Fringe (Jelaluddin Rumi)

You wreck my shop and my house and now my heart,
But how can I run from what gives me life?
I am weary of personal worrying, in love with the cut of madness!
Tear open my shame and show the mystery.
How much longer do I have to fret with self-restraint and fear?
Friends, this is how it is: we are fringe sewn inside the lining of a robe.
Soon we will be loosened, the binding thread torn out.
The Beloved is a lion.
We are the lame deer in his paws. Consider
what choices we have! (Rumi)

Sky Circles (Jelaluddin Rumi)

The way of love isn’t a subtle argument.
The door there is devastation!
Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom-
How do they learn that?
They fall, and falling they are given wings!

No man is an Island!

No man is an Island,
Entire of itself.
Each is the piece of the continent
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manner of thine own
or of thine friends were.
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind
Therefore send not to know for whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for you!
(John Donne)

Aqwaal-e Mola Ali (R.A)

• Apnay Bachon ko woh taaleem na do jo tumharay walidein ne tum ko di hai, kyunke un ka zamana tumharaya zamanay se mukhtalif hai.


• Apni Qismat per wohi rotay hain jin ko sajdon mein rona nahi aata.


• Insaan kailiye doosron ki muhabbat teen cheezon se barhti hai; Salaam kernay se, doosron ko jaga denay se, aur sahi naam se pukaaranay se.


• Aay Khuda jab mein ne tujh se nahi manga to tu ne mujhay ataa kiya to yeh kaisay ho sakta hai k mein tujh se magoon aur tu mujhay ataa na keray


• Ziada nafa pohunchanay wala ilm woh hai jis per amal kiya jaey. Sub se fazeelat wala amal woh hai jis mein ikhlaas ho. Aur sub se behtar Ma’arifat yeh hai ke insaan apnay nafs ko pehchaanay.


• Sub se buri sachchai chughal khori hai, sub se bura keena deen ke imamon ke saath keena hai, aur sub se bari khiyaanat ummat ke saath khiyaanat hai.

Fuel For Thought!

• There are two ways of spreading light____To be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.(Edith Warton)


• Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans. The moment one definitely commits oneself, the Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help that would never have otherwise occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, which no one could have dreamed would come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do. Begin it! Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. (Goethe)


• Our deeds follow us, and what we have been makes us what we are. (John Dykes)


• I still feel I got to prove something. There are a lot of people hoping I fail! But I like that. I need to be hated. (Howard Stein)


• Sometimes life’s shadows are caused by our standing in our own sunlight. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)


• The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today; let us move forward with strong and active faith. (Franklin D. Roosevelt)


• Desire is the standing point of all achievements, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything. (Napoleon Hill)


• There is no happiness if the things we believe are different from the things we do! (Freya Stark)


• Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Because the dream is within you, no one can take it away! (Unknown)

Hamein Khud apnay tajassus se hain Gilay kiya kiya.. (Amjad Islam Amjad)

Hamein khud apnay tajassus se hain gilay kiya kiya

Woh baat us mein nahi thi jo us ke naam mein thi

tujhay talashna goya ufaq ko choona tha

wohi safar mein thi haalat ke jo qayaam mein thi

Nigah-e-Khaas jo hoti to dekhta koi

woh aik baat jo teri nigaah-e-Aam mein thi

Chamak raha tha hawaaon ki aasteen mein lahu

idhar zameen bahaaron ke ahtamaam mein thi

Yeh kis ne loot liye qaaflay sitaaron ke

sahar ki tegh to Amjad abhi niyaam mein thi!

The Soul of Prayer (Rumi)

Jelaluddin Rumi was once asked “Is there any way to God nearer than the ritual prayer?” “No” He replied. “But prayer doesn’t consist in forms alone. Formal prayer has a beginning and an end, like all forms and bodies and everything partakes of speech and sound; but the soul is unconditional and infinite. It has neither beginning nor end. The Prophets have shown the true nature of prayers. Prayer is the drowning and unconsciousness of the soul, so that all these forms remain without. At that time there is no room for even Gabriel, who is Pure spirit. One may say that the man who prays in this fashion is exempt from all religious obligations, since he is deprived of his reason. Absorption in Divine Unity is the soul of prayer.

Quotations

• “If a man hasn’t discovered something that he would die for, he isn’t fit to live.” (Martin Luther King)


• “How a minority, Reaching majority, Seizing authority, hates a minority” (Leonard H. Hobbins)


• “Almost always it is the fear of being ourselves that brings us to the mirror” (Antonio Porchio)


• “The best mirror is an old friend” (German Proverb)


• “Immature artists imitate, mature artists steal.” (Lionel Trilling)


• “Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man doesn’t know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.” (Seneca)


• “It is the heart that experiences God, not the reason!”


• “Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is one’s self.” (Oscar Wilde)

Quietness (Rumi)

Inside this new love, Die!

Your way begins on the other side!

Become the sky.

Take an ax to the prison wall,

Escape. Walk out.

Like someone suddenly born into color,

Do it now!

You're covered with thick cloud

Slide out the side. Die!

And be quiet.

Quietness is the surest sign you've died!

Your old life was a frantic running

from silence!

The speechless full moon comes out now!

(Jelaluddin Rumi)

Shaam thi Sa'at-e-Zawaal mein gum
Zakhm tha apnay indmaal mein gum
Had-e-Idraak mein Tha Jo bhi kuch
Sub Tha bus aik hi Sawaal Mein gum
Tez Aandhi mein kia charaagh ki lo
Barf mein kaisi Aabla Paaai?
Carnas mein thay phool sookhay huay
Seerhiyon mein bichi thi tanhai
Khawaab thay khirkiyon mein aawaizaan
Zeenat-e-Taaq thi shakeebai
Aik Na taaqati thi chaaron taraf
Raasta raasta thi paspaai
Kehkashaon ke darmiyaan Larzaan
Aik na mohtatim si pehnai
Faaslay thay faraib aankhon ka
Naapta kon Gham ki gehrai
Ik Guraizaan se aks ki khaatir
Ainay ho rahay thay sodai
Yoon sitaray thay muntazir jaisay
Dar-e-Mehboob per tamannai
Waqt tha roz-o-Shab ki chaal mein gum
Mein tha apnay kisi khayaal mein gum!

(Amjad Islam Amjad)

Master doesn’t utter a word… (Discourse of Rumi)

Someone said: “Our Master doesn’t utter a word.”

Rumi answered: Well, it was the thought of me that brought you to my presence. This thought of me did not speak with you saying, “How are things with you?” The thought without words drew you here. If the reality of me draws you without words and transports you to another place, what is so wonderful with words? Words are the shadow of reality, a mere branch of reality. Since the shadow draws, how much more the reality!

Words are a pretext. It is the inner bond that draws one person to another, not words. If someone should see a hundred thousand miracles and divine blessings, still, without an inner connection to that saint or prophet who was the source of those miracles, all these phenomena would come to nothing. It is this inward element that draws and moves us. If there was no element of amber in straw, the straw would never be attracted to the amber[Rumi is referring to static electricity here]. They would not cling to each other, even if you rub the amber with fur. This exchange between them is hidden, not a visible thing.

It is the thought that brings us. The thought of a garden brings us to the garden. The thought of a shop brings us to the shop. However, within these thoughts is a secret deception. Have you never gone to a certain place thinking it would be good, only to find disappointment. Then you will see reality as it is, and nothing more.

“Upon that day when the secrets are tried.”

So, what reason is there for me to speak? In reality that which draws is a single thing, but it appears to be many. We are possessed by a hundred different desires. “I want vermicelli!” we say. “I want ravioli. I want Halvah. I want fruits. I want fritter. I want dates.” We name these one by one, but the root of the matter is a single thing: The root is hunger. Don’t you see how, once we have our fill of but one thing, we say, “Nothing else is necessary?” Therefore, it was not ten or a hundred things, but one thing that drew us.

“And their number, we have only appointed as a trial.”

The many things in the world are a trial appointed by God, for they hide the single reality. There is a saying that the saint is one, humankind is a hundred, meaning the saint’s whole attention remains upon the one truth, while people are scattered over a hundred appearances. But which hundred? Which fifty? Which sixty? Lost in this world of mirrored reflections, they are a faceless people without hands and feet, without mind and soul, quivering like a magic Talisman, like quicksilver or mercury. They do not know who they are. Call them sixty or a hundred or a thousand, and the saint is one, but is not this view a trial itself? For the truth is that hundreds are nothing, while the saint is a thousand, and a hundred thousand, and thousands of thousands.

A king once gave a single soldier the rations for a hundred men. The army protested, but the king said nothing. When the day of battle arrived, all the men fled the field, except that one soldier who fought alone. “There you are.” the king said. “It was for this that I fed one man as a hundred.”

It behooves us to strip away all our prejudices and seek out a friend of God. However, when we’ve spent our whole life in the company of people who lack discrimination, then our own discriminative faculty becomes weak, and that true friend may pass us by unrecognized.

Discrimination is a quality that is always hidden in a person. Don’t you see that an insane person possesses hand and feet but lacks discrimination? Discrimination is a subtle essence within you. Yet, day and night you have been occupied with nurturing the physical form that doesn’t know right from wrong. Why have you devoted all your energies to looking after the physical, entirely neglecting that subtle essence? The physical exists through that essence, but that essence no way depends upon the physical.

The light that shines through the windows of the eyes and ears, if those windows did not exist, the light would not stop. it would find other windows to shine through. If you bring a lamp before the sun, do you say, “I see the sun by means of this lamp?” God forbid! If you did not bring the lamp, the sun would still shine. What need is there for a lamp?

This is the danger in associating with kings. It is not that you may lose your life__ we must lose our life in the end anyway, whether today or tomorrow does not matter. The danger arises from the fact that when kings enter upon the scene, and the spell of their influence gains strength, becoming like a great lamp, the person who keeps company with them, claims their friendship, and accepts money from them, will inevitably speak in accordance with their desires. That person will listen to the king’s mundane views with the utmost attention, and will not be able to deny them.

That is where the danger lies, it leads to fading respect for the true source. When you cultivate the interests of kings, that other interest that is fundamental to the spiritual life becomes a stranger to you. The more you proceed down the path of kings, the more that direction where the Beloved dwells becomes lost. The more you make your peace with worldly people, the more Beloved turns away from you. Going in their direction renders you subject to their rule. Once you have turned down their path, in the end God gives them power over you.

It is a pity to reach the ocean, and to be satisfied with the little pitcherful from the sea. After all, there are pearls in the sea, and from the sea come a myriad precious things. What is the value in just taking water? What pride can intelligent people have in that? This world is a mere foam fleck of the True Sea. That Ocean is the science of the saints, and within that Water, is the Pearl Itself.

This world is but foam full of floating jetsam. Yet, through the turning of the waves, and the rhythmic surging of the sea in constant motion, this foam takes on a certain beauty. But this beauty is a borrowed thing coming from elsewhere. It is a false coin that sparkles to the eye.

People are the astrolabe of GOD, but it requires an astronomer to use the astrolabe. If a vegetable seller or a greengrocer should find the astrolabe, what good would it be to them? From that astrolabe, what could they know of the movements of the circling stars and the positions of the planets, their influences and so forth? But in the hands of an astronomer, the astrolabe becomes truly valuable.

Just as this copper astrolabe reflects the movements of the heavens like a mirror, so the human being is the astrolabe of God.

“We have honored the children of Adam.”

Those who have been moved by God to see the one reality and learn It’s ways through the astrolabe of their own being, behold moment by moment, flash by flash, the testament of God.

Indeed, it is an infinite beauty that never leaves their mirror.

God has servants who cloak themselves in a wisdom, knowingness and grace invisible to others. Out of their excessive jealousy and love for God these servants cloak themselves, just like Mutanabbi says of beautiful women:

“Figured silks they wore, not to beautify but to guard their beauty from lustful eyes.”

The Flower (Alfred Tennyson)

Once in a golden hour
I cast to Earth a seed.
Up there came a flower,
The people said, a weed.
To and fro they went
Thro' my garden bower.
And uttering discontent
Cursed me and my flower!
Then it grew so tall
It wore a crown of light,
But thieves from o'er the wall
Stole the seed by night.
Sow'd it far and wide
By every town and tower,
Till all the people cried
"Splendid is the flower."

(Alfred Tennyson)

The Guest House (Rumi)

This being human is a guest house
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression , a meanness,
Some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all
Even if they are crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of it's furniture,
Still, treat each guest honourably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight!
The dark thought, the shame, the malice
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful to whosoever comes,
because each has been sent,
As a guide from beyond!

(Jelaluddin Rumi)

Teray Hotay huay Mehfil Mein Jalaatay hain Charagh!

Teray Hotay huay Mehfil Mein Jalaatay hain charaagh

Log Kiya saada hain Sooraj ko Dikhaatay hain Charagh!

Apni Mehroomi Ke Ahsaas Se Sharminda hain

Khud to Rakhtay Nahiin auron ko Bujhaatay hain Charaagh

Bastiyaan Door hui jaati hain Rafta Rafta

Wameedum Aankhon se chuptay chalay jaatay hain Charagh

Kiya khabar un ko ke Daaman Bhi Bharak Uthtay hain

Jo Zamaanay Ki hawaon Se bachaatay hain Charaagh

Go Sayah Bakht hain hum log magar roshan hai Zameer

Khud Andheray mein hain auron ko dikhatay hain Charagh

Bastiyaan Chaand Sitaaron ki Basaanay Walo

Kurra-e-Arz pe bujhtay Chalay Jaatay hain Charaagh

Aisay Bedard huay hum bhi ke ab Gulshan per

Barq Girti hai to Zindaan mein Jalaatay hain Charaagh

Aisi Taareekiyaan Aankhon Mein Basi hain Ke FARAZ

Raat to raat hai hum Din Ko Jalaatay hai Charaagh!

(Ahmad Faraz)

The Granary (Rumi)

Sufi masters are those whose spirits existed before the world. Before the body, they lived many lifetimes. Before seeds went into the ground, they harvested wheat.

Before there was an ocean, they strung pearls. While the great meeting was going on about bringing human beings into existence, They stood up their chins in wisdom water.

When some of the angels opposed creation, the Sufi Masters laughed and clapped among themselves. Before materiality, they knew what it was like to be trapped inside matter.

Before there was a night sky, They saw Saturn. Before wheat grains, they tasted bread. With no mind__ They thought!

Immediate intuition to them is the simplest act, what to others would be epiphany. Much of our thought is past or future__ They are free of those!. Before mine is dug they judge coins. Before vineyards, they know the excitements to come. In July, they feel December. In unbroken sunlight, they find shade. In “Fana” the state where objects dissolve, they recognize things and comment rationally.

The open sky drinks from their circling cup. The sun wears the gold of their generosity. When two of them meet, they are no longer two, They are one and one hundred thousand.

The ocean waves are their closest likeness; When wind makes from unity the numerous. This happened to the sun and it broke into rays, through window into bodies.

The disc of the sun does exist, but if you see only the ray bodies, you have doubts. The human-Divine combinations are a oneness. Plurality, the apparent separation into rays.

Friend, we are travelling together. Throw off your tiredness. Let me show you one tiny spot of the beauty that can’t be spoken. I am like an ant that has gotten into the granary, ludicrously happy, and trying to lug out a grain that’s way too big!

(Jelaluddin Rumi)

Baba Bulleh Shah’s Poetry…

A For Allah who has got my heart, I have no knowledge of B

Nor do I know what it means

While A Savors sweet to me

I can’t tell between O and Q

It makes me dither and delve;

Bulleh look after the first,

The rest will take care of itself.

Hazrat Sultan Bahu’s Poetry

• Perfect is my spiritual leader,

Who like a washer man is a washer;

For purification doesn’t need,

He cleanses with his sight in speed;

removes impurity in no time.

Bahu! He is the spiritual leader,

He purifies the outer and inner selves.

• It is not “Faqr” When people sleep,

awakening them from slumber deep;

reciting loud, and make them creep,

Disturbance you create too steep;

This is not called spiritual trait,

This is no more then worldly bait;

To cross river without a boat,

To fly in the air or stop the carpet,

Bahu spiritualism is this,

you have in heart the Beloved caress.

Left Alone (Baba Bulleh Shah)

Friends are all falling like hair,

God, what shall I do?

Nothing can induce them to stay;

Rather they propagate despair.

God, what shall I do?

On all sides news of departures,

and good byes echo in the air.

God, What shall I do?

Their memories tear me apart;

I see them everywhere.

God, what shall I do?

Inspirational quotes

• "You can judge a leader by the size of problem he tackles. Other people can cope with the waves, it's his job to watch the tide." (Antony Jay)


• "No great artist ever see things as they really are. If they did they would cease to be artists." (Oscar Wilde)


• "We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread, but there are many more dying for a little love." (Mother Teresa)


• "Realise that true happiness lies within you. Waste no time in searching for peace and contentment and joy in the world outside. Remember that there is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. Reach out. Share. Smile. Hug. Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself."(Og Mandino)


• "If something comes to life in others because of us , then we have made an approach to immortality."(Normans Cousins)


• " There comes this mysterious meeting in life when someone acknowledges who we are, and what we can be, igniting the circuits of our inner potential."(Rusky Berkus)


• "If people are coming to work excited, if they are making mistakes freely and fearlessly, if they are having fun, if they are concentrating doing things, rather than making reports and going to meetings__ Then somewhere you have leaders."(Robert T)


• "Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Because the dream is within you, no one can take it away!" (Unknown)

More Quotes!

• "I think the next best thing to solving a problem is finding some humor in it." (Frank A. Clark)


• "Beginning is half done."


• "Beauty is not a need but ecstasy. It's not a mouth thirsting, nor an empty hand stratched forth, but rather a herat enflamed and a soul enchanted!" (Kahlil Gibran)


• ""Results? Why man? I've gotten alot of results! I know 50,000 things that won't work!"( Thomas Edison)


• "I form a cloud over the ocean and gather spillings."(Rumi)


• "It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped."( Anthony Robbins)


• "Clear your mind of "Can't""(Samuel Johnson)


• "If you have built castles in the air, yur work need not be lost. That is where they should be. Now put the fundation under them."(Henry David Thaureau)


• "The previlege of a life time is being who you are."(Joseph Campbell)


• "There is a powerful driving force inside every human being that once unleashed can make any vision, dream, or desire a reality."(Anthony Robbins)


• "It is not how much we do but how much love we put in the doing, It's not how much we give but how much love we put in the giving." (Mother Teresa)

Tu ke Sham'-e-Shaam-e-Firaaq hai Dil-e-Namuraad sambhal ke ro! (Ahmad Faraz)

Tu ke Sham'-e-Shaam-e-Firaaq hai, Dil-e-Namuraad sambhal ke ro

Yeh kisi ki bazm-e-Nishat hai yahan Qatra Qatra pighal ke ro

Koi aashna ho ke ghair ho na kisi se haal bayan ker

yeh Kithor logon ka shehr hai kahiin door paar nikal ke ro

Kisay kiya pari sar-e-Anjuman Ke sunay woh teri Kahaniyaan

Jahan koi tujh se bichar gaya ussi rah-Guzaar pe chal ke ro

Yahan aur bhi hain garifta dil kabhi apnay jaison se ja ke mil

Teray dukh se kam nahiin jin ke dukh kabhi un ki aag mein jal ke ro

Teray doston ko khabar hai sub teri bekali ka jo hai sabab

tu bhalay se us ka na zikr ker tu hazaar naam badal ke ro

gham-e-Hijr laakh kara sahi pe Faraz kuch to khayal ker

Meri jaan yeh mehfil-e-Shair hai tu na saath saath ghazal ke ro!

(Ahmad Faraz)

Woh jiski deed mein lakhon musarratein pinhaan! (Faiz)

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx-1VIbBFok&feature=related
Woh jiski deed mein laakhoN masarrateiN pinhaaN

Woh husn jiski tamanna mein jannateiN pinhaaN

Hazaar fitnay tah-e-paa-e-naaz khaak-e-nasheeN

Har eik nigaah khumar-e-shabaab se rangeen

Shabaab jis se takhaiyul pe bijliyaan barsein

Waqaar jiski rafaqat kou shokhiyaan tarseiN

Ada-e-laghzish-e- paa par qyamatein qurbaan

Bayaz-e-rukh pe sahar ki sabahatein qurbaan

Siyaah zulfoun mein waraftaa nikhatoun ka hujoom

Taweel raatoun ki khwabeedah raahatoun ka hujoom

Vo aankh jiski banaun pe khaliq dey raae

Zabaan-e- shair kou tareef kartey Sharm aye

Gudaz jism qaba jispe saj ke naaz karey

Daraaz qad jisey sarw-e-sahi namaz karey

Kisi zamaney mein is rah-guzar sey guzraa thaa

Ba-sad guroor-o-tajammul idhar sey guzraa thaa

Aur ab ye raah guzar bhi hai dilfareb-o-haseeN

hai uski khaak mein kaife sharab-e-sair makeen

Hawa mein shokhi-e-raftaar ki addaen hain

Faza mein narmi-e-guftaar ki sadaen hain

Gharz vo husn is raah ka juzu-e-manzar hai

Neyaaz-e-ishq kou eik sajda gaah mayassar hai
(Faiz)

Sufi Poetry by Baba Farid Ganj Shakar

Plants the "jat" and "Babul" trees,
expects the reap of grapes!
Spends whole life in spinning wool.
and wants to chape the silks!?

As if Wood is loaf of mine
Hunger is my curry.
Those who eat the buttered bread
shall taste grief and worry.

Care not I if youth is past
If the love of Lord endures
Many, a loveless youth has withered
love, the real youth ensures!

Day long in mundane pursuits
night long in deep slumber
God will call you to account
what will then you, render?

Lord save me from knocking doors
begging from the man
If you have to force me do so
better end my life span.

In broad day light death raided
the fortress of a chief.
it razed the walls and sacke the heart
extinguished both the lamps.

Prayer mat on the shoulder
balck-robe on his body
dagger like his heart but
honey like address.
Moonlight his exterior
And pitch dark is his soul
Fie! On Worldly saint!

Not a drop of blood will yield
bosy of a saint.
Deep emersed in dye of God
He bears no other stain.

Seek you pearls in rivers clean
And not in muddy ponds.
What will you get from turgid pools
except slimied hands?

Fall not in love with houses high

with castles big and strong

when dust, immeasured, covers you
no friends by you will throng!

HEARKEN to the FluTe! (The tale of Love of GOD)(Rumi)

Hearken to the reed-flute how it complains

lamenting it's banishment from its home.
"Ever since they tore me from my osier bed,
my plaintive notes have moved men and women to tears.
I burst my breast striving to give vent to sighs,
And to express the pangs of my yearning for my home.
He who abides far away from his home
Is ever longing for the day he shall return.
My wailing is heard in every throng,
in concert with them that rejoice and them that weep,
each interprets my notes in harmony with his own feelings,
but no one fathoms the secrets of my heart.
My secrets are not alien from my plaintive notes,
yet they are not manifest to the sensual eye and ear
Body is not veiled from soul, neither soul from body.
Yet no man has ever seen a soul!"
This plaint of the flute is fire, not mere air
let him who lacks this fire be accounted dead!
'Tis the fire of Love that inspires the flute
"Tis the ferment of love that possesses the wine!
The flute is the confidant of all unhappy lovers
Yea, it's strains lay bare my inmost secrets.
Who has seen a poison and an antidote like a flute?
Who has seen a sympathetic consoler like the flute?
The flute tells the tale of the lovers bloodstained path,
It recounts the story of Majnun's love toils.
None is privy to these feelings save one distracted,
As ear inclines to the whisper of the tongue.
Through grief my days are as labor and sorrow,
My days move on hand in hand with anguish.
Yet though my days vanish thus 'tis no matter,
Do thou abide Oh Incomparable Pure One!
But All who are not fishes are soon tired of water;
And they who lack daily bread find the day very long!
So the "RAW" comprehend not the state of the "RIPE"
therefore it behoves me to shorten my discourse.
Arise O son! Burst your bonds and be free!
How long wilt thou be captive to silver and Gold?
Though Thy pour the ocean into thy pitcher
it can hold no more than one day's store.
The pitcher of the desire of the covetous never fills,
The oyster shell fills not with the pearls till it is content;
Only he whose garment is rent with the violence of love
is wholly pure from covetousness and sin.
Hail to thee, then, OH LOVE, Sweet madness!
Thou who healest all our infirmities
Who art the healer of our pride and self-conceit
Who art our Plato and Galen!
Love exalts our earthly bodies to heaven

And makes the very hills to dance with joy!

Oh Lover! 'twas love that gave life to Mount Sinai!
When "it quaked and Moses fell down in a swoon"
He who is parted from them who speak their tongue
Though he possess a voice is perforce dumb
When the rose has faded and the garden has withered
The song of the nightingale is no longer to be heard
The BELOVED is all in all, the Lover only veils Him
The Beloved is all that lives, The lover a dead thing.
When the lover feels no longer the LOVE's quickening
He becomes like a bird that has lost it's wings. Alas!
How can I retain my senses about me?
When the BELOVED shows not the Light of His Countenance?
Love desires that this secret should be revealed,
For if a mirror reflects not, of what use is it?
Khowest thou why thy mirror reflects not?
Because the rust has not been scoured from it's face
If it was purified from all rust and defilement,
It would reflect the shining of GOD's light!
Oh Friends you have now heard this tale!
Which sets forth the very essence of my case!

(Jelaluddin Rumi)

12 Ways to unleash our Courage!!

We are not human beings having spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having human experience

• Reinforce in your being the conviction that you are a fearless spirit in the physical body

"Detach yourself from the fear of the body and the mind, changing instead to the fearlessness of the spirit" (Ching)

"It is in your power to discover that who you really are had nothing to fear, but that you make yourself fearful each time you look outside of yourself for some power to make you fearless." (Vernon Howard) (Your Faith in GOD that's inside you makes you fearless of anything outside of yourself!)

• JUST DO IT! avoid over-analysing!... Valour grows by daring fear by holding back (Publilius Syrus)


• Give yourself permission to be courageous. Avoid giving others permission to make you feel fearful

"No one can make you feel inferior without your permission"( Eleanor Roosevelt)

"Starting now ,never again, permit hard or disapproving facial expressions to intimidate you." (Vernon Howard)

• Reinforce the belief that the only power others have over you is the power you give them.


• Reinforce the belief that the only power anything has over you is the power you give it. Any experience or event will effect your life and your personality as much as you permit it!


• Apply the "Calmness linked to fear" technique. This is done by imagining your worst fears and visualizing yourself facing them calmly


• Constantly work on increasing your self-awareness!

"When two people meet the prize always goes to the one with the most self-insight. He will be calmer, more confident and more courageous!" (Vernon Howard)

• Make a list of the following and review regularly to serve as empowering reminders

1. Your past successes and victories


2. risks you have taken in the past


3. Your past courageous acts.

• Surround yourself with the people who help you uplift your spirit. Avoid associating with those who like to bring you down or belittle your ideas.

"To succeed in life you have to forget about most people. If you want to rise to the top, you have to disregard the opinions, reactions and warnings of others" (Ken Roberts)

• Get used to dealing with the unexpected

"The number one characteristic of students who later became head of companies is the ability to withstand uncertainty" (David A. Thomas)

"It is the individual's ability to deal with the unexpected that characterises the difference between success and failure" (Ross Perot)

• Simply decide that fear will not get in your way no matter what! Act in spite of fear!


• Apply "I have nothing to prove". Be your natural self!.. keep your goal "express" not "impress"!

"Your true nature, never needs to anxiously prove yourself to others, but lives in calm command, like a popular king!"( Vernon Howard)

" The real acid test of courage is to be just your honest self when everybody else is trying to be somebody else" (Andrew Jensen)

"The time spent in trying to impress others, they could spent in doing things by which others would be impressed" (Frank Romer)

"Naturalness is the easiest thing in the world to acquire, If you forget yourself, forget about the impression you are trying to make"( Dale Carnegie)

"Like dark clouds that cover the sun's light from shining through, so it is with fears that cover the natural light of your inner courage from shining through." (Gabriel D.)

(Content taken from the book "Courage and Confidence Tips" by Ron Balagot)

Definition of Tasawwuf!

Definition of Sufism by various Akaabireen and Sufis:

1. Allama Ibn-e-Khuldoon: “The word tasawwuf means to always engage oneself constantly in the worship of and concentration towards Allah Almighty, bending all energy and thinking with extreme absoluteness towards Him and Him alone, extricating himself and keeping aloof from every tinge of sensual mundane pleasures mostly consisting of avarice of wealth and worldly status etc. which incidentally are the fountain head of all the evils in the spheres of human life on Earth. This was in general the pattern and mode of life of the Companions of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W) and the devoted righteous persons who succeeded them.
2. Abu Bakr Al-Kalani: “Tasawwuf is the name of “Khulq” (Moral conduct). One who excels you in “Khulq” will always excel you in cleanness both internal as well as external.”
3. Abu Muhammad Al-Jarayri: “To inculcate high quality and nice mode of moral character and to get rid of every deed of mean and debased nature is the meaning of tasawwuf”
4. Abu-l-Hassan Ahmad Al-Noori: “Tasawwuf is neither a formality of custom or ceremony nor even the knowledge but it is the name of “Khulq””
5. Ibn-e-Sina: “The man who is devoted to absolute abstinence of worldly pleasures is called Zahid and a man who keeps almost every moment of his life devoted to worship is remembered among the people with the epithet of Aabid. And the man who keeps his attention perennially focused towards The Holy Omnipotence and expects every moment the Manifestations of Divine Light in his inner self to illuminate every bit of spectrum of his life as a whole is recognized and venerated with the ever shining title of Aarif (Recognizant of Divine Manifestation in all tings in the universe). Only such an exceptional individual among the countless creatures of Allah Almighty is worthy of being honored and remembered with the title of a true Sufi.”

The two here mentioned categories of worshippers namely Zahid and Aabid adopt the mode of worship through the abstinence of worldly pleasures and over occupation in devoted worship of Allah respectively in compliance to their mental and sentimental; inclinations with the sole intention of seeking deliverance from the fire of Hell on the Day of Judgment and getting admitted in the Gardens of Paradise where they would enjoy and please themselves eternally with the bounties and delicacies of the paradise as a compensatory reward for their respective abstinence from worldly ease and comfort. But in sight of the Sufis both these concepts are not the central focus of his attention.Overlooking the dread of the fire of Hell and the pleasures of Paradise, the heart and mind, both in unison and harmony are riveted to the love and remembrance of Almighty Allah, Who Himself and Whose pleasures are the central and focal aim of the inner eye.And pray that this holy chain of Divine rays ever continue till their last breath of this worldly life so that the continuum of the Divine Manifestation remains unbroken even after the entry in the Eternal world of the Hereafter through the gate of the grave.

A true Sufi is disinterested in the fear of hell or greed of Paradise. He worships Allah Almighty with unswerving faith. The following enunciation of Rabia Basri illustrates and affirms the maxim which is the gist and soul of Sufi’s life. One day she prayed to Allah Almighty;

Oh Allah! If I worship you out of fear of hell fire then throw me down into that fire

And If I worship you in the greed of your paradise then deprive me of that.

And if I devote myself in your worship with hope of vision of your Grand Countenance the oh my Beloved Allah! Do not deprive me from that vision of Yours!

No Flag! (Rumi)

I used to want buyers for my words,
Now I wish someone would buy me away from words.

I've made a lot of charmingly profound images,
Scenes with Abraham and his Uncle Azar,
Who was famous for icons.

I am so tired of what I've been doing,
Then one image form came and I quit.

Look for someone else to tend the shop,
I am out of the image making business.
Finally I know the freedom of madness.

A random image arrives. I scream,
"Get out" it disintegrates!
Only love
Only the holder flag fits into
No Flag!

(Jelaluddin Rumi)

• ..the power of a smile, a kind word, a touch, a listening ear,an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all have the potential to turn a life around. ~ Leo Buscaglia

• Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.~~
• 
  
• You're never fully dressed without a smile. ~ Martin Charnin
• 
  
  
• Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls. ~ Joseph Campbell

• If we want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it. ~ Mother Teresa

• Take out the trash - the trash is anything that is keeping you from the only thing that matters - this Moment - Here - NOW

• A smile is the light in the window of your face that tells people you're at home’

• A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties. ~ Unknown
• 
  
• The world is an illusion, but you have to act as if it's real.

• "Where love is, no room is too small." ~ Talmud"

• Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence." ~ Erich Fromm

• "Love stretches your heart and makes you big inside." - Margaret Walker

• This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life…finally, to take a step without feet." ~ Rumi

• Not everything that counts can be counted; and not everything that can be counted counts.~ Einstein

• When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.

• Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. ~ Tao Te Ching

• Whenever you do things from your Soul, you feel a river inside, a joy.

• No mirror ever became iron again; No bread ever became wheat; No ripened grape ever became sour fruit. Mature yourself and be secure from a change for the worse. Become the light."

• One day you will ask me which is more important, my life or yours? I will say mine and you will walk away not knowing that you are my life

• The appearance of things changes according to the emotions and thus we see the beauty in them,while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves.~ K Gibran

• Be aware of every day because it’s irreplaceable.We forget our true nature. We accept the nature of those around us.Look in the mirror within you and see for yourself who you are: Beautiful, ageless.There is something in you since you were a child, and it will be there till your very last breath.Get to know it. Live your life consciously.Be aware of every day because it's irreplaceable.

• Peace is a feeling, an undeniable feeling not born of thought

• Do you have real passion in your life? If you don't, you are missing something. Longing cannot just be a 'hood ornament.' It has to be real. It has to be deeply felt and permeate right through you. This longing... is the magic... the beautiful dance of the quenching of the thirst

• Also within you is the perfect book - The Book of Hearts. It is so perfect that even the illiterate can read it. It is so well - written that even the blind can read it. The paper that it is written on never deteriorates. The ink never fades away. The Book of Hearts has never been revised, and it never will be. It has been commented on, and every person who has read The Book has understood it. It is the only book that gives you answers, not questions.

• Who am I?Why am Here?”Do these questions intrigue you? - If they do, where do you find the answers? In a book? No, in some philosophy? No. On top of a mountain? - No. Written on a rock? - No. The answers exist in one place only. And it is in the book of your heart. What you are truly looking for — whether you call it peace, contentment, happiness, or joy, these are all names for one thing – that thing is your truth.’

Poetry By Baba Farid Ganj Shakar...

• 
  
  It's a mystery deep and baffling

Worldly life a hidden fire

Allah has done me favour

else I too would have burnt entire

• 
  
  Had I known my grip would slip

I would hold Him faster

None is greater than my Lord

In this world and farther

• 
  
  Look Farid! At by past

your beard is hoary grey

the future is so near you

the past is far away.

• Ah Farid! those winsome eyes

Captivating worlds

In the hey-day they couldn't bear weight of kajal-lines

I have seen in them have brooded

In broad day light- birds!

• 
  
  Farid if love is born of greed

Call it not love but lust

A roof of grass in pouring rain

crumbles down and must!

• 
  
  Rambling through thorny jungles

seekest thou the Lord?

Vain is the quest of thine, for sure,

Dwells in hearts, The Lord!

I don't know what place it was (Amir Khusrau)

I don't know what place it was,

The night was going when I was there.

On all sides dance of the frenzied lovers went on,

and the night passed by when I was tthere.

The Beloved was fairy-faced, lovely tall like a cypress tree,

He was all an afflistion for the heart

the night was passing by and I existed.

God himself was the head of that meeting in the infinite,

Muhammad(S.A.W) was the candle of the meeting,

the night passed by when I was there.

(Amir Khusrau)

The Source of joy! (RUMI)

No one knows what makes the soul wake up so happy!

May be a dawn breeze has blown the veil from face of GOD!

A thousand new moons appear. Roses open laughing. Hearts become perfect rubies like those from badakhshan

The body turns entirely spirit

Leaves become branches in the wind

Why is it now so easy to surrender?

even for those already surrendered?

Inspirational quotes....

"There are two ways of living your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle" (Albert Einstein)

"Hope is the companion of power and the mother of success. For those of us who hope strongest, have within us the gift of miracles."

"The miraculous is not extra-ordinary but the common mode of existence. It is our daily bread!. Whoever really has considered the lilies of the fields or birds of the air and pondered the improbability of their existence in this warm world within cold and empty stellar distances will hardly balk at the turning of the water into wine, which was after all, a very small miracle. We forget the greater and still continuing miracle by which water (with soil and sunlight) is turned into grapes." (Wendel Berry)

"Miracles are retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too small for some of us to see" (C.S.Lewis)

"The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." (Ralph Nader)

"There is nothing like a dream to create the future" (Victor Hugo)

"People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering" (St. Augustine)

"Prosperity is a way living or thinking, not just money or things. Poverty is a way of living or thinking, not just a lack of money or things." (Eric Butter Worth)

"The parable of those who take protectors other than GOD is that of the spider, who makes for itself a house, but truly the flimsiest house is that of the spider, if they but knew" (29:41 QURAN)


"Weave no more with soot and shine of your thought
like the spider, the web of rotten warp
While you are silent His speech is your speech
While you weave not, He is the weaver" (jelaluddin Rumi)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBbW8xeGNP8

Life and Death (RUMI)

Look at love how it tangles,
With the one fallen in love.
Look at spirit,
how it fuses with Earth giving it new life!

Why are you so busy with this or that or good or bad?
Pay attention to how things blend!
Why talk about all___The known and the unknown?
See how unknown merges into the known!

Why think separately of this life and the next?
When one is born from the last?
Look at your heart and tongue!
One feels but deaf and dumb!
The other speaks in words and signs.

Look at water and fire!
Earth and wind
Enemies and friends all at once!
The wolf and the lamb!
The lion and the deer!__Far away yet together!

Look at the unity of this spring and winter
manifested in the equinox!

You too must mingle my friends
Since the Earth and sky are mingled for just you and me!
Be like sugarcane!
sweet yet silent!
Don't get mixed up with bitter words!

My Beloved grows
Right out of my own heart,
How much more union can there be?

The story of my life! (RUMI)

I was ready to tell,
the story of my life!
but the ripple of tears
And the agony of my heart
Wouldn't let me!

I began to stutter
saying a word here and there
And all along I felt
as tender as a crystal
ready to be shattered!
In this stormy sea
We call life!

All the big ships
Come apart, board by board,
How can I survive riding a lonely little boat?
with no oars and no arms.
My boat did finally break by the waves
And I broke free as I tied myself to a single board.

Though the panic is gone
I am now offended
Why should I be so helpless?
Rising with one wave and falling with the next?
I don't know if I am non-existence, while I exist
but I know for sure,
When I am, I am not
When I am not I am.

Now how can I be skeptic about the resurrection?
And coming to life again?
Since in this world I have manytimes
Like my own imagination died and been born again.

That is why after long and agonising life as a hunter
I finally let go and got hunted down and became free!

(Jelaluddin Rumi)

Whoever brought me here! (RUMI)

All day I think about it, then at night I say it,
Where did I come from?
And what am I supposed to be doing?
I have no idea!
My soul is from elsewhere.
I am sure of that,
And I intend to end up there!

This drunkenness began in some other tavern
When I get back around that place, Ill be completely sober!
Meanwhile I am a bird from some other continent!
sitting in this aviary
The day is coming when I fly-off!
but who is now in my ears who hears my voice?
Who says words with my mouth?
Who looks out with my eyes__What is the soul?
I cannnot 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!

(Jelaluddin Rumi)

We are as the flute! (Rumi)

We are as the flute
And the music in us is from thee.
We are as the mountain
And the echo in us is from thee.
We are as pieces of chess,
Engaged in victory and defeat
Our victory and defeat is from thee!
Oh thou whose qualities are comely!
Who are we? Oh you Soul of our souls!
That we should remain in being beside thee?
We and our existences are reallly non-existence,
Thou art the absolute, being which manifests the perishable!
We are all lions but lions on a banner,
Because of the wind, they are rushing, onwards from moment to moment.
Their onward rush is visible, and the wind is unseen,
May that what is unseen not fail from us.
Our wind whereby we are moved and our being are of thy gift!
Our whole existence is from thy bringing into being!

(Jelaluddin Rumi)