“Niki lagat mohe apne pia ki,Aankh rasili laaj bhari re…” Farid Ayaz Saab used to recite this kalam with “aankh rasili, aur jadu bhari re.” I had corrected him once over a WhatsApp call, and at the age of 73, he was a curious learner, had accepted it in absolute humility.Incidentally, today is the 100th… continue reading
We travelled by an auto rickshaw in the streets of Old Delhi, people from air conditioned SUVs rolled down their window to wish him with the humblest of salaams, he responded to them with his folded hands. Some strangers from the pavement recognized him at Connaught place and requested him to pray for them. He… continue reading
‘Blessing is excess, so to speak, an excess of everything. Don’t be content with being a faqih (religious scholar), say I want more – more than being a Sufi (a mystic), more than being a mystic – more than each thing that comes before you. Nasruddin loved this quote by his fellow guest from the… continue reading
Every morning she went out to ‘meet’ the Mevlana. Read Coleman Barks’ translation of Mevlana’s works and Brad Gooch’s account of Rumi’s life for hours while sitting on the floor. I did the same for almost six hours the previous day there, so I could feel the way she had felt.
“In tolerance, be like the sea”—a message of wholehearted acceptance that’s very much the need of the hour. Inscribed somewhere in Konya, on a wall. Believed to be a quote of Mevlana Rumi.
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doingthere is a field. I’ll meet you there.(Barks, the Essential Rumi, 36) The cop stopped his car near a coffee shop in Meram, in the outskirts of Konya. Nasruddin came out to face the young cop who had just been commissioned a year back. He showed his passport with… continue reading
There was something uncanny about the city, the airport terminal was half-empty. His hotel was within a few kms of the airport terminal. He was supposed to deliver a lecture in an Istanbul Auditorium near the iconic Topkapi palace on ‘one’s first obligation to consult the truth in their own hearts during the trying times’…. continue reading
Basant means a lot to me. The flowers, the music at Nizamuddin Aulia Dargah in Delhi. I can smell the flowers from my Bangalore living room, can hear the strains of Qawwali. Hundreds of years ago, Amir Khusrau had started this tradition dressed in yellow saree dancing in front of his beloved Master Khwaja Nizamuddin… continue reading
He woke up in a dingy room of a Delhi 6 guest house, he doesn’t keep his door closed. The neighborhood tea-seller’s ten year old son walked in with a newly learnt Bandish in Raaga Desh. He kept the tempo by drumming a rickety, old bedside table. The boy said, ‘my reward?’ after finishing his… continue reading
Munshi Raziuddin had once come across an old man who spoke only Gujarati, in Madinah during one of his visits. Reportedly the old man had approached him with ‘Baba, please pray on my behalf, I heard somewhere that the Prophet Mohammed and the Almighty only understands Arabic. But I speak only Gujarati, please help.’ Seeing… continue reading
