A Summer Project On Mystic Love in the poetry of Rumi

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in English

Submitted by: Mohammad Tabish

Submitted to: Shashi Shekha

AMITY INSTITUTE OF ENGLISH AND BUSINESS COMMUNICATION AMITY UNIVERSITY UTTAR PRADESH

Introduction:
In certain places and times the current of mystical awareness runs deep and strong, more so than in others. Among the Greeks in the sixth century B.C. and also in India and China during that century. Jesus and the desert fathers. The Hassidic masters in Poland and Russia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the Zen masters in Japan during the same period were also part of an inexplicable flooding. In the Persian empire from the eleventh to the fourteenth century a brilliant flowering of awareness came among the Sufis, and especially the poets. Jelaluddin Rumi (12071273) was one of those conductors of knowing and being. Sufis call Rumi the Qutb, the pole, of love. Gilani (d. 1166) was the pole of power and Ibn Arabi (1165 1249), of knowledge. Through Rumi comes a transmission of the divine to this planet in the regions of love. His poetry is a record of his enduring the experience of living at the core. In each human being there is a meeting with the divine. That intersection is the heart. Sometimes we sense that love is our expertise, despite the obviously murderous bent of these days and hours. Still, we do love in many different ways. Let me count them. There are as many ways of loving as there are people, and that wildflower variety is the great beauty of this dimension of existence. I had a dream once where I saw a blue tinge to everything, and I knew, I felt, how the blueness was love. We couldnt see it with ordinary vision, but for dream-seeing it was there, drenching the planet, which does appear blue, as we know, from space. At poetry readings I have said about Rumis poetry, Folks, this is not country music. It gets a laugh. Rumi says, Fall in love in such a way that it frees you from any connecting. Thats very different from the lonely wail of: She left me, he left me; she came back; she left again. Some of his lines have been put in songs. There is a grief of separation in them, but the words come from a different region than

popular lyrics. Im not saying theres not wisdom in country songs. There is plenty. The love that Rumi and Shams move into, though, includes those dimensions and moves through them to what Sufis call the qalb. I have no synonym for that, and perhaps not much experience of it, though I met one who lives there, Bawa Muhaiyaddeen. I am no great sheikhs of a lover myself. I get mean and jealous, distracted and forgetful. Its Rumis and Bawas station I try to speak of, not mine. At the end of his life Ouspensky told J. G. Bennett in a letter that nothing could be found by intellectual processes, and that there is only one hope: that we should find a way to work with the higher emotional centre. That is the work that Rumis poetry is about. Sufis say the heart is the comprehensive human reality,and that the way of love is a path of annihilation, of the beatitude of as though it had never been. Our original state is nonbeing, nonexistence, and we spend much of our lives trying to break free of matter, free of mind and desire, back into the deep region of being and nonbeing we are at the core. The refreshment of dreamless sleep when we are, but are not conscious, is a taste of it. We are here, then, but with no awareness of being here. The absolute ipseity, suchness, the human reality and not the melodrama, that region of being, is described in the Heart Sutra, the central text of Zen, as having no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, and no consciousness. To get there you must die before you die. Buddhas Heart Sutra draws one along to the understanding that in that dissolving nothing exists by itself. Everything interpenetrates in the ecstatic core where heart-vision begins. A bowl falls from the roof. This is not theoretical. It is the practical and experiential love that annihilates, and the most ineffable of experiences, if there can be degrees of unsayableness. All of Rumis poems may be heard as love poems. They attend the souls flowering from grief, and from every emotion that streams through the guest house of consciousness. The love way is not religious. It is rather the origin and the longing inside religiousness. Footprints disappear at the oceans edge.

When we bow to each other, feet become head in a circle. No one could tell with Rumi and Shams who was teacher and who the student. Lover, beloved, and love became one thing with them. Images of transparency and particles, light upon light, the candle at noon, occur, images of breath merging with sky. We are sleeping and wake inside another sleep; we wake again, and on . . . as veils, the mist of language, the apparent limits, burn off. Each region of love leads to the unfolding. There may seem to be a kind of progress to this book, from spontaneous wandering to the lord of the heart, but it might just as easily be reversed, or put in any number of sequences. The heart with its many regions moves more like interpenetrating spheres, concurrent universes, than a linear path. Areas of energy in the poetry merge with one another as layers of ocean, or as the mysterious workings of soil in a field, or the draining slant of a mountainside. Rumis impulse feels earthward in its transformation, going down instead of up in the way one might aspire to the angelic. There is no down or up in love, but if one had to say whether Rumis poetry goes more with the pure transcenders or more with the grief-gardeners, one would say hes a ground-hugger and not so much a high-flyer, more jamal (feminine, receptive) than jalal (masculine, commanding). But as Rumi himself says hundreds of times, there is little one can say about love. It has to be lived, and its always in motion.

Chapter I: RUMI
I am neither of the East, nor of the West no boundaries exist in my breast ~Rumi

Generally referred to as Rumi, but known to Iranians as Mawlavi or Maulana (our master), and to the Turks as Mevlavi, Maulana Jalal al-Din Muhammad of Balkh (henceforth Rumi) was born into a scholarly family of Balkh, in present-day Afghanistan, on September 30, 1207. He grew up in Balkh under the tutelage of his father Baha' al-Din Walad (hence Baha' Walad), and the care of his atabak (guardian) Burhan al-Din Muhaqqiq of Tirmidh, a disciple of Baha' Walad. At the time, Balkh was one of the major centers of mysticism and Baha' al-Din Walad was one of Balkh's leading theologians and mystics. His parents were related to the court of the Khwarazmshah, on the one hand, and to the first of the Rashidun Caliphs, Abu Bakr, on the other hand. Additionally, he was a student of Najm al-Din Kubra. In 1212 or 1213, living in Balkh became increasingly difficult for Baha' Walad; therefore, he decided to leave Balkh for the western lands of Islam. The decision disrupted Jalal alDin Muhammad's life in Balkh. Several reasons are given for this move. One is that Baha' Walad was a supporter of the teachings of alJunaid through Ahmad al-Ghazzali, Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali's brother. This attribution connected Baha' Walad with the views of Najm alDin Kubra, his teacher, who was well known in the Sufi circles of Transoxiana. Imam Fakhr al-Razi, a friend of Khwarazmshah, opposed both Kubra and Walad. He warned the Sultan of the imminent danger to his rule from the religious throngs controlled by Kubra and Walad. A less likely reason is that Baha' Walad was aware of Genghis Khan's invasion of China and was convinced that the Mongol invasion of Khwarazm was imminent. He, therefore, decided to move his family out of harm's way. Another reason could be that since Najm al-Din Kubra was established in Transoxiana, Baha' Walad thought that he should create his own order somewhere in the western lands of the Caliphate. In any event, on his way to Baghdad, Baha' Walad visited Nishapur. There, allegedly, he met Farid al-Din 'Attar, renowned at the time as a major follower of the Kubrawiyyah Order. 'Attar liked Baha' Walad's

six-year-old son, Jalal al-Din Muhammad, and assured the father of his son's becoming a true inspiration for the devout. It is reported that 'Attar gave the child a copy of his Asrar Nama or Book of Mysteries. Rumi's contemporaries report that Rumi treasured 'Attar's book and, alongside his father's al-Ma'arif, kept it very close to himself. From Nishapur, Baha' Walad traveled to Baghdad. There he was invited by Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi to stay a while at his khaniqah, but he did not accept. Instead, he stayed at the Mustansariah School. After Baghdad, he visited Mecca, Medina, and Damascus, all the time looking for a town in which he could settle in a madrasah and teach his disciples who had accompanied him. None of these places satisfied Baha' Walad's requirements for a new home. Neither did his colleagues in those towns look forward to competing with him. A highly respected theologian and mystic, Baha' Walad attracted sizeable crowds to his lectures. His visits, therefore, were worrisome for the religious leaders of those towns. From Damascus, he moved to Aleppo and, then, to Malatya where he stayed for four years before he moved to Laranda (present-day Karaman), south east of Konya (Quniyyah), in present-day Turkey. He lived in Laranda for seven years. At Laranda, Jalal al-Din Muhammad married Gawhar Khatun of Samarqand who, in 1226, gave birth to a son, the future Sultan Walad. The family also lost two of its members, Baha' Walad's wife and Jalal al-Din Muhammad's older brother, 'Ala al-Din Muhammad. As for Baha' Walad, in 1228, invited by the Seljuq ruler 'Ala al-Din Kayqubad, he moved to Konya, the then capital of the Seljuqs of Rum, leaving Jalal al-Din Muhammad's family in Laranda. In Konya, Baha' Walad lived in a madrasah until 1230 when he died. It is ironic that Baha' Walad found his ideal place to settle, raise a family, and organize his Sufi order almost at the end of his search and, indeed, life. As the capital of the Seljuq Turks, thirteenth-century Konya was on the way to prosperity. A center of commerce and culture, it attracted scientists, artists, poets, and architects from all over the

Islamic world. In contrast, Transoxiana was passing through one of its most unhappy times. When it eventually happened in 1220-27, the Mongol invasion impacted the lives of everyone there, especially the learned men of the realm. Both Farid al-Din 'Attar and Najm alDin Kubra were put to death by the Mongols, while Muslih alDin Sa'di was dislocated from his homeland of Fars. During his youth and middle age, Sa'di roamed in the devastated Mongol territories, seeking a reason for the Mongol scourge and the calamity that had befallen mankind. He did not settle down to document his thoughts until he was quite advanced in age. Similarly, the family of Saif al-Din Mahmud, the father of Amir Khusrau Dihlavi, was forced to move from Kish (present-day Qarshi in Uzbekistan) to Delhi to stay out of harm's way. As mentioned, Baha' Walad was a student of Najm al-Din Kubra. He not only educated his son, Jalal al-Din Muhammad, in the Kubrawiyyah Order, but that he also acquainted Jalal alDin with other Kubrawi Sufis, especially with his own disciple, Burhan al-Din Muhaqqiq. Indeed, after his father, we must count Burhan al-Din as the other individual with great influence on the development of Jalal-al-Din Rumi's Sufi thought. This is not to diminish the role of Shams of Tabriz who entered Maulana's life towards the end, but who impacted Maulana's worldview the most. We will talk about those who impacted Maulana's life in some detail further below. At the time of the death of his father, when he was 23 years old, Rumi's Sufi thought and his interest in mysticism had not developed enough to qualify him to occupy his father's exalted position. Therefore, he busied himself with giving sermons, issuing fatwas, and teaching at the madrasah. His Sufi training at the time was the responsibility of Burhan al-Din Muhaqqiq who had recently arrived from Balkh for the purpose and who had taken over Baha' Walad's position. Muhaqqiq persuaded Jalal al-Din Muhammad to embark on a quest and to immerse himself in the type of studies, experiences, and teachings that had distinguished his father. To prepare him for the task,

Burhan al-Din persuaded Jalal al-Din Muhammad to travel to Aleppo and Damascus and meet with other Sufi mystics. He instructed the young Rumi to give free reign to his experiences and thoughts. During his travels, in Aleppo, young Rumi met with several major Sufi figures among them Kamal al-Din ibn al-'Adim and Muhiy al-Din ibn al-'Arabi. Then, after undergoing a rigorous program of meditation supervised by Burhan al-Din Muhaqqiq, he assumed his father's mantle as the leader of the Sufis of Konya. As can be seen, Burhan al-Din Muhaqqiq played a major role during this phase of Rumi's life. He stepped into the position of the Shaykh after Baha' al-Din Walad's death, allowing Rumi to experience the world, and stood down when he felt Rumi was ready to shoulder the responsibility. According to Jami, Burhan al-Din Muhaqqiq served as Maulana's mentor and guide for nine years. It should be mentioned that Jalal al-Din's thought is somewhat different from his father's thought. The difference lies in the milieus in which the two grew up and reached maturity. Baha' Walad lived in Transoxiana at a time when 'Ash'ari kalam was in contention with Ishraqi thought. It was also a time of uncertainty under the Khwarazmshah, when the fabric of Shafi'ite Sunni rule of the Seljuqs was being torn asunder and communities with long Islamic traditional bonds were being dispersed. Rumi's milieu was 13th century turbulent Anatolia to which immigrants from all over, especially from what is presentday Central Asia (Khwarazm, Transoxiana, and Khurasan), as well as from Iran and Iraq were taking refuge from the Mongol onslaught. Among those who resided in Konya at the time, mention can be made of Sadr al-Din Qunavi, Fakhr al-Din Iraqi, and Najm al-Din Dayeh. These immigrants, like Rumi's father and his associates, had brought their own philosophical and theological ideas with them. Rumi's father, for instance, had brought his vision of the teachings of Ahmad al-Ghazali and Najm al-Din Kubra, while the immigrants from Iraq, like the Sufi Shihab al-Din Umar al-Suhrawardi (d. 1234), had brought an ethicist order that emphasized piety

and asceticism. To put it differently, in Rumi's Anatolia, there was a coming together of communities and a lot of give and take was taking place among diverse groups. Rumi, for instance, supported work ethics, generosity, and justice. He especially supported futuwwa (chivalry), a major Islamic virtue to which he became dedicated. In the same vein, AlSuhrawardi revived the futuwwa organization in both its theoretical and practical senses to aid the caliph to propagate Sunni Islam. Rumi took advantage of the futuwwa vehicle and used it for his own purposes, i.e., for the propagation of a new order resulting from a synthesis of eastern (Kubrawiyyah) and western (Suhrawardiyyah) orders. This new order came to be known as the Mevlavi Order. We will have more to say about the organization of the order later. The sources of inspiration for Jalal al-Din Rumi are diverse. On the one hand there are the Qur'an, and the Prophet as the Perfect Man, on the other hand, there are the less perfect human beings who supervised his formal education and Sufi learning. Among these latter, perhaps the most influential was his father while he lived. In fact, his father's notes, Ma'arifi Baha' Walad, can be traced in almost all the compositions of Maulana. As we have seen, his father's disciple, Burhan al-Din Muhaqqiq, was also a major source of inspiration, especially after the death of his father. In fact, Muhaqqiq came to Konya after the death of Baha' Walad to meet with Rumi and his disciples in special sessions. In these sessions, he insisted that Rumi should read his father's notes over and over and use the wisdom contained in them in his instructions. Burhan al-Din died in 1240 in Qaisariyyah. His memory is kept alive in the many mentions of his name in Maulana's Fih ma Fihi. A third source of inspiration was Shams of Tabriz who, as mentioned, entered late in Maulana's life (1244). Unlike Muhaqqiq, Shams advocated independence from his father's legacy and indifference to worldly matters. It is reported that when the forty-year old Maulana met the sixty-year old Sufi known as Shams of Tabriz, he was astounded. To Maulana,

Shams of Tabriz appeared as the visage of the Almighty. Unable to answer Shams's questions, Maulana fell unconscious, and, thereafter, remained under the spell of Shams. For instance, before meeting Shams, Maulana had devoted his whole energy to the education of his disciples at the madrasah. After meeting Shams, he abandoned teaching altogether and spent his time in khilvat (seclusion) with Shams. Maulana's lack of attention infuriated his disciples, who, unable to change the attitude of their teacher, made life in Konya very difficult for Shams. Without informing Maulana about his future residence, Shams left Konya. For fifteen months Maulana sought Shams's whereabouts without any luck. Finally, he received information that Shams was living in Damascus. He sent Sultan Walad to persuade Shams to return to Konya. When Shams returned, for some time, all was well between him and Maulana's disciples. They even arranged a marriage for him with the daughter of one of Maulana's relatives. But the reunion of Maulana and Shams did not last long. Again, a lack of attention to his teaching and Maulana's total absorption in sama' (music) and raqs (dance) infuriated the disciples. Shams left Maulana for the last time (1247) and, according to certain accounts, was murdered soon after at the hand of Maulana's students. Rumi's own son, 'Ala' alDin, is reported to have been among the miscreants. As for Maulana, he waited for seven years for his soul mate to return. He even made two trips to Damascus to look for him. All in vain. Tired, he returned from Syria a totally changed individual. He no longer taught his regular courses or delivered any sermons. Instead, he spent his time at the khaniqah guiding disciples and pilgrims. After the departure of Shams, Rumi transferred his affection to Salah al-Din Faridun Qunavi, also known as "Zarkub" (goldsmith). A student and disciple of Muhaqqiq, Zarkub was nave; he was, it is reported, the butt of jokes among his own disciples. What did Maulana see in him? After the death of the goldsmith (1258), for the last time, Rumi transferred his affection to Husam al-Din Chelebi who died in 1284. It

was for Husam al-Din that Rumi composed what has come to be known as the Bible of Sufism, Mathnavi-i Ma'navi (The Mathnavi Devoted to the Intrinsic Meaning of all Things). The remainder of Rumi's life was devoted to the composition of the Mathnavi in which effort he was helped by Husam al-Din. The themes, images, stories, and concept introduced and developed in the works of Rumi are too numerous to deal with in this study. In what follows, therefore, a few concepts and themes will be analyzed as samples representing the rest. These include Rumi's view of the perfect man, fate, poverty, and wisdom, among others. The concept of the perfect man is very close to Rumi's heart. Before Rumi, Ibn Maskawaih, Ibn 'Arabi, and Jilani, and after Rumi, in more recent times, Muhammad Iqbal have discussed this concept to some degree. Rumi, however, is the thinker who has analyzed the concept in terms of both material and spiritual dimensions. The material dimension of the impact of the perfect man on individuals and society places the perfect man at the apex from where he can command the world as we see and experience it. The spiritual dimension enables the perfect man to internalize the world, on the one hand, and to be internalized by it, on the other hand. Such aunique person, Rumi believes, can lead mankind on the path to righteousness. Maulana's perfect man is an accomplished self in whom thought and action, as well as instinct and intelligence are united. Such a person retains his individuality even in relation to the godhead. He is not prone to the loss of self. This might seem like a contradiction to the general view of fana' (annihilation) as a result of which the lover is totally annihilated in the Beloved but, in reality, there is no contradiction. In its annihilation in the perfect soul, it is not the individual's individuality that is affected, but the individual's identity. It is, after all, man's individuality that gives him freedom and, For a discussion of the perfect man, his relation to Shams of Tabriz and the sun, see Morewedge, 1975, pp, 200-04.Bashiri 10eventually,

eternal life. Put differently, against the sun, the candle does not turn into naught. Rather, it remains a candle and produces light albeit within its own limited sphere and ability. Maulana's views are at odds with the general Sufic viewthat advocates that one should abandon the world and put all his trust in Providence. In fact, Maulana tries very hard to instill in his followers a strict work ethic. The comfort of the individual and the family, he says, is tied to the individual's adoption of a profession. Even children, he says, can contribute to the labor force. They can be equipped with small drums that they can beat to keep the swarms of birds away from the farms. One of the major issues during the formative days of Islam was the role of poverty in the life of the Muslim faithful. Are wealth and piety mutually exclusive? Rumi looks at the life of the Prophet Muhammad as an example and provides examples from the lives of the Rashidun caliphs, like Abu Bakr. In all those cases he makes a distinction between the individual who is facing a lack of worldly possessions because of circumstances, and an individual who deliberately avoids amassing worldly possessions. Put differently, the mendicant is poor because he does not have access to wealth while a poor by choice, like Abu Bakr, is poor because he chooses to live within what his labor pays. The mendicant, if his means allow, has the potential of becoming powerful, arrogant, and oppressive. The individual who chooses poverty is already powerful. He uses his power to educate the world and to gradually bring the mendicant, both when he is wanting and when he has become powerful, into the path on which he himself traverses. It is in learning, teaching, and guidance that the perfect man finds his wealth and makes his contribution to society. Rumi is also at odds with the mainstream Sufis with regard to the role of reason in the progression of man towards unity with God. In general, it is believed that before annihilation, reason leaves the salik. Rumi believes that intelligence and love are part and parcel of the makeup of the perfect man. Indeed, it is the combined effect of love and reason

that enables an ordinary man to reach the status of a perfect man. Is it not love that comforts the individual against the ravages of death, and is it not intelligence that finds an individual's way to love? With bodily death so imminent for everyone, should not the perfect man distinguish his immortality by exercising control over reason that leads his way to love? Then again, what is the source of the true knowledge of the perfect man? Rumi found his answer in Shams of Tabriz, a fellow twenty years his senior, who grabbed Maulana's books and threw them into the pond. In response to Maulana's protest he said true knowledge comes from the heart, not from books. Within you, he said to Maulana, there is an immense reservoir of knowledge waiting to be unleashed. Allow that knowledge to surface untrammeled. Similarly, Rumi uses imagery as a mainstay of his works, both prose and poetry. A most prolific writer, comparable to Sana'i and 'Attar, Rumi wrote 3,200 odes in over 34,600 couplets, using imagery alluding to Allah and His reflection in all things. The most frequently encountered images in Rumi's works are those of water, animals, and the sun. The Almighty, the Holy Book, the Prophet, the ahadith, and the poets who had preceded him are all held very high in his poetry, as are ancient philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Rumi's writing style in the Mathnawi is very much like 'Attar's style in Asrar Nama with the difference that, unlike 'Attar, Rumi frequently interjects his own thoughts into the content of the poem. His major achievements, the Divan-i Shams-i Tabrizi and the Mathnawi attest to his encyclopedic knowledge of the world. He categorizes people by the nature, temperament, knowledge, and region, distinguishes birds and animals by type, and foods by name. His knowledge of mythology, religious annals, and folklore is vast. Bashiri Rumi's Mathnawi testifies to the expanse of his phenomenal awareness of the world and the extent of his knowledge about the past and the present, and most importantly, to his dexterity at telling stories. While scrutinizing ethical, religious, and spiritual issues, and while explaining Qur'anic verses

and ahadith, Rumi also delves into the delicate theme of love and explains its relation to rituals (Shari'a), on the one hand, and to the exalted state of the perfect man, on the other hand. He documents his assertions with Qur'anic references, and with references to the assertions of the Shaykhs before him, and with logic, common sense, and experience. His Mathnawi, redolent with information about the past history of Iran, Islam, Anatolia, and Central Asia, also includes valuable information about the trends of Rumi's time and his perspective on them. For instance, Rumi regards men superior to women in foresight but not in intelligence where men have had to use other means, such as brute force, to stay ahead of the game. He is also very critical of deceitful and equivocal preachers, especially those who use heaven and hell as means of intimidating simple people. Rumi lived a relatively full life. He died on December 17, 1273. He left instructions that Shaykh Sadr al-Din Qunavi should perform the prayer for him. Rumi was buried in Konya beside his father. Many frequent his mausoleum. It should be added that due to his long stay in Konya, he is often referred to as the Mawla of Rum. As for Rumi himself, he always regarded Khurasan as his home. Then again, philosophically speaking, place of birth Egypt, Damascus, or Indiawas immaterial to Rumi. Rumi's funeral procession was attended by Muslims, Jews, and Christians, as well as by people of diverse ethnic backgrounds and nationalities. Is this not testimony to the appeal that his great humanity and spirit of tolerance had created? According to both Sultan Walad and Aflaki, Rumi's wake lasted for forty days. Again, following Maulana's instructions, after his death, Husam al-Din Chelebi succeeded him. Eventually Sultan Walad, Maulana's son, succeeded Chelebi and institutionalized the Order in the family.Some sixteen years after Maulana's death, Sultan Walad wrote the most reliable biography of Rumi. This was a major contribution, not only because it was written very close to the time of Maulana's death, but also because someone very close to him, actually someone who

could describe aspects of his life and thought with a special understanding, wrote it. Another biography, ordered by Maulana's grandson, took about fortythree years to complete. Written eighty-two years after the death of Maulana by Shams al-Din Ahmad Aflaki, it is a much less reliable source, redolent with superstition and flattery. Over the centuries, unfortunately, it is the information in this volume that has been repeated by later biographers rather than the facts in Sultan Walad's. If there is a positive side to Aflaki's work, it is in the fact that he examines the lives of Baha' Walad and those close to his circle as well. The 13th century Sufi order known as the Mevlaviyyah (popularly referred to as the Whirling Dervishes) has its roots in the era immediately following Maulana's death. At that time,his disciples built a tomb and monastery complex in which they could gather and keep his memory and teachings alive. The performance of the sama' brought audiences to the place and the complex gradually assumed the shape of a regular meeting place for Maulana enthusiasts. Maulana's son, Sultan Walad, who served as the Shaykh of the order from 1285 until his death in 1312 took on the responsibility of propagating the Order. Sultan Walad's son, Ulu Arif Chelebi (d. 1320) is credited with introducing the liturgy, ritual, special garments, and the overall structure of the increasingly growing order. The main audio-visual feature of the order is a passionate recital of music (sama') and the performance of a dance (raqs). The music, religious in content, conveys love through playing musical instruments (saz), including ney (flute) and daf (drum). The dance consists of a series of choreographed gyrations that imitate the rotation of the heavenly spheres. The performance is orderly and serene. Each dancer wears a seamless felt crown, symbolic of a tombstone, and a black robe, symbolic of the grave. At the beginning of the dance, all the dancers, in black garments, appear on the stage and stand in a line. When the Shaykh assumes his position, they all discard the black robes in anticipation of the dance. The dancer, who is at the head of the line,

moves slowly in the direction of the Shaykh and kisses the hand of the Shaykh. The Shaykh in return kisses the sikkah (costume) of the dancer. The dancer then, with folded arms, moves onto the center of the stage and begins gyrating. The other dancers gradually join him. The garment in which the dance is performed is white and has a floating skirt. The gestures and movements of the dancers symbolize the particular relationship that the dancers create between the Beloved and the world. For instance, when gyrating, the disciple's open right palm is raised to the heavens while his open left palm is turned downward. The raised hand symbolizes receiving blessings from Heaven, the down-turned palm symbolizes transmission of the blessings onto the earth. Similarly, the gyrations, combined with music, indicate the flight of the soul of the dancer to the Beloved. It is reported that as they dance, the dervishes feel that they gradually elevate themselves above the floor of the stage and that the distance between them and God is diminished. This happens in several stages. During the initial rotations the dancers acquire a vision of the realms and bear witness to the unity of God. During the gyrations that follow, they accept the unity of God and make it a part of their philosophy of existence. This acceptance gradually elevates them to the presence of God, where the dance comes to a halt. At this point, the Shaykh takes his seat and the music signals the conclusion of the dance. It is related in the Tariq al-Haqyeq that the Mevlaviyyah is spread widely throughout Anatolia, Syria, Egypt, Arabia, and Iraq, and that in those places it is well known to one and all. Each disciple is required to attend to the business of the khaniqah for one thousand and one days. Deviation on any daywould require the disciple to begin the process from the beginning. After the process is completed, the disciple undergoes a repentance ritual to cleanse his self. It is then that he will be ushered into the fold, robed in the traditional garb of the Mevlavis, and given a room (hujrah) in which to meditate and further perfect his self. The order has two types of audiences. There is a

serious audience that seeks a thorough understanding of the unity of existence (wahdat al-wujud) as it has been expressed by Ibn al- 'Arabi and incorporated into Rumi's verses. This audience seeks the tekkes (dervishes lodge) with the most learned murshids and the best sources of information. The other is a popular audience interested in the spectacle of the dance and the soothing nature of the music. Put differently, there is an urban audience belonging to the higher levels of society and a rural audience that is satisfied with popular beliefs in the manner of the Bektashis. Increasingly, a third audience is being added. This audience consists of the foreign tourists who are attracted to Konya. They, too, divide along the same two lines outlined above. The Mevlavi Order did very well during most of the era of the Ottomans. After 1825, the order lost its influence in high society and was eventually banned by Ata Turk in 1924. In 1952, the government allowed sama' sessions to be held in Konya. This was followed by permission for radio broadcast of Rumi's religious verses. At the present, the music of the dervishes is retained by several Mevlavi lodges in various parts of Turkey. Furthermore, 2007 is the 800th birth anniversary of Maulana Jalal al-Din Rumi. The UNESCO General Conference in association with Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan is presenting a special program of mystic Mevlavi music and dance (Sama'), along with lecturers and exhibitions, in a number of major cities in the United States and Europe.

Chapter II: Mysticism &Love

It doesnt matter that youve broken your vow a thousand times. Still come, and yet again, come ~Rumi

Mysticism and poetry: In certain places and times the current of mystical awareness runs deep and strong, more so than in others. Among the Greeks in the sixth century B.C. and also in India and China during that century. Jesus and the desert fathers. The Hassidic masters in Poland and Russia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the Zen masters in Japan during the same period were also part of an inexplicable flooding. In the Persian empire from the eleventh to the fourteenth century a brilliant flowering of awareness came among the Sufis, and especially the poets. Jelaluddin Rumi (12071273) was one of those conductors of knowing and being. Sufis call Rumi the Qutb, the pole, of love. Gilani (d. 1166) was the pole of power and Ibn Arabi (1165 1249), of knowledge. Through Rumi comes a transmission of the divine to this planet in the regions of love. His poetry is a record of his enduring the experience of living at the core. In each human being there is a meeting with the divine. That intersection is the heart. Sometimes we sense that love is our expertise, despite the obviously murderous bent of these days and hours. Still, we do love in many different ways. Let me count them. There are as many ways of loving as there are people, and that wildflower variety is the great beauty of this dimension of existence. I had a dream once where I saw a blue tinge to everything, and I knew, I felt, how the blueness was love. We couldnt see it with ordinary vision, but for dream-seeing it was there, drenching the planet, which does appear blue, as we know, from space. At poetry readings I have said about Rumis poetry, Folks, this is not country music. It gets a laugh. Rumi says, Fall in love in such a way that it frees you from any connecting. Thats very different from the lonely wail of: She left me, he left me; she came back; she left again. Some of his lines have been put in songs. There is a grief of separation in them, but the words come from a different region than popular lyrics. Im not saying theres not

wisdom in country songs. There is plenty. The love that Rumi and Shams move into, though, includes those dimensions and moves through them to what Sufis call the qalb. I have no synonym for that, and perhaps not much experience of it, though I met one who lives there, Bawa Muhaiyaddeen. I am no great sheikhs of a lover myself. I get mean and jealous, distracted and forgetful. Its Rumis and Bawas station I try to speak of, not mine. At the end of his life Ouspensky told J. G. Bennett in a letter that nothing could be found by intellectual processes, and that there is only one hope: that we should find a way to work with the higher emotional centre. That is the work that Rumis poetry is about. Sufis say the heart is the comprehensive human reality,and that the way of love is a path of annihilation, of the beatitude of as though it had never been. Our original state is nonbeing, nonexistence, and we spend much of our lives trying to break free of matter, free of mind and desire, back into the deep region of being and nonbeing we are at the core. The refreshment of dreamless sleep when we are, but are not conscious, is a taste of it. We are here, then, but with no awareness of being here. The absolute ipseity, suchness, the human reality and not the melodrama, that region of being, is described in the Heart Sutra, the central text of Zen, as having no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, and no consciousness. To get there you must die before you die. Buddhas Heart Sutra draws one along to the understanding that in that dissolving nothing exists by itself. Everything interpenetrates in the ecstatic core where heart-vision begins. A bowl falls from the roof. This is not theoretical. It is the practical and experiential love that annihilates, and the most ineffable of experiences, if there can be degrees of unsayableness. All of Rumis poems may be heard as love poems. They attend the souls flowering from grief, and from every emotion that streams through the guest house of consciousness. The love way is not religious. It is rather the origin and the longing inside religiousness. Footprints disappear at the oceans edge. When we bow to each

other, feet become head in a circle. No one could tell with Rumi and Shams who was teacher and who the student. Lover, beloved, and love became one thing with them. Images of transparency and particles, light upon light, the candle at noon, occur, images of breath merging with sky. We are sleeping and wake inside another sleep; we wake again, and on . . . as veils, the mist of language, the apparent limits, burn off. Each region of love leads to the unfolding. There may seem to be a kind of progress to this book, from spontaneous wandering to the lord of the heart, but it might just as easily be reversed, or put in any number of sequences. The heart with its many regions moves more like interpenetrating spheres, concurrent universes, than a linear path. Areas of energy in the poetry merge with one another as layers of ocean, or as the mysterious workings of soil in a field, or the draining slant of a mountainside. Rumis impulse feels earthward in its transformation, going down instead of up in the way one might aspire to the angelic. There is no down or up in love, but if one had to say whether Rumis poetry goes more with the pure transcenders or more with the grief-gardeners, one would say hes a ground-hugger and not so much a high-flyer, more jamal (feminine, receptive) than jalal (masculine, commanding). But as Rumi himself says hundreds of times, there is little one can say about love. It has to be lived, and its always in motion. Poetry is one of the most useful expressions of a mystic's inner experiences. By nature a mystic is able to access a state of consciousness that is beyond the usual awarenes of human's. At a certain stage mystics and great seekers have said it is impossible to describe the consciousness they have attained. However through poetry it is possible for the mystic poets to give a glimpse of higher worlds, like a finger pointing to the moon there inspiring utterances offer a poetic description of their elevating experiences.

Gateway into the mystery: It has been said, to pursue a purely intellectual understanding of God is like trying to see with your ears. That which is without color or form, unlimited and unfathomable, beyond imagination, without beginning or end, is impossible to conceive with the mind. When it comes to knowing God, the mind is blind and will always be. But there is a way to intuit with the inner self and recognize with the heart. This is the message of the mystic poets, who see the relationship between a seeker and God as the same as between a lover and their Beloved. They emphasize the importance of consistent remembrance, treating all with respect, and a simple faith. Their love of God awakens in the heart a yearning to rise up and touch the ocean of Oneness, to be consumed in the transcendental fire, to die in Love and be reborn anew.

I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. It opens. I have been knocking from the inside!

The heart of mystic poetry: Much of mystic poetry is meant to be read and interpreted as metaphor, not fact. Consider Plato's allegory of the cave and the escapee trying to describe the beauty of sunshine to the prisoners who have known only darkness and shadow. It is necessary for the poet to re-interpret their experience into something relatable. This may seem like stating the obvious, but there are many Professors who insist that Omar Khayyam continued reference to wine in his Rubaiyat is a reference to alcohol: this may not be true. The reference to wine in mystic poetry is a metaphor for the pure love of the divine and the feeling of intoxication it brings. In the poem below, when the poet makes this reference "God is singing within your

heart", this suggests an experience, similar to the emotional responce of hearing a beautiful voice. Perhaps the narrow interpretation of mystic poetry comes from a lack of faith - is it really possible to experience the touch of God, the love of God? Perhaps there is doubt that God can be so personal and real? Or there is an inability to accept that there may be something that exists outside one's realm of study - all must fit into what is already known, otherwise it doesn't exist. One can only guess the source of the difficulty. But the way to read and experience mystic

poetry is with the heart; as if listening to a beautiful piece of music. The notes follow a logic of their own, the beauty comes from letting it flow through your heart unimpeded and feeling the feeling it creates.

The Religion of Love: HEARKEN to the reed-flute, how it complains, Lamenting its banishment from its home: "Ever since they tore me from my osier bed, My plaintive notes have moved men and women to tears. I burst my breast, striving to give vent to sighs, And to express the pangs of my yearning for my home. He who abides far away from his home Is ever longing for the day ho shall return. My wailing is heard in every throng, In concert with them that rejoice and them that weep. Each interprets my notes in harmony with his own feelings, But not one fathoms the secrets of my heart.

My secrets are not alien from my plaintive notes, Yet they are not manifest to the sensual eye and ear. Body is not veiled from soul, neither soul from body, Yet no man hath ever seen a soul." This plaint of the flute is fire, not mere air. Let him who lacks this fire be accounted dead! 'Tis the fire of love that inspires the flute,l 'Tis the ferment of love that possesses the wine. The flute is the confidant of all unhappy lovers; Yea, its strains lay bare my inmost secrets. Who hath seen a poison and an antidote like the flute? Who hath seen a sympathetic consoler like the flute? The flute tells the tale of love's bloodstained path, It recounts the story of Majnun's love toils. None is privy to these feelings save one distracted, As ear inclines to the whispers of the tongue. Through grief my days are as labor and sorrow, My days move on, hand in hand with anguish. Yet,, though my days vanish thus, 'tis no matter, Do thou abide, O Incomparable Pure One! But all who are not fishes are soon tired of water; And they who lack daily bread find the day very long;

So the "Raw" comprehend not the state of the "Ripe;" Therefore it behoves me to shorten my discourse. Arise, O son! burst thy bonds and be free! How long wilt thou be captive to silver and gold? Though thou pour the ocean into thy pitcher, It can hold no more than one day's store. The pitcher of the desire of the covetous never fills, The oyster-shell fills not with pearls till it is content; Only he whose garment is rent by the violence of love Is wholly pure from covetousness and sin. Hail to thee, then, O LOVE, sweet madness! Thou who healest all our infirmities! Who art the physician of our pride and self-conceit! Who art our Plato and our Galen! Love exalts our earthly bodies to heaven, And makes the very hills to dance with joy! O Iover, 'twas love that gave life to Mount Sinai, When "it quaked, and Moses fell down in a swoon." Did my Beloved only touch me with his lips, I too, like the flute, would burst out in melody. But he who is parted from them that speak his tongue, Though he possess a hundred voices, is perforce dumb. When the rose has faded and the garden is withered,

The song of the nightingale is no longer to be heard. The BELOVED is all in all, the lover only veils Him; The BELOVED is all that lives, the lover a dead thing. When the lover feels no longer LOVE's quickening, He becomes like a bird who has lost its wings. Alas! How can I retain my senses about me, When the BELOVED shows not the light of His countenance? LOVE desires that this secret should be revealed, For if a mirror reflects not, of what use is it? Knowest thou why thy mirror reflects not? Because the rust has not been scoured from its face. If it were purified from all rust and defilement, It would reflect the shining of the SUN Of GOD. O friends, ye have now heard this tale, Which sets forth the very essence of my case.

Mathnavi, Rumis master piece, begins by telling the story of a flute. At some level, this flute is a symbol of human beings soul, and its sad melody echoes a hidden sadness at the heart of every human beings soul who is separated from the source. For Rumi, the tragedy of humans existence in this world is separation. We were once united with the Unseen Ocean of Divine. But now the tiny drop of my existence is fallen in the desert of this illusionary world, apart from the Ocean. For Rumi, the authentic life is the one which is united with the Divine. Therefore, my life, as long as it is separated from the source, is not authentic. That is why the flutes melody is passionately sad. It is sad, because of the pain of nostalgia, being apart from the home. And it

is passionate, because of the desperate longing for returning to the home, and rejoining the Beloved. Therefore, for Rumi, at the heart of humans soul there is a persistent sense of uneasiness: my soul never feels comfortable in this world, it always feels something is missing, it always experiences a sense of separation anxiety. Therefore, the flutes moaning is a sad song that your soul sings when she remembers the home, the good old times. For Rumi, an unauthentic life, i.e., a life of separation is dominated by two strong feelings: anxiety, and boredom. The reason is simple: When the drop of my existence is not a part of the Ocean anymore, its existence can easily be wiped out. An isolated drop can be easily evaporated by the heat of the sun, or be dried out by a wind. A separated life is at the edge of annihilation. And the constant threat of annihilation is the main source of humans anxiety. On the other hand, the situation of humans soul at the stage of separation, according to Rumi, is similar to a princess who used to live in an extremely large palace, but now she is condemned to live in a very dark small prison with no windows on the walls. When she lived in the palace, there was always something new to explore: the vastness of the sky, the colorful scene of the sunset, the endless horizon of the ocean. There was no room for boredom. But now she is restricted to close walls with no perspective. Nothing new and refreshing comes to the view. She is bored to the bones. When the drop was united with the Ocean, it was limitless, but now as a separated drop, it is trapped into its limited individuality. Here, the source of boredom is the finite, being restricted to inescapable limits. Therefore, for Rumi, there is only one way to truly overcome the pain of anxiety and boredom in our lives: to attain the authentic life, to find the way back to the home, to be reunited with the Ocean. This journey brings to our souls permanent peace and true happiness. But what is the path to the Ocean? How can humans soul find her way back to the source? Rumi believes that this question cannot be answered unless we know what the main

obstacle on our way back to the Ocean is. So what is the barrier that prevents us from rejoining the Ocean, and overcoming the stage of separation? Rumis answer is simple and straightforward: the obstacle is you, your own self. Rumi tells us the story of a lover who went to his beloved, and knocked the door. The beloved from behind the door asked: Who is that at the door? The lover answered: I. The beloved disappointedly said: Go away! It is not the proper time! Here is not place for such a raw fellow!, and she did not open the door. After several years reflection, the lover returned and fearfully knocked the door again. The beloved asked: Who is that at the door? This time the lover responded: You! The one on this side of the door is also you! And it was then that the beloved opened the door, and said: Now it is the time! There is no room in the house for two Is. Now since you have been transformed to me, and nothing left of that I, you may come in. Rumis message is clear: if you want to rejoin the beloved, you should abandon your self. This self, for Rumi, is the situation of

humans existence when s/he has become separated from the Divine, and it has two major characteristics: First, from moral point of view, this self is the source of selfishness and egoism. The person whose existence evolves around him wants everything for his own benefit, and cares less for the others. But secondly and more importantly, this self defines itself in contrast to others. Therefore, the essence of self is boundary; some limits that distinguish it from other beings. Boundary and limit create distance and separation. They descend self from the state of union to the state of separation. That is why Rumi calls self the mother of all vices, and considers it as the main source of anxiety and boredom. Then how can one cure the sickness of this selfish limiting self? How can one escape from the prison of this restricting selfishness? How can our souls flourish like a flower, or transform like a butterfly? Or more accurately, how can one alternate the individual selfs boundaries and

contours? It is worth noting that alternations in individual selfs boundaries and contours are a goal of religious quest in general: For example, in Indian Vedanta the goal of religious quest is to expand the self to include all of being, and in Buddhism, it is to eliminate the self, and in theism merging with the divine. For Rumi, the one and only way of this alternation or transformation is the path of love. Rumi calls love the Physician for all our sicknesses, and more importantly, he considers love as the remedy for pride and conceit, which are, in his view, the main sources of all other humans vices. He strongly encourages us to fall in love:

A lifetime without Love is of no account. Love is the Water of Life- drink it down with heart and soul!

Know that all but the lovers are fish without water, dead and desiccated, though

they be viziers

The worst of all deaths is to be without Love. Why does the oyster tremble? For

its own pearl.

If Loves pulse does not beat within a man, let him be Plato, he is but an ass.

But why is love the Physician of all our sicknesses? For Rumi the magic of love lies in its ability to alternate the individual selfs boundaries and contours. The essence of love for Rumi is sacrifice. A true lover is the one who is eager to make great sacrifice for the sake of her/his beloved. As soon as you experience love, your way of being transforms drastically. Before love, you knowingly or unknowingly consider yourself as the measure of everything, the center

of the universe. However, as soon as you fall in love, the configuration of your self will be changed. To form a love-bond requires you to become open toward the other, and if necessary, to sacrifice your own well-being for the sake of the beloved. And this openness alternates the boundaries of your self. The center of your existence moves from I to beloved. Rumi sometimes calls this transformation, death prior to death or death in the light. Through love, one finds the opportunity to detach oneself from ones own self, and attach it to the beloved. Most Muslim mystics, including Rumi, portrayed the human love as a bridge toward divine love. To experience a true romantic love, for them, prepares human soul to fly higher, and find the capacity to love God directly. However, Rumi sometimes employs a different metaphor that represents his different understanding of the relation between human and divine love. Rumi claims that to perceive the soul of the universe, that is God, one needs two mirrors: one is your own heart, and the other one is your beloveds heart. The lover places his own mirror in front of the beloveds mirror. As soon as loves bond forms, these two mirrors reflect each other endlessly. The infinite reveals himself in the space between the two mirrors. The difference between the mirror- metaphor and the bridge- metaphor is important: when you cross the bridge, and reach the other side, you do not need the bridge any more. However, the perception of the infinite is entirely dependent on the presence of both mirrors. In other words, in bridge metaphor, human love has only instrumental value, when you reach God, your earthly beloved does not matter anymore, but in mirror-analogy, human love has intrinsic value, and you can perceive the holy only through your beloved. God reveals Himself in the space between two human beings. As many Muslim Sufis claimed: The path toward God passes through the care for fellow human beings. Therefore, love is not only the great teacher of altruism, but also it shakes the boundaries of self, and creates a unique opportunity to perceive the holy through

your beloved. That is why Rumi invites us to go beyond the limits of this or that religion, and devote ourselves to what he calls the religion of love. The religion of love for Rumi is not the negation of this or that religion, but it is the higher level of spirituality. This idea is deeply rooted in Rumis personal experience of love. Before he met Shams, Rumi was to a large extent, a man of traditional religion. For a man of religion, religion is the center of the world of spirituality. Salvation cannot be attained but through a particular religion. But after meeting Shams, Rumi became a man of God. For a man of God, there is no fundamental difference between this or that particular religion, as long as they lead you to God. Rumis personal experience of love was a turning point in his theology, a kind of Copernican Revolution. For a man of God, it is God and not any particular religion that is the center of the spiritual world. The goal is to encounter God beyond any veil, including the veil of religion. That is why Rumi considered himself as a follower of the religion of love:

My religion is to live through love- life through this spirit and body is my shame And he claims that the religion of love is different and beyond all other religions, it is all about God and nothing else: Loves creed is separate from all religions: The creed and denomination of lovers is God. Finally, for Rumi, same as Plato, love is a response to beauty. The lover must be sensitive to all kinds of beauty in the world. Rumi says in his religion if you want to know God, do not look at this or that book, look at the beauty of the beloved: The lovers teacher is the Beloveds beauty: Their book and lesson are His face.

The beauty that inspires love, the openness that comes with love, and also the perspective of reunion with the beloved are elements in Rumis religion of love that relieve the burden of separation, and help human soul to overcome the persistent sense of anxiety and boredom. Rumis response to the tragedy of humans predicament in this world is nothing but the same universal message of love: to love and to be loved. As one becomes a lover, duties change to inspirations. Practices become dance, poetry, creek music moving along. Impossible natural images of transformation appear: candle becomes moth; a dry, broken stick breaks into bud. A chickpea becomes its cook (not so impossible, the natural tasting!). Something enters that spontaneously enjoys itself. Finding a purpose for acting is no longer the problem. The soul is here for its own joy. Eyes are meant to see things. Its by some grand shift of energy that we know love. We have this great love-ache for the ocean and the seabirds sewing the hem of her robe. That is the subject here. We long for beauty, even as we swim within it. Abdul Qadir Gilani describes this region of the heart as a baby. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen also speaks of it this way. Someone asked Bawa once what it felt like to be him. He answered by closing his eyes and making little kissing noises like a baby nursing. In this new life a baby is born in the heart. Purity comes and a playfulness, an ease, a peace. Gilani says this new heart-baby sometimes talks to the soul in dreams. Bawa says that this baby knows the language of God. It understands every voice that floats on the wind because it is in unity and compassion. This baby has none of the exclusivity of loving, the limits we learn and later, hopefully, unlearn from our families (the blood ties), our culture, religion, tribe, and nation. Bawa says humanity is Gods funny family. Thats how the baby sees.

The secret of this mystic love: Rumi makes preposterous claims. One of the most startling is, Our loving is the way Gods secret gets told! Love is an open secret, the most obvious thing in the world and the most hidden, with no why to how it keeps its mystery. Sufis say the genesis of lovers meeting is Gods sweetest secret. A saying of Muhammad is, Human awareness is my secret and I am its secret. The inner knowledge of spirit-essence is the secret within the secret. I have placed this knowing within the heart of my true servant, and no one can know his state but I. The knowing of essence is loves secret. There is a truth that comes with following the energies, and there is a love, a truth-knowing essence, in the innermost heart. Rumi tries to lead us into this region that never fades and has no limits, that comes when we recognize that everyone is as precious as our own children and grandchildren. Bawa was clear with me that I needed to move beyond blood ties. Having children opened my heart, but he saw that I need to include everyone in my family. He so beautifully saw every human being he came in contact with as kin. My love you, my children, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, great-grandchildren. Every discourse began and ended with a declaration of the family connection. Some may dismiss this as one-world, peacenik sentimentality. Im not advocating we disband the armies yet, or even the churches, though thats tempting to say. Its good to have sanctuaries and singing and silence and Wednesday night prayer. We need more sacred space outdoors, though, fewer enclosed places, and please lets quit killing each other over books! Lets move on to killing each other over bluegrass and salad oil and circumcision and predestination and foreplay and whose uncle is the right line, where the prepositions go, and what happens after we die. Those are worth fighting for. The book thing is just getting really old.

Bawa Muhaiyaddeen says, Do not ever fight or argue, because for God there are no fights and no arguments. For that One everything is love; everything is in the form of love, compassion, and truth. May God provide you with the blessings and grace to live in that state.