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.~~
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• You're never fully dressed without a smile. ~ Martin Charnin
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• 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
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• 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...

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  It's a mystery deep and baffling

Worldly life a hidden fire

Allah has done me favour

else I too would have burnt entire

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  Had I known my grip would slip

I would hold Him faster

None is greater than my Lord

In this world and farther

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  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!

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  Farid if love is born of greed

Call it not love but lust

A roof of grass in pouring rain

crumbles down and must!

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  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)