet to come across anyone who has read ‘The Prophet’ and inculcated even a single insight into life. ‘The Prophet’ should be taught as a disciple at all universities so that we can create a new breed of human being who are balanced and can plunder into the unborn future radiating the light of the being.

Indeed children are born through you. You had the mechanism for the children to be born. Children come through you but not from you. It is important to give them your love. However instead of love we go on giving our neurosis, our misery, and thoughts etc.

Each child is born like a fresh breeze. However, we go on training them to live in the world by polluting their consciousness. We infuse all our experiences, thoughts and conditionings. And the result is ultimate misery. Instead of love, we pollute the consciousness of the child with conditionings. Instead of making them religious, we make them branded with Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Jewish, in fact with all kinds of isms. With innocence, gone intellect comes in.

Introspect over the insight of Khalil Gibran.

GIVING True giving is when you give yourself not what you possess.

The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.

They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.

Then said a rich man, ‘Speak to us of Giving!’

And he answered: You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. For what are your possessions but

things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow? And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the over prudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city? And what is fear of need but need itself? Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, thirst that is unquenchable? There are those who give little of the much which they have - and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome. And there are those who have little and give it all. These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.

There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward. And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism. And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue; they give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space. However, the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.

It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding; And to the openhanded the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving. And is there aught you would withhold? All you have shall someday be given; therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors’. You often say, ‘I would give, but only to the deserving.’ The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.

They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish. Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights is worthy of all else from you. And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream. And what desert greater shall there be than that which lies in the courage and the confidence, nay the charity, of receiving? And who are you that men should rend their bosom and unveil their pride, that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed? See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving. For in truth it is life that gives unto life - while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness. And you receivers - and you are all receivers - assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives. Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings; For to be over mindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity who has the freehearted earth for mother, and God for father.

EATING AND DRINKING When you kill a beast say to him in your heart, ‘By the same power that slays you, I too am slain; and I too shall be consumed.

For the law that delivered you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier hand.

Then an old man, a keeper of an inn, said, ‘Speak to us of Eating and Drinking.’

And he said: Would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth, and like an air plant be sustained by the light. But since you must kill to eat, and rob the young of its mother’s milk to quench your thirst, let it then be an act of worship, And let your board stand an altar on which the pure and the innocent of forest and plain are sacrificed for that which is purer and still more innocent in many. When you kill a beast say to him in your heart, ‘By the same power that slays you, I too am slain; and I too shall be consumed. For the law that delivered you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier hand. Your blood and my blood is naught but the sap that feeds the tree of heaven.’ And when you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart, ‘Your seeds shall live in my body, And the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart, And your fragrance shall be my breath, And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons.’ And in the autumn, when you gather the grapes of your vineyard for the winepress, say in your heart, ‘I too am a vinyard, and my fruit shall be gathered for the winepress, And like new wine I shall be kept in eternal vessels." And in winter, when you draw the wine, let there be in your heart a song for each cup; And let there be in the song a remembrance for the autumn days, and for the vineyard, and for the winepress.

WORK When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.

Then a ploughman said, ‘Speak to us of Work.’

And he answered, saying: You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.

For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life’s procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards

the infinite. When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?

Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune. But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born, and in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life. And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.

But if you in your pain call birth an affliction and the support of the flesh a curse written upon your brow, then I answer that naught but the sweat of your brow shall wash away that which is written. You have been told also life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary. And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge. And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge. And all knowledge is vain save when there is work. And all work is empty save when there is love.

And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God. And what is it to work with love? It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth. It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house. It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit. It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit.

And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching. Often have I heard you say, as if speaking in sleep, ‘he who works in marble, and finds the shape of his own soul in the stone, is a nobler than he who ploughs the soil. And he, who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man, is more than he who makes the sandals for our feet.’ But I say, not in sleep but in the over wakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass.

And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving. Work is love made visible.

And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger. And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine.

And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.

JOY AND SORROW Then a woman said, ‘Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.’

And he answered: Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven? And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives? When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. Some of you say, ‘Joy is greater than sorrow,’ and others say, ‘Nay, sorrow is the greater.’

But I say unto you, they are inseparable. Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed. Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy. Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced. When the treasure - keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

HOUSES Then a mason came forth and said, ‘Speak to us of Houses.’

And he answered and said: Build of your imaginings a bower in the wilderness ere you build a house within the city walls. For even as you have home - comings in your twilight, so has the wanderer in you, the ever distant and alone. Your house is your larger body. It grows in the sun and sleeps in the stillness of the

night; and it is not dreamless. Does not your house dream? And dreaming, leave the city for grove or hilltop? Would that I could gather your houses into my hand, and like a sewer scatter them in forest and meadow. Would the valleys were your streets, and the green paths your alleys, that you might seek one another through vineyards, and come with the fragrance of the earth in your garments. But these things are not yet to be. In their fear your forefathers gathered you too near together. And that fear shall endure a little longer. A little longer shall your city walls separate your hearths from your fields? And tell me, people of Orphalese, what have you in these houses? And what is it you guard with fastened doors?

Have you peace, the quiet urge that reveals your power? Have you remembrances, the glimmering arches that span the summits of the mind? Have you beauty that leads the heart from things fashioned of wood and stone to the holy mountain? Tell me; have you these in your houses? Or have you only comfort, and the lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and becomes a host, and then a master? Ay, and it becomes a tamer, and with hook and scourge makes puppets of your larger desires. Though its hands are silken, its heart is of iron. It lulls you to sleep only to stand by your bed and jeer at the dignity of the flesh. It makes mock of your sound senses, and lays them in thistledown like fragile vessels. Verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral. But you, children of space, you restless in rest, you shall not be trapped nor tamed. Your house shall be not an anchor but a mast. It shall not be a glistening film that covers a wound, but an eyelid that guards the eye. You shall not fold your wings that you may pass through doors, nor bend your heads that they strike not against a ceiling, nor fear to breathe lest walls should crack and fall down. You shall not dwell in tombs made by the dead for the living. And though of magnificence and splendour, your house shall not hold your secret nor shelter your longing.

For that which is boundless in you abides in the mansion of the sky, whose door is the morning mist, and whose windows are the songs and the silences of night.

CLOTHES And the weaver said, ‘Speak to us of Clothes.’

And he answered: Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful. And though you seek in garments the freedom of privacy you may find in them a harness and a chain. Would that you could meet the sun and the wind with more of your skin and less of your raiment. For the breath of life is in the sunlight and the hand of life is in the wind.

Some of you say, ‘It is the north wind who has woven the clothes to wear.’ But shame was his loom, and the softening of the sinews was his thread. And when his work was done he laughed in the forest. Forget not that modesty is for a shield against the eye of the unclean. And when the unclean shall be no more, what were modesty but a fetter and a fouling of the mind? And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

BUYING AND SELLING And a merchant said, ‘Speak to us of Buying and Selling.’

And he answered and said: To you the earth yields her fruit, and you shall not want if you but know how to fill your hands. It is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied.

Yet unless the exchange be in love and kindly justice, it will but lead some to greed and others to hunger.

When in the market place you toilers of the sea and fields and vineyards meet the weavers and the potters and the gatherers of spices. Invoke then the master spirit of the earth, to come into your midst and sanctify the scales and the reckoning that weighs value against value. And suffer not the barren handed to take part in your transactions, who would sell their words for your labour. To such men you should say, ‘Come with us to the field, or go with our brothers to the sea and cast your net; For the land and the sea shall be bountiful to you even as to us.’

And if there come the singers and the dancers and the flute players, - buy of their gifts also. For they too are gatherers of fruit and frankincense, and that which they bring, though fashioned of dreams, is raiment and food for your soul. And before you leave the marketplace, see that no one has gone his way with empty hands. For the master spirit of the earth shall not sleep peacefully upon the wind till the needs of the least of you are satisfied.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT It is when your spirit goes wandering upon the wind, that you, alone and unguarded, commit a wrong unto others and therefore unto yourself.

Then one of the judges of the city stood forth and said, ‘Speak to us of Crime and Punishment.’

And he answered saying: It is when your spirit goes wandering upon the wind, that you, alone and unguarded, commit a wrong unto others and therefore unto yourself. And for that wrong committed must you knock and wait a while unheeded at the gate of the blessed like the ocean is your god – self. It remains forever undefiled. And like the ether it lifts but the winged even like the sun is your god – self. It knows not the ways of the mole nor seeks it the holes of the serpent. But your god self does not dwell alone in your being.

Much in you is still man, and much in you is not yet man. But a shapeless pigmy that walks asleep in the mist searching for its own awakening. And of the man in you would I now speak. For it is he and not your god - self nor the pigmy in the mist, that knows crime and the punishment of crime. Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world. But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you, So the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also. And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree, So the wrongdoer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all.

Like a procession you walk together towards your god - self. You are the way and the wayfarers. And when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone. Ay, and he falls for those ahead of him, who though faster and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone.

And this though the word lie heavy upon your hearts: The murdered is not unaccountable for his own

murder, And the robbed is not blameless in being robbed. The righteous is not innocent of the deeds of the wicked. And the white-handed is not clean in the doings of the felon. Yea, the guilty is oftentimes the victim of the injured. Still more often the condemned is the burden - bearer for the guiltless and unblamed.

You cannot separate the just from the unjust and the good from the wicked. For they stand together before the face of the sun even as the black thread and the white are woven together. And when the black thread breaks, the weaver shall look into the whole cloth, and he shall examine the loom also. If any of you would bring judgment the unfaithful wife. Let him also weight the heart of her husband in scales, and measure his soul with measurements. And let him who would lash the offender look unto the spirit of the offended. And if any of you would punish in the name of righteousness and lay the ax unto the evil tree, let him see to its roots. And verily he will find the roots of the good and the bad, the fruitful and the fruitless, all entwined together in the silent heart of the earth. And you judges who would be just, What judgment pronounce you upon him who though honest in the flesh yet is a thief in spirit? What penalty lay you upon him who slays in the flesh yet is himself slain in the spirit? And how prosecute you him who in action is a deceiver and an oppressor, Yet who also is aggrieved and outraged? And how shall you punish those whose remorse is already greater than their misdeeds? Is not remorse the justice which is administered by that very law which you would fain serve? Yet you cannot lay remorse upon the innocent nor lift it from the heart of the guilty.

Unbidden shall it call in the night, that men may wake and gaze upon themselves. And you who would understand justice, how shall you unless you look upon all deeds in the fullness of light? Only then shall you know that the erect and the fallen are but one man standing in twilight between the night of his pigmy - self and the day of his god-self. And that the corner - stone of the temple is not higher than the lowest stone in its foundation.

ON JUDGEMENT One of the most important criteria for a wise man is that he drops judgment.

Life is an organic unity. If there is only giving and no receiving, to whom are you going to give?

Also if there are only receivers, and no givers, from whom are they going to receive?

Life is a balance between giving and receiving.

Roots receive from the earth, and fruits and flowers go on giving back to the earth.

It is a circle.

And one of the elders of the city said, Speak to us of good and evil.

And he answered: Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil.

For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?

Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves, and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters.

You are good when you are one with yourself.

Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil.

For a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a divided house.

And a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among perilous isles yet sink not to the bottom. You are good when you strive to give of yourself.

Yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself.

For when you strive for gain you are but a root that clings to the earth and sucks at her breast.

Surely the fruit cannot say to the root, ‘be like me, ripe and full and ever giving of your abundance.’

For to the fruit giving is a need, as receiving is a need to the root And one of the elders of the city said, Speak to us of good and evil....

Khalil Gibran - Messiah

W

ith pen in his hand Khalil is an altogether different person. He is the touched by the supreme consciousness. As a result each word spoken by Khalil Gibran has to be understood in all its implications in its depth. Why did the elders of the city ask? Why not a young man? Why not a child?

The child is embodiment of innocence. He comes like a fresh breeze. He knows no distinction between good and evil. Hence the question does not arise for distinction. To the child there is nothing good and nothing evil. However it is out of ignorance. But it has a similarity with the ultimate state of a man who is awakened. For awakened one, too, there is no good, and no evil. The awakened one has come back to his childhood again. But there is a vast difference. The child was ignorant. The awakened one is really innocent. And the distinction between ignorance and innocence is very fine.

Jesus said to Nicodemus, a professor of Judaism in the University of Jerusalem, ‘Unless you are born again you will not understand what I am saying.’ He is not saying that first you have to die and then be reborn through another womb. He is saying, ‘Unless you are transformed that your ignorance becomes innocence there is no way. This transformation from ignorance to innocence is true rebirth. And only then will you understand what I am saying.’

The child cannot ask the question because he cannot make any distinctions. The awakened one on the other hand will not ask because he knows that good and evil are two sides of the same coin. Such is beyondness. If you choose ‘good’ you have chosen the evil as well. You cannot choose one and negate the other. Both stay together and disappear together as well. And this is one of the great miseries of all the religions and the mystics. They have chosen the good and repressed the evil.

Because of this division humanity has become divided and split. And not only have they become divided and split, they have made the entire humanity schizophrenic in the process as well.

Significantly, a child does not ask the question. It is also significant that a young man does not ask the question. It is so because for the young, life is so absorbing and the song of life is fulfilling. Also his heart is overflowing with love. He has no time to think about good and evil. The time has not come for him to seek such questions. Only the elders are the ones who have exhausted all their energies.

They are empty within. They have nothing to do.

Also nothing to look forward to.

The child is full of wonder. The youth is full of love.

But the old man has lost all. His eyes are devoid of any wonder. He is so knowledgeable, that nothing surprises him, and he has seen that every love slowly, slowly, turns into hate. He is living – but an empty life. And these empty people become very much concerned about judgment. They cannot do anything themselves. But at least, sitting in their rocking chairs, they can judge everybody – who is good, who is bad, who is a sinner and who is a saint.

This is their way of somehow feeling more important than the young, than the children. The children are ignorant. The youth are blind. Only the old think they have got eyes. The reason is they have lived life. They have experienced everything.

Remember just experiencing everything does not make one wise. One of the most important criteria for a wise man is that he drops judgment. He can see in the good that the evil is lying. He can see in the evil that the good is present. The saint and the sinner are not different categories. Their choices are different. However they have chosen from the same well. From where good comes, evil comes – and whatever you choose, you will suffer.

Choice brings suffering. If you choose good, then that which is evil in you will continually create conflict - repentance, a doubt. Maybe those who have chosen the evil are enjoying life. I have chosen the good, and all that it has given to me is just seriousness, dryness.

The saint cannot smile. The saint cannot dance. He is afraid. The song may lead him towards the evil.

The dance may lead him towards that which he has

renounced. But just by renouncing you cannot get rid of things. They remain in your unconscious waiting for their opportunity. That is why you will find that sometimes people say things or react in a way that is not needed at that time. Hence it has happened many times in history that a sinner has become a saint just in a single moment of understanding, and a so-called saint has fallen and become a sinner just in a single moment of unawareness.

A beautiful story is told about a disciple of Gautam Buddha. He was a young monk, very healthy, very beautiful, and very cultured. He had come – just like Gautam Buddha – from a royal family, renouncing the kingdom.

In the West, just as Cleopatra is thought to be the most beautiful woman in the whole past of humanity, in the East a parallel woman to Cleopatra is Amrapali. She was a contemporary of Gautam Buddha. She was so beautiful that there were always golden chariots standing at the gate of her palace. Even great kings had to wait to meet her – and she was only a prostitute. But she could purchase kingdoms she had become so rich. But deep down, she suffered. In that beautiful body there was also a beautiful soul which hankered for love.

When a man comes to buy the body of a woman, she may pretend great love for him because he has paid for it, but deep down she hates him because he is using her as a thing, as an object – purchasable. He is not respecting her as a human being. And the greatest hurt and wound that can happen to anybody is when you are treated as a dead thing and your integrity, your individuality, is humiliated.

This young monk went into the city to beg. Not knowing, he passed by so many chariots of gold and beautiful horses. He was amazed, ‘Who lives in this palace?’ As he looked upwards, Amrapali was looking from the window. As she looked for the first time love arose deep within her heart. There was a simple reason, the moment the young monk saw Amrapali, he bowed down to her with deep respect.

Such beauty has to be respected, not to be used. It is a great gift of existence to be appreciated – but not to be humiliated.

At the moment this young, beautiful monk bowed down, suddenly a great upsurge of energy happened in Amrapali. For the first time somebody had looked at her with eyes of respect, somebody had given her the dignity of being a human being. She ran down, touched the feet of the monk and said, ‘Do not go anywhere else. Today be my guest.’

He said, ‘I am a Bhikku, a beggar. In your great palace, where so many kings are waiting in a queue to meet you, it will look improper.’

She said, ‘Forget all about those kings – I hate them!

But do not say no to my invitation, because for the first time I have given an invitation. I have been invited thousands of times by kings and emperors, but I have never invited anybody. Do not hurt my feelings. This is my very first invitation to anyone.

Have your meals with me.’

The monk agreed. Other monks were coming behind him, because Buddha used to move with ten thousand monks wherever he went. They could not believe their eyes that the young monk is going into the house of the prostitute. With great jealousy, anger, they returned to Gautam Buddha. With one voice they said, ‘This man has to be expelled from the Sangha - commune! He has broken all your discipline. Not only did he bow down to a prostitute, he has even accepted her invitation to go into her palace and have his meals there.’

Buddha said, ‘Let him come back.’

For the first time Amrapali herself served meals into the bowl of the monk. With tears of joy she said, ‘Can I ask a favor?’

The young monk responded, ‘I don’t have anything, except myself. If it is in my capacity, I will do anything you want me to do.’

She said, ‘Nothing has to be done. The season of rains is going to start within two, three days....’ And this was the rule of Buddhist monks, that in the rainy season they stopped in one place for four months. Eight months in the year they were continually moving from one place to another.

However for the four months of the rains it was absolutely necessary for them to stay somewhere where they could get a shelter.

Amrapali said, ‘The coming four months, this palace should be your shelter. I do not ask anything. I will not disturb you in any way. I will make everything as comfortable as possible for you, but do not go for these four months.’

The monk said, ‘I have to ask my master. If he allows me, I will stay. If he does not allow me, you will have to forgive me. It is not in my hands. It is my master who decides where one has to stay.’

He came back. Everybody was angry, jealous, and they were all waiting to see if Gautam Buddha was going to punish him. Buddha asked, ‘Tell me the whole thing. What happened?’

He told Buddha everything. He told all that Amrapali said to him. He did not use the word ‘prostitute’ – that is a judgment. You have already condemned a woman by the very word, condemned her that she sells her body that she sells her love that her love is a commodity – if you have money you can purchase it. He said, ‘Amrapali has invited me for the coming rainy season, and I have told her that if my master allows me, I will stay in her palace. It does not matter.’

There was great silence among the ten thousand monks. Nobody had thought that Gautam Buddha would say, ‘You are allowed to stay with Amrapali.’

They could not believe their own ears; what were they hearing? A monk who has renounced the world is going to stay for four months in the house of a prostitute?

One old monk stood up and said, ‘This is not right!

This man is hiding a fact. He says one woman, Amrapali, has invited him. She is not a woman, she is a prostitute!’

Gautam Buddha said, ‘I know, and because he has not used the word ‘prostitute’ I am allowing him to stay there. He has respect – no judgment, no condemnation. He himself does not want to stay, that is why he has come here to ask the master. If you asked me to stay there, I would not allow you.’

Another monk said, ‘It is a strange decision. We will lose our monk! That woman is not an ordinary woman but an enchantress. This man, in four months, will be completely lost to the virtuous life,

the good life, the life of a saint. After four months he will come as a sinner.’

Gautam Buddha said, ‘After four months you will be here, I will be here. Let us see what happens, because I trust in his meditations and I trust in his insight. Preventing him will be distrusting him. He trusts me. Otherwise there was no need to come. He could have thrown away the begging bowl and remained there. I understand him, and I know his consciousness. This is a good opportunity, a fire test, to see what happens. Just wait for four months.’

Those four months, for the monks, were very long.

Each day was going so slowly, and they were imagining what must be happening, they were dreaming in the night about what must be happening. And after four months, the monk came back with a beautiful woman following him. He said to Buddha, ‘She is Amrapali. She wants to be initiated into the commune. I recommend her – she is a unique woman. Not only is she beautiful, she has a soul as pure as you can conceive.’

She fell at Gautam Buddha’s feet. This was even a bigger shock to those ten thousand people! And Buddha said to them, ‘I know these four months have been very long, and you have suffered much.

Day in and day out your mind was thinking only about what was happening between the monk and Amrapali, that he must have fallen in love with the woman and gone down the drain; four months will pass, the rains will stop, but he will not return... with what face?

‘But you see, when a man of consciousness enters in the house of a prostitute, it is the prostitute that changes – not the man of consciousness. It is always the lower that goes through transformation when it comes in contact with the higher. The higher cannot be dragged down.’

Her is name, Amrapali. She had the biggest mango grove, perhaps one hundred square miles, and she presented that to Gautam Buddha – it was the most beautiful place. And she presented her palace, all her immense resources, for the spread of the message of Buddha.

Buddha said to his Sangha - commune, ‘If you are afraid to be in the company of a prostitute, that fear has nothing to do with the prostitute. That fear is

coming from your own unconscious. Fear is the outcome of your unconsciousness. You have repressed your sexuality. If you are clean, then all judgment disappears.’ So the awakened one has no judgments of what is good and what is bad. And the child too has no judgment because he cannot make the distinction – there is no experience. In this sense it is true that every awakened person becomes a child again – not ignorant, instead innocent to the very core. But every old person is not an awakened being. It should be so if life has been lived rightly – full of awareness, with joy, with silence, and with understanding. Then you not only grow old, you also grow up. And these are two different processes.

Everyone grows old, but never anyone does really grow up.

Growing up is a spiritual phenomenon. While growing old is a physical happening. Your body grows old. But your being remains retarded. Your being never grows UP and remember the difference.

We cannot say that the being grows old. It never grows old. It only grows up, higher and higher. But it always remains young, fresh – as fresh as the dewdrops in the early morning sun on the lotus leaf.

Now the sutras: AND ONE OF THE ELDERS OF THE CITY SAID, SPEAK TO US OF GOOD AND EVIL. The old people, if they have not grown up also, are a torture to their whole family – to the children, to the youth – because about everything that you are doing you can see condemnation in their eyes. To live with old people who have not grown up is a tremendous strain. Whatever you do is going to be judged, as if you are always standing in a court. You cannot argue with them, because that is an insult to old age. Even to speak before your elders has been condemned by all societies.

In the parables of Aesop there is a beautiful small parable.... The very young lamb of a sheep is drinking water in a mountainous stream – crystal clear water. A lion sees the lamb, and naturally feels happy that this is a good chance for a beautiful breakfast. So he also comes close, and he says to the lamb, ‘You seem to be very arrogant and stubborn.’

The lamb said, ‘I have not even uttered a single word – I have not done anything.’

The lion responded, ‘You have not done anything?

You are destroying the water, polluting it, disturbing the mud – and I am going to drink the water. You do not have any respect for the king of all the animals.’

The lamb said, ‘Uncle, you have forgotten one thing.

The stream is not flowing towards you. It is going downwards, so if anything is disturbed; it is not coming to you. Whatever you do, that will come to me.’

The lion got very angry because the lamb seemed to be too logical and nobody wants their breakfast to be so logical! So he said, ‘You are not only stubborn, but you are trying to be very intellectual as well.’

The lamb responded, ‘I am a poor sheep, how can I be intellectual? You are the king.’

To this lion said, ‘Forget all about the king and see... what about your father who insulted me yesterday?’

The lamb said, ‘It must have been somebody else, because my father died almost three weeks ago. To tell the truth, you killed my father three weeks ago, so how could he have insulted you yesterday?’ Now this was too much! The lion said, ‘You do not understand courtesy, that elders should be respected. You should not open your mouth!’ And he got hold of the lamb.

The lamb said, ‘You wasted so much time unnecessarily. I knew from the very beginning that it is your breakfast time. There was no need to rationalize it. Just have your breakfast. My mother you have eaten, my father you have eaten. I am an orphan in trouble. It is better that you eat me too. At least inside you I will meet my father and mother.

And that will be a family reunion.’

The entire humanity, for centuries, has been repressing the children, the youth. Yet even if an old man is an idiot, his old age has to be respected.

This kind of question can come only from an old man who has not grown up. He is asking for clarity about what is good and what is evil. This he seeks so that he can judge people more easily. In their eyes, everything you do is wrong. They cannot do anything. Everything that you are doing they have done, and they still want to do, but they are spent

forces. They cannot do anything, but at least they can have the joy of condemning you.

All the saints who have condemned people, saying that they will go to hell, are not saints but only sinners who have covered their sins or their desires and longings for sins with a thin layer of saintliness – and what kind of saintliness?

I have heard of a Hindu monk. Once he was travelling with a mystic. Both of them were going to participate in a conference. One could see in the eyes of the monk that everything was wrong. When they sat in the car to go to the airport on a beautiful car seat an ugly looking piece of cloth on which he used to sit was put. Until that cloth was put on the car seat, he remained standing, and then he got in and sat on his cloth.

The mystic said, ‘This is strange; the seat was far better! Your cloth is dirty – you go on sitting on it everywhere.’ He used to carry it in a bundle. The seat was very clean. But he responded, ‘I cannot sit on a car seat as I am against all luxury.’

To this mystic said, ‘This is great! You are sitting in a car, in a luxurious one, and just because you have put a small piece of cloth between you and the seat, I am going to hell and you are going to heaven just because of the dirty seat that you are sitting on.’

He was such a nuisance. Wherever the two were staying, he created much trouble. He needed only cow’s milk – he did not eat anything else. That was not a big trouble, but the cow had to be completely white! When the mystic heard this, he said, ‘What do you mean? Are you going to eat the cow or are you going to drink the milk? Milk is always white; whether the cow is black or white, it does not make any difference.’

To this the monk responded, ‘You do not understand. Black symbolizes evil, white symbolizes good.’ So for him people have to search for a white cow, completely white, not even a dot, a patch; otherwise he will remain without food. The whole family is disturbed that a great saint is sitting without food, and everybody is running around the town to search a pure white cow – which is very rare!

The mystic said, ‘You are creating so much nuisance, and you are making all these people so tortured; because you have not eaten, they have not eaten either. How can the host eat when a great saint is the guest and is hungry?’ These are the thin layers – stupid, arbitrary, meaningless – with which one goes on covering over one’s real desires, longings, which one condemns.

Indeed the more a person condemns something, the more he is obsessed with it. Look into your religious scriptures. They have been written by saints, great sages, but whatever they condemn, they condemn in such minute detail. Just looking into their condemnation you can feel that they are enjoying the condemnation. They have not been able to enjoy. Hence, at least they can enjoy condemning it, and condemning all those who are enjoying, and enjoy the idea that all these people will suffer in hell.

Every family in the world is tortured by the old people. My own suggestion is that the moment a man is retired; he should be retired from the family too. Every town, city, must have beautiful houses with lawns, with trees, with waterfalls, where old men and old women live together. And you will be surprised that those old fools who were condemning the young people will start falling in love – because love never dies, never becomes old. It is always there, young in you.

These old people are torturing the young, because before their own children, children’s children, they cannot start meddling with some old woman – that will look very awkward! Leave them alone, and soon they will forget that they are old. They will live longer, and they will not be so irritable; they will become happy people.

Just as we send children to the hostels to study and they return home when they have passed their university examinations spending nearly one third of life, twenty-five years at least. Then for twentyfive years allow them to live in the world, work in the world. And when they are retired, they again go back to the hostel – not a hostel where men and women are separate, but a mixed hostel. And you will be surprised that your old pop is looking so happy; he never used to be so smiling.

Now, when once in a while he comes home, he is always bringing a fresh breeze into the house.

Something strange is happening? Nothing strange is happening! He has fallen in love again with an old woman. And there is nothing wrong in it.

Love should be your life to the very last breath.

But, up to now, we have been keeping generations together – three generations, four generations, together, under one roof – hence the generation gap.

They are not even on talking terms. They talk only when it is business, when it is absolutely necessary; otherwise they avoid each other. This is an ugly arrangement. The right arrangement will be that children should be in school – girls and boys together – so they become acquainted with each other. The more they know each other; the better is the possibility for finding the partner in their life.

But the old people have always been concerned about what is good and what is evil. Almustafa answered: OF THE GOOD IN YOU I CAN SPEAK, BUT NOT OF THE EVIL. This is such a pregnant statement, with so much meaning and significance, that if you understand it, your whole approach about people – judgment – will change.

Almustafa says: of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil – nothing. Why? Because evil is nothing but an absence of good. And what can you say about absence? It is like darkness. You can speak about light. But you cannot speak about darkness. In the first place darkness does not exist.

It is only an absence. Just bring a candle in, and it is no longer there. And very beautiful statements Almustafa makes on it.

FOR WHAT IS EVIL BUT GOOD TORTURED BY ITS OWN HUNGER AND THIRST? Darkness is nothing but hunger for light. It is thirsty for light because it is empty. And so is the situation about good and evil – they are not two things instead two sides of one thing.

Good has a positive existence. The sinner is only in search of being a saint. Therefore, do not condemn him. He is groping in dark. Help him. Do not go on

giving judgments and punishments to him or say, ‘You will be thrown into hell.’ The poor man is trying in every way to find out where the light is.

If you go to a religious teacher, he will tell you, ‘Fight evil, and when you have crushed evil you will be good.’ This is the completely wrong approach, which has destroyed the whole humanity and all its joy.

If you come to a master he will say, ‘Do not fight with evil. There is no need. That is like wasting your energy! Fighting with darkness, you cannot create light. Search for the light, create light, and darkness will disappear on its own.’

This is the situation with the so-called religious teachers of all the religions, without exception. They are telling you, ‘Destroy evil.’ However, you cannot destroy it. Nothing that is just an absence can be destroyed.

If I say to you, ‘Go into your room and destroy the darkness. Fight with it. Wrestle with it! Take a sword and cut off its head,’ most probably you will cut off your own head. In the darkness, you are fighting with nobody. An old philosopher defined man as: someone who in the darkest night, in a dark house, blind, is looking for a black cat – which is not there. Now if everyone is frustrated but they cannot find the black cat.

You have never bothered that you are blind. You have never bothered that the house is dark. The night too is dark. But the search goes on and on. Evil is that black cat that does not exist.

That is why, Almustafa says, ‘From the very beginning I will speak of the good in you, but not of the evil.’

Such great insights Kahlil Gibran brings to life.

FOR WHAT IS EVIL BUT GOOD TORTURED BY ITS OWN HUNGER AND THIRST? The implications of this statement are great. Every child is born FRESH - good. No child is born otherwise. But what happens? These people have tried. Adolf Hitler first wanted to be a painter. No school of painting accepted him, because he was not a great painter. But my understanding is, if he

wanted to be a painter he may have been amateurish in the beginning. If the chance was given he may not have become a genius, a Picasso, but he would have become at least a good painter. Also the second world war would have been avoided, six million people would not have been killed. When rejected from the schools of painting he started thinking of becoming an architect, and again he was refused admission.

It seems we accept only flowers not the seeds.

Human insight is so shallow that we cannot see the flower in the seed. Each educational system is criminal in this sense. They want you to come as a flower, fully grown, fragrant; then you will be accepted. But why should a flower come to you? The seed is tortured inside, wants to grow, have green foliage, wants to dance in the sun, and wants to grow flowers. Just give him the opportunity. And never ask that every flower has to be a roseflower.

What about the marigold? There is no way for the marigold to be a rose, it can only be a marigold.

There is no need for a rose to be a marigold. A rose is a rose and so is marigold is a marigold.

A right educational system will not impose standards on people but rather find ways how a certain person can grow into his own potentiality.

If you do not allow creativity, it is bound to become destructiveness. If you do not love, you are bound to hate. If you do not allow your good to grow, you are bound to fall into the darkness of evil.

VERILY WHEN GOOD IS HUNGRY IT SEEKS FOOD EVEN IN DARK CAVES. This is very rare insight. Such compassionate understanding is unique. Verily when good is hungry, when your innermost being wants to be good, but finds no food, no support from anywhere, what are you going to do?

IT SEEKS FOOD EVEN IN DARK CAVES, AND WHEN IT THIRSTS IT DRINKS EVEN OF DEAD WATERS. Then you condemn the person saying he is evil, that he is a murderer, or he is a thief. You throw the whole responsibility on the person, who is a small human being. Moreover, your whole society is so powerful that if it decides to crush the individual

and his good, it is capable, in every possible way. It is quite normal when you are hungry you can eat anything. I have known people to eat roots of the trees. Fruits of the trees you eat, but if fruits are not available then people start eating roots.

When Alexander the Great came to India, one Sannyasin asked him, ‘Why are you torturing yourself, running all over the world, wasting your life? What is the purpose?’

Alexander responded, ‘My purpose is to conquer the whole world.’

The Sannyasin said, ‘Can you just be patient enough to answer my one question? If in a desert you are lost, thirsty and hungry for many days, and I come with a glass of water, how much of your empire will you be ready to give in exchange for a glass of water?’

Nobody had ever asked such a question to Alexander. He said, ‘How much? If I am dying I can give you half of my empire.’ The Sannyasin said, ‘But I am not willing to sell for half an empire; then you can die. I need your full empire, the whole empire, as I am giving you the whole glass of water.’

Alexander said, ‘Perhaps in such a situation I may be ready to give you the whole empire and take one glass of water.’

Hearing this Sannyasin began laughing. He said, ‘Then it is better you go home. Do not bother about this empire. Its value is not more than one glass of water.’

These people – Alexander the Great, or others of his category – are perhaps searching for something else, and are not aware of it. They are searching for greatness – but greatness does not come from acquiring an empire. Greatness comes from becoming your real self, bringing your potentiality to actualization. It may be a grass flower, instead of being a lotus flower.

However nature makes no difference.

When the sun rises it does not shine longer on the lotus. It does not ignore a grass flower and say, ‘Be out of the way! I am here for the lotus flowers, and the roses.’ When the rain comes it does not make

any distinction. The wind that blows does not discriminate when it comes.

The real question is not whether you are a rose, or a lotus flower, or just an unnamed grass flower. The real thing is that each has come to actualize its potentiality, just as the rose flower has actualized its potentiality, or as the lotus flower has actualized its potentiality so too everything actualizes its potentiality. The real thing is actualization of the seed that you are carrying within you. This is blossoming of the inner potential.

If your greatness has something of the ego that means your greatness is not real actualization. You have fallen into a wrong path. You wanted to be a musician, but you have become an engineer. You may become a very great engineer, but something in you will remain suppressed, your self will remain continuously in a misery. Out of that misery all evil arises. You are irritated, you are angry, you are jealous of others; because you are crippled you cannot dance – hence you are jealous.

But nature has given to you all some unique potentiality. That is your good – to bring it to flowering, to its ultimate growth. You will be contented, you will be grateful, and you will be humble – humble before this vast existence, grateful because it has not sent you empty, it has sent you with some potential to work upon.

YOU ARE GOOD WHEN YOU ARE ONE WITH YOURSELF. None of your religions allows you to be good, because none of your religions allows you to be one with yourself. They divide you. They say, ‘This is good, and this is bad. The bad par t should be neglected, ignored, destroyed, and the good par t only should be saved.’ All the religions have been destructive of human joy, human blissfulness. And it is strange that they have created all kinds of madness, suicides, murders – for the simple reason that people are not allowed to be one with themselves. They have cut you into two parts. It is just like cutting a bird in two parts – it cannot fly, it needs both the wings. When your good and your socalled evil – because it is only an absence – function in harmony, in together ness, when you are not a split personality, but one organic whole, your life radiates beauty, your life radiates godliness.

YOU ARE GOOD WHEN YOU ARE ONE WITH YOURSELF. YET WHEN YOU ARE NOT ONE WITH YOURSELF YOU ARE NOT EVIL. Kahlil Gibran tries to go to the very roots. You are good when you are one with yourself. but do not start thinking that if you are not one with yourself you are evil – no. When you are not one with yourself, you are simply the absence of good. Do not call it evil – that very word unnecessarily condemns you. When the house is dark, it only means light is needed. Do not condemn darkness.

A man of understanding will even enjoy darkness too, because darkness has its own beauty, its own silence, its own depth, which no light can have – light is superficial. In darkness this small place becomes enormous, because the darkness has no end. In light everything becomes limited, separate; in darkness everything becomes one.

The wise man is one who tries to make even his socalled evil a symphony with his good. A man is an orchestra. If you do not know the art of music the orchestra may be maddening, but if you know the art, different instruments of music all combine into one music. They are different, but they create something, which is one – and that oneness is what Almustafa calls good.

FOR A DIVIDED HOUSE IS NOT A DEN OF THIEVES. Even if you are not one, do not condemn yourself, because even a divided house is not a den of thieves... it is only a divided house.

AND A SHIP WITHOUT RUDDER MAY WANDER AIMLESSLY AMONG PERILOUS ISLES YET SINK NOT TO THE BOTTOM. The evil person has just lost his way. Be kind to him, not judgmental. And one who has lost his way can find his way.

YOU ARE GOOD WHEN YOU STRIVE TO GIVE OF YOURSELF. He has defined good as being one with yourself.

Now he expands the definition. You are good when you strive to give of yourself. Share yourself, whatever you have. It may be a song, or may be just

silence share whatever you have. The more you share, the more your consciousness expands. In addition, the expansion of consciousness is the most blissful experience in the world.

YET YOU ARE NOT EVIL WHEN YOU SEEK GAIN FOR YOURSELF. He continually insists that you drop the idea of evil completely, because your minds have been conditioned for centuries only to think in dualities.

If to be one with oneself is good, then of course not to be one is evil. If to share is good, then not to share – your mind says immediately – is evil. Kahlil Gibran’s effort is of tremendous value. He is saying: Yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself because unless you seek gain for yourself, how can you share? What can you share? A Gautam Buddha can share, but before sharing he has to become a Gautam Buddha.

Kahlil Gibran is right...yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself. In fact, first you must seek gain for yourself in all dimensions – mater ial and spir itual; only when you are r icher in all dimensions can you share. So I can not say with Jesus, ‘Blessed are the poor.’ That is nothing but consolation. And I agree more with Karl Marx who says, ‘Your religions are nothing but opium for the people.’

‘Blessed are the poor for they shall inherit the kingdom of God.’ Strange... if they are blessed, why do not they get the kingdom of God here and now?

No, their kingdom of God is after death. This is sheer cunningness, because nobody comes back after death and tells people that the poor really are blessed. I say to you: Blessed are those who are rich in all dimensions – material and spiritual – for they shall be able to share their riches. Why bring God into everything unnecessarily? The poor fellow escaped six days after He made this world; since then He has not been seen, has not been heard of.

Why bring Him in unnecessarily? I say: Blessed are those who are rich in all dimensions, for they shall be able to share their riches. They may be of the soul, they may be of the body, they may be of the mind, they may be of the hear t – it doesn’t matter; but sharing is one of the most beautiful experiences of life.

Sharing makes you religious.

It does not make you a Christian, or a Hindu, or a Mohammedan; it simply makes you religious. And to be religious is beautiful. To be Christian, or a Hindu, or a Mohammedan, or a Jew are ugly names which should be discarded completely and forgotten. They divide humanity, and they give ideas to people that they are superior to others.

FOR WHEN YOU STRIVE FOR GAIN YOU ARE BUT A ROOT THAT CLINGS TO THE EARTH AND SUCKS AT HER BREAST. The beauty of his words is impeccable. He is saying, ‘When you are selfish, meditative – just trying to unfold your own being – you are like the roots of a tree which sucks at the breast of the mother earth.’

But for what? All that juice will rise in the tree, will become green foliage, shadow for the tired and the weary, will become flowers for those who can appreciate beauty, color, fragrance. It will become fruits for those who are hungry. The root is sucking at the breast of the mother earth, but not for itself.

The ultimate outcome is going to be shared.

So when you are meditating, you are going to your own roots. And unless you find your roots, you will never be able to find your flowers and your fruits.

Roots cannot be shared, but without roots there are no fruits and no flowers either. In fact, flowers and fruits are just extensions of roots. Do not call roots evil because they do not share. Directly, they do not share, but indirectly their whole life is nothing but bringing juice to the fruits, to the flowers to be shared by all.

Man, in his ignorance, has broken that circle in many places. That is why there is a great ecological crisis. We go on taking from the earth, but we do not return anything. The earth slowly, slowly becomes barren, dead. And if the earth is dying, something of us is dying also, because we are part of it.

You think that the trees depend on the earth because they have roots, and they suck the juice of the earth. You also depend on the earth, because those fruits, those flowers, ultimately come to you.

And you must share. You are trees who can walk.

There are trees in Africa which walk. For walking, solid earth is difficult. The roots are not in a position to move. But there are places in Africa where the earth is not so solid, and there, trees move. If the water is more towards the north, the trees start moving towards the north; and when the water is finished, then the trees start dispersing to other directions.

We are also trees, we are also connected with existence in many ways. Every second you are breathing in and out. Just try not breathing out.

Remember that is sharing. Without this you will be dead. Sharing is life. These trees are also breathing.

And life is such a beautiful unity that you breathe oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide and the trees breathe carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen. There is a kind of sharing. Without trees you cannot live. And without you, trees cannot live.

FOR, TO THE FRUIT GIVING IS A NEED, AS RECEIVING IS A NEED TO THE ROOT.

There is a constant giving, receiving in the cosmos.

The sun goes on giving you life, vitamins. The moon goes on giving you something that is very mysterious. Except Mahavira, all the mystics have become enlightened on the full-moon night. On the full-moon night more people go mad – the number is double – than any other day. More people commit suicide – again the number is double – than on any other day. More people commit murders – the number is double – than any other day. The fullmoon night has something to do with it.

Life is an organic unity. If there is only giving and no receiving, to whom are you going to give? If there are only receivers, and no givers, from whom are they going to receive? Life is a balance between giving and receiving. Roots receive from the earth, and fruits and flowers go on giving back to the earth. It is a circle.

From enlightenment to murder the full-moon night somehow stirs something in you. If you are going deeper into meditation, it takes you deeper into meditation. If you are hankering to kill somebody and you are not able to gather courage, it gives you courage. So what was not possible before becomes possible on the full-moon night.

SURELY THE FRUIT CANNOT SAY TO THE ROOT, ‘BE LIKE ME, RIPE AND FULL AND EVER GIVING OF YOUR ABUNDANCE.’ Why cannot the fruit say so? It cannot say so.

For centuries, more people have gone mad on fullmoon nights – so much so that in every language, for madness or mad people, a word exists which connects madness with moon. In English it is ‘lunatic.’ It comes from ‘luna’ – meaning ‘the moon.’

George Gurdjieff had the great insight that it cannot be one-sided. Just as with the trees we receive and give, we must be giving to the sun and receiving, giving to the moon and receiving. It has to be balanced. We have not yet been able to decipher exactly what we give to the sun, what we give to the moon – but we must be giving, because what we receive we know; sooner or later it will be discovered that just as we cannot live without the sun. If one day the sun does not arise, you will not wake up. You are finished. Your life is coming from that far-away star, the sun.

But I always think – and I agree with Gurdjieff, although there is no evidence and no proof – that if every man on the earth, every animal, every tree dies, also if everything alive on the earth dies, the sun will not rise the next day. It is impossible that we are just receivers, and not givers. If we are

receiving life in some way from the sun, we must be giving life in same way to the sun.

We are all a connected to one another. We are interrelated, an intertwined in one organism. Hence it can be said, as a conclusion: Become richer in every dimension. Be creative, loving, meditative, and sharing. And the more you share, the more existence will shower on you flowers of blissfulness and ecstasy.

The only good is to be in a position of oneness, so that you are not in a constant conflict within yourself – because that conflict destroys you, leaves no energy to be shared. When you are one, the energy becomes so much that you become almost like a rain cloud, so full of rain that it wants to shower somewhere or other. Sharing is the most precious religious experience. Sharing is good.

And Almustafa says, ‘I will not speak about evil, because evil is only an absence.’ To be miserly is evil. You have, and you grab it – whether you need it or not. You have missed the greatest joy of life – that of giving. Receive with gratitude. Give with humbleness.

Unless you have eyes, there is no beauty in the world. The flowers will bloom, but not for you. And stars will fill the sky with immense beauty, but not for you. Unless you have eyes, there is no beauty in the world.

If you don’t have love in the heart, you will not find the beloved. The basic requirement has to be fulfilled. Only love finds the beloved. Eyes find beauty. end the ears find music and melodies.

But there are people, and they are many – the majority consists of those – who go on searching and seeking something out there without creating a corresponding receptivity in themselves. I have come across many seekers who are searching or a Master – not at all aware that the disciple is completely absent. The disciple is not there at all. How can you find a Master?

The Master is not just an objective phenomenon THERE. First he has to be something interior in you. That’s what disciple hood is: a preparation, a thirst, a passionate desire, a great passion for truth. That is lacking. And then people go ON searching. And if they don’t find, it is not surprising. They are not going to find! They may come across MANY Masters, but they will go on missing.

How can you see the Master if you are not vulnerable to him? How can you see the Master if you don’t know even what it is to be a disciple? The beginning of the finding of a Master starts by being a disciple. The real seeker does not worry about the Master, where he is. His whole concern is how to create the disciple in himself, how to be a learner, open to reality; how to function from innocence, and how not to function from the state of knowledge.

If you function from the state of knowledge, you will find many teachers but never a Master. If you already know something, and you think that you know, then you will find other knowers, claimers, who are ahead of you. You will meet only the people whom YOU CAN MEET. You will meet people like you. A person who functions from the state of knowing that he has gathered will find many teachers and will learn many things – but will never find a Master.

OSHO – The Perfect Master

(c. 858 - March 26, 922)

Introduction Mansur Al Hallaj is a unique mystic ever born. His uniqueness is that His full name is Abū al-Mughīth Husayn Mansūr al-Hallāj. He was Persian by birth. In fact such beings do not belong to any particular region. Instead, they belong to the entire cosmos. He was born on March 26, 922 or Hijri c. 244 AH-309 AH. In the entire history of human consciousness Al Hallaj alone remains manifesting the light of the being.

I love Sufi mystics, Al-Hallaj Mansur very much. There have been many mystics, and there will be many mystics, but I do not think anybody will have the same taste as Al-Hallaj Mansur. He was rare in every sense.

Al Hallaj, became a man of unique individuality.

Wherever he went he was immediately recognized; it was impossible to miss him.

There is a saying of Al Hallaj: ‘Death is impossible for me, because I have accepted it.’ It will be so, it is so.

Death exists because of your fear of death. It cannot exist it you accept it, if you are ready to meet it, to invite it and embrace it.

Al-Hallaj has not written a book but only a few statements, or rather declarations. People like alHallaj only declare, not out of any egoism -- they don’t have any ego, that’s why they declare, ‘ana’l haq!’

Ana’l haq! is his declaration and it means ‘I am God, and there is no other God.’ Mohammedans could not forgive him; they killed him. But can you kill an alHallaj? It is impossible! Even while they were killing him he was laughing.

There are two traditions in the world that have created the most enlightened ones: one is ‘Zen’, which is born out of Buddha’ insight. And the other is Sufism. Sufism evolved out of the Holy Prophet Mohammed’s insight. These two traditions have created the greatest light in the world. But you cannot find a single name in Zen compared to Al Hallaj, for the simple reason that no Zen master was chopped up, killed, crucified.

Al Hallaj has become an eternal light, for the simple reason that he was killed, brutally killed yes, chopped into parts. Jesus’ death compared to Al Hallaj’s looks very human, compassionate. Al Hallaj was killed part by part. First his legs were cut off, then his hands, then his eyes were taken out, then his tongue was cut out, then his head was cut off in parts, in pieces.

But Hallaj became the most precious name in the whole Sufi tradition; and the tradition is rich: Bahauddin, Jalaluddin, Hassan, Rabiya, Mansoor’s own master, Junnaid, and thousands of others who have become enlightened.

Al Hallaj has a beauty as far as his words are concerned, a tremendous poetry compared to any scripture.

The beauty of Al Hallaj lies in the statement that reflects his awareness. Somebody asked al-Hallaj Mansoor, the greatest mystic ever, ‘What is the ultimate in Sufi experience?’

Al-Hallaj responded, ‘Tomorrow, tomorrow you will see what the ultimate in Sufi experience is.’

Nobody knew what was going to happen the next day.

The man asked, ‘Why not today?’

Al-Hallaj said, ‘You just wait. It is going to happen tomorrow -- the ultimate.’

And the next day he was crucified. And when he was crucified he shouted loudly for his friend who had asked the question. He said, 'Where are you hiding in the crowd? Now come on and see the ultimate in Sufism. This is what it is.'

It always happens if you start living in God you become intolerable to the so – called society. The society lives in hypocrisy. It cannot tolerate truth.

Truth has to be crucified. It can love the Church but it cannot love Christ. It can love the Vatican pope but it cannot love Jesus. When Jesus is gone then it is good.

You can go on worshipping him. When Al Hallaj is gone you can go on talking about him. But when he is there he is a fire. Only those who are ready to be consumed by the fire will be ready to fall in love with Al Hallaj.

Somebody asked, ‘Why are you laughing?’

He replied, ‘Because you are not killing me, you are killing only the body, and I have said again and again that I am not my body. Ana’l haq! I am God himself.’

Now these men are the very salt of the earth.

Al-Hallaj has not written any book just a few of his declarations have been collected by his lovers and friends. I will not even say followers, because men like al-Hallaj do not even accept followers, imitators - they only accept lovers, friends.

Early life Al-Hallaj was a Persian writer and teacher of Sufism.

His full name was Abu al-Mughith al-Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj.Fragments He was born around 858 in Fars province of Persia to a cotton-carder (Hallaj means ‘cotton-carder’ in Arabic). Al-Hallaj’s grandfather may have been a Zoroastrian. His father lived a simple life, and this form of lifestyle greatly interested the young alHallaj. As a youngster, he memorized the Qur’an and would often retreat from worldly pursuits to join other mystics in study.

Al-Hallaj later married and made a pilgrimage to Makkah Sharif, where he stayed for one year, facing the mosque, in fasting and total silence. After his stay at the city, he traveled extensively, wrote, and taught along the way. He traveled as far as India and Central Asia attracting many followers, many of whom accompanied him on his second and third trips to Makkah Sharif. After this period of travel, he settled down in the Abbasid capital of Baghdad.

During his early lifetime he was a disciple of Junayd Baghdadi and Amr al-Makki, but was later rejected by them both. Sahl al-Tustari was also one of Al-Hallaj’s early teachers.

The Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic Caliphates of the Islamic Empire. The Caliphate is one of the high points of Islam, and at the time Muslim civilization, together with that of Byzantium, China and India, was the most developed part of the world....capital of Baghdad.

Al Hallaj is a mystic, revolutionary writer and pious teacher of Sufism most famous for his apparent, but disputed, self-proclaimed divinity, his poetry and for his execution for heresy at the orders of the Abbasid Khaliph Al-Muqtadir after a long, drawn - out investigation. It always happens whenever someone attains to fruition the society, and the organized religions cannot tolerate this. And as a result they execute such beings. When we look into the lives of such beings it is the conspiracy between the high priest and the politics that is the cause of their execution. Jesus was crucified, not by criminals, instead by the High priest and the polity. Socrates was a similar case. Al Hallaj was no exception.

Among other Sufis, al-Hallaj was an anomaly. Many Sufi masters felt that it was inappropriate to share mysticism with the masses, yet al-Hallaj openly did so in his writings and through his teachings. He began to make enemies. This was exacerbated by occasions when he would fall into trances which he attributed to being in the presence of God. During one of these trances, he would utter Arabic: ‫الحق أن ا‬‎Anā l-Ḥaqq ‘I am The Truth,’ which was taken to mean that he was claiming to be God, since al-Ḥaqq ‘the Truth’ is one of the Ninety

Nine Names of Allah. In another controversial statement, al-Hallaj claimed ‘There is nothing wrapped in my turban but God,’ and similarly he would point to his cloak and say, ‫ هللا إ ال ج ب تي ف ي ما‬Mā fī jubbatī illā l-Lāh ‘There is nothing in my cloak but God.’ It is possible that there was a confusion due to translation in the controversy over ‘I am the Truth.’

The word for God in Persian is ‘khoda’, and the word for self is ‘khod’. Hallaj might have meant a play on ‘I am God’ and ‘I am self’ to suggest ‘God is the self’ or the idea that God is from within the self or God is within us.

These utterances led to a long trial, and his subsequent imprisonment for 11 years in a Baghdad prison. He was tortured and publicly crucified on March 26, 922.

Contemporary Views on al-Hallaj His writings are important to Sufi groups. Thelemites also make use of his teachings, especially in terms of his identification as God - a central gnostic principle.

His example is seen by some as one that should be emulated, especially his calm demeanor in the face of torture and his forgiving of his tormentors. Many honor him as an adept who came to realize the inherent divine nature of all men and women. While many Sufis theorize that Hallaj was a reflection of God’s truth in much the same way Christians view Jesus, scholars of the well-established Islamic schools of thought continue to see him as a heretic and a deviant.

Rumi wrote on the claim ‘I am God’ three centuries later: People imagine that it is a presumptive claim, whereas it is really a presumptive claim to say ‘I am the slave of God’; and ‘I am God’ is an expression of great humility. The man who says ‘I am the slave of God’ affirms two existences, his own and God’s, but he that says ‘I am God’ has made himself non existent and has given himself up and says ‘I am God,’ that is, ‘I am naught, He is all; there is no being but God’s.’ This is the extreme of humility and selfabasement.

Similarly, other supporters have interpreted his statement as meaning, ‘God has emptied me of everything but Himself.’

His life was studied extensively by the French scholar of Islam, Louis Massignon.

Works His best known written work is the ‘Kitab al Tawasin’ , Arabic (‫ )ال طوا س ين ك تاب‬or Ta Sin al Azal, which includes two brief chapters devoted to a dialogue of Satan (Iblis) and God, where Satan refuses to bow to Adam, although God asks him to do so. His refusal is due to a misconceived idea of God's uniqueness and because of his refusal to abandon himself to God in love. Hallaj criticizes the staleness of his adoration (Mason, 51-3). Al-Hallaj stated in this book: ‘If you do not recognize God, at least recognize His sign, I am the creative truth – ‘Ana al-Haqq’ -, because through the truth, I am eternal truth. My friends and teachers are Iblis (Satan) and Pharaoh.’

Beliefs and principles His method was one of ‘universalist mystical introspection: It was at the bottom of the heart that he looked for God and wanted to make others find Him. He believed one had to go beyond the forms of religious rites to reach divine reality. Thus, he used without hesitation the terminology of his opponents, which he set right and refined, ready to make himself hostage of the denominational logic of others.’

(Massignon: ‘Perspective Transhistorique,’ p. 76) Even beyond the Muslim faith, Hallaj was concerned with the whole of humanity, as he desired to communicate to them ‘that strange, patient and shameful, desire for God, which was characteristic for him.’ (Massignon, p. 77) This was the reason for his voyage beyond the Muslim world (shafa’a) to India and China.

Spiritual meaning of the pilgrimage to Mecca In the trial that led to his execution, he was accused of preaching against the pilgrimage to Mecca (the

Hajj), which he, however, had performed three times.

In reality, his concern was more with the spiritual meaning of Hajj, and he thus ‘spoke of the spiritual efficacy and legitimacy of symbolic pilgrimage in one's own home.’ (Mason, 25) For him, the most important part of the pilgrimage to Mecca was the prayer at Mount Arafat, commemorating the sacrifice of Abraham in an offering of oneself.

believing as he did that his death ‘was uniting his beloved God and His community of Muslims against himself and thereby bore witness in extremis to the tawhid (the oneness) of both.’ (Mason, 25) For his desire of oneness with God, many Muslims criticized him as a ‘crypto - Christian’ for distorting the monotheistic revelation in a Christian way.’ (Mason, 25).

Re-interpretation of the

His death is described by Attar as a heroic act, as when they are taking him to court, a Sufi asks him:

and desire for unification with God

‘What is love?’

Tawhid

Al-Hallaj believed that it was only God who could pronounce the Tawhid, whereas man’s prayer was to be one of kun, surrender to his will: ‘Love means to stand next to the Beloved, renouncing oneself entirely and transforming oneself in accordance to Him.’ (Massignon, 74) Al Hallaj spoke of God as his ‘Beloved,’ ‘Friend’ ‘You,’ and felt that ‘his only self was (God),’ to the point that he could not even remember his own name.’ (Mason, 26) Such is the state of fana.

Socialistic Humanism Hallaj was an avowed humanist and rebel of his time.

On every front he opposed exploitation of masses by the ruling Khaliphs. He preached the concept of universal brotherhood and equality. He used to taunt rich people by calling them ‘the blood suckers of poor’. His ideology greatly influenced Shah Inayatullah, a socialist Sufi of Sindh, and Faiz Ahmed Faiz, a communist activist of Pakistan.

Death He wanted to testify of this relationship to God to others thus even asking his fellow Muslims to kill him (Massignon, 79) and accepting his execution, saying that ‘what is important for the ecstatic is for the One to reduce him to oneness.’ (Massignon, 87) He also referred to the martyrdom of Christ, saying he also wanted to die ‘in the supreme confession of the cross’ (Olivier Clément. Dio è carita, p. 41) Like Christ, he gave his execution a redemptive significance,

He answers: ‘You will see it today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow.’

They killed him that day, burned him the next day and threw his ashes to the wind the day after that.

"This is love," Attar says. His legs were cut off, he smiled and said, ‘I used to walk the earth with these legs, now there’s only one step to heaven, cut that if you can.’ And when his hands were cut off he paints his face with his own blood, when asked why, he says: ‘I have lost a lot of blood, and I know my face has turned yellow, I do not want to look pale - faced (as of fear)’

Possible influence on masonic guilds In his book The Sufis, the Afghan scholar Idries Shah suggested that Mansur al-Hallaj, the mystic apostate, might have been the origin of the character Hiram Abiff in the Freemasonic Master Mason ritual. The link, he believes, was through the Sufi sect Al-Banna (‘The Builders’) who built the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This fraternity could have influenced some early masonic guilds which borrowed heavily from the Oriental architecture in the creation of the Gothic style.

His writings are very important to only Sufis, but to all Muslims. His example is seen by some as one that should be emulated, especially his calm demeanor in the face of torture and his forgiving of his tormentors.

Others continue to see him as a heretic.

Mansur al-Hallaj: Sayings 1. Ana’l -Haqq - I am the Truth. (this is the saying which apparently earned al-Hallaj his martyrdom - al Haqq also means God) 2. (Akhbar al-Hallaj 44, 1.4) You know and are not known; You see and are not seen.

3. (Diwan al-Hallaj) Your Spirit mixed with my Spirit little by little, by turns, through reunions and abandons.

And now I am Yourself, Your existence is my own, and it is also my will.

4. (Akhbar al-Hallaj, 11) I find it strange that the divine whole can be borne by my little human part, Yet due to my little part's burden, the earth cannot sustain me.

5. (Diwan al-Hallaj, M. 10) I have seen my Lord with the eye of my heart, and I said: "Who are You?" He said:"You." 6. (Diwan al-Hallaj, M. 34) I do not cease swimming in the seas of love, rising with the wave, then descending; now the wave sustains me, and then I sink beneath it; love bears me away where there is no longer any shore.

“All that appears through body is necessarily an accident (‘arad).

“That whose assemblage comes about through cause-and-effect (al-adât) is held together through its powers (quwâhâ).[1] [19] “All that comes together at one time, goes into dispersion at another time.

[20] “All that something else causes to subsist is characterized by dependency.

[21] “All that imagination can possibly apprehend can be pictured.

[22] “All that is contained is subject to ‘where.’

[23] “And all that has a genus is the object of a modality.

[24] “No ‘above’ shades Him – Exalted is He! – nor does any ‘below’ carry Him. [25] “No limit/direction faces Him (walâ yuqâbiluhu hadd) nor does any ‘at’ (‘ind) beset Him. [26] “He is not confined by any ‘behind’ nor limited by any ‘before’.

[27] “No ‘before’ caused Him to appear nor did any ‘after’ cause Him to vanish.

[28] “No ‘all’ gathered Him. [29] “No ‘He is’ brought Him into existence (lam yûjidhu kân).

Doctrine of al-Hallaj on the Divine Attributes

[30] “No ‘He is not’ can cause Him to be missed (walam yufqidhu lays).

as narrated by al-Qushayri

[31] “His description: He has none (wasfuhu lâ sifata lahu).[2]

Shaykh Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami – Allah have mercy on him! – told us: I heard Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ghalib say: I heard Abu Nasr Ahmad ibn Sa‘id al-Isfanjani say: al-Husayn ibn Mansur said: “You must categorically consider all to be contingent, for pre-existence belongs to Him [alone].

[32] “His act has no cause (‘illa).

[33] “His being has no duration (amad).

[34] “He is transcendent beyond the states of His creatures: there is not for Him the least deliberation (mizâj) in His creation, nor working (‘ilâj) in His acts.

[35] “He is clearly separate from them by His preexistence (bâyanahum biqidamih) just as they are clearly separate from Him by their contingent nature (kamâ bâyanûh bihudûthihim).

[36] “If you ask ‘When?’ – His being is before Time.

[37] “Should you say, ‘hû’ – the letters hâ’ and wâw are but His creation.

[38] “And if you say, ‘Where?’ – His existence precedes Place.

[39] “So letters are His Signs (fal-hurûfu âyâtuhu); [40] “His existence is the affirmation of Him (wujûduhu ithbâtuh); [41] “Gnosis of Him is the upholding of His Oneness (ma‘rifatuhu tawhîduh); [42] “and His Tawhîd is to distinguish Him clearly from His creatures.

[43] “Whatever you imagine in your imaginings, He is different from that (mâ tusawwiru fil-awhâmi fahuwa bikhilâfih).

[44] “How can that which He Himself began analyze Him? (kayfa yahullu bihi mâ minhu bada’ahu).

[45] “Or how can that be part of Him which He Himself gave rise to? (aw ya‘ûdu ilayhi mâ huwa ansha’ahu).

[46] “The pupils of the eyes cannot see Him. [47] “Nor can conjectures apprehend Him. [49] “His nearness is His generosity (qurbuhu karâmatuhu).

[50] “His distance is His contempt (wabu‘duhu ihânatuhu).

[51] His elevation is without ascent (‘uluwwuhu min ghayri tawaqqul) [52] His coming is without displacement (wamajî’uhu min ghayri tanaqqul).

[53] (He is the First and the Last and the Manifest and the Hidden) (57:3), the Near (al-qarîb), the Far (alba‘îd),[10] (There is nothing what­soever like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing) (42:11).

Poems by Hallaj (Mansur al-Hallaj) I am the One whom I love If They Only Knew Kill me, my faithful friends You glide between the heart and its casing Your spirit is mingled with mine Al Hallaj Mystic and Martyr Al Halláj was a legendary Iranian Sufi master who lived in between 858 - 922 AD. Al Hallaj was one of the earliest Sufi masters, he lead his life as a dervish wanderer, he would often go into trans where he felt one with all the creation, existence, with God. He once said ‘Ana al-haqq’ (‘I am the Truth’--i.e., God), something people at the time found offensive and could not understand, because of that. Al Hallaj was persecuted and found guilty of heresy. He found an unfortunate and brutal death (for further details please see Death of Al Hallaj). Al Hallaj before put to death said: Now stands no more between Truth and me Or reasoned demonstration, Or proof of revelation; Now, brightly blazing full, Truth’s lumination Each flickering, lesser light.

Al Hallaj inspired many subsequent Sufi mystics including Rumi. Here are two poems where Rumi talks about al Hallaj, following is al Hallaj’s poem on God. The Sunrise Ruby In the early morning hour, just before dawn, lover and beloved wake and take a drink of water.

She ask, ‘Do you love me or yourself more?

Really, tell the absolute truth.’

He says, ‘There’s nothing left of me.

I’m like a ruby held up to the sunrise.

Is it still a stone, or a world made of redness? It has no resistance to sunlight.’

This is how Hallaj said, I am God, and told the truth!

drifting with the current.

"How long does it take!" Hallaj yells from the bank.

"Don't wait," you answer. "This coat has decided to wear me home!"

A little part of a story, a hint.

Do you need long sermons on Hallaj!

The ruby and the sunrise are one.

Be courageous and discipline yourself.

The Essential Rumi Coleman Barks

Completely become hearing and ear, and wear this sun-ruby as an earring.

Kill me, my faithful friends, For in my being killed is my life.

Work. Keep digging your well.

Don’t think about getting off from work.

Water is there somewhere.

Love is that you remain standing In front of your Beloved When you are stripped of all your attributes; Then His attributes become your qualities.

Submit to a daily practice.

Your loyalty to that is a ring on the door.

Keep knocking, and the joy inside will eventually open a window and look out to see who’s there.

The Essential Rumi Coleman Barks Hallaj said what he said and went to the origin through the hoe in the scaffold.

I cut a cap's worth of cloth from his robe, and it swamped over me from head to foot.

Years ago, I broke a bunch of roses from the top of his wall. A torn from that is still in my palm working deeper.

From Hallaj, I learned to hunt ions, but I became something hungrier than a lion.

I was a frisky colt. He broke me with a quiet hand on the side of my head.

A person comes to him naked. It's cold.

There's a fur coat floating in the river.

"Jump in and get it," he says.

You dive in. You reach for the coat.

It reaches for you.

It's a live bear that has fallen in upstream,

Between me and You, there is only me.

Take away the me, so only You remain.

Mystic Poetry of Mansur al-Hallaj (Translated by Bernard Lewis) 'I am the One whom I love' I am the One whom I love, and the One whom I love is myself.

We are two souls incarnated in one body; if you see me, you see Him, if you see Him, you see us.

'Kill me, my faithful friends' Kill me, my faithful friends, For in my being killed is my life.

Source:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=37 43 (Mystic Poetry of Mansur al-Hallaj - translation by Bernard Lewis) Love is that you remain standing In front of your Beloved When you are stripped of all your attributes; Then His attributes become your qualities.

Between me and You, there is only me.

Source:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=37

43 (Mystic Poetry of Mansur al-Hallaj - translation by Bernard Lewis) Take away the me, so only You remain.

‘Your spirit is mingled with mine' Your spirit is mingled with mine as wine is mixed with water; whatever touches you touches me.

In all the stations of the soul you are I. Al Hallaj inspired many subsequent Sufi mystics including Rumi. Here are two poems where Rumi talks about al Hallaj, following is al Hallaj's poem on God. The Sunrise Ruby In the early morning hour, just before dawn, lover and beloved wake and take a drink of water.

She ask, ‘Do you love me or yourself more?

Really, tell the absolute truth.’

He says, ‘There’s nothing left of me.

I’m like a ruby held up to the sunrise.

Is it still a stone, or a world made of redness? It has no resistance to sunlight.’

This is how Hallaj said, I am God, and told the truth!

The ruby and the sunrise are one.

Be courageous and discipline yourself.

Completely become hearing and ear, and wear this sun-ruby as an earring.

Work. Keep digging your well.

Don’t think about getting off from work.

Water is there somewhere.

Submit to a daily practice.

Your loyalty to that is a ring on the door.

Keep knocking, and the joy inside will eventually open a window and look out to see who’s there.

The Essential Rumi Coleman Barks Al HALLAJ Hallaj said what he said and went to the origin through the hoe in the scaffold.

I cut a cap's worth of cloth from his robe, and it swamped over me from head to foot.

Years ago, I broke a bunch of roses from the top of his wall. A torn from that is still in my palm working deeper.

From Hallaj, I learned to hunt ions, but I became something hungrier than a lion.

I was a frisky colt. He broke me with a quiet hand on the side of my head.

A person comes to him naked. It's cold.

There's a fur coat floating in the river.

‘Jump in and get it,’ he says.

You dive in. You reach for the coat.

It reaches for you.

It's a live bear that has fallen in upstream, drifting with the current.

‘How long does it take!’ Hallaj yells from the bank.

‘Don't wait,’ you answer. ‘This coat has decided to wear me home!’

A little part of a story, a hint.

Do you need long sermons on Hallaj!

The Essential Rumi Coleman Barks Al Hallaj says about God: Before does not outstrip Him, after does not interrupt Him of does not vie with Him for precedence ‘from’ does not accord with Him ‘to’ does not join with Him ‘in’ does not inhabit Him ‘when’ does not stop Him ‘if’ does not consult with Him ‘over’ does not overshadow Him ‘under’ does not support Him ‘opposite’ does not face Him ‘with’ does not press Him ‘behind’ does not limit Him ‘previous’ does not display Him ‘after’ does not cause Him to pass away ‘all’ does not unite Him ‘is’ does not bring Him into being ‘is not’ does not deprive Him from Being.

Concealment does not veil Him His pre-existence preceded time, His being preceded non-being, His eternity preceded limit.

If thou sayest when’ His existing has outstripped time; If thou sayest ‘before’, before is after Him; If thou sayest ‘he’, ‘h’ and ‘e’ are His creation;

If thou sayest ‘how’, His essence is veiled from description; If thou sayest ‘where’, His being preceded space; If thou sayest ‘ipseity’ (ma huwa), His ipseity (huwiwah) is apart from things.

Other than He cannot be qualified by two (opposite) qualities at one time; yet With Him they do not create opposition.

He is hidden in His manifestation, manifest in His concealing.

He is outward and inward, near and far; and in this respect He is

removed beyond the resemblance of creation.

He acts without contact, instructs without meeting, guides without pointing.

Desires do not conflict with Him, thoughts do not mingle with Him: His essence is without qualification (takyeef), His action without effort (takleef).

Arberry, A.J., ‘The Doctrine of the Sufis Shams Tabraiz ‘ A Wisdom Archive on Shams Tabraiz

But from the very childhood we have been distracted from the body, we have been taken away from the body. The child is crying, the child is hungry and the mother is looking at the clock because the doctor says that only after three hours is the child to be given milk. She is not looking at the child. The child is the real clock to look at, but she goes on looking at the clock. She listens to the doctor, and the child is crying, and the child is asking for food, and the child needs food right now. If the child is not given food right now you have distracted him from the body. Instead of giving him food you give him a pacifier. Now you are cheating and you are deceiving. And you are giving something false, plastic, and you are trying to distract and destroy the sensitivity of the body. The wisdom of the body is not allowed to have its say, the mind is entering in. The child is pacified by the pacifier, he falls asleep. Now the clock says three hours are over and you have to give the milk to the child. Now the child is fast asleep, now his body is sleeping; you wake him up, because the doctor says the milk has to be given. You again destroy his rhythm. Slowly, slowly you disturb his whole being. A moment comes when he has lost all track of his body. He does not know what his body wants – whether the body wants to eat or not eat, he does not know; whether the body wants to make love or not, he does not know. Everything is manipulated by something from the outside. He looks at a Playboy magazine and feels like making love. Now this is stupid, this is mind.

The love cannot be very great; it will be just a sneeze, nothing else, an unburdening. It is not love at all. How can love happen through the mind? Mind knows nothing of love. It becomes a duty. You have a wife, you have a husband, you have to make love – it becomes a duty. Dutifully, religiously, every night, you make love. Now the spontaneity is not there. And then you are worried because you start feeling it is not fulfilling you. Then you start looking for some other woman. You start thinking logically, ”Maybe this woman is not the right woman for me. Maybe she is not my soulmate.

Maybe she is not made for me. I am not made for her, because she’s not turning me on.”

The woman is not the problem, the man is not the problem: you are not in the body, she is not in the body. If people were in their bodies, nobody would miss that beauty called orgasm. If people were in their bodies, they would know God’s first glimpses through their orgasmic experiences. You can’t know God through the church, you can know God only through love, because only in a loving experience you dissolve, you melt, you become vast. In that vastness you have the taste of God, the taste of Tao. That is the foundation of a real, religious life.

Why are people so irreligious today? – not because churches are lacking or missionaries are lacking or people are not continuously sermonizing. Millions of books are written, and millions of sermons are given, but all fall flat because the real witness is not available. Nobody has witnessed God in his life in any way. How can you convince people that God is?

It all remains just an argument. It does not convert, it does not convince. If people were in their bodies they would know God in love, and then they would start searching for God. They would search for that vastness, that hugeness, that has happened to them. They know it by their own experience; it is existential, it is not theological, it is not philosophical.

They know God is, that something like God is.

Now God has to be searched for. Now one has to go on a great exploration.

OSHO – The Wisdom of the Sands

AMIR KHUSAROO (1253-1325) Ab'ul Hasan Yamīn al-Dīn Khusaroo (1253-1325 CE) (Persian: ‫ ;خ سرو ال دی نی م ین اب وال ح سن‬Hindi: Abul hsn yaimn Alidn ousrae, better known as Amīr

Khusaroo Dehlawī (‫);دہ لوی خ سرو ام یر‬, was an Indian musician, scholar and poet of Persian descent. He was an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent. A Sufi mystic and a spiritual disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi. Amīr Khusrow was not only a notable poet but also a prolific and seminal musician. He wrote poetry primarily in Persian, but also in Hindavi.

He is regarded as the ‘father of qawwali’ (the devotional music of the Indian Sufis). He is also credited with enriching Hindustani classical music by introducing Persian and Arabic elements in it, and was the originator of the khayal and tarana styles of music. The invention of the tabla is also traditionally attributed to Amīr Khusaroo. Amir Khusaroo used only 11 metrical schemes with 35 distinct divisions. He has written Ghazal, Masnavi, Qata, Rubai, Do-Beti and Tarkibhand.

A musician and a scholar, Amīr Khusaroo was as prolific in tender lyrics as in highly involved prose and could easily emulate all styles of Persian poetry which had developed in medieval Persia, from Khāqānī’s forceful qasidas to Nezāmī's khamsa. His contribution to the development of the ghazal, hitherto little used in India, is particularly significant.

Early life and background Amīr Khusaroo was born in Patiali near Etah in northern India. His father, Amīr Sayf ud-Dīn Mahmūd, was a Turkic officer and a member of the Lachin tribe of Transoxania, themselves belonging to the Kara-Khitais. His mother who belonged to

the Rajput tribes of Uttar Pradesh, was the daughter of Rawat Arz, the famous war minister of Balban, a king of the Mamluk dynasty (1246-87).

Major life events in chronological order 1. 1253 Khusaroo was born in Badaun near Etah in what is today the state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India. His father Amir Saifuddin came from Balkh in modern day Afghanistan and his mother hailed from Delhi.

2. 1260 After the death of his father, Khusaroo went to Delhi with his mother.

3. 1271 Khusaroo compiled his first divan of poetry, ‘Tuhfatus-Sighr’.

4. 1272 Khusaroo got his first job as court poet with King Balban’s nephew Malik Chhajju.

5. 1276 Khusaroo started working as a poet with Bughra Khan (Balban’s son).

6. 1279 While writing his second divan, Wastul-Hayat, Khusaroo visited Bengal.

7. 1281 Employed by Sultan Mohammad (Balban’s second son) and went to Multan with him.

8. 1285 Khusaroo participated as a soldier in the war against the invading Mongols. He was taken prisoner, but escaped.

9. 1287 Khusaroo went to Awadh with Ameer Ali Hatim (another patron).

10. 1288 His first mathnavi, ‘Qiranus-Sa’dain’ was completed.

11. 1290 When Jalal ud din Firuz Khilji came to power, Khusaroo's second mathnavi, ‘Miftahul Futooh’ was ready.

12. 1294 His third divan ‘Ghurratul-Kamal’ was complete.

13. 1295 Ala ud din Khilji (sometimes spelled ‘Khalji’) came to power and invaded Devagiri and Gujarat.

14. 1298 Khusro completed his "Khamsa-eNizami".

15. 1301 Khilji attacked Ranthambhor, Chittor, Malwa and other places, and Khusaroo remained with the king in order to write chronicles.

16. 1310 Khusaroo became close to Nizamuddin Auliya, and completed Khazainul-Futuh.

17. 1315 Alauddin Khilji died. Khusro completed the mathnavi ‘Duval Rani-Khizr Khan’ (a romantic poem).

18. 1316 Qutb ud din Mubarak Shah became the king, and the fourth historical mathnavi ‘Noh-Sepehr’ was completed.

19. 1321 Mubarak Khilji (sometimes spelled ‘Mubarak Khalji’) was murdered and Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq came to power.

Khusro started to write the Tughluqnama.

20. 1325 Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq came to power. Nizamuddin Auliya died, and six months later so did Khusro. Khusro’s tomb is next to that of his master in the Nizamuddin Dargah of Delhi.

Khusaroo the Royal poet Khusaroo was a prolific classical poet associated with the royal courts of more than seven rulers of the Delhi Sultanate. He is popular in much of North India and Pakistan, because of many playful riddles, songs and legends attributed to him.

Through his enormous literary output and the legendary folk personality, Khusaroo represents one of the first (recorded) Indian personages with a true multi-cultural or pluralistic identity.

He wrote in both Persian and Hindustani. He also spoke Arabic and Sanskrit. His poetry is still sung today at Sufi shrines throughout Pakistan and India.

Amir Khusro was the author of a Khamsa which emulated that of the earlier poet of Persian epics Nezami Ganjavi. His work was considered to be one of the great classics of Persian poetry during the Timurid period in Transoxiana.

Amir Khusaroo the originator of Sitar andTabla Amir Khusaroo is credited with fashioning the tabla as a split version of the traditional Indian drum, the pakhawaj.

Popular lore also credits him with inventing the sitar, the Indian grand lute, but it is possible that the Amir Khusro associated with the sitar lived in the 18th century (he is said to be a descendant of the son-in-law of Tansen, the celebrated classical singer in the court of the Mughal Emperor Akbar).

Some samples of Khusro's poetry Persian couplet ‫ا ست زم ین روے ب ر ف ردوس اگ ر‬ ‫ا ست هم ین و ا ست هم ین و ا ست هم ین‬ Agar firdaus bar roo-e zameen ast, Hameen ast-o hameen ast-o hameen ast.

If there is any paradise on the face of the earth, It is this, it is this, it is this.

Persian poems ‫ ک اف ر‬،‫ن ی ست ک ار در مرا م س لمان ی ع ش قم‬ ‫ ت ار من رگ هر‬،‫ن ی ست ُزنار حاجت گ ش ته‬ ‫ط ب یب ن ادان ای ب رخ یز من ب ال ین سر از‬ ‫ن ی ست دی دار جز ب ه دارو را ع شق دردم ند‬ ‫ گ ر ما ک ش تی ب ر ن اخدا‬،‫!م باش گ و ن با شد‬ ‫ن ی ست ک ار در ن اخدا ما داری م خدا ما‬ ‫ک ندمی پ ر س تیب ت خ سرو ک ه گ وی دمی خ لق‬ ‫ن ی ست ک ار را ما خ لق ب ا !ک نممی !آری !آری‬

Kafir-e-ishqam musalmani mara darkaar neest Har rag-e mun taar gashta hajat-e zunnaar neest; Az sar-e baaleen-e mun bar khez ay naadaan tabeeb Dard mand-e ishq ra daroo bajuz deedaar neest; Nakhuda dar kashti-e maa gar nabashad goo mubaash Ma khuda daareem mara nakhuda dar kaar neest; Khalq migoyad, ki Khusrau butparasti mikunad Aare-aare mikunam, ba khalq mara kaar neest.

I am a pagan (worshiper) of love: the creed (of Muslims) I do not need; Every vein of mine has become (taut like a) wire; the (Hindu) girdle I do not need.

Leave from my bedside, you ignorant physician!

The only cure for the patient of love is the sight of his beloved – other than this no medicine does he need.

If there be no pilot on our ship, let there be none: We have God in our midst: the pilot we do not need.

The people of the world say that Khusaroo worships idols.

So I do, so I do; the people I do not need, the world I do not need. ousrae dirya p&em ka %iLq va kI xar, jae %tra sae fUb gya jae fUba sae par.

Khusro dariya prem ka, ulṭī vā kī dhār, Jo utrā so ḍūb gayā, jo ḍūbā so pār.

Khusro! the river of love has a reverse flow He who enters will drown, he who drowns will get across. sej vae sUnI deo ke raevU< mE< idn rEn, ipya ipya mE< krt hU< phrU< pl -r suo na cEn. Sej vo sūnī dekh ke rovun main din rain, Piyā piyā main karat hūn pahron, pal bhar sukh nā chain.

Seeing the empty bed I cry night and day

Calling for my beloved all day, not a moment's happiness or rest.

Chhāp tilak sab chīnī re mose nainā milāike Bāt atham keh dīnī re mose nainā milāike Prem bhaṭī kā madvā pilāike Matvālī kar līnhī re mose nainā milāike Gorī gorī baīyān, harī harī chuṛiyān baīyān pakaṛ dhar līnhī re mose nainā milāike Bal bal jāūn main tore rang rajvā Apnī sī kar līnhī re mose nainā milāike Khusro Nijām ke bal bal jaiye Mohe suhāgan kīnhī re mose nainā milāike Bāt atham keh dīnī re mose nainā milāike You’ve taken away my looks, my identity, by just a glance.

By making me drink the wine from the distillery of love You’ve intoxicated me by just a glance; My fair, delicate wrists with green bangles in them, Have been held tightly by you with just a glance.

I give my life to you, Oh my cloth-dyer, You've dyed me in yourself, by just a glance.

I give my whole life to you Oh, Nijam, You've made me your bride, by just a glance.

Hindavi riddles 1. Nar naari kehlaati hai, aur bin warsha jal jati hai; Purkh say aaway purkh mein jaai, na di kisi nay boojh bataai.

Is known by both masculine and feminine names, And lightens up (or burns up) without rain; Originates from a man and goes into a man, But no one has been able to guess what it is.

2. Pawan chalat weh dehe badhavay Jal peevat weh jeev ganvavay Hai weh piyari sundar naar, Naar nahin par hai weh naar.

With the blow of wind she flares up, And dies as soon as she drinks water; Even though she is a pretty woman, She’s not a woman, though she’s feminine.

Answers 1. Nadi (Stream) 2. Aag (Fire) The phrase ‘Zeehaal-e-miskeen’ comes from a poem of Amir Khusraoo. The unique thing about this poem is that it is a macaronic, written in Persian and Brij Bhasha. In the first verse, the first line is in Persian, the second in Brij Bhasha, the third in Persian again, and the fourth in Brij Bhasha. In the remaining verses, the first two lines are in Persian, the last two in Brij Bhasha. The poem showcases Amir Khusaroo’s mastery over both languages. The English translation is: Do not overlook my misery Blandishing your eyes, and weaving tales; My patience has over-brimmed, O sweetheart,

Why do you not take me to your bosom?

The nights of separation are long like tresses, The day of our union is short like life; When I do not get to see my beloved friend, How am I to pass the dark nights?

Suddenly, as if the heart, by two enchanting eyes Is beset by a thousand deceptions and robbed of tranquillity; But who cares enough to go and report To my darling my state of affairs?

The lamp is aflame; every atom excited I roam, always, afire with love; Neither sleep to my eyes, nor peace for my body, neither comes himself, nor sends any messages In honour of the day of union with the beloved who has lured me so long, O Khusaroo; I shall keep my heart suppressed, if ever I get a chance to get to his place.

A Sufi need not be a Mohammedan. A Sufi can exist anywhere, in any form – because Sufism is the essential core of all religions. It has nothing to do with Islam in particular. Sufism can exist without Islam; Islam cannot exist without Sufism. Without Sufism, Islam is a corpse. Only with Sufism does it become alive.

Whenever a religion is alive it is because of Sufism. Sufism simply means a love affair with Gd, with the ultimate, a love affair with the whole. It means that one is ready to dissolve into the whole, that one is ready to invite the whole to come into one’s heart. It knows no formality. It is not confined by any dogma, doctrine, creed or church. Christ is a Sufi, so is Mohammed. Krishna is a Sufi, so is Buddha. This is the first thing I would like you to remember: that Sufism is the innermost core – as Zen is, as Hassidism is. These are only different names of the same ultimate relationship with God. The relationship is dangerous. It is dangerous because the closer you come to God, the more and more you evaporate. And when you have come really close you are no more. It is dangerous because it is suicidal... but the suicide is beautiful. To die in God is the only way to live really. Until you die, until you die voluntarily into love, you live an existence which is simply mediocre; you vegetate, you don’t have any meaning. No poetry arises in your heart, no dance, no celebration; you simply grope in the darkness. You live at the minimum, you don’t overflow with ecstasy.

That overflow happens only when you are not. You are the hindrance. Sufism is the art of removing the hindrance between you and you, between the self and the self, between the part and the whole.

OSHO – The People on the Path

Junaid Ibn Muhammad Abu Al- Qasim Al-Khazzaz Al - Baghdadi

J

unaid ibn Muhammad Abu al-Qasim al-Khazzaz al-Baghdadi (830-910 AD) (Persian: ‫ج ن ید‬ ‫ )ب غدادی‬was one of the great early Persian Muslim mystics, or Sufis, of Islam and is a central figure in the golden chain of many Sufi orders.

“I will not take it,” cried Sari.

Life

“Junaid, how did God deal graciously with me and justly with him?” demanded Sari.

He accompanied his maternal uncle Sari al-Saqati and other guides including al-Harith al-Muhasibi, and others. He was born in Baghdad from Persian parents and according to Dehkhoda, his ancestors were from Nahavand.

“God was gracious to you,” Junaid replied, “in vouchsafing you poverty. To my father God was just in occupying him with worldly affairs. You are at liberty to accept or reject as you please. He, whether he likes it or not, must convey the due alms on his possessions to the one deserving of it.”

From childhood Junaid was given to spiritual sorrow, and was an earnest seeker after God, well disciplined, thoughtful and quick of understanding and of a penetrating intuition.

One day he returned home from school to find his father in tears.

“What happened?” he enquired.

“I took something by way of alms to your uncle Sari,” his father told him. “He would not accept it. I am weeping because I have given my whole life to save these five dirhams, and then this offering is not meet for one of the friends of God to receive.”

“Give me the money, and I will give it to him. That way he may take it,” said Junaid.

His father gave him the dirhams, and Junaid went off. Coming to his uncle’s house, he knocked at the door.

“Who is that?” came a voice.

“Junaid,” answered the boy. “Open the door and take this due offering of alms.”

“I beg you to take it, by the God who has dealt so graciously with you and so justly with my father,” cried Junaid.

This answer pleased Sari.

“Child, before I accept these alms, I have accepted you.”

So saying, Sari opened the door and took the alms.

He assigned to Junaid a special place in his heart.

Junaid was only seven years old when Sari took him on the pilgrimage. In the Mosque of the Sanctuary the question of thankfulness was being discussed by four hundred Shaykhs. Each Shaykh expounded his own view.

“You also say something,” Sari prompted Junaid.

“Thankfulness,” said Junaid, “means that you should not disobey God by means of the favour which He has bestowed on you, nor make of His favour a source of disobedience.”

“Well said, O consolation of true believers,” cried the four hundred. They were unanimous that a better definition could not be devised.

“Boy,” said Sari, “it will soon come to pass that your special gift from God will be your tongue.”

Junaid wept when he heard his uncle say this.

“Where did you acquire this?” Sari demanded.

“From sitting with you,” Junaid replied.

Junaid then returned to Baghdad, and took up selling glasses. Every day he would go to the shop and draw down the blind and perform four hundred rak’as. After a time he abandoned the shop and withdrew to a room in the porch of Sari’s house, where he busied himself with the guardianship of his heart. He unrolled the prayer rug of meticulous watchfulness, that no thought of anything but God should pass through his mind.

Influences He laid the groundwork for sober mysticism in contrast to that of God-intoxicated Sufis like alHallaj, Bayazid Bastami and Abusaeid Abolkheir. In the process of trial of al-Hallaj, his former disciple, Khaliph of the time demanded his fatwa and he issued this fatwa: ‘From the outward appearance he is to die and we judge according to the outward appearance and God knows better’. He is referred to by the Sufis as Sayyid-ut Taifa i.e. the leader of the group. He lived and died in the city of Baghdad.

Teachings Junaid’s contributions to Sufism are many. His basic ideas deal with a progression that leads one to “annihilate” oneself (fana) so as to be in a closer union with the Divine. People need to “relinquish natural desires, to wipe out human attributes, to discard selfish motives, to cultivate spiritual qualities, to devote oneself to true knowledge, to do what is best in the context of eternity, to wish good for the entire community, to be truly faithful to God, and to follow the Prophet in the matters of the Sharia”. This starts with the practice of renunciation (zuhd) and continues with withdrawal from society, intensive concentration on devotion (ibadat) & remembrance (dhikr) of God, sincerity (ikhlas), and contemplation (muraqaba) respectively; contemplation produces fana. This type of “semantic struggle” recreates the

experience of trial (bala) that is key in Junaid’s writings. This enables people to enter into the state of fana.

Junaid divides up the state of fana into three parts: “1) the passing away from one’s attributes through the effort of constantly opposing one’s ego-self (nafs); 2) passing away from one’s sense of accomplishment, that is, passing away from ‘one’s share of the sweet deserts and pleasures of obedience’; and 3) passing away from the vision of the reality ‘of your ecstasies as the sign of the real overpowers you’”.

All of these stages help one to achieve fana. Once that has been attained, a person is in the state of remaining, or baqa. It is through the stage of baqa that one is able to find God – or rather, have God find him / her. Reaching baqa is not an easy thing to do though; getting through the three stages requires strict discipline and patience. There is even debate amongst scholars as to whether or not the third stage is even possible to reach. Junaid helped establish the “sober” school of Sufi thought, which meant that he was very logical and scholarly about his definitions of various virtues, Tawhid, etc.

Sufism is characterized by people who “experience fana [and] do not subsist in that state of selfless absorption in God but find themselves returned to their senses by God. Such returnees from the experience of selflessness are thus reconstituted as renewed selves,” just like an intoxicated person sobering up. For example, Junaid is quoted as saying, “The water takes on the color of the cup.”

While this might seem rather confusing at first, ‘Abd al-Hakeem Carney explains it best: “When the water is understood here to refer to the Light of Divine self-disclosure, we are led to the important concept of ‘capacity,’ whereby the Divine epiphany is received by the heart of any person according to that person’s particular receptive capacity and will be ‘colored’ by that person’s nature”. As one can see, such a simple phrase holds such deep meaning; it brings the reader back to a deeper understanding of God through a more thoughtful metaphor.

Shah Bahauddin Naqshband

When I had finished ‘Shah Bahauddin Naqshband ­ Life and Works’ I thought enough has been said within the framework of the book. The more you speak of these sheikhs and masters the more you feel nothing has been said. As a result for this issue of Meditation Times I speak to you more from the life of Sheikh Shah Bahuddin Naqshband RA

In this constellation, we come finally to Muhammad Bahauddan Uways al‐Bukhari, known as Shah

Naqshband, the Imam of the Naqshbandi Tariqat without peer. He was born in the year 1317 C.E. in the village of Qasr al‐carifan, near Bukhara. After he mastered the sharicah sciences at the tender age of 18, he kept company with the Sheikh Muhammad Baba as­Samasi, who was an authority in hadith in Central Asia. After the latter’s death, he followed Sheikh Amir Kulal who continued and completed his training in the external and the internal knowledge.

Sheikh Taoshobuddha at the Shrine Shah Bahauddin Naqshband RA

Tomb of Shah Bahuddin Naqshband RA

Shah Bahauddin Naqshband and Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani

Shah Bahauddin Naqshband despite all his efforts failed to ‘imprint’ the dhikr of Allah on his heart. One day, when he was travelling in the desert, worried about such thoughts. There he met Al‐Khizr Allahe Salam who within seconds transported him to the spiritual presence of Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani, who had passed away nearly 150 years ago. Shah Bahauddin said, ‘O one who holds hands in the Universe, hold my hand so they will you holder of hands.’(in bayat, one holds the hand of the Pir to receive Almighty Allah’s blessing and when someone needed to be rescued, they held out their hand).

Sheikh Sayyiduna Abdul Qadir Jilani put his hand on Shah Bahauddin’s heart instead and said, ‘O the holder of the adornment of the worlds, hold my adornment so that they can call you Naqshband (the one who adorns)’.

Then Shah Kwaja Bahauddin recited the following poem, which is inscribed on both the tombs of Abdul Qadir Jilani and Bahauddin

Naqshband (may Allah be well pleased with them): ‘The King of this world and the hereafter is Shah Abdul Qadir the head of the children of Adam is Shah

Abdul Qadir. Sun, moon, heavens, the throne and the pen, they all get their light from the heart of Abdul Qadir.’

Shah Naqshband said: ‘One day a surprising state dawned upon me. I heard the Divine Voice saying, ‘Ask whatever you like from Us.’ So I said, with humility, ‘O Allah, grant me one drop of Your Oceans of Mercy and Blessings.’ The answer came, ‘You are asking from Our Great Generosity for only one drop?’

This was like a tremendous slap on my face and the sting of it lasted on my cheek for days.’ Then one day I said, ‘O Allah grants me from Your Oceans of Mercy and Blessings the Power to carry it.’ At that moment a vision was opened to me wherein I was seated on a throne and that throne was over an ocean of mercy. A voice said to me, ‘This ocean of mercy is for you. Give it to My servants.’”

When Shah Naqshband was asked, ‘What are the requirements of one who follows your way?’ he said, ‘To follow the sunnah of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam peace be upon him. Our way is a rare one.

It keeps the Unbreakable Bond, and it asks nothing else of its followers but to take hold of the Pure

Sunnah of the Prophet and follow the way of the Sahaba (Companions of the Prophet in their ijtihad, struggle in the way of God.'

People asked Sultan Kwaja Sayyedna Shah Bahauddin Naqshband, ‘Ghausul Azam Sheikh Abdul Qadir said, ‘My foot is on the shoulders of all the saints’, what do you think about this?’; Shah Naqsband said, ‘May Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani’s foot be upon my eyes and my vision.’

Naqshbandi Tariqa

He said of the Naqshbandi Tariqa: ‘The Naqshbandi School is the easiest and simplest way for the student to understand tawhid. It urges its followers to seek a state of complete worship of Allah both publicly and privately by keeping the complete code of conduct of the Prophetic Sunnah. It encourages people to keep to the strictest modes of worship and to abandon exemptions. It is also free from all innovations and Deviations. It does not demand of its followers perpetual hunger or wakefulness. That is how the Naqshbandiyya has managed to remain Free from the excesses of the ignorant and the charlatans. In totality, we say that our way is the mother of all tariqats and the guardian of all spiritual trusts. It is the safest, wisest, and clearest way. It is the purest drinking‐ station, the most distilled essence. The Naqshbandiyya is innocent from any attack because it keeps the sunnah of the beloved Prophet."

‘I was receiving secrets from every side, especially from Sheikh Uwais al­Qarani, who greatly influenced me to depart from all worldly matters and to attach myself exclusively to spiritual matters. I did this by firmly keeping the sharaca and the orders of the Prophet, until I began spreading the Unseen Knowledge and the Granted Secrets from the Unique Oneness that no one before had ever shared.’

‘The seeker in this way must be busy in rejecting evil whisperings and the nafsani insinuations. He might reject them before they reach him; or he might reject them after they reach him but before they control him. Another seeker, however, might not reject them until after they reach him and control him. He cannot get any fruit, because at that time it is impossible to take the whisperings out of the heart.’

‘If a murid, a sheikh or anyone speaks about a state that he has not attained, Allah will forbid him to reach that state.’

‘The mirror of every sheikh has two directions. But our mirror has six directions.’

‘It is necessary for the follower, if he is confused about something his Sheikh has said or done and is unable to understand his reasons, to be patient and carry it, and not to become suspicious. If he is a beginner, he might ask; but if he is a murid, he has no reason to ask and should remain patient with what he doesn’t yet understand.’

‘Intention, niyyath, is very important, because it consists of three letters:

1. Nun, which represents nurullah, the Light of God; ya, which represents 2. Yadullah, the hand of God; 3. and ha, which represents hidayatullah, the Guidance of Allah.

The niyyath is the Breeze of the Soul.’

‘The sheikh must know the state of his murid in three categories: in the past; in the present and in the future in order for him to raise him up.’

‘One of the most important doors to the Presence of Allah is to eat with Awareness. The food gives the body strength, and to eat with consciousness gives the body purity.’

Shah Naqshband added three more principles to Sheikh Abdul Khaliq Gajadwani's Naqshbandi or Commandments:

1. Awareness of Time, 2. Awareness of Numbers, 3. Awareness of the Heart.

He said: ‘You have to evaluate how you spend every moment: with Presence or in Negligence.’

‘Observance of the numbers in dhikr is the first step in the state of acquiring ilmu ladun, Heavenly Knowledge.’

‘Whoever is initiated by us and follows us and loves us, whether he is near or far, wherever he is, even if he is in the East and we are in the West, we nourish

from the stream of love and give him light in his daily life.’

Among many of Shah Naqshband's precious works are most notably Awrad an‐Naqshbandiyyah, the Devotions of Shah Naqshband, and Tanbih al‐Ghafilin.

Sheikh Salah, his servant, reported: ‘Shah Naqshband said one time to his followers, ‘Any connection of your heart with other than Allah is the greatest veil for the seeker,’ after which he recited this verse of poetry:

‘The connection with other than God Is the strongest veil indeed, And to be done with it, Is the Opening of Attainment.’

Immediately, after he recited this verse, it came to my heart that he was referring to the connection between belief (iman) and islam. He looked at meand laughed and said, ‘Did you not hear what Hallaj said?

‘I rejected the religion of God, and rejection is obligatory on me even though that is hideous to Muslims.’ O Sheikh Salah, what came to your heart ‐ that the connection is with belief and islam ‐ is not the important point. What is important is Real Faith.

And Real Faith for the People of the Truth is to make the heart deny anything and everything other than God. That is what made Hallaj say, ‘I denied your religion and denial is obligatory on me, although that is hideous to Muslims.’ His heart wanted nothing except Allah.’

‘Hallaj, of course, was not denying his faith in Islam, but was emphasizing the attachment of his heart to God Alone. If Hallaj was not accepting anything except Allah, how could one say that he was actually denying the religion of God? His testimony of the reality of his Witnessing encompassed and made as child’s ‐ play the ordinary witnessing of the common Muslim.’

Sheikh Salah continued, saying, Shah Bahauddin Naqshband said, ‘The people of God do not admire what they are doing; they act only out of the love of God.’

To this Shah Naqshband responded,

‘Rabi’a al‐‘Adawiyya said, ‘O Allah I did not worship seeking the reward of Your Paradise nor fearing your punishment, but I am worshipping You for Your Love

alone.’ If your worship is for saving yourself or for gaining some reward for yourself, it is a hidden shirk, because you have associated something with Allah, either the reward or the punishment. This is what Hallaj meant.’

Shah Bahauddin Naqshband

Shah Naqshband's teachings changed the hearts of seekers from darkness to light. He continued to teach his students the knowledge of the Oneness of God in which his precedessors had specialized, emphasizing the realization of the state of ihsan (excellence) for his followers according to the hadith of the Prophet (s), "Ihsan is to worship God as if you see Him.”

‘My work is to weep at night in remembering my Beloved; my sleep is to remain absorbed in thoughts of my Beloved."

"In vain do eyes stay awake if not to behold You. In vain do tears flow for another than You." "The lovers die at every moment, for their dying is not of one kind.

The lover has received two hundred spirits from the Spirit of Guidance, and he sacrifices them all at every instant.

For every spirit he receives ten in return

­­read the Qur'an: Ten the like of it [6:160]."

‘After the death of Sheikh Muhammad Baba Samasi I went to Bukhara and also got married there. I lived in Qasr al‐Arifan near Sayyid Amir Kulal in order to serve him.” It is related that Sheikh Baba Samasi had a long time ago told Sayyid Amir Kulal to take good care of ShahBahauddin Naqshaband.

Shah Bahauddin (RA) relates of a vision that he had.

“When I was in seclusion with a friend of mine the heaven suddenly opened and a great vision came to me. In this vision I heard a voice say, “Leave everyone and come to Our Presence alone”. I began to tremble and ran away from that place to where there was a river and threw myself into it. I washed my clothes and then prayed two rakaat’s of prayer in a manner that I had never prayed before as I felt that I was praying in the very Divine Presence. Unveiling was taking place in my heart and it was opening to everything. The entire universe vanished and I was not conscious of anything other than praying in His Divine Presence”.

Shah Bahauddin Naqshaband (RA) relates about this incident, “At the beginning of my state of attraction I was asked as to why I was entering on this path. I answered “so that whatever I say and want will happen” I was answered, “It cannot be like that, whatever We say and whatever We want is what will happen” to which I replied, “I cannot agree to that”. I must be able to say and to do whatever I like; if this is not going to be the way then I have no need for this path”. Then I received the answer, “no it is whatever We desire to be said and whatever We desire to be done, that must be said and done”. To this I replied again “whatever I say and whatever I do should be the way”. After this I was left alone.

For fifteen days I was left alone. This made me go into a deep state of depression. Then suddenly to my joy I heard a voice saying,

“Oh Bahauddin, it is as you wish We will grant to you whatever that you wish”.

I asked for my wish which was “give me a way which will lead all who travel on it directly to the Divine Presence.”

Then I experienced a great vision and heard

“You have been granted what you have asked for”.

This story is unusual as everyone complies with the Divine Orders and does not ask for what they wish.

Generally it would be considered discourteous to refuse to accept the Divine Orders and insist on wanting what one wants. Yet after the initial refusal Shah Bahauddin (RA) was granted his request. It may be that because he asked on behalf of others and not for himself that what he wanted was granted. This then was the consideration that Shah Bahauddin Naqshaband (RA) had for others and this we assumed was the reason that this request was granted.

There is another interesting story about how Shah Bahauddin Naqshaband (RA) was tested by his Sheikh. This test was a heavy one. Shah Bahauddin Naqshaband (RA) relates this incident, “Once I was in a state of divine attraction where I was not conscious of myself and I was moving about not knowing what I was doing. At nightfall I found myself bleeding in both my feet which were torn and pricked with thorns.

Then I felt that I should go to the house of my Sheikh, Sayyid Amir Kulal. It was biting cold in the night and the night too was dark with no moon or stars. To prevent the cold I had nothing on me but an old

leather cloak. Then I arrived at my sheikh’s house and saw him together with his friends and followers. He saw me and told his followers, “take him out of my house, I do not wanting him in my house”, so the followers came and put me out of the house. I could not bear it”.

“I felt that my ego was going to defeat me and that it would take over my feelings by trying to poison me concerning the trust I had in my Sheikh. How could I carry this disgrace and humiliation? Then the Divine Mercy came upon me which made me able to carry this insult in the cause of Allah and in the cause of my Sheikh. I firmly told my ego, “I am not going to allow you to make me lose the love and trust for my Sheikh”.

“I then felt a deep depression overcome me. I held fast to the state of humbleness, put my head down on the entrance of my Sheik’s house and swore that I would not remove it from there until he accepted me one more time. I could feel the snow and the cold wind going right through my bones which were making me shiver and tremble in this cold dark night.

There was not even the light of the moon or the stars for consolation and warmth. I almost froze. It was only the warmth of the love that I had for Allah Almighty and my Sheikh that kept me warm.”

“I waited in this condition until the break of day.

Then my Sheikh stepped out and without seeing me his foot trod on my head. When my sheikh saw that this was me, he quickly took me into his house and with great concern and care he started pulling out the thorns from my feet, he said “Oh my son you have been today dressed with the dress of happiness and the dress of Divine Love. This dress which your have been adorned with neither my Sheikh before me nor I have been dressed in such a manner. Allah is happy with you and the Prophet Muhammad (sal)is happy with you. The Saints of the Golden Chain are also all happy with you”.

“While pulling the thorns out of my feet and washing my wounds my Sheikh poured into my heart such knowledge that I had never before experienced. Then in a vision I saw myself entering into the secret of Muhammad ur Rasolullah. This was entering into the secret of the verse that is the Reality of Muhammad.

Thereafter this led me on to enter into the secret of la ilaha illallah which is the secret of the Uniqueness of Allah. This in turn led me to enter the secrets of Allah Almighty’s names and attributes that are in the secret

of the Oneness of Allah. It is not possible for words to explain this state. This can only be experienced by tasting through the heart”.

Shah Bahauddin Naqshaband (RA) was trained by Baba as Samasi and Sayyid Amir Kulal both of whom are great Sheikhs of the Golden Chain of the Naqshbandi order.

He was also trained by another very big Grandsheikh of this very same Golden Chain. This incident is referred to by Shah Bahauddin Naqshaband in the following story,

“At the start of my journey on the Sufi way I used to wander at night from one place to another in the suburbs of Bukhara. In order to learn a lesson from the dead I used to visit many cemeteries in the darkness of night and this was also specially during the winter. One night I went over to visit the burial place of Sheikh Ahamed al Kashghari and to recite fatiha for him. When I went to his grave I found there two men waiting for me. I had never met them before.

They had a horse with them. They made me sit on the horse and tied on my belt two swords, then they directed this horse to the tomb of Sheikh Mazdakhin.

We then dismounted from our horses and entered the tomb and the mosque of this sheikh and started meditation.

“While meditating I saw in a vision the wall facing the kabah come crashing down. A big made man was seated on a huge throne. He was gigantic. I felt familiar with him as if I had met him before.

Whichever way I turned my face I would see this person. Around this person were my Sheikhs Baba Samasi and Sayyid Amir Kulal together with a large crowd. I felt a love for this huge man and at the same time I felt afraid of him. I had awe and fear of his presence and love and attraction for his beauty. I was asking myself who could this great and gigantic man be. Suddenly I heard a person from the crowd around this man saying “this man is your Sheikh and he looked after you on your spiritual path. He looked at your soul when it was still an atom in the Divine Presence. You have been under his training. His name is Abdul Khaliq Al Gujadawani and the crowd that you see around him are the Saints who carry his great secrets, the secrets of the Golden Chain. Then this Sheik began to point to each Sheikh and say, “this is Sheik Ahmed, this is Arif Rawakri, this is Sheikh Ali Ramitani, this is your Sheikh Baba as Samasi who gave you his cloak during his lifetime. He asked me,

“Do you know him”. I replied “yes”. Then he said, “The cloak that he gave you is still in your house and with his blessings Allah Almighty has removed from you many troubles”.

“Then another voice said “the Sheikh who is sitting on the throne will be teaching you something that you will need while traveling on this path. I asked them whether they would allow me to touch his hand. This was allowed and I took his hand. Then he began to tell me about the path, its beginning, middle and end”.

He said, “You have to adjust the wick of yourself so that the light of the invisible can be strengthened in you and its secrets can be seen. You have to show constancy and you have to keep firmly the Divine Law of the Prophet Muhammed (sal) in all your states”. He also said, “You have to dispense with comfort and keep away from innovation and make your kiblah the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad (sal). You have to go into and investigate the life of the Prophet Muhammed (sal)and his companions. You must ask people to read and to follow the Quran both during the day and night and to do the compulsory prayers and all the sunnah worship. Do not overlook even the tiniest thing of the Prophet Muhammad’s (sal) deeds and good works”.

“As soon as Abd al­Khaliq al­Ghujadawani (RA) finished, his khalifs told me “so that you can be certain of this vision he will be sending you a sign”.

He was told that certain things and incidents would happen and as to what he had to do, as and when they happened. Likewise these incidents took place in the manner described to him and Shah Bahauddin (RA) also acted in the manner that he was instructed to act, thus fulfilling the truth of this vision. He was also asked to take the cloak of Azizan Ali Ra Matini to Sayyid Amir Kulal (RA). After this vision ended I went to my house on the next day and looked for the cloak and asked my family as to its whereabouts.

They told me, “it has been here for a long time”, and brought and gave it to me. I started crying inside when I saw the cloak.

After the fulfillment of all the things that was said in his vision, as ordered I took the cloak of Azizan to Sheikh Sayyid Amir Kulal (RA) and gave it to him.

After some silence Sheikh Amir Kulal told me, “I was told about this cloak of Azizan last night and that you would bring it to me. I have been ordered to keep it in ten different layers of covering”. He then asked me to come into his room and taught me and placed in my heart the silent zikr. I was asked to keep to this zikr

day and night. I kept to this silent zikr which is the highest form of zikr. I also went to the external scholars to study the Divine Law and the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad (sal) and also to study about the character of the Prophet Muhammad (sal)and his companions. I followed the orders that were given to me in my vision and my life took on a big change. All what was taught to me by Sheikh Abd al‐Khaliq al‐ Gujadawani (ral) in the vision benefited me and bore fruit. His spirit always accompanied me and taught me”.

Sheikh Abd al­Khaliq al­Ghujadawani (RA) was also one of the masters of Shah Bahauddin Naqshaband (RA) although he lived a long time before the time of Shah Naqshaband (ral). This connection is known as the Uvaisi Connection which means that the guide is spiritually connected and guides, although he is from another time. Sheikh Abd al­Khaliq al­Ghujadawani (RA) is also a Master of the Golden Chain of Masters.

Shah Bahauddin Naqshband (ral) refers to another incident regarding the cloak of Azizan. “One day I was in my garden and around me were my disciples. I was wearing the cloak of Azizan. I suddenly felt overwhelmed by heavenly blessings and attraction and I felt that I was adorned and dressed with Allah Almighty’s attributes. I began shaking in a way that I had never experienced before so much so that I could not remain standing. I then saw a great vision in which I was totally annihilated and I could not see anything other than the Existence of my Lord.

Then I saw myself coming out from His Divine Presence reflected through the mirror of Muhammad ur Rasoolullah which was in the form of a star in an ocean of light without beginning and without end. My external life ceased to be and I saw the meaning of la ilaha illallah Muhammad ur Rasoolullah. This in turn led me to the meaning of the Essence of the name “Allah” which led me to the Absolute Unseen which is the Essence of the name “Huwa” (He). As soon as I entered this ocean my heart stopped beating and my life ended. I was in the state of death. All those around me started crying thinking that I had died.

However, after about six hours I was ordered to return to my body. I could see my soul re‐entering my body slowly and then the vision ended”.

Shah Bahauddin Naqshaband (RA) also says that he received secrets from all sides and specially from Sheikh Uways al‐Qarani (ral) who he says influenced him to give up worldly things and to attach himself to spiritual matters. He says, “I did this by keeping to the sunnah and the orders of the Prophet Muhammad (sal)until I began spreading the unseen knowledge and the granted secrets from the Unique Oneness that no one before me had ever shared”.

There is another interesting story related by Shah Bahauddin Naqshaband (RA) regarding his spiritual power. He says, “I went one day into the desert with one of my sincere disciples named Muhammad Zahid. We started digging with a pick axe and working but at the same time also discussing very deep states of knowledge. We threw away the pick axes as were got deeper and deeper into this subject.

Then he suddenly asked me, “to what limit does worship reach,” I replied, “worship reaches to such a level that you will be able to point out at someone and say “die” and then he will die.” As I said this I unconsciously pointed at Muhammad Zahid. When I said the word “die”, to my horror he fell down dead.

From sunrise up to mid day the time passed and he still remained dead. At mid day it got very hot and the body started deteriorating due to the intense heat. I did not know what to do and was afraid and confused. All I could do was pull him towards the shade under a tree. I then sat down and started thinking and contemplating as to what I should do in this situation. Suddenly Divine Inspiration came to me and I said pointing to him “Oh Muhammad Live!” three times. To my joy his soul slowly started to return to his body and then he gradually returned to his original state. I quickly went to my sheikh and told him about this incident to which he replied, “Oh my son, Allah Almighty has given you a secret which he has not given to anyone else”.

In his last days Shah Bahauddin Naqshaband (RA) was confined mostly to his room. Many were the people who came to see him. Crowds thronged to see him as his illness became graver. When his time began to draw near he ordered the sura yasin to be recited. When this was finished he raised his hands to Allah Almighty and then also raised up his finger and recited the Shahada Kalima, bearing witness to the One God and the messenger hood of the Prophet Muhammad (sal). With this his soul returned to Allah.

Aashiyaan I drank the wine of your love and became forever drunk.

I fell into a swoon and lost all consciousness of pain, misery and sorrows.

My heart was drowned into the ocean of desperation but I found eternal life by drinking the wine of your love.

This intoxicating elixir has made me mad.

Now I roam hither and thither Seeking your love; The devi who destroyed my reality, and gave me elusive dreams.

All I want is this wine to keep me forever drunk.

If I become sober The dreams may fade, and reality return to haunt me.

I drink this wine to remain eternally drunk.

Swami anand neelambar

How shall I cross without a boat?

The ocean is vast and infinite How can I cross without a boat?

No shore I see beyond the yonder horizon Just a vast infinite ocean with no limits How shall I cross without a boat?

Who is there to guide the weary seekers Beyond the further shore?

What support is in the offering to help one cross without a boat?

Oh weary traveler Just hold on the floating logs That is the grace of the Lord So shall you cross the ocean.

Just hold on to the feet of the guru And he will lead you across to the further shore His Nama is the only support you need To cross the vast infinite ocean.

Sing his glories evermore So shall you cross the ocean.

Swami anand neelambar

Lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Innocent Questions Lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s innocent questions has left me astounded The mere simplicity of the rhetoric has left me filled with awe and wonder.

Such deep truths revealed with child-like gestures Who can fathom the depths and profundity of such innocent questions?

From where have you come?

To where do you go?

Why are you here?

How long shall you stay?

Will you return?

These simply questions has left me astonished I myself know not What answer shall I give to the seekers, Who pass my way?

To smile one must first cry To live one must first die To love one must first fear To trust one must first fail This is that, that is this I am that that is this that.

I am He and thou art that I am You and You are me The question is the answer The answer is the question.

Swami Anand Neelambar