Book Review – The Essential Rumi, Coleman Barks

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

Faces

Why is it that, of all the thousands of faces that we meet during the day, only some faces cause a flash inside our mind? Why is it that some faces end up reminding some special ones from our long-gone past? Why is it that some faces share the same eagerness, the same yearning and the same happiness to steal a glance or two at us, while we end up doing the same? Why is that only some faces exude a subtle sense of happiness every time our eyes cross? Why is it that some faces end up stoking an abundance of platonic affection and a deep sense of veneration within us? Why is it that we feel an intense pull towards some faces even when it is the first - and most probably the only - time that we happen to see them? 

And, finally, why is it that some faces, as they leave, cause a deep pain, at the uncertainty of getting to meet again in this lifetime?!

Let's Pull Down The Pedestals!

I am thinking. What will be the world like, if we all pull Jesus, Krishna and Gautama Buddha down from their divine pedestals and 'de-deify' them - a world where they will not be treated as gods or god-incarnates, but just as men of exemplary qualities and supreme wisdom who lived once upon a time and whose divinity is nothing more than the mist of Time that puts them at a distance from us? 

What will be the world like when we all stop worshiping them and start - or, at least try - emulating them? Just imagine - a sea of humanity that is filled with all god-like beings, everyone in love with everyone else, everyone respecting everybody else, everyone in peace with him/herself and the whole of Existence around, everyone awake and everyone aware! 

Imagine, billions of gods (and goddesses) walking upon this planet! What stops us from aspiring to be like those supreme beings instead of merely putting their highest wisdom into narrow compartments of religion, and quarreling in their name?!

The Buddha In Traffic

Often, while I get stuck in the traffic, amidst the loud-honking, rule-breaking, free-spitting, live-cigarette-throwing morons, I ask myself this question to lessen my annoyance - What would the Buddha do when he gets stuck like this?

I used to tell myself that even the Buddha would lose his composure and feel the rage. But reading through the Dhammapada has cleared that 'doubt' of mine. He wouldn't have bothered. That's because there is a world of difference between us. His world was of the inner realm, whereas I am still mired in the external appearances. He is all peace and bliss, whereas I am all mundane and materialistic. His peace emanates from his very being, just the same way the Sun is his own source of energy. My peace is derived from my external possessions. He is a Paradise himself, whereas I am, stuck in this cage of decaying flesh, trying to form my own versions of 'peace' and 'happiness'.

 To sum it all up and to answer myself, He would have walked. Uncaring for all the mundane aspirations and senseless haste that we have weaved our lives with, the Buddha would have walked. For, he is already Home, whereas I am not even on the path yet!

Whenever there is an opportunity to bash the cops - of course, only verbally - and their moral fabric, all of us pounce on it and make the most of it, because they are one of the favorite punching bags, alongside politicians, for an increasingly corrupt society to pin all its unjustified sense of indignation on and to feel a sense of sanctimony. While the politicians may have sailed past the stages of salvation, the cops once in a while prove that they are as human - and humane - as the next human being. Today I got the chance to see one such an instance.

I just took the late night's bus service to reach the railway station. With me some cops also boarded the bus. Almost all of them were female cops, with one or two male ones among them. And, it was obvious that all of them have only recently joined the service - young, tired but enthusiastic, as the demands of their jobs haven't taken a toll on them yet.

They all took their seats here and there and settled into the gossip of the day's evening. A couple of stops later, a group of women boarded the bus. Some of them old, two of them mothers carrying their toddlers in their arms. The lady cop who was just sitting next to them was a very young girl. She was visibly exhausted from all the day's work at the grueling heat of Chennai. With a  small, fresh wreath of jasmine flowers adorning her hair, she could have been mistaken for a school student, were she wearing civilian clothes instead of the uniform, but let me not digress.
The moment this young cop saw the women, she didn't wait, she didn't think, she didn't talk. She simply got up from the seat, gave her seat to the woman with the toddler. Seeing her, the male cop, who was sitting in the seat across, also got up from his seat and gave his seat to the other woman.

Our lady cop, got a free seat by the next stop and the first thing she did was to lean on the window pane and sleep, with all the fatigue of the day visibly telling on her.

Witnessing all this, while most of the able bodied men didn't even make a show of getting up and the young lady cop showing the very basic and yet the rarest of human courtesy, I felt this - cops are neither good nor bad. They are just as human - and humane - as we are. :-)

Eulogy – Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam (1931-2015)

I am looking all around me, searching for a sign of histrionics. There are no women from lower rung of the society wailing, beating their bosoms and rolling in the dirt. There are no signs of men, in an inebriated state, holding to the pictures of their beloved leader, crying and tearing their hairs. No shops were forced to shut down today. No buses were stopped. No public property damaged. No sign of the social activity being impacted in any way by his death. Yet, beneath this veneer of calmness, this nation is silently mourning one of her most special sons – Dr.APJ.Abdul Kalam. A mere mention of this name, and everybody is ready with a word of pride, an appreciation, and a sense of glum descending their face. Social networking sites are rife with his images and quotes – some of them not really uttered by him. A mere glance at your contact list in WhatsApp, and you see a lot of friends having changed their Display Picture to that of Mr.Kalam.
 

What makes him worthy of such adulation? When was the last time a nation, the whole of it, together mourned the death of one of its leaders? In my brief life, I have seen people mourning the death of the political leaders, leaders of their favorite political parties and religious sects. Others used to issue a formal statement of condolence and that was all there is. Of course, some hooligans use such occasions to let loose their vandalism and loot public properties too. But today, there was no such show of sorrow, and yet, all of us feel that pallor of death as if they had lost a relative of their own. Why so?
 

There may be many reasons, but to my limited wisdom, it feels that he became great because he remained humble. Starting his life from a nondescript coastal town in a distant Southern corner of the country, he silently worked his way up to become the First Citizen of the county. He didn’t let his humble economic background clip his wings. His religion was never a hurdle for him to face. In a nation that is increasingly facing the colors of religions painted upon her, he remained clear of all such vile. He was pious, but never wore his religion on his sleeves. In fact, people from all religious, social and economic background loved him. He never let his name be affiliated by any narrow party ideals either.
 

Our generation had only heard the deeds of the likes of Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Azad, Prasad, but never had the chance of having a true leader, who could unite the minds with his sheer brilliant presence. Mr.Kalam was one who filled that void. He belongs to the era, where people owned responsibilities instead of merely whining about their rights, people lived by ethics and morals instead of preaching them and people held on to their core principles even in the face of difficulties. Mr.Kalam was a man of integrity, be it at a personal level or a social level.
 

It is said that even to die well one should have earned a good karma. How else could he have breathed his last?! He wasn’t confined to bed, he wasn’t taken away by illness, senility and atrophy were definitely not for him. He breathed his last, doing what he always loved the most – being a teacher, interacting with the young minds. He was a worthy teacher and will remain a worthy role-model for more and more of Indians to come.
 

Rest in peace, sir! You have done more than your fair share for your motherland. Rest in peace!
 

Ashok Kumar

So Near Yet So Far - The Curse (?!) of Smartphones?

A couple of days ago, happened to notice a sad sight at the restaurant, during lunch. On the table next to me were four people - a couple and two children. All through the course of the meal, the couple were discussing some family gossip, while the children were both stuck to their smartphones with the headphones on, paying no heed whatsoever to one another. If they weren't sitting in the same table, or if they were seen in a different setting like a bus or park, you would have thought of them as strangers and not as belonging to the same family. It was only when they were leaving did they all speak to one another.

Similar to this was another incident when I had a couple of youngsters share the table with me in a restaurant. Only when it came to paying the bill did they talk to one another, having been immersed in their mobile phones all through the supper.

Are we becoming addicted to technology to the extent of letting it dominate our lives? Are we moving farther from the people close to us while trying to stay in touch with those far away?!

To recall the words of an old person, who once spoke to me during a train journey and sadly said, "During our days, we used to talk to strangers in the journey. We used to form friendships, some of which went on to stay for a long time. But you young people these days plug your ears with headphones, glue your eyes to phones and stay aloof from others. You are all growing further apart than how it was during our days. No wonder the society is filled with troubles and hatred!'