Rumi

Rumi was born in 1207 in Afganistan and until the age of thirty-seven was a brilliant scholar and popular teacher. But his life changed forever when he met Shams of Tabriz, of whom Rumi said, "What I had thought of before as God, I met today in a human being." From this mysterious and esoteric friendship came a new height of spiritual enlightment.

When Shams disappeared, Rumi began his transformation from scholar to artist, and his poetry began to fly. After a very prolific life as a poet and Sufi mystic, Rumi died in Konya, Turkey where he had lived most of his life.

in the sufi tradition, the idea is to be so in love with the divine that one loses oneself...and is nothing but pure love....

sufi's were known for their rough woollen coat, the "saf" ...and lived in voluntary poverty, looking like a happy drunk, in love with everything and forever seeking to feel god rather than think about him

in 1200 AD in afghanistan...this was the peak of the flowering of the sufi tradition...amid the beauty of the green valleys, the flowing rivers, the majestic mountain peaks came the realization to men, that this beauty was divine and the divine was beautiful.

the currents from different directions came and mixed among each other, and a cry for peace, for brotherhood and for love went out from the poets. The love of allah from arabia met the concept of the absolute brahman in india and mixed with the beauty of the persian love traditions. So was created sufi poetry.

and there has never been or will ever be a sufi like jalaluddin rumi. The mystical poems of Rumi with their simple lines which sometimes smile, sometimes brood, sometimes sing and sometimes slyly mock.

Who looks out with my eyes?
What is the soul?
I cannot stop asking.
If I could taste one sip of an answer,
I could break out of this prison for drunks.
I didn't come here of my own accord,
and I can't leave that way.
Whoever brought me here will have
to take me home.

Rumi
Open Secret


Looking For Your Face

From the beginning of my life
I have been looking for your face
but today I have seen it.

Today I have seen
the charm, the beauty,
the unfathomable grace
of the face
that I was looking for.

Today I have found you
and those that laughed
and scorned me yesterday
are sorry that they were not looking
as I did.

I am bewildered by the magnificence
of your beauty
and wish to see you with a hundred eyes.

My heart has burned with passion
and has searched forever
for this wondrous beauty
that I now behold.

I am ashamed
to call this love human
and afraid of God
to call it divine.

Your fragrant breath
like the morning breeze
has come to the stillness of the garden
You have breathed new life into me
I have become your sunshine
and also your shadow.

My soul is screaming in ecstasy
Every fiber of my being
is in love with you

Your effulgence
has lit a fire in my heart
and you have made radiant
for me
the earth and sky.

My arrow of love
has arrived at the target
I am in the house of mercy
and my heart
is a place of prayer.