Sense the Presence
Look underneath the carved brow of yore, a whole constellation of things shall greet you. Learn of them. A rivulet will certainly guide you to a river where it has been derived. Settle on the bank of this river to understand its purpose and follow its course. It may escort you to its origin if at all you are readily available to give up your garments while passing through the thick forests and steep hills. The end of a river must not at all be the end of your hunt. Every ultimate is the new commencement. The chase will impede your steps once the sea _ the vast fluid heart of a mystic opens its wings to break your walls and windows through which you were previously trying to recognize a drop. The finite in you may shock you for the infinite lies down thy own dale. You appreciate the sea shore and forget the tides, you applause the tides and ignore the rush, you admire the rush and put out of your mind the majesty and from here the journey of wilderness begins and it ends but not before unveiling another and goes on and on. There is no end to endless mysteries. There is no limit to the unlimited and unfathomable ocean of knowledge. The seeker is caught in the snare, trapped in the mesh of amazement. He tries to unfold one, but in doing so thousands shall occupy the carpet. Before reaching the end of the tunnel you may fall short of life and the rest remains silent.
I have fallen into this sea because of bewilderment—-my boat begins to dance wherever it sees a whirlpool…… Urfi.
Before this vacant yacht is lobbed in the junkyard, experience the glow, grow up and sense the ‘Presence’. Remember spiritual creativity starts off from the substantial interlacing of cause and effect. The thought that wears over the qualms and insecurities must be dealt in the hearth of faith. The warmth of love will undoubtedly serve a steadfast servant. The relation between the Master and maid in terms of Mysticism of Personality acts as a lover yearning for his Beloved. Thus, a servant or maid lives for a cause and the Object of Admiration progresses as the effect. Between the two ends of existence, dwells the wisdom of heart which in reciprocity allows the spirit to see what a mediocre imaginative tendency hunts for. What misleads his engineered thought is his own cocoonic movement which only destroys his limbs and plugs his entry. He dies in his own space. What is needed is to break the barrier and to guide your senses to feel the Presence devoid of form. Murshid Sultan Bahoo says:
Rites of fasting, praying, abstaining
Cries in wilderness are, Lo!
Rituals do not lead to Allah
Read thyself and thyself know
Never, never, meets Beloved
Through the rituals, no, Oh no!
Burn yourself with Love, O Bahoo:
And be one with One and glow!
Dhu’n-Nun teaches us: To ponder about the Essence of God is ignorance and to point out to Him is associationism and the real gnosis is bewilderment. That what is inconceivable must be enjoyed in the same texture. Engaging doctrines and terminologies aided with allegoric connotations under the canopy of metaphors and verbal veneration end only at a darkroom to wink at a blind man to proclaim the demerit of pseudo psychological approvals. To characterize certain mystic circumstances, a reasonably accomplished artist’s center of attention is to derive or conclude it by defining the meaning of this delicate thread of mystic experience which to an active mystic seems miles away from his spiritual eye. Preferences vary. A saying ascribed to one of the ninth- century Khurasanian ascetics: “ Who wants to attain to the highest honour should prefer seven to seven: poverty to wealth, hunger to satiety, the low to the exalted, humiliation to honour, modesty to pride, sadness to joy and death to life.”
Junayd, the undisputed leader of the Iraqian school of mysticism guides us through this powerful saying: Sufism is not (achieved) by much praying and fasting, but it is the security of the heart and the generosity of the soul. The goal of the mystic is to return to the experience of the “ Day of Alastu,” when only Allah existed before He led future creatures out of the abyss of not-being and endowed them with life , love and understanding so that they may face Him again at the end of the time.
