Caveat Emptor – any commerce student worth his (or, her) salt should be able to tell you the meaning of this: ‘Buyer Beware’. Roughly put, this means that in any commercial transaction, the onus is on the buyer to perform due diligence to ensure safety and success, without falling prey to any misleading enticements. It is the buyer’s responsibility to buy a product after ensuring that it really is what it promises to be. And, I have this advice to give all you who are planning to buy the book ‘The Essential Rumi’ – Caveat Emptor!
No. I am not warning you against the quality of the book or the paper, quality of the print or even the quality of the translator. I am not warning you against the online shipping website that sold me this book either. I am warning you against buying this book influenced merely by the popular perception about Rumi.
Yes. I grew up reading a few snippets and couplets from Rumi’s elaborate works every now and then. And, those lines that I had read, fed me with the opinion that Rumi was a young, enamored poet who was always craving for his ‘beloved’. I thought that to be merely an earthly love that he transcended to the state of divine ecstasy, a literary form of ‘Hieros-Gamos’ – from sex to super-consciousness, to borrow the words of Osho. When I picked the book, I was looking forward to delve deep into page after page of love-soaked poems. But, I was disappointed. Disappointed in an ecstatic manner!
The Rumi whose works fill this volume is not the ordinary human lover that I – or, for that matter, most of us – grew up admiring. Here you meet a Rumi that he really was, a mystic, ascetic to the core, Sufi ‘mevlana’ (master) who inspired scores of minds across centuries, and a man whose love was not for an earthly beloved, but for that one ‘Beloved’ whose love brought this whole Universe into existence. Read them in light of ‘dhikr/zikr’ traditions of Sufism and you will see an entire world unravel before your eyes through these pages.
There is nothing on these pages that you haven’t already thought about. Or, to put it in another, correct way, there is nothing you can think afresh which has not been conveyed by Rumi. Of course, he has also been inspired by the masters that went before him, but whatever little spiritual experiences that you have gone through, whatever little lessons that you have learnt, whatever spiritual ideas you have formed in the depth of your soul, whatever contemplations you have had about ‘God’, whatever poems that you could write, Rumi spells it out all. Page after page, you are sure to gasp, muttering under your breath ‘this was the same thing I thought/this was the same way I felt’. For anyone with a spiritual seeking, this book will be a worthy treasure.
True to the tradition of Sufism, an all-inclusive, non-rigid version of Islam, Rumi gleefully indulges in writing freely – he extols Jesus and the Prophet equally, he freely uses the images of camels from the Middle-East and elephants from Hindustan in same manner, he speaks about Buddha and Plato with same vigor, and he also speaks about sex and pooping in equal breath while drawing a parallel to spiritual quest with such banal acts. This is a Rumi that you could have not even imagined before picking up the book.
One cannot forget to appreciate Coleman Barks for the stupendous job he has done in translating the works of Rumi. It is said that Rumi is the ‘most read poet in America’ and the reason behind that is Coleman Barks and you will accept that to be true if you read this book. If, instead of Persian, Rumi had written his poems in English, this would have been the way in which he would have written. Such an amazing clarify in translating Rumi’s works!
All said and done, if you are a seeker, whose senses and seeking are not muddied by the curse of being in an organized religion, you are sure to find a whole lot of gems in this book. There is a Great Love flowing through his words that is certain to infect you as well. His yearning, his craving for the union with his ‘Beloved’, is something that you will also be afflicted with. And, true to being a flood, some of those lines are sure to go over your head too – as they did with mine. Overall, a book worth cherishing forever!
Ashok Krishna
No. I am not warning you against the quality of the book or the paper, quality of the print or even the quality of the translator. I am not warning you against the online shipping website that sold me this book either. I am warning you against buying this book influenced merely by the popular perception about Rumi.
Yes. I grew up reading a few snippets and couplets from Rumi’s elaborate works every now and then. And, those lines that I had read, fed me with the opinion that Rumi was a young, enamored poet who was always craving for his ‘beloved’. I thought that to be merely an earthly love that he transcended to the state of divine ecstasy, a literary form of ‘Hieros-Gamos’ – from sex to super-consciousness, to borrow the words of Osho. When I picked the book, I was looking forward to delve deep into page after page of love-soaked poems. But, I was disappointed. Disappointed in an ecstatic manner!
The Rumi whose works fill this volume is not the ordinary human lover that I – or, for that matter, most of us – grew up admiring. Here you meet a Rumi that he really was, a mystic, ascetic to the core, Sufi ‘mevlana’ (master) who inspired scores of minds across centuries, and a man whose love was not for an earthly beloved, but for that one ‘Beloved’ whose love brought this whole Universe into existence. Read them in light of ‘dhikr/zikr’ traditions of Sufism and you will see an entire world unravel before your eyes through these pages. There is nothing on these pages that you haven’t already thought about. Or, to put it in another, correct way, there is nothing you can think afresh which has not been conveyed by Rumi. Of course, he has also been inspired by the masters that went before him, but whatever little spiritual experiences that you have gone through, whatever little lessons that you have learnt, whatever spiritual ideas you have formed in the depth of your soul, whatever contemplations you have had about ‘God’, whatever poems that you could write, Rumi spells it out all. Page after page, you are sure to gasp, muttering under your breath ‘this was the same thing I thought/this was the same way I felt’. For anyone with a spiritual seeking, this book will be a worthy treasure.
True to the tradition of Sufism, an all-inclusive, non-rigid version of Islam, Rumi gleefully indulges in writing freely – he extols Jesus and the Prophet equally, he freely uses the images of camels from the Middle-East and elephants from Hindustan in same manner, he speaks about Buddha and Plato with same vigor, and he also speaks about sex and pooping in equal breath while drawing a parallel to spiritual quest with such banal acts. This is a Rumi that you could have not even imagined before picking up the book.
One cannot forget to appreciate Coleman Barks for the stupendous job he has done in translating the works of Rumi. It is said that Rumi is the ‘most read poet in America’ and the reason behind that is Coleman Barks and you will accept that to be true if you read this book. If, instead of Persian, Rumi had written his poems in English, this would have been the way in which he would have written. Such an amazing clarify in translating Rumi’s works!
All said and done, if you are a seeker, whose senses and seeking are not muddied by the curse of being in an organized religion, you are sure to find a whole lot of gems in this book. There is a Great Love flowing through his words that is certain to infect you as well. His yearning, his craving for the union with his ‘Beloved’, is something that you will also be afflicted with. And, true to being a flood, some of those lines are sure to go over your head too – as they did with mine. Overall, a book worth cherishing forever!
Ashok Krishna
