YOU ASK ME- RUMI

I WAS DEAD

I was dead
I came alive
I was tears
I became laughter

all because of love
when it arrived
my temporal life
from then on
changed to eternal

love said to me
you are not
crazy enough
you don't
fit this house

I went and
became crazy
crazy enough
to be in chains

love said
you are not
intoxicated enough
you don't
fit the group

I went and
got drunk
drunk enough
to overflow
with light-headedness

love said
you are still
too clever
filled with
imagination and skepticism

I went and
became gullible
and in fright
pulled away
from it all

love said
you are a candle
attracting everyone
gathering every one
around you

I am no more
a candle spreading light
I gather no more crowds
and like smoke
I am all scattered now

love said
you are a teacher
you are a head
and for everyone
you are a leader

I am no more
not a teacher
not a leader
just a servant
to your wishes

love said
you already have
your own wings
I will not give you
more feathers

and then my heart
pulled itself apart
and filled to the brim
with a new light
overflowed with fresh life

now even the heavens
are thankful that
because of love
I have become
the giver of light

-Rumi

The present moment...

The past is an interpretation. The futue is an illusion. The world does not move through time as if it were a straight line, proceeding from the past to the future. Instead time moves through and within us, in endless spirals. Eternity does not mean infinite time, but simply timelessness.
If you want to experience eternal illumination, put the past and the future out of your mind and remain within the present moment. The present moment is all there is and all there ever will be. When you grasp this truth, you´ll have nothing to fear anymore.
                                                                                                                                - Shams of Tabriz

Whirling Dervishes

I have been in Konya...

I have been to Konya in Turkey where the Mowlana museum is placed, which  also is the mausoleum of Rumi. Here are some pictures from the museum, Mevlâna Cultural Center and the tomb of Shams Tabrizi.

"Ya hazrate Molana"

The entrance

Masnavi in original (one of the books in the series).

Masnavi is a spiritual writing that teaches Sufis how

 to reach their goal of being in true love with God.

The Mevlâna Cultural Center, this is the world's

grandest and most modern whirling dervish hall.

"Either seem as you are or be as you seem"

in several languages.

"Mosque and tomb of Sheikh Shams Tabrizi"

The entrance

Who was Jalal al-Din Rumi?

Born in 1207 in Khurasan (formerly Persia and contemporary Afghanistan), Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi was the son of an Islamic scholar. At the age of 12 he and his family made a pilgrimage to Mecca and then settled in the town of Konya in 1228. Initiated into Sufism, Rumi studied in Aleppo and Damascus, returned to Konya in 1240, and began teaching as a Sufi sheikh. Within a few years a group of disciples gathered around him, due to his eloquence, theological knowledge and engaging personality.

In 1244 a strange event occurred that was to profoundly change Rumi’s life and give rise to the extraordinary outpouring of poetry for which he is famous today. A wandering mystic known as Shams al-Din of Tabriz came to Konya and began to exert a powerful influence on Rumi. Despite his position as a teacher, Rumi became devoted to Shams al-Din, ignored his own disciples and departed from scholarly studies. Jealous of his influence on their master, a group of Rumi’s students twice drove the dervish away and finally murdered him in 1247.

Overwhelmed by the loss of Shams al-Din, Rumi withdrew from the world to mourn and meditate. During this time he began to manifest an ecstatic love of god that was expressed through beautiful poetry, listening to devotional music and trance dancing. Over the next twenty-five years, Rumi’s literary output was phenomenal. In addition to the Masnavi, consisting of nearly 25,000 rhyming couplets, he composed 2500 mystical odes and 1600 quatrains. Virtually all of the Masnavi was dictated to his disciple Husam al-Din in the fifteen years before Rumi’s death. Rumi would recite the verses whenever and wherever they came to him – meditating, dancing, singing, walking, eating, by day or night - and Husam al-Din would record them.

Rumi is also known for the Sufi brotherhood he established with its distinctive whirling and circling dance, known as Sema and practiced by the Dervishes. The Sema ceremony represents the mystical journey of an individual towards union with the divine. Dressed in long white gowns, the dervishes dance for hours at a time. With arms held high, the right hand lifted upward to receive blessings and energy from heaven, the left hand turned downward to bestow these blessing on the earth, and the body spinning from right to left, the dervishes revolve around the heart and embraces all of creation with love.

Rumi passed away on the evening of December 17, 1273, a time traditionally known as his ‘wedding night,’ for he was now completely united with God.

You ask me- Rumi