I was delighted that I picked up this book to read. I need that kind of experience! The “Teachings of Rumi” in which the author, Andrew Harvey, have collected a wide range of luminous verses, talks, and, anecdotes from Odes, Methawni, and Table talks (collection of Rumi’s writing), intending to present a balanced view of his teaching that includes both the high-flying Love of Allah and the rigorous path of discipline essential for those who seek it.
This book is divided into four parts;
- The Call
- Be a Lover
- Ordeal
- Union
Jalaluddin Rumi has made it evident to all of his followers that the path of Sufism always contains grief, suffering, and bewilderment and Rumi’s celebration of the Beloved are needed not only a revelation of the real purpose of human life but as essential inspiration and empowerments in the struggle to save the human race. While exploring the journey of this book, the maturity of Sufism wallows inside oneself in a way that it goes making that person more quiet and thoughtful for reasoning the true self from wrapping up the false and fantasies a person has lived for long.
The sublime words of Rumi illuminate the heart and mind conveying an experience of Divine Love that is striking and revolutionary.
The first part, “The Call,” gave me the inner shock emulating the self-existence. Citing the quote from it,
Untie the knot of existence and reign in your fantasies so you can at least escape the tyrannical false self.
In the second part, “Be a Lover,” the reader is taken into the shrine-room of the heart, where the supreme secrets of Love and passion are opened in its all the wisdom and power.
The third part, “Ordeal,” explores the nature meaning, price, and demand of the sustained ordeals.
In the fourth part, “Union,” the Journey to Allah has become the Journey in Allah; Rumi makes it clear that such Journey to Allah becomes the journey, which has no end in dimension.
The movement ends with a series of Rumi’s holiest meditations on death on the mystery of inner relationship beyond time and space because the sublime wisdom has so much to do with humanity. This book feels the essence of Islamic religion, which, today, we are interpreting in impure and imperfect fashion. Rumi’s Philosophy makes us understand the true meaning of Love. His concept of divine Love is to know that it could only be found on the other side of an Annihilation of self that demanded and cost everything. Religion and Sufism move simultaneously, but you may feel the gap of Western thought, which has contemporary dominance over all of us.
My last words about this book are that amongst all the Islamic prophecies and their followers, Hazrat Jalaluddin Rumi is one of the mystics worth following, for he is one of the most pious creatures of Allah who lived the whole and joyful life.
In prostration why think of someone else
Why are you heartbroken and in pain
Find the war within you
Stun everyone around you
Make a small world for yourself
Be a wanderer on spiritual ecstasy.
(Anonymus)
