New Member Introduction/shams-i-tabriz

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--- madathilnair <madathilnair wrote:

> You won't believe - often when I have a

> difficult

> official communication to draft, I just pause and

> chant the

> verse "avidyAnAm antastimiradwiipanagari......" from

> Saundarya Lahari

> three times. That does the job.

 

Namaste again Madathil,

 

I do believe.

> However, I am

> at a loss with the term "Shamsi Tabriz". While

> Shamisi can mean "My

> Sun", what does Tabriz stand for?

 

Tabriz is a town in Iran and the name means 'The Sun

from Tabriz'. The Sun here being Savitri.

>

> I would hesitate to put Rumi's thoughts in league

> with those of

> either Ramanuja or Sankara, where the intellect has

> a greater sway.

 

I would tread carefully on this one. There is an

excellent study called 'Vedanta and Sufism' which

centres upon both Rumi and Shankara written by DR. R

Guven, a Turkish professor. It is his doctoral thesis

written while he was at Banaras Hindu University. I

found a copy ( or rather it found me as it was just

what I needed to read at the time)when I was in Turkey

a few years ago.

Just before handing the body over to the 'slash and

hack' brigade I returned to Varanasi because it was

there that the gods had provided formative moments in

this life some 35 years before. There was also the

need to visit a professor at the BHU. Although this

meeting was the main aim there was also a satisfying

completion of one of the cycles of life.

In the Sanskrit and Religious Studies departments I

met up with professors who had known Dr Guven and he

is held in high regard. I mention all this to confirm

the respect I and others have for this book. The main

drawback is that the English is not good and I would

like to edit it some time and re-publish it.

> I would rather relate them to our present generation

> "neos", those

> who are drunk with the joy of awareness, on whose

> fenceless landscape

> advaitic thoughts bloom in multitudes like spring

> tulips. Perhaps,

> the Sufi's lived much ahead of their times.

 

When 'me' was young and bounding around enjoying the

colours of the garden of the world's cultures there

was a big impulse from India, started by Vivekananda

et al. some years before to get the West meditating

again. Now interest in Vedanta has waned in the UK and

with the 'New Age' theories have come 'mix and match'

tendencies. To counteract error in this process I

believe new impulses are afoot.

To maintain the purity of the advaitin tradition,

which is for the few to hold in trust as it were, we

need such sites as this which is why I worry when I

bring in Sufi teachings and trust other members will

discern and correct any errors.

With respect to the other members of this site, I hope

that to say just a little more on this topic will not

be seen as an unnecessary diversion from our advaitin

study. Justification for branching into 'other'

traditions is that I only do so in response to some

reference in a posting.

Generally in the UK, advaita has attracted those who

are happier in the 'right hemispere' of the brain with

its logical processes. This emphasis colours the study

of Shankara's advaita and by some the Stotras are

ignored.

This scenario is just a small playlet in the bigger

action. Into this bigger action has come a new impulse

in recent years. The Sufis, once very much hidden

orders or brotherhoods, have begun to emerge just as

did Vivekananda et al more than a century ago. I am

sure that in the flow of spiritual endeavour in

humanity that there are subtle impulses going on here.

Certainly we need this site to concentrate upon

advaita as it has a huge role to play in maintaining

the purity of the tradition, similarly if we find the

seed flowering in our own lives we must nurture that

and harvest that crop. However what is going on on the

larger stage requires a steady eye and open heart.

>From the initial surge of interest in Rumi now Ibn al

Arabi is becoming ever more popular. For those who

see Rumi as too devotional....an error I would

suggest....Ibn al Arabi is the antidote.

There is a strong imbalance of rajas in the world at

the moment, if this is to lead to a rise in sattva

then we need the insights of mystical Islam to shine

in the relevant arenas. Like a flower forcing its way

through a concrete wall needs to be nurtured by the

passing human, so too the emerging seeds of truth in

ouselves.

 

Finally to return to your question about Shamz i

Tabriz. When he, a ragged wanderer, first met Rumi in

Konya where Rumi had acquired a great following as a

Master Teacher of Islam, there was a special moment.

Stories vary on this meeting but the import is the

same: Rumi was tied to the structures or forms of the

tradition he had inherited and one day this ragged

man, Shamz i Tabriz challenged him, 'Why has Mohammad

said with regard to Allah that 'We do not know Thee as

we should and why has Bayzid-i Bistami said," I am

pure and how great is my personality?"'

Now to understand what happens next we should

appreciate the four levels of speech especially the

pashyanti level. Rumi hears the inner meaning of those

words and he collapses, stunned. Afterwards he ceased

teaching 'dry words'. Shams became his Pir, Guru,in an

enduring love relationship.

Rumi and Shams shut themselves away for many months

together in Rumi's house. Rumi's wife, naturally, was

bothered by this stange behaviour, and peered through

a crack in the door and was amazed to see her husband

and Shams greeting some men in strange clothes who

'appeared' through the wall. These men gave Rumi

flowers which the next day he gave to his wife. Not

recognising the type of flower she took them to the

market and found that they could only come from

Hindustan.

I mention this story for you because Shamz's father

was Khawand 'Ala'u'ddin. Khawand is the Persianised

form of Govinda and it is probable that he had

migrated from India. That is why I see that flower

story as being important. Could it be that the

'Mantrapushpam' came by this route to enlighten Rumi?

May such a flow as this continue today,

 

 

Om sri ram jai jai ram

 

ken Knight

>

 

 

 

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