The Muslim Saints of Maharashtra

Mention should be made of the Muslim saints of Maharashtra. Little is known of this aspect of the Maharashtrian religious tradition. However it is clear that some Muslim Marathas also achieved their union with the Divine, and were accepted as such by contemporary saints. The Muslims entered the Deccan (much of which later became Maharashtra) with the defeat of the Yadavas of Devagiri in 1296. The Muslim rulers dominated that area continuously until the end of the seventeenth century. Over the centuries of co-existence, the two communities (now known as Muslims and Hindus) learnt to co-exist, and that included respect for the holy men in each community, resulting in many yogis and Sufis being known by two names, one from each community. (Wagle 1989; Duncan and Van Skyhawk 1997; Deak 2010, 2013, 2016)

 Chand Bodhle was a sixteenth century Muslim mystic who seems to have been the teacher of Jnanardan Swami (the guru of Eknath) and of Sheikh Mahammad. Also known as Sayed Candasaheb Kadiri. It is likely that Eknath chose to amend his spiritual lineage through Jnanardana to the Hindu God, Dattatreya, to avoid the displeasure of the Hindu orthodoxy. (Van Skyhawk 1992; Deak 2005, 2010, 2016).  

It should be noted also that there is a tradition in Marathi texts of representing Dattatreya as a fakir, or Muslim holy man, which suggests a “sophisticated Sankritisation of Islamic holy men” by some religious groups. Other groups may have adopted this form for the “Islamization of the followers of holy men.” (Deak 2010). Several of the Nath yogis in Maharashtra have Muslim names and are identified as Muslim holy men. An example would be Gahini Nath who is also known as Gaibi Pir. (Duncan and Van Skyhawk 1997:409-410).

  Latif Shah  was a sixteenth century Muslim who become a follower of the great Eknath and a devout Vaishnava. Biographical detail is sparse. There are mentions of Latif Shah in the writings of two of the 18th century pandits. Moropant, in his Sanmani Male, notes that Latif was admired by Tukaram. Mahipati, in his Bhaktivijaya, records a miracle involving Latif and a Muslim king. (Kulkarnee 1989:226-227). Of Latif’s own compositions, only three Hindi poems and one Marathi poem have been identified. In one of the Hindi poems Latif mentions previous devotees of Lord Rama, and records his worship of Rama and Krishna. His surviving Marathi poem is a castigation of hypocrisy, ritualistic religion and objects of worship. (Kulkarnee 1989:227).  
 Sheikh Mahammad (1560-1650), a contemporary of Tukaram and Ramdas, is the best known of the Muslim Marathi saints, and is regarded as the Marathi reincarnation of Kabir due to a similarity of views regarding unnecessary rituals and blind faith amongst ordinary men. (Kulkarnee 1989:218; Pathan 1983:296). He was born into the family of Syed Raja Mahammad, the qiladar (governor) of Dharur, a fort that changed hands several times in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, finally falling to the Muslim general Azam Khan in 1631. Raja Mahammad was a member of the Qadiriya order of Sufis. He entrusted the education of his son to his disciple, Chand Bodhle. (Kulkarnee 1989:218; disputed by Deak 2013).

 Shekh Mahammad was associated for most of life with the city of Shrigonda, part of the Ahmadnagar district of Maharashtra, where he was given land by one of the local Maratha chieftains. His descendents still live in this city and are custodians of his tomb. (Deak 2013). Sheikh Mahammad’s major work is the Yogasangrama, written towards the end of his life in 1645. In this text he describes the soul as the warrior in a war of yoga or yog-sangram who has to fight against the ego and other vices. If successful in this war, the soul reaches the summit, the brahman sikhar, and this is the end of the yog-sangram. In the Yogasangrama‘s eighteen chapters Sheikh Mahammad accepts the Hindu Gods Rama, Krishna, Shiva, Vishnu and Ganesha. He criticizes both the ritualism of Hindu Brahmanism and the bizarre practices involved in the worshipping of the local folk-gods and goddesses. (Pathan 1983:295; Wagle 1989:57-58).

 In the collection of his padas and abhangas, known as the Kavitasangraha, Sheikh Mahammad says of himself:

 Through the grace of (god) Gopala, I have transgressed all notions of purity and impurity.
The jack-fruit has a thorny skin, but inside it are lumps of sugar.
The bee-hive with all its humming bees contains the very nectar inside.
(So also) Sheikh Mahammed may be an avindha,
But in his heart he has the very Govinda. (CML 378)

 Sheikh Mahammad taught that spiritual knowledge and enlightenment was beyond caste, creed or religion, and he castigated ritualistic religion and cruel social practices. He was respected by both Hindus and Muslims, and had Hindu disciples from various classes, including Dayaldas Devang, a weaver in Kannada, and Raghunath Yogi, who have written about him. His son Davalji and his grandson Hakimji composed verses in his praise. Samartha Ramdas composed a verse about him. (Kulkarnee 1989:219) Sheikh Mahammad wrote mainly in Marathi. His compositions in Hindu, Urdu and Persian have also survived.

  Shah Muni (c.1756-1807) was a Muslim bhakti poet who emerged in the third quarter of the century. He was of the fourth generation in his family to follow Hindu traditions in addition to their Muslim faith. He had a deep knowledge of the Vedas, the Puranas and other Sanskrit texts which enabled him to make insightful comments on Hindu popular and brahmanic religion. He also had a knowledge of Mahanubhava doctrines. Shah Muni had a guru, Munindra Swami, a sannyasi of the Datta Sampradaya, who blessed him in Varanasi in about 1779. He is best known for his monumental work, the Siddhanta Bodha, which contains 50 chapters with 9858 verses, and was probably completed in 1794. It contains a mixture of Mahanubhava teachings, advaita philosophy, and Puranic stories. There are also Varkari bhakti influences, and evidence that Shah Muni held Kabir in high esteem. He was against the caste system and its hierarchy. (Wagle 1989; Kulkarnee 1989:223-224; Pathan 1983:298)

(extract from John Noyce,  The Saints of Maharashtra)

Iran

"... Iran, you know, is in a great trouble. My attention is very much there and I can't understand what's gone wrong with them, I really can't understand. I would have gone to Iran myself, but now such a thing has happened that I can't go. No use going like that. But things will work out, you will see. It will work out and the country will change. Its all nonsense will be over. As it is they are suffering too much. They are very poor and fundamentalism, it is eating them off. They are all fighting among themselves. This is no religion, this is no Islam, this is not what Mohammed Sahib wanted. It is very difficult to explain to them or to tell them about Islam, that this is Islam, and this is what is the truth."

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Cabella, Italy, 1997.   (1997-0906)

Giving Realisation in Bangladesh

More than 60 seekers received their self realization at Gulshan Park and Manik Ganj in the city of Dhaka in Bangladesh.

Your hands will speak

Qur'an:

That Day, We will seal over their mouths, and their hands will speak to Us, and their feet will testify about what they used to earn.
(36:65)

On a Day when their tongues, their hands and their feet will bear witness against them as to what they used to do.
(24:24)

See also 41:19-23

A free bird

Now this main question today, which I'm going to tell you about that what is God's realization. First is the Self-realization and there are many ambitious people who want to become God-realized. First and foremost thing we should know that human beings cannot become God. It's not the becoming of it. You have not become also in a way spirit because the spirit is emitting through you, using you, giving you, looking after you. If you become the spirit there wont be any body left, nothing will be left. So with this body intact, your spirit is acting through this body, is giving you all the light. But one cannot become God Almighty; this one has to understand very clearly.

But what is God's realization - is to know about God. You see, to know about God means to know how His powers are working. How He controls by becoming part and parcel of God Almighty. Like my finger doesnt know about my brain, but it acts according to my brain. The finger cannot become the brain, but it has to act absolutely according to my brain because it is so connected, it is so one. Here when you have the God-realization then you know about the brain, you know about God, you know about His powers, you know everything about Him.

As far as I'm concerned its a difficult task for you, because I'm a Mahamaya. Its very difficult for you to know each and everything about me. I'm quite an elusive person as you know that well, and whatever I do or whatever I achieve, it is just for you to see and understand that after all this is Adi Shakti and She can do all these things. You can also do all the things but you cannot become me. But you have to know, to know through love, through devotion, through prayers to know the God's Powers is the way you are God-realized. Then you can control the nature, you can control everything, if you have that knowledge within you about God. For that a complete humility is needed that you cannot become God, cannot become God Almighty. You cannot become the deities but definitely you can become God-realized. Means God acts through you, uses you as His power, as His channel and that you know, that you know what He's doing to you, what He's telling, what His vision is and what is the information. The connection is like that.

Many people in Sahaja Yoga have been benefited, I know. But they don't know how they have been benefited. What has worked it out? How it has worked it out. What connection of theirs has helped them? Once you do that you know that clearly how things are working out, with what power you have achieved it, then its a God's realization. Such people become extremely powerful in the sense that they can control so many things. There have been many saints of that kind but sometimes they fell from even that and they developed their ego. They didnt have their own humility that they should have, that devotion, that dedication, that surrendering. They fell down and you see them, I've seen some of them that they become quite proud of their achievements and they don't want to give it to anyone. They think they have achieved it with great difficulties and why should they give it to others. Such people are not going to rise very higher. But you people who have got your realization and who are humble, who know that out of humility only you are going to achieve your surrendering.

Islam means surrender. Mohammed Sahib has talked about Islam, meaning, you surrender. If you cannot surrender you can never know God. He's clearly said that. Unless and until you know yourself you will not know about God. So as Sahajis you have to know all the little, little things, all the big things and all the great visions, that you can do it because of the grace of God, because His blessings, because of His love for you, that you have entered into the Kingdom of God. I may say you have entered, I may say you have achieved that state, I may say that. But still you are not there. ...

One of the qualities of Shiva is complete detachment and that is what you have to develop, is to become completely detached. Detachment doesnt mean that you neglect anything. I've explained to you many-a-times that like the sap in the tree rises, goes to different, various places and then evaporates or it goes back to Mother Earth. In the same way your detachment should be. If you get attached because its your son or if you get attached because he's Australian or maybe he belongs to certain family or certain class then you are still limited. All this limitations have to be dropped, if you have to cross over. And these limitations create such a big load that whatever I may try, whatever you may try you cannot stay in thoughtless awareness.

That's a very beautiful state in which all of you should be there. In that you are not dominating nor you are compromising. You stand on your own legs and you know for definite that you are not swayed away by any idea or any domination or any subjection of yours by anyone. So you become completely a free bird, absolutely a free bird, and then it becomes your job to achieve your flight. One flight is up to the thoughtless awareness. The second one is up to the doubtless awareness and the third one is to God's realization.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extract from Shivaratri Puja 1996, Sydney, Australia
(1996-0303)

Easter 2002

Today we have come here to worship Jesus Christ and His Mother. It’s such a coincidence that the Mother of Christ came and stayed in Turkey. Isn’t it surprising that She should come here after the crucifixion of Christ and stayed here. I wonder if He also came with Her later on? But they say then He went to Kashmir and She was also there. Quite possible, on their way, they might have gone there. So, we are here to worship them.

According to Sahaja Yoga, She was the Incarnation of Mahalakshmi and She’s the One who sacrificed Her Son for the sake of religion. But unfortunately, nobody understood Her value. Nobody saw that She was such a great spiritual personality. Only through Sahaja Yoga you can understand that She was a very great personality who gave birth to Christ.

It is very unfortunate that She was not respected, specially in the Islamic world. Because of that, the women in the Islamic culture have no place. My experience is very sad, about them. We have started an organization for the rehabilitation of women who are destitutes and all of them who have applied are Muslim ladies – very sad. While Mohammad Sahib has said that you must look after your mother, despite that all these women – some of them have eight children, ten children – have come to this destitute home. Of course, we have to give them place. We have to look after them because we don’t believe in all these small type of ideas about religion. Most important is human religion.

We have to combine all these religions together. It’s a terrible task because Muslim won’t respect Muslim. Christians won’t respect Hindus. I mean it’s a funny thing that’s going on. They all are for God and for God’s work and His love. Despite that, there’s no respect. There’s no love. On the contrary they’re all quarrelling, fighting, killing, everywhere. It’s very sad that in the name of religion and God, people should become so cruel and so absurd.

This is the only solution – is to give them Self-realization, which is the Realization was called as Miraj in the Koran. It’s called as Miraj. But they have said that nobody can get Miraj. Mohammad Sahib got it, but nobody else – like they have banned people from getting Self-realization, which is not true. All human beings can get Self-realization, whether they are from Africa, England, America, India, anywhere. They all can get their Miraj. One should understand that no human being is created in this world to fight, to fight each other. Even the animals don’t fight. Why should human beings fight – that too in the name of religion, in the name of God. Christ came on this Earth just to create oneness of religion, but even the Christians, they only started fighting, dominating others. It’s a big world of turmoil, where everybody is fighting in the name of God and in the name of religion.

So our religion is global, is one religion. We respect all the Deities, all the Gods and Goddesses – respect them and worship them. We are not so stupid not to understand that they are all One. Also after getting Realization, you realize that all these exist on our central nervous system. They exist on our chakras. They are not there just because people have told us in history and all that, but actually in - that’s a fact, that all of them are there together, working out the resurrection of the whole world. So the greatest thing that Christ has done is the resurrection part and, in this resurrection, He suffered a lot. He had to go through lots of ordeals and then His body itself was resurrected. On the same light, Sahaja Yoga is working out – that you get your Realization - means your resurrection. All your wrong ideas disappear. All your nonsense disappears and nothing but love, understanding, comes in.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extract from Easter Puja 2002, Istanbul, Turkey (2002-0421)

Tunis

I was so surprised when I came here that especially Tunis I felt was full of Divine vibrations. I just didn’t understand what was going on in this beautiful holy place. Then I discovered there have been three great souls, very highly spiritual, who were born in this place. I was absolutely restless to see those places. I think their souls also are restless to see me. I hope tomorrow I will visit all these places. There is a special relationship that exists between saints, and it’s very joy-giving. You feel you are not alone in this place – there are many others who have lived. But they could not do much because people were so ignorant. Most of the saints – even [Mohammed-sahib] was tortured. [Hazrat-Ali], who was a great incarnation, also was killed. His two children from Fatima also were killed. Horrible things happened to them. That does not mean that spiritual people do not have the protection of the Divine. But it was all done to show how these people could sacrifice their life for truth.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, 2nd Public Program, Tunis, Tunisia, 1994 (1994-1112)

Moses

Moses had (a) problem with people who were very indulgent people, so he had to pass laws of Shariat. ... Moses had to pass these laws … to make the people follow religion precisely. So he did not argue, he did not say why you should do it, didn’t give any explanation. “You do it!” Like that. … So the people who were at the time of Moses, when he had gone to get the Ten Commandments, started indulging into very, very immoral character, extremely immoral character. They were very immoral and were doing such horrible things that nobody can believe that anybody who tried to escape from the Egyptians were worse than the Egyptians themselves. So he gave this Shariat to them, to change.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Puja in Greece, 1989

(1989-0524)

Fatima

Advice given by H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Nirmala Devi:


1988-0814 Shri Fatima Puja from Sahaja Library on Vimeo.

Now, the principle of Gruha Lakshmi has been evolved and developed by the Divine: it is not a human being’s creation, and as you know, it resides in the left nabhi. The Gruha Lakshmi is the one that is represented in the life of Fatima who was the daughter of Mohammed Sahib. Now She is always born in a relationship to a guru which is of virginity, of purity. So She comes as a sister, or She comes as a daughter. ...
So we have Ali and his wife, Fatima, who incarnated on the principle of the left nabhi. She stayed in her house, in her household, and she observed what you call a kind of a purdah or nakaab as they call it, to cover her face – is a symbol that a woman who is a housewife has to save her chastity by covering her face, because she was a beautiful woman and they were born in a country which was very, very violent, and she would have been definitely attacked in case she had not lived in that kind of fashion. As you know, in the time of Christ, though Mary was Mahalakshmi’s incarnation, had to be a very, very potential personality and Christ did not want anybody to know what she was. But though she was in the house, she was Shakti so she allowed her sons, or actually ordered them, to fight those fanatics who were trying to deny the authority of her husband, and you know they - Hassan and Hussein - they were killed there. It’s a very beautiful thing how the Mahalakshmi tattwa of Sita took a form of Vishnumaya just to establish the beautiful principle of a housewife. Now She was very powerful, no doubt, and she knew that her children would be killed but these people are never killed, they never die, nor do they suffer – it’s a drama they have to play to show people how stupid they are.
(Shri Fatima Puja, Switzerland, 1988)

Fatima lost her two children and she was the embodiment of Gruha Lakshmi. She resides in our left Nabhi. So for all the diseases that are connected with the spleen, all the problems that are connected with your left Nabhi, can be only corrected by Fatima. So you have to keep Fatima awakened within yourself. That we are here in the Islamic culture, we can say this is place of Islamic culture and in the Islamic culture a housewife was given a very, very important place. ... So from Fatima’s life you have to know that She did not go out of Her house and She remained the housewife and She made Her two children grow up in such a manner that they had to fight the war against fanaticism. Her husband also was there. This is how a woman of a housewife is shown to be so powerful and though she’s in the house, though she is, looks to be just a mother, but how powerful she is!
Shri Mataji at the Ladies public program in Tunis, 1994 (1994-1113)

Iran

Some Advice by H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi:

When we really balance our gunas properly, then we become gradually the master of the whole situation. The attention doesn’t get dragged into things that we have been doing or that we have understood through our memories, or through our experiences or whatever it is. And is not also dragged towards too much on the right hand side that we try to overpower, or try to dominate someone. Because if you move too much that side you have seen it becomes blood. It is difficult for people to understand how, when people become very religious-minded, like now Iran, the movement is on the right - all the austerities, all that, everything. Now bloodshed.
(Talk on Attention, London, 26/5/80)

Iran, you know, is in a great trouble. ... But things will work out, you will see. It will work out and the country will change. Its all nonsense, will be over. As it is they are suffering too much. They are very poor and fundamentalism, it is eating them off. They are all fighting among themselves. This is no religion, this is no Islam, this is not what Mohammed Sahib wanted. It is very difficult to explain to them or to tell them about Islam, that this is Islam, and this is what is the truth.
(Talk, Cabella, 6/9/97)

The great saint

Once I went to a small village called Miapatapi. And as soon as I stepped into the village, I felt tremendous vibrations and I said, “Who was the great saint who lived here?” So they said there was one Muslim pir. I said, “Whatever it is, he was a saint.” And when I was sitting and giving lecture – you will see the photographs – the light came on my head seven times. And the seventh time then I put my hand like this. But nobody saw it. Only I knew. And I knew that it was there. I was laughing with it. And then the people - you see when they took the photograph - they could picture it. So these realized souls are all over, and they are helping.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extract from Talk on Agnya Chakra, Delhi, 3/2/83

Understanding "I am the last Prophet"

...it comes quite often that we do not understand: like Prophet Mohammad said that “I am the last prophet.” All right, He did say that He was the last prophet. Supposing I say, I am the last person to come here. All right I would say just to frighten you that you better take to it otherwise this is the last time I am telling you. But it is never that because when He died He found out that, you see, these people are mad cap. “I didn’t tell them this, what are they doing out of me?” So he said, “I better go back again,” and He came as Nanaka and He told them that “Hindu and Muslims are same people, following the same religion, why are you fighting among yourselves?” He came for that unity. Then as Nanaka He came; so in Nanaka’s system also the Sikhism came in and they started a warrior class and this and that. I mean imagine, the Sikhism ended up by having wars within Muslims and Hindus. So then He came as Shirdi Sai Nath to teach them. Now this is not a very important thing that, say Mohammad Sahib said, “I am the last.” Say He is the last, all right, even take that position. Who are you to him? How are you related? Through what? What is your authority? How do you appropriate Him to yourself? Because you say you are Muslims. So what? How did you become Muslims? Did you get your certificate from God?

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extract from 'World of Bliss and Joy', talk at Caxton Hall, London, 30/5/79

Shri Mataji Visits Nizamuddin Shrine 1993

1993-0320 Visit to Nizamuddin Shrine Delhi from Sahaja Library

Another video, with Arrival

So many things you have seen get organized because also this Paramchaitanya has come into Kruta Yuga where it is working it out. It’s acting. And this activity, also, is absolutely supportive to you. For example, the police people told us that there are Muslims living here and you might have some danger from them. They might do some harm to you. I said, “Which Muslims are they?” So they said, “Nizamuddin Aulia people are here.” I said, “They’ll never harm us.”
I said, "Why? Because he was a Sufi and he was a great realized soul and the people who are around there, must be, most of them are, at least, believers of Sufism. How can they harm us?” So I said, “Tomorrow, early in the morning, you go and put a chador, as they call it, all of you,” and they were so impressed that you saw in the evening they came here all the way, morning time, and they were so respectful, then they called me, they gave me another chador, this, that and they said that we are yours and this and that, all kinds of things.
And his disciple was Amir Kousrow, was another very, very great Sufi gentleman and I always have admired his poetry and also the way Nizamuddin led his life of dignity and divinity.

All these Muslims who were there put hands towards me like this and they said, “We are feeling the cool breeze”, I said, “This is Ruh.” “Ah, this is Ruh.”
Once these people start getting Ruh, they will all become Sahaja Yogis very soon and you may have to have…..(unfinished sentence due to clapping)

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extract from Birthday Puja Talk, Delhi, 1993


poetry by Amir Khusro

The Muslim Jesus

Jesus said,
A person can bring forth only what is within him.

(`Abdallah ibn Qutayba, `Uyun, 2.370)


Jesus said,
Place your treasures in heaven, for the heart of a person is where his treasure is.

(Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Zuhd, 313)


Note: The Muslim tradition reveres Jesus as a prophet. His sayings are found scattered throughout Arabic works on ethics, popular devotion in Islam, Sufi mysticism, collections of wisdom, and the histories of Muslim prophets and saints. Dates for these sources range from 8th to 12th centuries. Many of these sayings echo the Christian gospels, canonical and non-canonical, but not all. Most are deeply ascetic: the Syriac Christian tradition would have been the form of Christianity most well-known to early Muslims.
(based on a posting on The Forbidden Gospels Blog)

The Muslim Jesus (book)

The Muslim Jesus (video documentary)

Jesus Christ in the Qur'an

Behold! The angels said: ‘O Mariam [Mary]! God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him. His name will be Isa [Jesus], the son of Mariam, held in honor in this world and the hereafter and in (the company of) those nearest to God.’ (3:45)

We gave Isa, the son of Mariam, clear arguments and strengthened him with the holy spirit. (2:87)

And she who guarded her chastity [Mary], so We breathed into her of Our inspiration and made her and her son a sign for the nations. (21:91)

We sent Isa son of Mariam afterwards, and We gave him the Injeel [holy book], and We put in the hearts of those who followed him kindness and mercy. (57:27)

Illumination: Mariam with baby Isa (Persian miniature)

Qur'an online

The Chakras in Islam

"These Chakras are known as Alam or Latifa in Islam and in Sufism respectively.
One of the names of Allah is Al-Latif, which means the subtle one or the one who knows all subtleties.
Hence the word for Chakras used is Latifa which means subtle centre.
Chakras are indeed subtle centres which when awakened give a person his self-realisation."

Mooladhara Chakra / Alam-e-Fa'ani / Latifa Kalabiyah
Swadhistana Chakra / Alam-e-Masout / Latifa Nafsiyah
Nabhi Chakra / Alam-e-Lahoot / Latifa Kalhbiyah
Anahata Chakra / Alam-e-Sahoot / Latifa Sirriyah
Vishuddhi Chakra / Alam-e-Malkoot / Latifa Ruhiyah
Agnya Chakra / Alam-e-Jabroot / Latifa Khafiyah
Sahastrara Chakra / Alam-e-Lahoot / Latifa Haqqiyah

Source: Javed Khan, Islam Enlightened (New Delhi: Ritana Books, 1998), p63

In Sufism the Lataif are sometimes associated with the physical body.

Whilst attributions of Lataif to specific parts of the physical body can be found in Sufi writings, not all Sufis who use the lataif compare them to the chakras of the yogic subtle body. Lizzio (2007) maintains that the Naqshbandi sufis regard the lataif as having no fixed location and could be anywhere in the physical body, with the possible exception of the lataif for the heart. Harvat (1988) however gives six lataif and their locations in the physical body as used in the Mujaddidiyya branch of the Naqshbandi, named after the seventeenth century Sufi, Ahmad Sirhindi Mujaddid.

Harvat (1988) proposes that the Lataif are first found in the writings of the Turkestani Sufi, Najmuddin Kubra (1145-1220), founder of the Kubrawiyya order; and developed more fully in the writings of the Persian Sufi, Alaoddawleb Semnani (thirteenth - fourteenth century).

In India the lataif become associated with the chakras of the Nath yogis, as noted above. An early practitioner of this integration was Mohammad Ghawth (sixteenth century), a master of the Shattari order. (Harvat 1988).

A theory of the lataif as subtle spiritual centers is to be found in the writings of the Indian Sufi, Shah Waliullah of Delhi (1703-1762) (Hermansen 1988).


from John Noyce, The Inner Ascent (2018).

The Mother in the Islamic Tradition

Paradise is at the feet of the Mother.

Allah, The Most High, is pleased when Fatimah is pleased.
He is angered, whenever Fatimah is angered!

(Two Hadith (Sayings) of the Prophet Mohammed)


On the face of the earth there is no one more beautiful than You.
Wherever I go I wear Your image in my heart.
Whenever I fall in a despondent mood I remember your image
And my spirit rises thousand fold.
Your advent is the blossom time of the universe.
O Mother you have showered Your choicest blessings upon me.
Also remember me on the Day of Judgement.
I don’t know if I will go to heaven or hell,
But wherever I go, please always abide in me.

(Unknown Sufi)


On Resurrection Day, the sun and moon are released from service:
and the eye beholds the Source of their radiance,
then it discerns the permanent possession from the loan,
and this passing caravan from the abiding home.
If for a while a wet nurse is needed,
Mother, return us to your breast.
I don’t want a nurse; my Mother is more fair.
I am like Moses whose nurse and Mother were the same.

(Jalal al-Din Rumi, Masnavi)

Nizamuddin and Amir Khusro

Nizamuddin "was a Sufi and he was a great realized soul ... and his disciple was Amir Khusro, was another very, very great Sufi gentleman and I always have admired his poetry and also the way Nizamuddin led his life of dignity and divinity."
(H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Delhi, 21/3/93)


Some poetry by Amir Khusro (1253-1325):

Khusro! the river of love has a reverse flow
He who enters will drown, he who drowns will get across.


How lovely is winter in India
that makes the home and outside look like a garden.
Neither the road becomes a frozen back of the snow,
Nor the hands remain fixed in fists due to cold.
The wide fields are never short of greenery,
The trees never look naked of leaves.
The air is not empty of the chirping of birds,
Nor the garden is deserted of sounds.
Any one can embark on a journey
carrying one or two layers of clothes only.
(extract from the Mathnavi Noh Sipihr)

Whenever he visits my place, wakes me up from the sleep,
he sings the song of separation;
Is it the Beloved, oh friend? No, its mosquito!

illustration: a meeting of Nizamuddin and Amir Khusro

The Sufis of Turkey

"Turkey has one very great blessing. It has had so many sufis. And if you read them, it is a description of Sahaja Yogis. They didn't call them Sahaja Yogis but they were because they are described to be like this or that and when they tell about their own experiences in poetry you are amazed to see they are talking like Sahaja Yogis."
(H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, 2001)

There is a Water that flows down from Heaven
To cleanse the world of sin by grace Divine.
At last, its whole stock spent, its virtue gone,
Dark with pollution not its own, it speeds
Back to the Fountain of all purities;
Whence, freshly bathed, earthward it sweeps again,
Trailing a role of glory bright and pure.
This Water is the Spirit of the Saints.
Which ever sheds, until itself is beggared,
God’s balm on the sick soul; and then returns
To Him who made the purest light of Heaven.
(Jalaludin Rumi, 1207-1273)

I am before, I am after –
The soul for all souls all the way.
I’m the one with a helping hand
Ready for those gone wild, astray.
(Yusuf Emre, 1238-1321)

I tie up greed, and release generosity.
I shackle anger, and liberate meekness.
I bind consumerism, and unbind piety.
I tie up ignorance, and unfetter respect for the Absolute.
I restrain passion, and release the love of the Absolute.
I tie up desire, and free fulfilment.
I bind commodification, and liberate awareness.
(Haji Bektash Veli, 1248-1337)

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.
(Jalaludin Rumi)

God permeates the whole wide world,
Yet His truth is revealed to none.
You better seek Him in yourself,
You and He aren't apart - you're one.
(Yusuf Emre)

Find in yourself all that you seek.
(Haji Bektash Veli)

This is how it always is
when I finish a poem.
A great silence overcomes me,
and I wonder why I ever thought
to use language.
(Jalaludin Rumi)

Sufism

Interviewer: Is Sahaja Yoga like Sufism? Islamic spiritualism?

Shri Mataji: Not 'ism'. That's the difference between the two. Anyone can call himself a sufi. It's not an 'ism'. 'Ism' means a kind of theory or a kind of group who believes in something. It's not like that. Sahaja Yoga makes you a sufi. Sufi means 'cleansed'. It cleanses you and you get rid of all these horrible things and you become a transformed person. Most of the sufis didn't know how they became sufis. They were born like that. And the others who talk about that, like Tao. You must have heard about the Chinese thing, Tao; when they describe a sage, they say a sage is like this, like that. But how does he become like that? So that part is missing, even in the sufi theories. How you become a sufi? Just by going round and round, you don't become a sufi. By following a certain code of life, you don't become a sufi. What does it, is Kundalini. That has to rise.

...

Interviewer: Turkey is located in the middle of several volatile regions. For example, the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Middle East with its present Israel and the Palestinians. Can Turkey and or Turkish Yogis play a role in bringing peace to these regions?

Shri Mataji: Of course. Why not. Of course. Turkey has one very great blessing. It has had so many sufis. And if you read them, it is a description of Sahaja Yogis. They didn't call them Sahaja Yogis but they were because they are described to be like this or that and when they tell about their own experiences in poetry you are amazed to see they are talking like Sahaja Yogis. That's the reason. Because of that blessing, Turkey has become very important for me also. That spirituality will definitely take a shape here and maybe, I almost feel, that Islam will be, really be shown in Turkey very well and maybe it will help people to correct their ideas about Islam.

Turkish Daily News, 27 April 2001

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