bangladesh4u

The sun rises every morning to greet me, but do I notice?
Along with the blue sky, the mountains, the rivers, the flowers and the birds. Every morning and evening my inmates and neighbours stand aside. Do I recognise and embrace them as my own? What then is my relation to each sunrise, to each human soul?

Barir Kache Arshi Nagar
Shetha Ek Porshi Boshot Kore
Ami Ekdino Na Dekhilam Tare
-- (Lalan Fakir of Kushtia)

Translation: I have not seen him even for a day
near my home there is a mirror-city
and my neighbour dwells in it.

All around the village is fathomless water
The water is boundless
And there is no boat to take me across
I yearn to see Him
But how shall I get to that hamlet? Trans: Bro James

Sufis like to hide. They hardly debate on their inward journeys. One of them says: We are the real people without boundaries: I always wanted to walk with friends in an earth without map. We are the real countries, not the boundaries drawn on a map by powerful men.

Bengal is the cradle of Sufism practiced by 500 saints. The mystic poets Lalan, Hasan, Shaikh Bhanu, Panju Shah, Pagla Kanai had the same message of love, which Sufis had. Today's Bangladesh is probably the best example of Hindu loving Muslims in the present world. Come to a Mela with me where Baul, Marfati, Murshidi and the Radha Krishna Bichchedi songs are sung from the same platform, enjoyed by one and all. One can easily detect the source of the very strength of plurality of this unique cultural pot.

The Khanqahs of Sufi saints came to be regarded as great centers of education during the Muslim period in Bengal. The pious self-effacing saints not only showed a higher model of idealistic service to humanity, but also a clear pluralistic approach to parallel spiritual accomplishments by practicing an austere life and protecting the subjugated and caring for the insulted and injured.

Sufism in Bengal reaped a rich harvest of thousand of humanistic songs in Marfati, Murshedi, Dehatatya. Bengali Academy, Dhaka has published 75 volumes of such invaluable documented music, which is the result of five hundred years of such moderate teaching of the Sufis. They achieved something more important than music. Peace between the Hindus and Muslim communities so that they could live together respecting each other's religion, culture, customs and traditions. The Khanqahs had medical outlets for the poor and rehabilitation posts where the poor and the sick got both shelter and medical help. The Khanqahs had adjoined Langarkhana where the have-nots of all religions were fed three times a day. The well-to-do jotdars or landed aristocracy persons both from Hindu and Muslim communities contributed generously to the Langarkhana. The foremost among there was the Khanqah of Shaikh Jalaluddin Tabrez's at Pandue, which became the meeting place of Hindus and Muslims alike. These Khanqahs, throughout Bengal became widely respected by both communities and contributed towards unity of the minds of them. The advent of "Satya Peer Puja" was a direct result of such interactions. It found its full release in the religion of Sree Chaiytana's Baisnava thoughts. Even today as the autumn scenarios brings the Durga Puja drums beats of Bangla Dhol in the remotest corner of lush green Bengal village, the idols of Durga brings joy to us. This is not because as Muslims we are wedded to idolatry in a very remote sense but simply because our Hindu neighbours feel happy and we simply share their happiness during these ten-day Vijaya Utsava (Dasera). The Hindus do share fully the festival of the two Eids, as seen nowhere probably. We are grateful to our Sufi masters.

Their saintly qualities of honesty and purity, humanity and service, fellow feeling and open-mindedness attracted the Hindu rajas and the educated and non-educated masses of the Hindus to them. Many others embraced Islam. Those who did not, became followers of them because of their acceptance of spirituality. The Hindu folk poets like Ramesh Sheel, Shadhu Monomohon Datta and Halayudh have shown their respects to the Sufis in their poetries and songs.

The Bauls of Bengal, the wandering singers bring us joy of unity and harmony even today. One of the main tenets of Baul cult is love for humanity irrespective of their caste and creed, faith, color and custom. Baul speaks of universal mysteries of life in simple understandable expressions as it touches the heart of the common man. A Baul singing and dancing in ecstasy with an Ektara represents the finest specimen of folk song of Bengal. They do not have conventional mode of worship, yet spiritualism is at the root of philosophy. What need, they say, have we of temples and churches when in this body of ours, the supreme spirit has his abode. The human body is for them the holy of holiest wherein the divine is intimately enshrined as the "Man of Heart".

"That is why, brother, I became a madcap Baul. No Master I obey nor injunctions, cannons or customs. Now no man made distinctions have any hold on me. And I revel only in the gladness of my own willing love. So I rejoice in song and dance with each and all."

Baul has teachings of Hinduism, Buddhism and Sufism, all combined in one; Shree Chaitanya Deva had a great influence on Bauls philosophy. Although street singers, Bauls were important teachers who taught people about human philosophy. Tagore was influenced by Bauls and considered himself a "Shakher Baul". The songs of Bauls greatly owe their origin to the mystic poets Nanak, Dadu and Kabir. All these saints were much under the influence of Sufism, Tagore in his article "Religion of man" wrote "...the simple song was alive with emotional sincerity. It spoke of an intense yearning of the heart for the divine who is in Man and not in the temple or scriptures, in images or the symbols."

The peace concept preserves the unjust 'status quo' of the powerful. This is greatest challenge of present day to affirm the right of a people dehumanised and oppressed to give resistances and do so non-violently. Mark the word non-violently. As His Holiness Dalai Lama says in his Nobel Peace Prize lecture: "Peace in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold, peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free."

In such a situation, Sufis spread their prayer rugs and remember their Prophet Noah who found his community suddenly surrounded by rapidly rising water. Noah's prayers are Sufis prayer too.

Wa Qul Rabbi Anzilni Munzalas Mubarakan
Wa anta Khairun Munzalin
And say: O my Lord! Lead me to a blessed landing for you are the best deliverer.

To heal the fractured world, the Sufis believe and act with the premise that: Every heart is a Kaba, an abode of the Lord, every single heart needs polishing, so that it does not breed contempt.

What should be the role of Sufism and religion in general in the Asia Pacific region in the twenty first century? This calls for a particular study, which was deemed at length by just, the International Christian Peace Movement. (Pax Christi, Australia and the United Church of Australia in Melbourne October 2000 *2, The theme: religion and culture in Asia Pacific, violence and healing of challenge confronting religion.

Moderate religious leaders opined that "Asia is obsessed with economic growth and material progress -- and world faces another ideology -- the ideology of moneytheism. It is the worship of wealth and power and prestige that wealth generates. Moneytheism is now a formidable challenge to monotheism. Moneytheism is the ideology, which legitimates the relentless pursuit of riches as an end in itself, is the driving force behind our global economy. Culture, politics, social life all reflect directly or indirectly this overwhelming power of this moneytheism. It contradicts the essence of faith in a variety of ways. The blind worship of money leads to the displacement of God in ones worldview. Accumulation of wealth fosters selfishness and is antithetical to the "other service" attitude and legitimates greed and acquisition.

Iqbal's "the mosque of Cordova" is a sufi poem. It is seen by some as what power a poem can generate. Iqbal calls of "Ishq" or dynamic love -- to use Professor Schimmel's definition -- a characteristic of a special man, the believer or the man of God. Ishq is equated in a series of cascading phrases with Gabriel's breath, the Prophet's heart, the envoy of God, God's word, the scholar, the noble. The scent of it is found in Ibn Ul Arabi: "The ultimate destiny of the entire world is to reach the dwelling place of pure pardon and superlative compassion. In Bengali, we call it "Bigolito Karuna Jahnnobi Jamuna".


-- Excerpts from a paper read at the First International Sufi Conference held in New Delhi in March 2006