International Journal of Naqshbandi Tariqat July-sept 2012

International journal OF

TO RISE ABOVE NARROWNESS LEADS TO TRUTH

Truth is existential. Truth is beyond Time and space!

Know this as Spirituality!

A Production of

Naqshbandia – Mujaddadia – Mazaharia – Ramchandria Tariqat

A Quarterly Journal

Volume II Issue III

July - September 2012

The International Journal of Naqshbandi Tariqat

i

The International Journal Of

Naqshbandi Tariqat

© The International Journal of Naqshbandi Tariqat

And Taoshobuddha Meditations

All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in

aretrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, mechanical,

photocopying, recording or otherwise, withoutprior written permission of the

original publisher TAOSHOBUDDHA MEDITATIONSTM and TAOSHOBUDDHA.

Printed and Published by TAOSHOBUDDHA MEDITATIONS

Cover design and graphics: Anand Neelambar

CHIEF EDITOR: ANAND NEELAMBAR, TRINIDAD

ASSISTANT EDITOR: LARS JENSEN, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

ADVISORY EDITOR: MAULWI JALALUDDIN AHMAD AR-ROWI, MALAYSIA

HONORARY EDITOR: SAHABZADA MOHAMMED ZUBAIR MUJADDADI,

ROZAI SHARIF

DARGAH-E-MUJADDADI, SIRHIND SHARIF, PUNJAB

INDIA


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Editorial Staff Sheikh Taoshobuddha

Anand Neelambar

Lars Jensen, Stockholm, Sweden

MaulwiJalaluddin Ahmad Ar-Rowi, Malaysia

Prof. Rattan LalHangloo, Bhatinda, Punjab, India

Sahabzada Mohammad ZubaiMujaddadi,

Rozai Sharif, Sirhind Punjab, India

Managing Editor Anand Neelambar

Assistant Managing Editor Lars Jensen

JNT EDITORIAL OFFICE: 66 College Street St Augustine Trinidad,W.I.

Phone: 1-954-381-1227

Skype.Com: Taoshobuddha1

Website: http://dhyan-samadhi.webs.com/

Email: [email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

1-868-683-8587

http://dhyan-samadhi.webs.com/

mailto:[email protected]






iii

Contents

1 Editorial iv

2 Tasawwuf - the Spirit of Sufism 4

3 Naqshbandi Parables - unique way to Tariqat 10

4 How does a Master work? 16

5 What is Sufism? 20

6 Propagation of Sufism 32

7 What is Naqashbandi design? 33

8 Khwaja Sayyid Amir Kulal RA 52


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Editorial

The Sufi way is a continuous journey from unknown to unknowable; it is never

finished. It comes to brief sojourn to marvel at the mysteriesof existence.

Sufis are people of love, mad ecstatic love for the Creator and his creation. The

Sufi is both known and unknown. A Sufi can be known only if you are ready to go

into the mystical realm and discover your inner being. A Sufi remains unknown to

those who are merely curious and inquisitive into the deeper spiritual quests.

You cannot fathom the ways of a Sufi. His dimension is beyond the medium of

ordinary understanding. Yet what you think is ordinary, a Sufi sees as a path to

ultimate fulfillment. What you think as miraculous, a Sufi knows to be an ordinary

phenomenon.

A Sufi looks like you. But his inner state is far beyond what you can imagine. A

Sufi is pure awareness. Just pure awareness! He reflects the existence as it is with

no judgments and interpretation.

The Sufi world is one of mysticism and magic. I say magic because you cannot

decipher it by intellect. You have to experience for yourself. Intellect is very frail to

enter the Sufi world. You need the strength of absolute trust. If you can trust

unconditionally this very moment you can become enlightened. Sufis are not

interested in knowledge. Knowledge cannot help. Only experience will give a taste

into what is Sufism.

“Let the song echo as the music rises and fills the aura, let the inner silence

vibrate the strings of words, and let the words chant the song of eternal silence;

let the smiles of the lips taste the wetness of the eyes. Also let the glittering eyes

once fill with eternal smiles of bliss. Sometimes let the sound of „aazan‟ echo from

the temple abodes; and other times let the bells fill the aura of the

mosque’sserenity.Let the dancing bells of a Mira cease! And also let the silence

gestures of a GAUTAM intoxicate to dancing; truly indeed I am drunk and

intoxicated for the humanity! Now let the humanity too come to auric senses!!

Truly indeed quite bitter is the life elixir of this “Saaqi‟ (the mystical brewer), allow

it to enter thy being to infinite quantum; certainly will it bring miracles! Yes indeed

the miracles of the unknown, miracles that transform thy being thy existence;

they call this the mysticism!!!”

AnandNeelambar

International Journal of Naqshbandi Tariqat

July - September 2012 Page 1

International Journal

of Naqshbandi Tariqat

Why parables? Just as a Ladder is a design or a devise to reach to the top and once you

reach to the top the use of ladder is finished. So too a parable is a design for transformation.

kaz #sI trIk pe Ada merI nmaj hae

yar ke paynaj pe mera sre inyaj hae

MAY THIS PATH OF ETERNAL TRANSFORMATION CONTINUE ERELONG!

AND MY LIFE MY BEING BE AN INSTRUMENT! I SEEK THIS WITH TRUST AND LOVE!

IN THE NAME OF OUR BELOVED ABUL QASIM GURGANI! A MASTER WITH WHO EVEN ALLAH AGREES!!!

MAY MY LIFE MY LIVING BE A PRAYER OF AWARENESS!

AND EACH SYLLABLE AND WHISPER OF THE SILENCE BE ACCEPTED AT THE LOTUS FEET OF THE MASTERS!!!



Shrine Maulana Sheikh Fazal Ahmad Khan RA



Shrine Naqshbandi Sheikh Brij Mohan Lal RA and Shakuntala Devi RA

Shrine Shah Bahauddin Naqshband Bokhari RA



TASAWWUF the SPIRIT OF SUFISM

Tasawwuf is the very essence of Sufism and that of man‘s existence. Evolving out

of Islam it has now become the part of the inner life of every aspirant. Islam centers around four pillars namely Shariat, Hadith, Tariqat, and Tasawwuf. Of

these Shariat and Hadith form the part of the outer body of the religion? And Tariqat and Tasawwuf form the inner core of The Holy Prophet - Rasool.

Both Tariqat and Tasawwuf are connected to the nisbet of the Holy Prophet.

Tariqat teaches you the way to nisbet. And Tasawwuf prepares you for inner serenity, and for the continuation of the way of nisbet. In its essence tariqat and

Tasawwuf are part of each one of you. Tariqat prepares you along the way and Tasawwuf preserves your awareness.

Tasawwuf has its own radius and circumference within Sufism. The nature of that

form of the radius and circumference is determined by various things including the

geo-physical, and other regional specificities in this world but the content remains same.

Bear good tidings to those who believe and do good works that they shall inherit

gardens beneath which rivers flow. As often as they are fed in that life with fruits they shall say: ‗These are the fruits which are given us formerly,‘ because they

shall find the fruits after life resembling the fruits which were given them here.

This esoteric dimension is in all religions and in Islam it originated with the tradition of Prophet Muhammad. Mysticism in Islam is termed as Sufism. The

mystic is a Sufi.

Fatima Bint (608-633A.H) is one of the first women Sufis we trace in Islamic mysticism. There is an interesting transition that you notice in her personality.

While mourning the Death of Prophet Mohammad she said:

―It is not surprising that whoever catches the fragrance of Muhammad‘s tomb will never know another perfume. Destiny injured me with bereavement so sorrowful,

and so dark, that if it had fallen on the days they would have been turned into eternal nights.‖

Her expression of this utterance is Tasawwuf. Poetry and love (Ishq-i-Haqiqi) are the important languages of expression in Tasawwuf.



While traversing on the path for attaining the status of Sufi when the self

undergoes certain transitions it acquires an ecstasy and the expression of that ecstasy is Tasawuf.

As the Quran reveals that within the human self there are seven selves within

each soul. First is Nafs-i-ammara, the physical self - the spirit of self prone to evil, the second is Nafs-i-lawwama - the moral self or the self accusing spirit or

conscience and the third is Nafs - i-Mullahama, the inspired self, the fourth is the Nafs–i- mutmainnah, the self tranquil the spiritual self. The fifth is Nafs-i-Radiyya

the contented self, the Nafs-i-Mardiyya the soul satisfying, the last is the Nafs-i- Safiyya wa Kamila, the self clarified and perfect.

The attainment of the Nafs-i-mutmainnah is described in the Holy Quran thus, ―O

thou soul that art at rest (and restest fully contented with thy Lord), return to thy

Lord, thou being pleased with Him and He pleased with thee; so enter among my servants and enter into My paradise.‖

(Holy Quran Lxxxix28-30)

When a human being pursues the path of spirituality he gets transformed from grossness to virtue this process purifies the spirit of his conscience and he

acquires the control over unbridled passions, sensual desires and bestial appetites.

He gets freedom from all weaknesses, material and other worldly attachments - thus attains Nafs-i- Safiyya wa Kamila.

These transitions are summed up by Maulana Rumi in the following words:

At the moment you entered this world,

A ladder was placed in front of you to escape. First you were a mineral, and then you became plant,

Then you became an animal: how could you ignore it? Then you were made into human being

Gifted with knowledge reason and faith; Observe this body drawn from dust what perfection it has acquired!

When you have transcended the condition of human hood, no doubt you will become an angel.

Then you will have done with this earth, your dwelling will be in heaven

Go beyond the angelic condition; drive into this ocean, so that drop of water that is you can become sea.

MASNAVI: MAULANA RUMI

But we must remember that all these stages physical, moral and spiritual are intertwined. Whatever a person gives to his/her physical self influences his moral



and spiritual self. This is the reason that Holy Quran always lays great emphasis

on internal purification, external cleanliness, purity of thoughts and deeds. For example tears come when we are in grief but they also come when our happiness

touches extremity and joy brings laughter. This clearly shows that there is a mysterious correspondence between physical, moral and spiritual. By disciplining

physical, morality transcends and that sprouts spiritual self. Virtually nothing comes from outside everything is within us but it is a matter of cultivating thy own

self. When this process reaches to fruition the soul achieves glory because its purpose is fulfilled.

Sufi Rabia al Adwiyya said:

O God another night is passing away,

Another day is rising-

Tell me that I have spent the night well so I can be at peace, Or that I have wasted it, so I can mourn for what is lost.

I swear that ever since the first day you brought me back to life, The day you became my friend,

I have not slept- And even if you drive me from your door,

I swear again that we will never be separated. Because you are alive in my heart!

In Quran this process is revealed in the following words:

―When I have formed the Body of it and set right all manifestations of glory and

breathed into it My soul, prostrate, yourselves (in obedience) before it.‖ - (Holy

Quran Xv: 29)

The whole self partakes of spiritual nature because it is solely attracted towards

the manifestation of Tawhid (divine oneness) which gets reflected in all good things in universe around us. Rabia al Adwiyya said:

O God, whenever I listen to voice of anything you have made

The rustling of trees The trickling of water

The crises of birds The flickering of shadow

The roar of wind The song of thunder, I hear it saying:

God is one

Nothing can be compared with God.



Rumi also believes that his real self was not what his parents or environment had

grown in him, but what the universe had created in him. He felt that it was wrapped in one‘s consciousness. To him real can be thought of as the crown of

unconscious, which is potentially conscious existence, the goal in Tasawwuf. This is how Rumi situates his source of self in one of his poems from Masnavi.

Cross and Christians from end to end

I surveyed; He was not on the cross I went to idol-temple, to the ancient pagodas

No trace was visible there I went to mountains of Heart and Qandhar

I looked; He was not in that hill and dale With set purpose I fared to summit of Mount Qaf

In that place was only Anqa‘s Habitation

I bent the reins of search to Ka‗ba He was not in that resort of old and young

I questioned Ibn Sina of His state He was not within Ibn Sina‘s range

I fared towards the scene of two bow lengths distance He was not in the exalted court

I gazed into my heart; There I saw him; He was nowhere else.

MASNAVI: MAULANA RUMI

The path that Sufis follow is called Tariqa and ultimate truth is Haqiqa between the

path and the ultimate truth there is a process of realizing, pursuing, reflecting, attributing and that is Tasawwuf. Tasawwuf is both the beginning and the end.

Sufi Khwaja Abdullah Ansari said:

―The heart enquired of the soul What is the beginning of this business?

What its end, and what its fruit? The soul answered:

The beginning of it is The annihilation of self,

Its end faithfulness, And its fruit immortality!‖

It is the candle that you hold while on your journey towards ultimate reality. You

can choose Tariqa as the road but you cannot walk unless you see that path

through the light of candle i.e. Tasawwuf. It is through this light that Rumi saw the creative essence of almighty in everything everywhere when he said in Dewan-i-

Shams.



The word has been derived from the Arabic word ‗Soof‘ (Wool) or from ‗Safa‘ (cleanliness), but its foundation lies in one‘s personal sincerity in seeking Allah‘s

nearness and trying to live a life pleasing to Him. Study of the Quran, the Hadith, and the practical life of the holy Prophet Muhammad and his faithful Companions

provide unmistakable support to this reality.

On reflection it will be realized that all the external deeds are designed for the reformation of the heart. That is the basis of success in the hereafter while its

despoiling is the cause of total destruction. This is precisely what is known technically as tasawwuf. Its focus is tahzeebe akhlaq or the adornment of

character; its motive is the attainment of Divine pleasure; its method is total obedience to the commands of the Shariah.

Tasawwuf is the soul of Islam. Its function is to purity the heart from the lowly bestial attributes of lust, calamities of the tongue, anger, malice, jealousy, love of

the world, love of fame, niggardliness, greed, ostentation, vanity, deception, etc. At the same time it aims at the adornment of the heart with the lofty attributes of

repentance, perseverance, gratefulness, fear of Allah, hope, abstention, tauheed, trust, love, sincerity, truth, contemplation, etc.

To diagnose and treat the diseases of the heart normally requires the help of Sheikh.

In searching for a Sheikh, do not look for his ability to perform karamat (miracles)

or to foretell the future. A Sheikh may not be able to show any karamat. On the other hand, a person showing karamat does not have to be a pious person. Sufi

Bayazid Bistami says: ‗Do not be deceived if you see a performer of supernatural feats flying in the air. Measure him on the standard of the Shariah.‘

When you find the right Sheikh, and you are satisfied with his ability to provide spiritual guidance, you perform bayat or pledge. This is a two-way commitment;

the Sheikh pledges to guide you in light of Shariah and you pledge to follow him.

The essential idea of tahzeebe akhlaq is to bring our natural faculties in a state of balance. The three basic faculties are anger, desires, and intelligence.

A person will be considered as having a beautiful seerah (character) only when there is state of balance and equilibrium. Internal beauty varies with people just

as external beauty does. The possessor of the most beautiful seerah was Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam. The beauty of our seerah is based on its

closeness to his seerah.



It is for the first time that this approach is used to create the spirit of Sufism by

this union between Sufi poetry and the energy field of a master to create ‘Maraqba’. And thus allow the journey of transcendence. This is way of the

masters so that the aspirant or ‘saliq’ can continue his inward journey. This work will be remembered as a new beginning now and in times to come. Beginning of a

new era in Sufism!

Poets sometimes reach to such a height of consciousness where even a master cannot reach. However such state is not a permanent happening. Therefore this is

an effort to create Maraqba around such insights. Thus in the process of inward journey the saliq can clear the states of ‘nafs’ or ego and attain to inner harmony

and oneness.

Around each poetic composition a Maraqba is weaved so that the ‘tawajjoh’ or the

energy field of the master can envelop you along the path. And transformation may be possible. This is the way of tawajjoh or Tasawwuf of all the masters or

nisbet to work in you so that you can journey through the realm of nafs and reach to the realm of rooh. This is the only one can really attain or attain to taqmeel.

%skae gane dae Apna gIt mere haeQae< se

AaEr muHe gungunane dae %ske sNnaqe kae.

Usko gane do apna geet mere hothon se

Aur mujhe gungunane do uske sannate ko!!

LET HIM SING HIS SONG ETERNAL THROUGH MY LIPS AND LET ME ECHO HIS ETERNAL SERENITY ERELONG!!



Naqshbandi Parables – Unique way to Tariqat

Those few moments, when you are totally absorbed in something, are the moments when you are closest to God. Those are the moments of bliss and

benediction. Drown in those moments!

Someone asked why do I go on writing so many books, almost an inconceivable number and go on giving talks not only on Sufi Path instead on all conceivable

Paths of Spiritual Attainment?

Books will teach you something of the outward aspects of the inward, and so will

meditation talks. Without them you will make real no progress in inward journey. Remember the outward is the conductor to the inward.

But why should we not be able to do so without books? For the same reason,

remember you cannot think without words. I have to give you words so that your thinking pattern can change. Once your thinking pattern is changed then one day I

will connect you to your inner silence.

You have been reared on books. Your mind is so altered by books and talks, by hearing and speaking, that the inward can only speak to you through the outward.

Whatever you pretend you can perceive! Man ultimately becomes what one pretends to be.

This applies to everyone. It applies to whom it applies. It applies above all to those who think it does not apply to them!

Why parables? Just as a Ladder is a design or a devise to reach to the top and

once you reach to the top the use of ladder is finished. So too a parable is a design for transformation.

Parables have been designed by Naqshbandi Masters as devise based on the

teachings or the sayings of the past masters as a unique way to Tariqat.

A parable is neither a lie, nor a truth. It is a design, a NAQSHBANDI. Maps have been invented to help you. They are arbitrary. Never become too obsessed

with a map. Use it if you can; if you cannot, forget all about it. It has nothing valuable in it beyond its use.

The word Naqshbandi is of Persian origin. It has been taken from the name of the founder of the order, Bahauddin Naqshband Bukhari. Some have said that the



translation means ‗related to the image-maker‘ or ‗Pattern Maker‘. Naqshbandi

means

‗Reformer of Patterns‘ and others consider it to mean ‗Way of the Chain‘ or ‗Golden Chain.‘

Naqshbandi (Naqshbandiyya) is the foremost of the major Tasawwuf orders

(Tariqat) of Islam. Formed in 1380, the order is considered by some to be a ‗sober‘ order known for its silent dhikr (remembrance of God) rather than the

vocalized forms of dhikr common in other orders.

The Naqshbandi order is also notable as it is the only Sufi order to trace its spiritual lineage (silsilah) to Muhammad through Abu Bakr, the first khaliph. In

contrast, most other turuq trace their lineage to Ali ibn Abu Talib, Muhammad‘s

cousin and son-in-law and fourth khaliph.

God the first Designer

Christianity has given the idea to the whole world that man has been thrown into

the world as a punishment. That has to be understood. That is a very stupid idea. Not only is the idea stupid, it makes even God look stupid, arrogant and insane.

And this is the image of God that Christians has been projecting for more than two thousand years. And not a single person has used his intelligence to contradict or

understand this. This is belief system we are so conditioned with that man has lost his intelligence and wisdom.

God threw man into the world for SUCH a small thing! Because Adam disobeyed

him! Each child disobeys the father. He has to disobey the father. In fact, by disobeying the father, he tries to define himself. That is the only way to define

him.

Each child has to go against the parent one day or other. If he never goes against the parents he will never be. Then he will be just a shadow. He

has to rebel. He has to say no. Remember, ‘saying no’ is nothing but an

effort to define you. When you go on saying yes, you lose definition.

Adam and Eve were doing what each child has to do. It is so psychological. God said,

‘Do not eat the fruit of this tree, this tree of knowledge.’

If you ask the Sufis they will say that this is a NAQSHBANDI design. God is

provoking them to eat the fruit of this tree. He is not prohibiting. In fact, he is provoking.



The whole devise is a Naqshbandi Design. In the Garden of Eden there were

millions of trees. If Adam had been left to himself to find the tree of knowledge he might not have found it yet. There was only one tree in

those millions of trees. And there was nothing special about this tree. It was just an ordinary apple tree. There were millions of apple trees like it

but this was poisoned by knowledge. There was no way for Adam to discover the tree of Knowledge.

Why God did stop Adam from eating the fruit.

Christians think that God wanted to discipline Adam. God wanted Adam to

be obedient.

That is not true. Ask the NAQSHBANDIS, because they are the people who know

how to design things. They are the designers.

They know that God designed the first design.

He provoked Adam. God challenged Adam. He created the idea and the desire to rebel by forcing an absurd commandment – ‘Do not eat the fruit

from the tree of knowledge.’ God created a longing in Adam and Eve. This was a longing to TRANSFORM and CREATE HIMSELF.

THIS IS NAQSHBANDI DESIGN.

God is this impersonal existence. Keep this continuously in your heart - that in

Sufism God is synonymous with existence, synonymous with ishness, the suchness of existence is God - and then things will become easier for you to understand the

very essence of Sufism.

Disobedience is the first step to transformation. Disobedience is the way to grow

into maturity. Disobedience is the way to create your essence. God is the first Designer who created the seed of disobedience in Adam and thus the design to

Evolve.

This is Naqshbandi Design.

The NAQSHBANDIS say that this was the first NAQSHBANDI design. God created the first design for human transformation. He created a situation in which Adam

rebelled. And since then man has been rebelling. Man has to go into the darkness of his being only to come back home. It is not punishment.

Man is not thrown into the world to be punished. Man is thrown into the

world to learn, to discover, to transform and to be.



It is meaningful. If Adam is thought to have committed a sin, it is a small sin. And

Adam is a child. He can be forgiven.

But what about God! God provoked him. What about this? He created the whole situation. If Adam‘s act is thought to be a sin, then it is a small sin.

But what about God and his sin! Was he not aware of one very small thing? Even

such a thing any psychologist knows. If you provoke someone or challenge, you create a situation. God provoked Adam. And this was his great sin. If Adam‘s sin is

a sin, God‘s sin is even far greater.

But neither is a sin. Never consider Adam‘s sin a small one and God‘s sin a great sin. It was simply a design to help Adam to move on his own, to stand on his own.

This is Naqshbandi design.

This interpretation has a beauty. The NAQSHBANDIS say it was a design from God

to provoke Adam. Unless Adam was provoked, he would never become grown-up. He had to say no to God so he could go on his way into the world. It is not a

punishment, not at all. God is not as arrogant as he has been depicted by the so called organized religions through their thinking.

God did not punish Adam. God loved Adam.

If Adam had followed God, there would have been no world at all.

Let me repeat this once again and you literally write on your forehead so

that you may not forget. If Adam had at all followed God there would have been no world at all.

In fact there would have been nobody here. It is by disobeying God, by saying no, that man became man, attained to his first definition, attained

to his first feeling of being himself.

God is neither arrogant nor egoistic nor mad. He must have loved and blessed Adam. That is my feeling as well as my understanding. When Adam was going out

of the Garden of Eden, I am sure, God must have blessed him. Now he is going on his way.

That is what every father would like his children to do. One day they should go on

their own way. They should seek and search and be. How long can you remain protected? You have to go into insecurity. Whatever you may call this sin or

anything else this is your choice. One day you have to go into this sin. You have to go into the world. It is not expulsion, it is Adam‘s rebellion. And it is not



punishment. It is well-planned and designed. It is by this design that God

created the world. This is Sufi design.

Have you watched something about the trees? When trees bloom and the fruit comes and the seeds ripen, every tree tries to send its seeds far away with the

wind, and the birds. And if the tree sometimes feels that the wind will not be able to take the seed that the seed is heavy, and then it creates devices,

NAQSHBANDIS, to send the seed far away. The seed has to be carried far away because if the seed falls underneath the big tree it will never grow. It has to be on

its own. Also it has to find its own space.

There are trees which grow their seeds with a small bit of cotton around them. The seed is heavy but the cotton is weightless. The wind can take the cotton away.

Then the seed will also go, far away, and will fall onto some open space where it

can grow and become a great tree.

This is the reason that to allow the seeds to scatter I have decided this title – PARABLES – a Naqshbandi Design

How to evolve and transform? Be absorbed in anything that you are doing.

Be totally into it. Those few moments, when you are totally absorbed in something, are the moments when you are closest to God. Those are the

moments of bliss and benediction.

Around a really spiritual person real miracles happen. People transform, change, and people start attaining new spaces of being. People start

moving into new dimensions of joy and life and eternity.

People start being more loving and more compassionate. People start blooming.

Fragrance arises. People start dancing. Their heart for the first time pulsates with celebration. These are real miracles. People start feeling that God is, people start

trusting that God is. People start becoming aware of who they are. People start losing their sleepiness. Their eyes start opening. People become whole, no longer

divided within or fragmentary. Instead they are integrated. These are real miracles. These certainly happen. Know this a Naqshbandi Design. Then one day

you will realize:

The creator is creation.

This may seem a very insignificant small statement. However it has the capability to transform your whole life. It can change the very gestalt of your vision. The

moment you recognize that all is one. The entire world is the extension of a single existential energy. Something happens. Transformation begins.



In an insatiable quest for the transformation of human consciousness I will erelong

go on sharing my insights and understanding in various form and talks.

This present title PARABLES – a NAQSHBANDI DESIGN is such effort from Enlightened Sheikh Taoshobuddha.

Imbibe the essence of the contents, insights and understanding of various Sheikhs

of the Tariqat. This is the only way to allow the process of transformation to begin.

yh sc hE ik bhut k–fvI hE my #s sakI kI

r<g la@gI gr sasae< me< %tr jane dae .

Yeh sach hai ki bahut kadvi hai mai is saaqui ki

Rang layegi gar sanson mein utar jaane do!!

YES INDEED THE MYSTICAL WINE OF THIS BREWER IS BITTER ALLOW IT TO ENTER WITHIN CERTAINLY IT WILL TRANSFORM YOU!!

Only this much for now, until we meet on another voyage traversing along life‘s journey of inwardness:

Subhan Allah!



How does a Master work?

http://youtu.be/Swn9bSquWEU

Question

We, in our unawareness and egoistic state, are not always in touch with the master. But is the master always in touch with us?

Taoshobuddha

es, the master is always in touch with not only you instead with the entire

existence. You may not be aware of it most of the time.

Indeed a Master is in touch with all the four layers of you. Your conscious layer is

only one of the four layers. But that is possible only when you have surrendered and accepted him as your Master — not before that. If you are just a student,

learning, then when you are in touch, the Master is in touch; when you are not in touch, he is also not in touch.

You have to understand, this phenomenon. You have four minds:

1. The Supermind which is the possibility of the future, of which only seeds

you carry. But nothing has yet sprouted. Only seeds or just the potentiality is there.

2. The Conscious Mind — It is a very small fragment with which you reason,

think, decide, argue, doubt, believe — this conscious mind is in touch with a

Master to whom you have not yet surrendered. So whenever this is in touch, the Master is in touch. If this is not in touch, then the Master is not in touch.

You are a student, and you have not taken the Master as a Master. You still think about him as a teacher.

Teacher and student exist in the conscious mind. Nothing can be done because

you are not open. All your three doors are closed still.

3. Super-conscious is just a seed. You cannot open its doors. You will have to wait for the right time for the door to open. This is known as inner

preparation. Or when someone is on the border-line then suddenly this door opens.

4. Subconscious is just below the conscious. That is possible if you love.

Y

http://youtu.be/Swn9bSquWEU



If you are here with me only because of your reasoning, your conscious door is

open. Whenever you open it, I am there. If you do not open it, I am outside and then I cannot enter.

Just below the conscious is the subconscious. If you are in love with me not

just as teacher and a student relationship but more intimate, a love-like phenomenon then the subconscious door is open.

Many times you will close the conscious door. You will argue against me.

Sometimes you will be negative and then against me. But that does not matter. The unconscious door of love is open and I can always remain in touch with you.

But that too is not a perfect door because sometimes you can hate me. If you hate

me, you have closed that door also. Love is there, but the opposite, hate, is also

there. Hate is always with love.

The second door will be more open than the first because the first changes its moods as fast that even you do not know. Any moment it goes on changing. Just

one moment it was here, the next moment it is not there. It is a momentary phenomenon.

Love is a little longer. It also changes its moods, but its moods have longer

periods. Sometimes you will hate me. In thirty days almost there will be eight days, one week and four days, you will hate me. But three weeks it is open. With

the reason, a week is too long like eternity. With the reason, one moment it is here, and another moment against. For and against, the game goes on. If the

second door is open and you are in love with me, even if the door with reason is closed, I can remain in contact.

The third door is below subconscious: that is the unconscious. Reason opens the first door — if you feel convinced with me. Love opens the second door which is

bigger than the first — if you are in love with me: not convinced, but in love — feeling an affinity, a harmony, affection.

The third door opens only by surrender, if you are initiated by me, if you have

taken the jump into initiation and said to me, ‗Now you be my mind. Now you take the reins of me. Now you guide me and I will follow.‘ Not that you will always be

able to do it, but just the very gesture that you surrendered opens the third door.

The third door remains open. You may be against me rationally. It does not matter: I am in touch. You may hate me. It does not matter: I am in touch —

because the third door always remains open. You have surrendered. And it is very difficult to close the third door — very, very difficult it is difficult to open, and also

it is difficult to close. It is difficult to open, but not as difficult as to close it. But



that too can be closed because you have opened it. That too can be closed you can

decide someday to take your surrender back. Or, you can go and surrender yourself to somebody else. But that never — almost never — happens, because

with these three doors the Master is working to open the fourth door.

So there is almost impossible possibility that you will take your surrender back. Before you have taken it, he must have opened the fourth door which is beyond

you. You cannot open or close it. The door that you open, you remain the master to close it also. But the fourth has nothing to do with you. That is the super-

conscious. All these three doors are needed to open so the Master can forge a key for the fourth door, because you do not have the key, otherwise you yourself can

open it. The Master has to forge. It is a forgery because the owner himself does not have the key.

The whole effort of a Master is to have enough time from these three doors to enter to the fourth and forge a key and open it. Once it is opened, you are no

more. You cannot do anything now. You may close all the three doors but the master has the key for the fourth and he is always in contact. Then even if you

die, it does not matter. You go to the very end of the earth, or the moon, nothing make any difference the master has the key for the fourth. And, in fact, a real

Master never keeps the key. He simply opens the fourth and throws the key in the ocean. So there is no possibility to steal it or do anything. Nothing can be done!

I have forged a fourth-door key with many of you and have thrown it, so there is

unnecessarily no trouble now. It is futile, now nothing can be done. Once the fourth is opened, then there is no problem. All the problems exist before it,

because at the very last moment the Master was getting ready the key because the key is difficult.

For millions of lives the door has remained closed and has gathered all sorts of rust. It looks like a wall, instead a door. It is difficult to find where the lock is —

and everybody has a separate lock, so there is no master key. One key cannot help because everybody is as individual as your thumbprint. Nobody has that print

anywhere — not in the past, never in the future. Your thumbprint will be simply yours, a single phenomenon. It never is repeated.

Your inner lock is also like your thumbprint. It is absolutely personal, unique and

individual: no master key can help. That is why a Master is needed, because a master key cannot be purchased. Otherwise, once a key is made, everybody‘s

door can be opened. No, everybody has a separate type of door, a separate type of lock — his own locking system — and you have to watch and find and forge a

key, a special key for it.



Once your fourth door is open, then the Master is in constant touch with you. You

may forget him completely. But it makes no difference. You may not remember him that too makes no difference. The Master leaves the body: it makes no

difference. Wherever he is, wherever you are, the door is open. And this door exists beyond time and Space. That is why it is the supermind: it is

superconscious.

Only when the fourth door is opened that you are in touch with the master really. Otherwise, with the third door, he is more or less in contact. However with the

second door, half the time almost he is in contact. With the first door, the contact is only momentarily.

Door 1 – Conscious door: Contact is momentarily

Door 2 – Sub-conscious door: You have surrendered your love, a step in initiation has begun.

Door 3 – Unconscious Door: Through deep cleansing begins. You are vulnerable to

the master and open to his energy-field.

So allow the master to open your fourth door and remember the fourth door is opened in a certain moment. That moment is when all your three doors are open.

Even if a single door is closed, the fourth cannot be opened. It is a mathematical puzzle. And this condition is needed. In the process first your conscious door

is open and then your second door opens. This is your subconscious, your love you have surrendered, you have taken a step into initiation, and your

third, unconscious door is open.

When all the three doors are open, then in a certain moment the fourth can be

opened. So it happens that while you are awake, the fourth is difficult to open. While you are asleep only then the fourth door opens. So my real work is not in

the day. It is in the night when you are fast asleep snoring, because then you do not create any trouble. You are so fast asleep, that you do not reason against. You

have forgotten about reasoning.

In deep sleep, your heart functions well. You are more loving than when you are awake, because when you are awake many fears surround you. And because of

fear love is not possible. When you are fast asleep, fears disappear, love flowers. Love is a night-flower.

You must have watched night queen — the flower that blossoms in the night. Love

is a night queen. It flowers in the night alone. It is because of you and there is no other reason. It can flower in the day, but then you have to change yourself.

Tremendous change is needed before the love can flower in the day.



That is why you see that when people are intoxicated they are more loving. Go

into any tavern where people have drunk too much they almost always love. See two drunkards moving on the street hanging on each other‘s shoulder: so loving

as if they are one! They are asleep.

When you are not afraid only then love flowers. Fear is the poison. And when, deep down in sleep you are already surrendered because sleep is surrender. And if

you have surrendered to a Master, he can enter into your sleep. You will not be even able to hear his footsteps. He can enter silently and work. It is a forgery, just

like thieves enter in the night when you are asleep. A Master is a thief of innerness. When you are fast asleep and you do not know what is happening, he

enters in you and opens the fourth.

Once the fourth is opened, then there is no problem. Every effort and every

trouble that you can create, you can create only before the fourth is open. The fourth is a point of no return. Once the fourth is open, the Master can twenty-four

hours be with you — there is no problem.

WHAT IS SUFISM?

Your free will, your power to choose good or evil, Is increased by the inspirations of the angel

And the promptings of the devil! The angel and the devil presenting

The opposing choices in us, Force us to exercise our free will

This is a faculty within us!

RUMI MASNAVI VI: 2985, 3004-5

the authority to speak on Sufism?‘

This situation still continues. I assumed a name that has no religious semblance. Then came the conflict of the genes, my looks! This conflict still continues. Such is

case from the times immemorial. Prophets and masters come and go but human ignorance lingers on. This is what Sufis call betassubi – narrowness or spiritual

Many years ago when I first began talks on Sufi Path in a congregation of the

came to me and asked:

‗You are not a Muslim; also you do not come from that faith. So what gives you

learned ones (ulmas), my Hindu name brought conflict. A learned Mohammedan



intolerance and indolence. This will continue until there is total transformation of

human consciousness.

I told the person:

―I am not a Muslim. It is true indeed. In fact, I do not belong to any religion. Just introspect what is Muslim in you. Is your blood, or bones, or flesh or anything

else? Do you breathe Muslim air, or drink Muslim water. What really makes you a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Christian? Remember it is your mind. It is your

conditionings obviously that make you a Hindu, a Muslim, or a Christian or a Sikh. A flower knows no religion. Its only religion is its religiousness. The very quality of

the being! An ecstatic Jesus says God is Love. Love is phenomena of heart or qulb. And Love cannot be Hindu, or Muslim or Christian. Jesus also says I am the

‗saltiness‘ in salt. Masters come and go but human imbecility continues. I am a

Sufi to the very core of my being. Mohammad is the cause of my being, my essence. And all that I am speaking to you does not come out of the mind. It is

something beyond mind. And that which is beyond mind comes through inner connection. Sufis call this inner connection nisbat. And nisbat is a phenomenon of

qulb as it flows through qulb alone.‖

I teach religiousness. Religion beyond religion! Just pure religiousness! Every Buddha, be he a Jesus, a Mohammad, an Al Hillaj, a Kabir, a Nanak, or a Lau Tzu

has to face the same situation. Such people live in a state beyond mind. And you live within the four walls of your mind, thinking and, memory. He is bringing to

you the unsay-able, the inexpressible, the unknowable, and the indefinable. This is absurd. He is bound be in conflict. Because if he is not in conflict then he is not a

Buddha! I have to face the same situation.

He also wanted to know:

―What gives me the right to speak on Sufism?‖

I responded:

―What authority has sun or breeze, or water gave to a flower to blossom. In fact it is the very being of the flower that gives it the authority to blossom. And once the

flower has assumed the will to evolve the existence comes from all side to help in the process of blossoming. So too my own existence has given me the authority to

speak on any path or any master to speak on. I am the consciousness that contains all that has happened and all that is yet to happen in this cosmos. All

Buddhas are in me and I am in all Buddhas. In fact I am cosmic. This alone gives me the authority to reflect all that is being reflected. It matters not if I am

speaking a Buddha, or a Jesus, or a Mohammed. It is out of the compassion for the erring humanity that I simply overflow. My own being has given me the

authority for such overflows.‖



A Sufi need not be a Mohammedan. A Sufi can exist anywhere, in any form.

Sufism is the essential core of all religions. It has nothing to do with Islam in particular. Sufism can exist without Islam. However, Islam cannot exist without

Sufism. Only with Sufism does any religion become alive. Sufism is the very essence, the very being, the rooh or the soul of the Holy Prophet. Sufism is the

fragrance of Mohammad. Just as Bhagwad Gita is the fragrance of Krishna! Just as Ramcharit Manas is the fragrance of Tulsidas! Or just as Japji is the very fragrance

of Nanak. Or just as Talmud is the fragrance of Balshem. So it is the being of Mohammad that echoes through Sufism. Sufism is the breath of Mohammad.

Sufism is tariqat – the way to attain to oneness with God just as it happened to the Holy Prophet.

Whenever a religion is alive it is because of Sufism. Sufism simply means a love

affair with God. The UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWABLE! It is an affair with the

ultimate! A love affair with the whole or TAO, or that which is the very pulse of the existence! It means that one is ready to dissolve into the whole. In fact you are

ready to invite the whole to come into your heart. It knows no formality.

It is not confined by any dogma, doctrine, creed or church. Christ is a Sufi. So is Mohammed. Krishna is a Sufi. So is Buddha. In fact all the masters and

incarnations are Sufis. No more philosophies. This is the first thing I would like you to remember. Sufism is the innermost core of all religions. Zen, Hassidism etc.

are just names of the same happening. These are only different names of the same ultimate relationship with God. The relationship is dangerous.

It is dangerous because the closer you come to God, the more and more you

evaporate. And when you have come really close you are no more. This is really dangerous because it is in a way suicidal. But this suicide is beautiful. To die in

God is the only way to live really. You die as you are. Only then you are reborn.

Until you die! Until you die voluntarily into love, you continue to live a mere superfluous existence. You live simply as mediocre. You vegetate. You do not have

any meaning. No poetry arises in your heart, no dance, no celebration and no song. You continue to grope in darkness. You stumble in utter dark caves. You live

at the lowest ebb. There is no overflow of bliss or ecstasy.

That overflow happens only when you are not. Your very presence is the hindrance. Because that presence is nothing else but ego! Sufism is the art of

removing the hindrance between you and you, between the self and the self, between the part and the whole. Sufism is the methodology to dissolve the vanity

of ego.

A few things about this word 'Sufi'. An ancient Persian dictionary gives the definition of the word in a very unique way. It goes in rhyme: SUFI CHIST -- SUFI,

SUFIST. WHO IS A SUFI? The dictionary answers A SUFI IS A SUFI. What a



strange but a beautiful way to define a SUFI and the path. The phenomenon that

we call Sufi is indefinable. 'A Sufi is a Sufi.' It says nothing and yet it says everything. It says that the Sufi cannot be defined. There is no other word to

define the entire phenomena. There is no other synonym! Also there is no possibility to define it linguistically. There is no other indefinable phenomenon. You

can live it and you can know it, you can be it! However, through the mind, or the intellect, it is not possible. You can be a Sufi. And that is the only way to know

what Sufism is. You can taste the reality yourself, it is available. You need not go into a dictionary, you can go into existence. If you are not ready to have a bite of

Sufism you can at least taste it.

And that is what I am going to make available to you – a little taste. And once you have tasted even a drop of the nectar called Sufism you will become thirstier for

more. And this thirst will go on getting deeper and deeper. For the first time you

will start feeling a great appetite for God in you.

These talks cannot explain to you what is Sufism. Because these are not the talks of a philosopher! I am not a theologian either. And I am not really talking on

Sufism, I will be talking Sufism. I am here to give you a taste of Sufism. If you are ready! Ready to go into this adventure, and then you will attain the very taste

of it. It is something that will start happening in your heart. It is something like a bud opening. You will start feeling a certain sensation in the heart. It is as if

something is becoming alert, awake, and alive there. It is as if the heart has been asleep for long and now it is the first glimpse of the morning. And thus you will

have the taste.

Sufism is a special kind of magic, a rare kind of magic. It can be transferred only from a master to the disciple, not from a book. It is ilme seena or knowledge of

the heart. It cannot be transferred by scriptures. No way can this be

communicated through the mind. It is also just like Zen – a transmission beyond words. It is a wordless communion. Nothing is spoken, yet still everything is

heard. The Sufis have a special word for it, they call it silsila. What Hindus call parampara Sufis call as silsila? Silsila means a transfer from one heart to another.

From one person to another! It is a very, very personal religion.

Sufism is the transmission beyond communion. It is like that happen from a lit candle to the unlit one. Nothing is visible yet still something happens. And the

closer the unlit candle comes to the lit one something jumps and lights the unlit one. This is transmission without lamp. A communication without word! Nay you

cannot call this as communication! Because it is not communication! Instead it is communion! The disciple remains within the energy field of the master beyond

time and space in a state of continuum. This he does through trust, love for the master, and introspection on the words of the master. Thus he goes beyond time



and space. This is Sufi way. Nobody is doing anything. Yet still the rare magic is

happening – the transformation from baser to the subtle!

You cannot have it without being related to an enlightened Master. There is no other way. You can read all the literature that exists on Sufism and you will be lost

in a desert of words. Unless you find a guide! Unless you fall in love with a guide, you will not have the taste of the miraculous. I am ready to take you on this inner

journey. This can happen only if you are courageous and adventurous. Only courageous people get attracted towards the real. The real is not for cowards, and

for your so-called religious people.

Remember this place is not for so-called God-fearing people either. In fact this place is for the God loving people. Love knows no fear. Love is the disappearance

of fear. Just like when light is darkness can no more be. And such a person has a

totally different quality. A God-fearing person can never move into the deeper realms of religion. Certainly he cannot move to his inner realm because of his fear.

You will start feeling a certain sensation in the heart. And this sensation is such that if something is becoming alert, awake there; as if the heart has been asleep

for long and now it is the first glimpse of the morning. And it is in such wakefulness you will have the taste of the miraculous. Know this the Sufi way.

Sufi way can happen once you are open to love and its deeper realms. Then it matters not what is your outer garb. I invite you for such an experience.

This place is for those whom I call God loving persons. And they have a totally

different quality. A God-fearing person never moves into the deeper realms of religion, he cannot because of his fear. People who come to me are God loving.

When I say ‗God loving‘ I mean they are in search. They want to know. They want to be. They want to attain to inner oneness. They want to explode their

blissfulness. And they want to know authentically. They do not want to have

borrowed knowledge about it. They want to have a taste. They want to encounter, they want to face God. They want to look into his eyes.

But before you can become capable of looking into the eyes of God, you will have

to become capable of looking into the eyes of a Master. From there you take off. The journey begins. Master is the one who looks like you. He talks and walks like

you. Yet still there is something of the beyond. He is soaked in God. He is overflowing the blissfulness. And in that state whatever he says transforms you. It

is the miracle of the unknown. Beyond time and space- a continuum! I am making myself available to you. Sufism is just an excuse. I will not be talking about

Sufism. I will be talking Sufism itself. The word ‗Sufism‘ is also beautiful. It has many orientations and all are beautiful. And I would not like to emphasize any one

specific orientation. A few people choose one orientation. While others choose another! However my understanding is that all those orientations are beautiful and



have something special to say. I accept them all. Each orientation speaks of the

inner state of the one who is expressing this.

One old Naqshbandi Master, Abul Hassan Kharqani, has said, ‗Sufism was once a reality without a name and now Sufism is a name without reality.‘

For many centuries Sufism existed without a name. It existed as reality only. That

is why I say Jesus was a Sufi! So was Mohammed! So was Mahabir! And so was Krishna! Anyone who has come to know God! Come to be God! Is indeed a Sufi!

Why do I say so? Try to understand the word ‗Sufi‘ and it will become clear to you. The word ‗Sufi‘ is a new coinage. It is of a German origin. It emerged out of

German scholarship. Is not more than one hundred and fifty years old? In Arabic the word is tasawwuf. But both come from a root ‗suf‘ which means wool.

It seems very strange. Why should wool become the symbol of Sufism? The scholars go on saying that it is because Sufis used to wear woollen robes. That is

true. But why! Nobody has answered it. Why should they be wearing woollen robes? Mohammed says in the Quran that even Moses was wearing a woollen robe

when he encountered God. When God spoke to him he was entirely in a woollen robe. But why! There is a deep symbolism in it. The symbolism is that wool is the

garb of the animals and a Sufi has to become as innocent as an animal. The Sufi has to attain to a primal innocence. He has to drop all kinds of civilization! He has

to drop all kinds of cultures. He has to drop all conditionings. And thus has to become again innocent like an animal. Then the symbol becomes tremendously

significant.

When man becomes animal he does not fall back as is normally conceived. Instead he goes higher. When man becomes animal he is not just an animal. That

is not possible. You have not regressed. You cannot fall back. When a man

becomes an animal he becomes a saint. His becoming an animal is his conscious choice. He remains conscious but his consciousness is no more burdened by any

conditioning. He is no more a Hindu and no more a Mohammedan and no more a Christian. He is in tune with existence as deeply as any animal. He has dropped all

kinds of philosophies. No more conceptualizations in his mind. Mind is without any content. He is, but he is no more in the mind. To be like innocent animals is

the very meaning of woolen robe. He is no more in the duality of what is good and what is bad. Only then the highest good the Absolute Good arises! This is

‗summum bonum‘ the ultimate good!

When you know this is good and that is bad, and you choose good against bad. And you remain divided. This is duality. When you choose, there is repression.

When you say, ‗I will do this! This has to be done. This should be done‘, this becomes an ‗ought‘. Then naturally you have to repress. You have to repress that

which you have condemned as bad. And the repressed part remains inside you



and goes on poisoning your system. And sooner or later it will assert. Sooner or

later it will take revenge. When it explodes! It will surface even without your knowing. You will go mad.

Hence all civilized people are always on the verge of madness. This earth is a big

madhouse. A few have already become mad. While a few are potentially ready. The difference between you and the mad people is not of quality! It is only of

quantity! The difference is only of degree. Maybe they have gone beyond the hundred degrees and you are just lingering somewhere near nineties. And any

moment any situation can push you beyond the boundary. Don't you see it? Can‘t you observe your mind? Can‘t you see the madness that goes on and on inside? It

is continuously there. Waiting for the opportunity to explode!

To me, to be an animal means to be innocent. Innocence is spontaneous and

natural. It knows no morality or immorality. To be an animal is not a condemnation. A saint is more like animals than like you. The difference between

a master and you is his innocence and spontaneity. That is why he is more like an animal than like the so called human beings. The human beings are not natural

beings. They are very unnatural! They are artificial, plastic like. Their whole life is a life of deception. If you touch somebody‘s face you will never touch his face, you

touch only his mask. And remember, your hand is also not true. It has a glove on it. Even lovers do not touch each other. Even in love you are not innocent. Even

in love you are not without masks. But when you want to love God you have to be without masks. You have to drop all deceptions. You have to be authentically

whatsoever you are. You have to be choice less. Be whatsoever you are. In that primal innocence God descends. So the reasons Idrish Shah finds to condemn the

definition that ‗Sufi‘ comes from ‗suf‘ are exactly the reasons I approve it.

You avoid it. You get occupied in a thousand and one things just to avoid it. You

do not look at it. You want to forget about it. It is too scary and frightening. But it is there – and whether you avoid it or not it goes on growing. It is continuously

accumulating momentum. It can come to the peak any time. Any small thing can trigger it. When you choose, you have to repress. The animal does not choose.

Whatsoever is actually is. The animal simply accepts it. Its acceptance is total. It knows no choice. So does a Sufi.

A Sufi knows no choice. He is choicelessly aware. Whatsoever happens he accepts

it as a gift, as a God-given thing. Who is he to choose? He does not trust his mind. Instead he trusts in the universal mind that is why when you come across a Sufi

you will see such animal innocence in his eyes and in his being. There is an expression of such freedom, such joy, as only animals know! Or trees or rocks or

stars manifest! Idrish Shah has condemned the definition of ‗Sufi‘ from ‗suf‘ – wool – on exactly the same grounds as I am approving of it. He says that Sufis are so

alert about symbols how can they choose wool as a symbol? The wool represents



the animal and Idrish Shah says Sufis cannot choose the animal as a symbol. They

are the people of God – why should they choose the animal? He seems very logical, and he may appeal to many people.

But on exactly the same grounds I approve the definition. It needs deeper insight

into the whole phenomena that is Sufism. You need to know the very essence of Sufism. You have to be a Sufi to know this. You have to be in the ocean like a fish

to know what is ocean. You have to dive deep in the womb of the ocean to explore the inner treasures of the unknown. You have never known such treasures. This is

the rare experience. Sufism is such rare experience. Idrish Shah has done tremendous work in creating a Sufi character in Mulla Nauruddin. Through this

character he has hit human ignorance and unconsciousness. I love him for this. But I do not accept when he says about the symbol of animal as the symbol for

Sufism. Animal symbolizes innocence. So is a Sufi. This is the reason Sufis have

chosen this symbol. It is a natural and spontaneous choice.

I have heard that once a dog bit a man in Sufi garb. AT this the man hit the dog with a stick. Then the dog went the city chief to lodge the complaint against the

man who had hit him with the stick. The chief who is called quazi called the two parties together. He listened to the plaintiff and the defender. Now it was the time

for the judgment. The dog bit the man and then the man hit the dog with his stick. The chief said this squares the situation. Surprised the chief asked the dog why

was he complaining when he bit the man first. Because you bit the man and this is the reason that the man hit you back. The case is squared now. There is no case

then. But then the chief got surprised when the dog said that his complained was not against the man who hit him. The dog said when I saw this man in a sufa garb

I bit him to test if he is really a Sufi –the innocent one. But this man is a deceit in a Sufi garb. A Sufi is bound to be an innocent one. Sufi is the one who cannot

harm anyone. My complaint is that this man is deceiving as a Sufi. Such was the

time when no one could deceive in a Sufi garb. And now what is happening?

I do not know if this happened really. But the parable gives a very important message. Such is Sufi Way. That is how we go on living. All our religion is just like

that - just verbal. It does not penetrate into your being. And you know that whatsoever you say you do exactly the opposite of it. You think one thing, say

another, and do something else. You are a trinity, you are not one. And all those three persons are going in three different directions. You are a crowd. And this is

the cause of your misery. The animal is one. This is the cause of the blissfulness of the animal. The animal has nothing whatsoever to be happy about. He has not a

big palace to live in. He has no TV, no radio and all that you consider entertainment. He has nothing and yet you will find great peace, silence, joy,

celebration. Why? One thing is there: the animal is not a chooser. The Sufi is not a chooser. Choose and you deceive; choose and you start going false; choose and

you become plastic.



I have heard: A man was going to attend a Halloween party dressed in the

costume of the Devil. On his way it began to rain, so he darted into a church where a revival meeting was in progress. At the sight of his Devil‘s costume,

people began to scatter through the doors and windows. Somehow one lady got her coat sleeve caught on the arm of one of the seats and as the man came closer

she pleaded, ‗Satan, I have been a member of this church for twenty years, yet still I have really been on your side all the time. So please excuse me.‘ But such is

the situation of all so called ladies and of all gentlemen.

We only pay lip service to God. And in reality we are surrendered to the Devil. The Devil is deeper because the Devil has been repressed. Whenever something is

repressed it goes deeper into your being; you become only a hypocrite on the surface. By asserting the symbol of the animal Sufis declare, ‗We are simple

people. We do not know what is good and what is bad. We know only God, and

whatsoever happens is his gift. We accept it. We are not doers on our own accord.‘ This is the first meaning of the word ‗Sufi‘.

There is another possibility. The word ‗Sufi‘ can be derived from ‗sufa‘! It implies

purity, cleanliness, and purification. That too is good. When you live a life of choicelessness a natural purity comes. But remember, this purity has nothing of

morality in it. It does not mean pure in the sense of being good. It means pure in the sense of being divine! Not in the sense of being good either. Pure simply

means pure of all ideas, good and bad both. Purity is transcendence. One has no idea at all of purity! No prejudices whatsoever! One trusts life so utterly that one

need not have any ideas. And when there is no idea then one can live without ideas. When ideas are there in the mind they create impurity! Ideas create

wounds. When you are too full of ideas, you are too full of dirt. All ideas are dirty. Yes, even the idea of God is a dirty idea. Because ideas are dirty. For a Sufi, God

is not an idea. Instead it is his lived reality. It is not somewhere sitting on a

throne high in the heavens as is conceived by your religious people. No! It is here now. It is all over the place. It is everywhere. God is just a name for the

totality of existence. Totality! Just Totality!

Purity means a mind without contents! Just a mechanism! Never be misguided by the word ‗purity‘. It does not mean a man who has a good character. It does not

mean a man who behaves according to the Ten Commandments. It does not mean a man who is respected by the society as a good man. It does not mean a man

who regularly goes to the temple or a church or chants scriptures.

A Sufi has never been respected by the society. A Sufi lives such a rebellious life that the society has almost always been murdering Sufis. Crucifying them!

Because the Sufi makes you aware of your falsity! He becomes a constant sermon against all that is artificial. He reminds you of your ugliness. He is a reminder

against your inner inhumanity to human beings! Against your masks! Against all



that you are and represent. A Sufi becomes a constant pain in the neck to the so-

called society and to the so-called respectable people.

I have heard. It happened that once Abu Yazid, a Sufi mystic, was praying. These are just parables. In no ways these have any historical semblance! It is said God

spoke to Abu Yazid and said, ‗Yazid, now you have become one of my chosen people. Should I declare it to the world?‘ Abu Yazid laughed. He said, ‗Yes, you can

– if you want me to be crucified. Declare!‘

You declared about Al-Hillaj Mansur! You made him declare ―A‘nal Haq…‖ and what happened then? They crucified him. Whenever you declare that somebody has

attained, people crucify him immediately. They do not love you. The world cannot tolerate your people. So if you want me to be crucified, declare. And it is said that

God never declared about Abu Yazid. He kept quiet. This has always been so.

Someone asked al-Hillaj Mansur, the greatest mystic ever, ‗What is the ultimate in

Sufi experience?‘ Al-Hillaj said, ‗Come tomorrow! Tomorrow you will come to know what the ultimate in Sufi experience is.‘ Nobody knew what was going to

happen the next day. The man asked, ‗Why not today?‘ Al-Hillaj said, ‗You just wait. It is going to happen tomorrow - the ultimate in Sufism.‘ And the next day

he was crucified. And when he was crucified he shouted loudly for his friend who had asked the question. He said, ‗Where are you hiding in the crowd? Now come

on and see the ultimate in Sufism. This is what it is.‘

People go on talking about God. This is business like. They feel contended about this. If you start living in God you become intolerable to the so-called society, to

your so called family. Because family is the byproduct of the society! The society lives in hypocrisy. So is the family. None can tolerate truth. Truth has to be

crucified. A society! A family can love the Church but it cannot love Christ. It can

love the Vatican pope but it cannot love Jesus. When Jesus is gone then it is good. Then you can go on worshipping him. When Mansur is gone you can go on talking

about him. But when he is there he is a fire. Only those who are ready to be consumed by the fire will be ready to fall in love with Mansur. Remember both

society and family are false. They exist only in your dictionaries and the mind. In reality you never come across anything like family and the society. All you see is

people. A person can be transformed. He is living phenomena. No society! No family can ever be transformed. Both are nonexistent. And anything that is

nonexistent can never be transformed.

‗Sufa‘ means purity. Purity in the sense that there is no content in the mind anymore! Mind has disappeared. There is no mind, no thinking, and no thought. It

is a state of Satori, or Samadhi.



There is another possibility and that too is beautiful. And I accept all these

possibilities. The third possibility comes from another word, ‗sufia‘. The word means: chosen as a friend by God. Sufis say that you cannot search for God

unless he has already chosen you. How can you search for God? You talk as if you have already known God. You can search only for that you have already known?

You can never know the unknown. And god is both UNKNOWN and UNKNOWABLE. All initiative is from the side of God. He is searching for you. God desires for you.

He goes on groping for you. He goes on calling 'Where are you?' When he chooses somebody only then do you start choosing him. You may not know it. Because

when he chooses, how can you know?

The same is true about a Master. You think that you choose a Master? All Holy Nonsense! Just nonsense! It is always the Master who chooses you. The very idea

that you choose the Master is egoistic. How can you choose the Master? How will

you know in the first place who the Master is? How will you decide? What criterions have you got? You cannot choose a Master. Instead the Master chooses you. A

master goes on choosing many who are not yet even alert about it. But they have started moving the moment a master chooses. They think they are searching for a

Master. They think they are seekers. And it is natural. It can be forgiven. But they have been chosen by somebody. And so is the ultimate case with God. God

chooses first. Then you start feeling a hunger for him. And it is only Sufis who have told it. No other tradition has said so clearly that man cannot choose God! It

is God who chooses man. It is a blessing. Even to feel a thirst for God is a great blessing. You should feel happy that you have been chosen. You should be happy

that God has already called you. The first call is always heard in the deep unconscious. This you cannot figure it out. You do not what it is. From where it is

coming! You feel it as if it is coming from within you. It is not coming from you.

Man cannot take the initiative. How can man take the initiative? Man is so

impotent! Man is so helpless. Man cannot start the journey on his own unless he is pulled! Unless some magnetic force starts pulling him towards some Unknown

goal! You can choose only that which you know. How can you choose God? You can take the initiative for worldly things, because you know them. You can have

an idea of how to purchase a beautiful house or how to have this woman as your wife or this man as your husband or how to have more money, more power, and

more prestige. All such things you can choose! How can you choose God? You have not even had a glimpse, not even in your dreams. How can you choose

something so utterly unknown to you? But you are not unknown to God. So He can choose you. Whenever he chooses, a great desire arises in you to find him.

That is an indication that he has chosen you. You have become a Sufi - chosen as a friend by God. That is also beautiful.

The fourth possibility comes from the Greek word ‗Sufiya‘. ‗Sufiya‘ means wisdom.

Wisdom is not synonymous with knowledge. Knowledge is through scriptures,



through others. It is borrowed. Wisdom arises in your own being. You are a light

unto yourself. Wisdom means that you know! And when you know there is no question to believe. Knowledge is belief. Somebody says ‗God is‘ and you believe.

You believe the man; hence you believe whatever he is saying must be truth. Jesus says ‗God is‘ and you believe. I say ‗God is‘ and you believe. This is

knowledge. You love me, you trust me, and you start believing. But it is all knowledge. And a man becomes a Sufi only when he has known. When he himself

has known! When he himself has touched the reality! When he himself has seen the face of God! Then he becomes a Sufi. He has become wise. He is no more just

knowledgeable, it is his own experience now.

Only this much for now!

SUBHAN ALLAH



Propagation of Sufism

Become silent and in silence move towards non-existence, And when you become non-existent,

You will be all praise!

RUMI MASNAVI II: 2442

ufism, during 1200-1500 CE, experienced an era of increased activity in

various parts of the Islamic world. This period is considered as the ‗Classical Period‘ or the ‗Golden Age‘ of Sufism. Lodges and hospices soon became not

only places to house Sufi students, but also places for practicing Sufis and other mystics to stay and retreat. The propagation of Sufism started in Baghdad, and

spread to Persia, the Indian subcontinent, North Africa, and Muslim Spain. There were tests of conciliation between Sufism and the other Islamic sciences. These

are sharia, fiqh, etc., as well as the beginning of the Sufi brotherhoods turuq.

One of the first orders to originate was the Yasawi order, named after Khwajah

Ahmed Yasawi in modern Kazakhstan. The Kubrawiya order, originating in Central Asia, was named after Najmeddin Kubra, known as the ‗saint-producing sheikh,‖

because a number of his disciples became sheikhs. The most prominent Sufi master of this era is Abdul Qadir Gilani, the founder of the Qadriya order in Iraq.

Others included Rumi, founder of the Mevlevi order in Konya, modern day Turkey, Sahabuddin Suharwardi in Iran, Moinuddin Chishti and Makhdoom Ashraf in India.

Hazrat Baqi Billah is the first Naqshbandi master to travel to India. Later he settled

in Delhi. And there is his shrine in New Delhi. Although he is the patriarch of the Naqshbandi order in India, yet Mujaddadi Alf Thani, a 17th century reformer of the

Naqshbandi order, is considered a seminal personality in the propagation of Sufism. It was Mujaddadi Alif Thani who began a movement that aimed to purify

Islam of pantheist influence by returning to its basic sources-Quran and Sunnah,

while maintaining the integrity of it. As is evident from his name Alif Thani which means one who has no parallel! His shrine is at Sirhind in Punjab, India. It has

now become a holy pilgrim where people of all faith gather. With all the gatherings a replica of the original shrine is built and the real shrine is restricted to those of

Naqshbandi order.

Sufism has some roots in the Shamanic traditions of Middle Asia, and is flexible in terms of religious materiality. These two characteristics of Sufism attracted the

nomadic people of middle-western Asia (mainly the current Iranic and Turkic republics of Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan,

S



Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan). Sufism also spread quickly among the Anatolian

Turkmen and among Balkan peoples of spiritual dimension, modern Albania, Bosnia, Macedonia, and Bulgaria.

SUBHAN ALLAH

What is a Naqshbandi design?

The reflections cast from good friends is needed

Until you become, without the aid of any reflector, A drawer of water from the sea!

Know that at first reflection is just imitation, But when it continues to recur,

It turns into direct realization of truth. Until it has become realization,

Do not part from the friends who guide you-

Do not break away from the shell Until the raindrop has become a pearl!

RUMI MANABÍ II: 566-8

he Naqshbandi way is a unique path of transformation of human consciousness. Nothing is said, nothing is done yet still something happens.

Just as the aspirant lives within the energy field of the master, something begins to grow and evolve from deep within the aspirant. The word Naqshband

comes from two words: Naqsh and band! Naqsh literally implies impressions or designs, and band refers to the one who makes those designs. Naqshband

therefore means the designer. Naqshband is the designer! Designer that makes the design. Such designs are not the designs of an ordinary one. These are the

designs that a master makes on the inner being of the aspirants. Thus a master

carves out the design or the path of the journey for the aspirant.

The design is like the yantras of Hindus. These contain within the entire scheme or the design of transformation. Shah Naqshband Bahauddin was a potter by

profession. He used to make beautiful designs on the pots that was his profession. On these he used to carve intricate spiritual design. He poured his entire energy in

the profession that he was involved for his sustenance. Such is the way of the masters. Kabir remained a weaver throughout his life. He weaved his design or the

scheme into the cloth he was weaving for sustenance. When his master Amir Kulal

T



came to know of this he said you are indeed Naqshband. You are designing the

path for individual seeker. The path from now on will be known as NAQSHBANDI-the DESIGNER.

What is a Naqshbandi design?

THE PARABLE:

A MASTER OF THE NAQSHBANDIS WAY WAS ONCE ASKED, 'YOUR ORDER'S NAME MEANS LITERALLY ‗THE DESIGNERS‘. WHAT DO YOU DESIGN, AND WHAT USE IS

IT?'

THE MASTER RESPONDED, 'WE DO A GREAT DEAL OF DESIGNING, AND IT IS MOST USEFUL.‘

HERE IS A PARABLE OF ONE SUCH FORM: 'UNJUSTLY IMPRISONED, A TINSMITH WAS ALLOWED TO RECEIVE A RUG WOVEN BY HIS WIFE. HE PROSTRATED

HIMSELF UPON THE RUG DAY AFTER DAY TO SAY HIS PRAYERS, AND AFTER SOME TIME HE SAID TO HIS JAILERS, ‗I AM POOR AND WITHOUT HOPE, AND YOU

ARE WRETCHEDLY PAID. BUT I AM A TINSMITH. BRING ME TIN AND TOOLS AND I SHALL MAKE SMALL ARTIFACTS WHICH YOU CAN SELL IN THE MARKET, AND WE

WILL BOTH BENEFIT.‘

'THE GUARDS AGREED TO THIS, AND PRESENTLY THEY AND THE TINSMITH WERE BOTH MAKING A PROFIT, FROM WHICH THEY BOUGHT FOOD AND COMFORTS FOR

THEMSELVES. 'THEN, ONE DAY, WHEN THE GUARDS WENT TO THE CELL, THE DOOR WAS OPEN, AND HE WAS GONE.

'MANY YEARS LATER, WHEN THIS MAN'S INNOCENCE HAD BEEN ESTABLISHED,

THE MAN WHO HAD IMPRISONED HIM ASKED HIM HOW HE HAD ESCAPED, WHAT

MAGIC HE HAD USED. HE SAID, 'IT IS A MATTER OF DESIGN, AND DESIGN WITHIN DESIGN. MY WIFE IS A WEAVER. SHE FOUND THE MAN WHO HAD MADE

THE LOCKS OF THE CELL DOOR, AND GOT THE DESIGN FROM HIM. THIS SHE WOVE INTO THE CARPET AT THE SPOT WHERE MY HEAD TOUCHED IN PRAYER

FIVE TIMES A DAY. I AM A METAL-WORKER, AND THIS DESIGN LOOKED TO ME LIKE THE INSIDE OF A LOCK. I DESIGNED THE PLAN OF THE ARTIFACTS TO

OBTAIN THE MATERIALS TO MAKE THE KEY AND I ESCAPED.‘

‗THAT,‘ SAID THE NAQSHBANDI SUFI, 'IS ONE OF THE WAYS IN WHICH MAN MAY MAKE HIS ESCAPE FROM THE TYRANNY OF HIS CAPTIVITY. AND THE QUAGMIRE

OF THE LIFE OF DUALITY‘! THIS IS THE NAQSHBANDI DESIGN.

INTRODUCTION TO THE PARABLE:



This parable in a very subtle way explains the Naqshbandi way and the path. Man is born without a definition. He knows he is. But he does not know who he is. He

comes into the world absolutely undefined, uncategorized, and unlabelled. He comes into the world as a freedom. The whole life is to define him. It is there to

know who he is. Man is the only animal who asks the question, ‗Who am I?‘ Only he can ask, because every other animal has a perfect definition. A rose is a rose

and a dog is a dog. But the man is not just a man. A man has much more hidden in him. Man is a hidden infinity within. He is the replica of the cosmos.

The rose is a closed phenomenon. It is defined. But a man is open-ended. The

rose is predictable. Man cannot be predicted. One never knows. One may be a sinner today and tomorrow become the greatest of saints or vice versa. Man

remains open. Man remains fluid like. This makes man capable of flowing. Man is

more like a process than like a defined thing. This is the glory of the man and his misery as well. He constantly hankers to know who he is. And again and again he

stumbles into the darkness of his being. His being is not illumined. Hence there is the need for search, and the enquiry.

On this point man has to be understood. Because only from this understanding he

may start working towards a definition, towards realization, and ultimately towards truth! When I say ‗man is born without definition‘ I mean that man is not

born ready-made. What existentialists say is true. They say that in man, existence precedes his essence. In a tree, the essence comes first, then the

existence. The same is true about everything else, except man. Essence comes first as the seed, the essential program, and the essential design. The blueprint

comes first. Then the blueprint unfolds itself slowly and slowly to become the very existence.

In man just the reverse is the case. First his existence comes. However this existence is without a blueprint, without any design, without being programmed in

any way. He simply starts to exist as nothingness, as nobody. And then, by and by, he has to create his own identity, he has to create himself. He has to work it

out, hence the anxiety. One may or may not be able to; who knows? One may succeed. Or may not! There is no guarantee in man. A Nanak unfolds into a

Nanak; a Siddhartha unfolds as a Buddha. This possibility in man has both ends open. A dog is bound to succeed. He will definitely become a dog. There is no

more to it. A peacock has no fear of being a failure. A tiger need not worry. No need to worry of insomnia. He is already that which he can be.

Man is not that which he can be. Man is just a beginning. And in that case the end

remains unknown. Man brings no program into the world. Man is not born ready-made. He is born as utter freedom. And all the possibilities are wide open.



With freedom comes the responsibility. Without responsibility you will go on

missing your own soul. The responsibility is towards you. You will never feel fulfilled. You will always remain empty. If you do not start discovering or creating,

if you do not start working for your being, you will remain just an existence without any essence.

This is what is happening to millions of people around the globe. They have no

souls. They exist, obviously. But their existence has no fulfillment in it. There is no contentment in it. And no joy either! This is the state of existential anguish,

tension or misery that Buddha calls DUKKHA, utter misery. Blissfulness comes when you have come out of the darkness. And you are defined. Or you have

become illuminated. Only then you have an inner flame and now you know who you are. With this awareness, you have arrived home. Otherwise you remain a

stranger a wanderer, always searching for the home and never at home anywhere.

You remain a traveler and you never know rest. Remember rest is possible only when you have arrived home.

So the whole life remains an unfulfilled search for the home. Existence has to

become your very essence. Existence has to produce essence. And when I say 'man has to create himself' I mean this is how he participates in God. Animals live.

But they never create. Trees live never create. Even if something comes out of them, it is a natural production. Flowers and fruits do certainly come. However

this is natural and spontaneous. They do not have to make any effort. It is only man who creates. There is no necessity. There was no possibility of predicting that

Picasso would do his paintings. Or a Shakespeare will write plays. Everything is uncertain. But a mango tree will produce mangoes and nothing else this is certain.

Picasso will produce paintings, or become a Buddha, or a dancer nobody knows.

Man is a chaos, a creative chaos. He is very nebulous in his being. You cannot

demark him. You cannot say exactly what he is. And man goes on changing every day. He is river-like flowing towards unchartered destination. This is man's dignity.

He is the only animal who can create. He is the only creature who participates in God's creativity.

But then there is also a problem. No glory can come without a problem with it. The

glory is that you can miss. You may not be able to sing your song. You may not be able to dance your dance. Life may come to an end and you have not yet started.

You may be a failure. So man is constantly surrounded by fear of failure; fear of remaining nobody; fear of remaining nothingness, an unfulfilled yearning; fear of

remaining barren; fear of remaining a desert. Who knows? You cannot be certain about it. There is no guarantee in man's existence. The possibility of failure is

ninety-nine per cent. The possibility of success is only one per cent. This brings a trembling within. Every step is in the unknown. And there is no guarantee, and no



security. Every path is taking you into the unknown realm. You do not know

whether it will lead you to the goal or whether it will just turn into a failure.

It may reach only to a precipice from where there is no more movement. You may have to come back and all the effort may be just wastage. Nobody knows.

One has to move into darkness not knowing where it will lead to. But one still has

to move. If you do not move, then too life goes on slipping by. Life is a flow that goes on slipping. So it is better to move than not to. Remember with movement

there is at least a possibility that you may arrive. But when you do not move, there can be no possibility. One has to choose.

And all alternatives look alike. It appears as if you are standing on a crossroad. In the process all roads look alike. It may be so. And there may not be any way to

decide before hand that this one is going to be right definitely. You have to search

and experiment. Trial and error is the only method available to man. This makes it almost impossible to choose. Also this keeps them in a more convenient and

comfortable life. So it is better to sit on the crossroads and not to choose. This way at least you can avoid mistakes. But just by avoiding, you cannot be fulfilled.

You may not have committed any mistake but you have not arrived anywhere. So the people who are very much afraid of mistakes are the ones who lose this

opportunity, to grow, and attain to being.

Man has to find himself. He has to enquire and investigate. This cannot be avoided. Those who avoid, avoid at their own risk. ‗Who am I?‘ is the only

beginning. This has to be enquired continuously till the answer arrives from the deepest core of one's being. This is the only religious question.

And, remember, man is not a being as yet because he is not ready-made. He is

not a being because he is a process. Man is a bridge. He has to be surpassed, he

has to be outgrown. This means, to find himself he has to go beyond himself. Man is continually trying to transcend himself, and to surpass himself. This is

paradoxical. Remember man is a paradoxical being. It is a bridge you have to pass over. You cannot make your house on the bridge. Those who make their houses

on the bridge will never reach to the other shore. One has to go on. There are a thousand and one anxieties, problems, and hazards as well. But in spite of all that,

one has to go on.

One has to commit many mistakes before one can know what truth is. That is why man has to be constantly moving from his past. The past is the known, the known

you, and the future is the unknown you. And you have always to sacrifice the known you for the unknown you. This is what all great religions teach. This is what

they call sacrifice. Sacrifice that which you have known, all that that you have become identified with. Sacrifice the past for the future, the known for the

unknown, and the settled for the unsettled. This is the only way to grow. If you



become too much identified with the past, growth ceases. If you become too much

entangled with the past, you start moving in circles.

Man is not a pilgrim but a pilgrimage. Pilgrim is the subject. And pilgrimage is a process. And obviously there are problems, great problems. Problems never exist

for animals, trees, rocks and rivers. Problems exist only for man. Remember everything else is defined, and settled already by nature itself. Nature has only left

man unsettled. Man has been left to his own efforts. But these problems have to be understood not as problems, but as challenges; not enemies, but as friends. It

is only through them one learns, knows, and ultimately becomes.

Because of this search, maps have to be devised, designs have to be devised. Because of this search, you will need guidelines. Remember, a map is just a map.

No map can really represent a country. The map of Trinidad is not Trinidad. No

design is the truth. The design is just a devise. Definitely it can help tremendously. A map can help tremendously, knowing perfectly well that the map is not the

country. The map does not even resemble the country. By seeing the map of any country you will not be seeing anything of that country. The map resembles

nothing. The map is just a parallel device. It is a metaphor, a symbolic representation.

But a map can be of great help. Those who have gone beyond can create designs

for you. This is the role of a Master. Those who have known, or have arrived, and are no longer just existential instead have become essences or souls, crystallized,

and centered, are the ones who can definitely give you a few guidelines, or a few maps.

WHAT IS NAQSHBANDI DESIGN?

Sufis call these designs, and there exists a school of Sufis called 'the designers'. Know this as NAQSHBANDI PATH or TARIQAH.

NAQSHBANDI TARIQAH is one of the foremost Sufi schools. There are others as

well. They are all called by names like this. Another school is called ‗the weavers‘; another school is called ‗the boat makers‘. Sufis have such names. Those names

are very practical. They immediately indicate what the school is doing. NAQSHBANDIS have been designing maps. This is what in India we call YANTRA. A

YANTRA is called a design by Sufis. You may have seen Indian yantras and you may be puzzled about what they are. Looking at a Yantra you will only find lines,

and geometrical designs or just the number table. But if you know how to decode it, you will be surprised. Each Yantra is therapeutic. It is the map of your whole

inward journey. It shows something, but you will have to know the language. The map is in a certain language, which is not available to the public. Remember the

public can use it in a dangerous way. It stores tremendous energy within it. It can



be given only to the initiates. All the religions of the world have created their own

designs. However none can be compared with the NAQSHBANDIS DESIGNS.

First it has to be understood that a map or a design is a device. It is arbitrary. As it is, it is neither true nor false. It is simply useful or not useful. It is a utilitarian

device. It has nothing to do with truth as such. Once Buddha was asked, ‗Can a Buddha lie? Can a man who is enlightened, lie?‘ Buddha replied, ‗He has to

because he will have to devise maps. All maps are lies. Yes indeed lies in the sense that they are not truth. They are indications towards truth. Once you have

reached, you will throw away the map. It was just useful.‘ This is like a ladder that you use to reach to the top. And when you have reached the top it will be unwise

to remain attached to the ladder. In that you will miss much. So Buddha has defined truth in a very novel way. He says, ‗That which is useful is true.‘ His

definition is very pragmatic, practical, and very scientific. So is the attitude of the

NAQSHBANDI Masters.

NOW THE PARABLE:

There is an ancient but famous NAQSHBANDI parable. It is that of a father who called his children out of a building which was on fire. But the children ignored the

call. When they ignored him, he called them to come and get the toys he had brought for them. Listening to this they came out running. He did not have any

toys but he saved his children's lives. He lied. The children, small children, must have been playing inside the house. They must have become too involved in their

play that they could not see the house was on fire. But the father was outside and he saw the danger so he called them. He shouted. ‗Come out!‘ But they were so

involved in their game that they did not listen. He invented a lie. He said, ‗Look! I have brought the toys that you have always wanted. So many, and so beautiful!

Come on and take your toys!‘ And they all came running out. There were no toys,

the father was lying. But he saved their lives.

Now this is a design, a NAQSHBANDI device. It is neither true nor false, but it is useful. Will you say that when the father lied. Or he committed a sin? All religions

say, ‗Be true. Speak the truth.'

It happens many times, because you are all children and the house is on fire and you will not listen. You are so involved in your games. Somebody is involved in

money games, someone else in politics, and somebody in something else. People are so much involved. To their very end they will remain clouded by their dreams

and desires.

And the house is constantly on fire. Because you are living in death, the house is constantly on fire. Any moment you will be gone. But you are so much into your

games that the Master has to devise something. It happened! Once a man used to



come to a great saint and he would always ask, 'Sir, one thing puzzles me. You

are so innocent, so pure, how is this possible? Suspicion arises in my mind that maybe you simply pretend. In this world of corruption, how can one be so pure

and innocent and so virgin? How can one avoid being corrupted by the world? Maybe deep down you still carry the same thing but on the surface you have

maintained it, you have maintained it well.' One day the man came.

He again started to say the same thing. And the Master said, ‗Listen; there is

something more important to be said to you. Just show me your hand.‘ He looked at his hand, became very sad. Closed his eyes and started to cry. The man asked,

‗What is the matter? Why are you crying, Sir? I have never seen you crying.‘

He said, ‗I am crying because only seven days are left. Within seven days you will

be gone. Your lifeline is cut. Next Sunday you will die. That is why I am crying. Now you can ask whatsoever you want to ask. You wanted to ask something?‘

The man replied, ‗I have forgotten. You have disturbed me very much. Only seven days?‘

Now this Master was so loved by people, so much respected, that there was no

reason to suspect that he would tell a lie. The man rushed home, and fell ill. He did not move from his bed for seven days. He went was sinking every day,

stopped eating. And he could not sleep. The relatives gathered. On the seventh day they were just waiting, because the Master had said that as the sun sets, he

would die. And there was just half an hour to go. The sun was just coming down, and coming down, relatives and friends and the wife and the children were crying

and the man was just sinking into death.

Then the Master came and said to the man, ‗I have one question to ask. In these

seven days have you committed anything that you used to call sin, impurity, corruption, this and that? Did any idea come into your mind, any worldly idea?‘

The man opened his eyes with great difficulty.

He said, ‗What are you talking about? I am dying! How can a man have any ideas of sin or of the world when he is dying? Only death was there around me. It was

coming closer and closer. In these seven days there was not a single worldly desire in me. I was only thinking of God. I was praying, repeating God's name.‘

The Master laughed. He said, ‗You can get up now. You are not going to die! That

was only a design to show you why I am pure. Death surrounds me continuously. What does it matter whether it is coming in seven days or seven years or seventy

years? It does not matter. It is only a question of time. It is coming and that much is certain. It is approaching each moment. When death is coming, this becomes



very, very clear to your consciousness. Life goes through a great change, a radical

change.‘

The man started laughing. He said, ‗You played a joke!‘ He became perfectly okay; within minutes he was okay. But he said, ‗Master, one thing, how could you lie?‘

The Master said, ‗It is neither a lie, nor a truth; it is a design, a NAQSHBANDI.‘

Maps have been invented to help you. They are arbitrary. Never become too obsessed with a map. Use it if you can; if you cannot, forget all about it. It has

nothing valuable in it beyond its use.

Man has been thrown into the world for a certain reason. That has to be understood. Christianity has given the idea to the whole world that man has been

thrown into the world as a punishment. That is a very stupid idea. Not only is the

idea stupid, it makes even God look stupid, arrogant and mad. He threw man into the world for SUCH a small thing! Because Adam disobeyed him! Each child

disobeys the father. He has to disobey the father. In fact, by disobeying the father, he tries to define himself. That is the only way to define him. Each child

has to go against the parent one day or other. If he never goes against the parents he will never be. Then he will be just a shadow. He has to rebel. He has

to say no. Remember, ‗saying no‘ is nothing but an effort to define you. When you go on saying yes, you lose definition.

Adam and Eve were doing what each child has to do. It is so psychological. God

said, ‗Do not eat the fruit of this tree, this tree of knowledge.‘ If you ask the Sufis they will say that this is a NAQSHBANDI. This is a design. God is provoking them

to eat the fruit of this tree. He is not prohibiting. In fact, he is provoking. In the Garden of Eden there were millions of trees. If Adam had been left to himself to

find the tree of knowledge he might not have found it yet. It was only one tree in

those millions of trees. And there was nothing special about it. It was just an ordinary apple tree. There were millions of apple trees like it but this was poisoned

by knowledge.

Why God did stop Adam from eating the fruit. Christians think that he wanted to discipline Adam. God wanted Adam to be obedient. That is not true. Ask the

NAQSHBANDIS, because they are the people who know how to design things. They are the designers. They know that God designed the first design. He

provoked Adam. God challenged Adam. He created the idea and the desire to rebel by forcing an absurd commandment – ‗Do not eat the fruit from the tree of

knowledge.‘ God created a longing in Adam and Eve.

They must have dreamed about this tree from then onwards. They must have gone around the tree again and again. They must have touched the fruit. They

must have smelled the fruit. They must have been waiting for the right moment.



They must have been hesitant. Each child is afraid. They must also have been

afraid. Each child is. Many times they must have gone and come back. Many times they must have been on the verge of committing disobedience, rebellion. This

would have made then frightened as well. If God comes to know, then what! But how long can you resist this desire to say no? Remember the whole thing is a

design. Once Adam says no to God he becomes himself. By saying no he defines himself.

This is the reason there is an age when children say no to every-thing. You say

anything and they will say no. They are defining themselves. They are saying, this is my definition, this is ‗I am‘. You keep aloof. Let me be. This is my space. I do

not want to do this. This is what Adam actually did. He had to do it to be himself. It was a design from God. This interpretation has a beauty. The NAQSHBANDIS

say it was a design from God to provoke Adam. Unless Adam was provoked, he

would never become grown-up. He had to say no to God so he could go on his way into the world. It is not a punishment, not at all. God is not as arrogant as he has

been depicted by the so called organized religions through their thinking.

God did not punish Adam. God loved Adam. If Adam had followed God, there would have been no world at all. Let me repeat this once again and you literally

write on your forehead so that you may not forget. If Adam had at all followed God there would have been no world at all. In fact there would have been nobody

here. It is by disobeying God, by saying no, that man became man, attained to his first definition, attained to his first feeling of being himself.

God is neither arrogant nor egoistic nor mad. He must have loved and blessed

Adam. That is my feeling as well as my understanding. When Adam was going out of the Garden of Eden, I am sure, God must have blessed him. Now he is going on

his way. That is what every father would like his children to do. One day they

should go on their own way. They should seek and search and be. How long can you remain protected? You have to go into insecurity. Whatever you may call this

sin or anything else this is your choice. One day you have to go into this sin. You have to go into the world. It is not expulsion, it is Adam's rebellion. And it is not

punishment. It is well-planned and designed. It is by this design that God created the world. This is Sufi design.

Christians have not understood it at all and they have made a very foolish story

out of it -that God condemned Adam. And then the second part of the story follows naturally. Then Jesus said yes to God and was accepted back again. Now

Christians say that because Adam committed a sin of disobedience, the whole humanity suffered. And because Jesus accepted God again, said yes totally, the

whole humanity was saved through Jesus. This is the entire Christian game.



This too is meaningless and childish. How can you suffer for Adam's sin? And how

can you be saved by Jesus being saved? Then where do you come in? What is your responsibility? Then you just seem to be puppets. Adam committed a sin and you

suffer. You have not been even a participant in it. You do not know anything about Adam. When he was, whether he ever was or not, and you are suffering because

Adam committed a sin. This is unjust, childish and juvenile. Somebody committed a sin thousands of years ago, and you are still suffering, you are being punished

for it. This is very far-fetched justice! It does not look right. And then, two thousand years ago Jesus said yes to God, and was saved; and you are saved in

Jesus being saved. So somebody commits a sin and you become a sinner, and somebody becomes a saint and you become a saint. Where do you come in? Then

what is your responsibility? Then you are nothing. The whole drama is complete between Adam and Jesus. Whether you are or you are not it makes no difference.

If there had been no Adam you would not be here. Also if there had been no Jesus

you would never have been saved. This is not only childish but foolish as well. You are neither punished because of Adam nor are you saved because of Jesus. You

will be whatsoever you are going to be by your own efforts, by your own responsibility. You will either miss or get, but it will be your responsibility.

The NAQSHBANDIS say that this was the first NAQSHBANDI design. God created

the first design for human transformation. He created a situation in which Adam rebelled. And since then man has been rebelling. Man has to go into the darkness

of his being only to come back home. It is not punishment. Man is not thrown into the world to be punished. Man is thrown into the world to learn, to discover, to

transform and to be.

I have heard, Robert Frost used to pray every night. I loved his prayer. He used to say to God, ‗God, if you forgive me my petitions against you, I promise you that I

will forgive you your great sin against me. I promise that I will forgive you your

great sin against me and against humanity.'

It is meaningful. If Adam is thought to have committed a sin, it is a small sin. And Adam is a child. He can be forgiven. But what about God! God provoked him. What

about this? He created the whole situation. If Adam's act is thought to be a sin, then it is a small sin. But what about God and his sin! Was he not aware of one

very small thing? Even such a thing any psychologist knows. If you provoke someone or challenge, you create a situation. God provoked Adam. And this was

his great sin. If Adam's sin is a sin, God's sin is even far greater.

But neither is a sin. Never consider Adam's sin a small one and God's sin a great sin. It was simply a design to help Adam to move on his own, to stand on his own.

This is Naqshbandi design.



Have you watched something about the trees? When trees bloom and the fruit

comes and the seeds ripen, every tree tries to send its seeds far away with the wind, and the birds. And if the tree sometimes feels that the wind will not be able

to take the seed that the seed is heavy, and then it creates devices, NAQSHBANDIS, to send the seed far away. The seed has to be carried far away

because if the seed falls underneath the big tree it will never grow. It has to be on its own. Also it has to find its own space.

There are trees which grow their seeds with a small bit of cotton around them. The

seed is heavy but the cotton is weightless. The wind can take the cotton away. Then the seed will also go, far away, and will fall onto some open space where it

can grow and become a great tree.

This is what God did with Adam. He tried to push him away. Remember you can

grow only when you are on your own. One day the child has to be sent to the school, or to the hostel. And then one day he has to go to the university. He goes

crying and resisting. He does not want to leave the family and the familiar. He does not want to leave the past, comfort, protection, security, and the safety. He

does not want to leave, so he has to be pushed. He has to be thrown into the world. That is what God did. It was a device. A conscious device!

Once you are thrown into the world you will learn on your own. Many times you

will fail. This is natural. However by failing again and again, a new insight will start arising in you. And that insight will take you back.

Adam came into the world. Of course he had to come. When Adam learns,

becomes, attains to his being, he becomes Christ. Christ is nothing but Adam who has become grown-up. Now he can go back home. Now God will welcome him

there. He has learned. The world itself is a NAQSHBANDI for people to be.

‗Consciousness is not like something thing that is solid, complete, and full and

given.‘ It has to be learned. It has to be grown. It has to be guarded. You have to be a gardener of consciousness. You have to provide water, space, sun rays, and

fertilizers. You have to allow it to grow. And when it sprouts you have to protect this small sprout. It is very delicate and vulnerable as well. It can be crushed by

anything. So always remember: ‗Consciousness is not like something that is solid, complete, and full and given. It is a process and a self-creation. It is our continual

improvisation based on the rejection of what it has been up to this moment.‘

You have to be understood this. Consciousness grows only if you go on rejecting your past. Ordinarily we cling to the past. And when you cling to the past the

consciousness does not grow. Whatsoever you have learned, forget about it. It is finished. It is no more. You have learned it. You have absorbed it. Whatsoever you

have been up to now, drop it so that you can be something more. Never be



confined by your past. People who become confined by the past are the prisoners.

This is the cycle of birth and rebirth.

NAQSHBANDI call this as prison. Your past and all conditionings is the prison. It has to be broken every moment. Each moment one has to grow out of it. ‗To be‘ is

to spurn from one what one has been. In so far as one does not do that, one approximates to a thing and ceases to be a person.‘ If you do not have any future,

or a past, you are a thing, not a person. A person is one who has a future. A person is one who is always unburdened by the past. It has been lived already so

what is the point of carrying it? It has been known already, it has been experienced already. There is no need to go on repeating it. When a person

becomes non-repetitive, when he does not go on repeating the same experience again and again, he grows.

Man has the characteristic of self-transcendence. You have to go beyond whatsoever you think of as yourself. You have to drop it, you have to renounce it.

A discontinuity with the past is renunciation. This is the beginning of the inward

journey. This is the reason that a master gives you a new name when you are initiated. It indicates a discontinuity with the past, and thus a new beginning.

Again it is a NAQSHBANDI. It indicates that your past is finished, that chapter is now closed. Start something new now. This is a rebirth. Be born again. It is just a

metaphor. If you understand it well, you can make great use of it. And from the moment you become a sannyasin, you have to remember it continuously. Every

night when you go to bed to sleep, close your eyes and close the chapter that has passed. Be finished with it. Say to yourself that the past is no more. Consciously,

and deliberately, drop it, renounce it, so that the next morning you can be fresh again, clean again, young again, and innocent again. Only then does

consciousness grow. This is the quality of a religious person.

Man has the characteristic of self-transcendence. He is as something to be

surpassed. In plain language, man is free. Or we can say man is freedom. This freedom is the essence of man. In case of man existence precedes essence. Man

must create for himself his own essence, his own soul, his own being. Man is a continuous process of birth. But this happens by himself, to himself, through

himself, and finally for himself.

This is the lifelong task. Each one of this has to face this everybody. And for this you need maps. All religions are different kinds of maps. And remember never to

mix maps. If you are using one map, use it with great alertness, awareness, dedication, and commitment. Never mix it with other maps because different maps

have been made by different people with different ideas behind them. They are not planned on the same lines. There are road maps, railway maps, political map

showing boundaries, religious map showing something else, and a geographical



map showing still something different. All maps are different devices created by

different people. Never mix the maps, otherwise you will become confused. If you are using one map, go on using that alone. One map is enough.

Indeed truth is one. All paths reach the same truth. However each starts from a

different standpoint. Their starting points are different. But the ultimate arriving point remains the same. There is no need to make a synthesis of the starting

points. Otherwise you will be confused. So whatsoever map appeals to you listen deeply to your heart and then be dedicated to it.

PILLARS OF SUFISM:

Before we enter into the parable, three things have to be understood. There are

three pillars of Sufism. This is a NAQSHBANDI, a design, to help you. This is a kind

of map. The first is ISLAM, the second is IMAN and the third is IHSAN.

ISLAM in the wider sense means surrender. Surrender of the ego, surrender of the past, and the surrender of the so-called self you have come to believe you are.

Utter surrender! That is the first basic pillar. ISLAM is a beautiful word. It has many other meanings too, but the basic is surrender, SAMARPAN. The second

meaning of ISLAM is peace. When one surrenders, there is peace. Remember in surrender, all conflict disappears. When you have surrendered to a Master or to a

school or to a certain map, you are in a great peace. Now you are not fighting. You have found somebody you can trust. You have found somebody who knows the

way. You have found somebody who has the light in him. You can follow. In great trust, peace arises. How can there be conflict when trust and surrender has

happened? The third meaning is silence. Peace means that now there is no more conflict in life. You are choice less. Once you have chosen a Master, peace arises

because now he is there to tell you what to do and what not to do. And your

commitment is total. Your involvement is also total. There is no need to think about it anymore. You can put aside the thinking mind. Peace comes. And silence

too. Silence is another dimension of peace.

Have you observed? Sometimes, whenever you have surrendered in love to somebody suddenly great silence descends within. No thoughts! No ripple! Outside

on the surface there may be great noise and disturbance but when you are in silence, suddenly even the noise of the train and the airplane and the traffic

cannot distract you. Even in them you will find silence a melody and a rhythm. When you are silent within, you will find silence overflowing everywhere.

In love a very small surrender happens. You are always in love with somebody

who is equal to you. It cannot be a very great surrender. You know the woman you are surrendered to or the man you are surrendered to, but he is just like you.



When you surrender to a Master, you are surrendering to something which is far

away and yet close by. A Master is a ladder. The first rung is very close by and the farthest rung is very far away, high in the skies. The farthest rung whispers with

the clouds.

When you surrender, one part, of the ladder is in your hands and the other end of the ladder is with God. A Master is man-god. He looks like you, exactly like you,

and yet he is not like you. He has arrived. He has found. The enquiry is no longer there. The search is no more there. No more desires are left. There is total

fulfillment.

Islam is the first pillar of Sufism - surrender, peace, and silence.

The second pillar is IMAN. IMAN means trust, faith. Trust is not belief. Belief is in

concepts. Faith is in presence. If what I say appeals to you and you trust it that will be belief. If what I am attracts you like a magnet, and if it pulls you like some

unknown and invisible energy field, then it is trust. When you believe in a logical statement, it is belief. When you believe in the presence of a person, it is trust.

Trust is personal. Belief is conceptual. IMAN means trust.

Sufis say that you cannot work alone. Without a Master it is almost impossible. Without a Master you will be like an accidental being. Then you will move

haphazardly. You can drive yourself crazy more easily than you can become enlightened alone. And remember one thing: never for a single moment think, as

so many people think, that those who surrender or those who trust, are weak people. Only strong people can surrender. And only strong people can trust. Trust

needs courage. Trust means risk. Trust means that now you are opening yourself to somebody totally and you do not know what is going to happen. Only the very

strong and courageous people can surrender. IMAN is for those who are

courageous.

The first meaning of IMAN is faith, trust, or SHRADDHA. The second meaning of IMAN is religion. Religion is not a sect. IMAN is religiousness. What is

religiousness? All dissatisfaction with the visible is religiousness. Dissatisfaction with the visible and the tangible, discontentment with the world as it is and a

discontent with things as they are is the beginning of religiousness. With this, a great longing arises in you to search for truth. You begin to search for the

meaning of life, and also the source of life. From where does it all spring forth? Where does it all go to? What is the foundation of this whole mystery? Know this

as religiousness.

Religiousness has nothing to do with any sect-Hindu, Mohammedan, and Christian etc. A religious man is a religious man. He is not concerned with being Hindu,

Mohammedan or Christian. You can see that quality. When you see a religious



man you will not feel that he is a Mohammedan or a Hindu or a Christian, you will

simply feel that he is religious. He has a flavor of religiousness around him. His eyes have a shine not of this world and his heart has a different rhythm not of this

world. He walks on the earth but his feet do not touch the ground. He is here and yet still not here. He is drunk with something else. You cannot see what he is

drunk with. His alcohol is not visible. His wine is not that which can be bought in the marketplace. He has produced a wine in his innermost core and he is drunk

with it. You will see it in the way he walks, the way he sits, the way he talks, the way he relates and communicates. There is drunkenness.

If you are available to such a being you may start getting high just by being in

contact with him. Just because he is so turned on, you will start feeling turned on. This is religiousness. Know this as IMAN. This is what Hindus call DHARMA, or

what Lao Tzu calls Tao, or what the Jews call TORAH. The most fundamental law of

religion is to be drunk with the unknown, with the invisible. To be drunk with something that is not of this world, not available here, to be drunk with something

penetrating from the beyond is religiousness. And if you have seen Sufis, you will be surprised they are the drunken people in the world.

Yet still there is another meaning of IMAN. This means commitment, involvement

not only in thought but in deeds as well. It is a conversion, it is an initiation. If you feel that the meaning is missing, then just by thinking you are not going to find it.

You will have to commit yourself to it in your totality; your thoughts, your feelings, your actions, all will have to be committed to it.

This is renunciation. It is IMAN. You are not only supposed to believe in what I

say, or only to pay lip-service to what I say you have to become that, you have to represent that, you have to bring it to aliveness in your being, you have to live it.

It should not remain a philosophical thing. Instead it should become your very life.

Only then, one arrives home.

And the third thing is IHSAN. IHSAN means authenticity or sincerity. Unless your effort is sincere, nothing is going to happen. You cannot deceive God. You can

deceive everybody else, you can even deceive yourself but you cannot deceive God. Also you cannot deceive the whole. There is no way to do that. You have to

be authentic and true.

IHSAN means do not be split. If you do not want to see God then forget about it. Be in The world and let the world be your only reality. One day or other you will be

frustrated. Then the search for God will begin. But there is no need to go right now. If you are not ripe yet, it is better to remain in the world. The world will

make you ripe for God. There is no hurry. If you are really ready, then don't ride on two horses. Then choose. IHSAN means authenticity, and sincerity.



The second meaning of IHSAN is virtue the inner virtue. Something not imposed

from the outside. When a person is authentic, a kind of virtue arises in him. You can see the authentic person. The truth is very clear in his being. Everything that

he does is very clear. He has a direction, a sense of direction, because his is a sincere search. He knows what he is doing so he does only that which is going to

help his ultimate goal, and he drops all that which is irrelevant. He will not waste a single moment of his time and energy on anything else.

If you are really a sannyasin then whatsoever you do will be a help towards your

ultimate fruition, your Samadhi. If you are playing music, you will play with the idea that it will be part of your meditation. If you are dancing, you will dance to

create a more meditative space around you. If you are talking to somebody, you will talk only about things which are going to help. You will not be distracted by

rubbish. You will simply say, ‗This is not for me. I am not interested in it.‘ You will

read only those books which are going to help. You will not waste your time in reading unnecessary. Everything that you do will direct to your ultimate fruition.

Your life will become channelized and a harmony within. You have one purpose,

and that purpose is continuously there like a thread running in everything you are doing. Only then is there a possibility, only then do you become worthy enough.

Only then you deserve God to be descending into you. When it is seen that your total effort is directed towards God, that your whole life has become worship, it is

IHSAN. It is what Buddhists called SHEILA, virtue.

Yet still the third meaning of IHSAN is totality, or wholeness. Whatsoever you do, never hold back anything. Go into it totally. Just do not remain a mere spectator!

It is only by being a participant that one comes to know anything. Spectators simply go on missing.

If you are dancing, dance alone. And in that moment let the dance become your totality. Put all that you have into it. Not even a small part of you should remain a

watcher. You should be involved and absorbed totally, and absolutely. Those few moments, when you are totally absorbed in something, are the moments when

you are closest to God. Those are the moments of bliss and benediction.

These are the three pillars of Islam and Sufism. These three pillars have to be imbibed. And they contain all that is needed for any religious person Sufi or no

Sufi. These three pillars are very essential. This is a design, a NAQSHBANDI. If you can have ISLAM surrender, peace, silence; IMAN - faith, religiousness, and

commitment; IHSAN - authenticity, virtue, and totality you have the map.

NOW THE PARABLE:



A SUFI OF THE ORDER OF THE NAQSHBANDIS WAS ASKED, ‗YOUR ORDER‘S NAME

MEANS LITERALLY ‗THE DESIGNERS‘. WHAT DO YOU DESIGN, AND WHAT USE IS IT? ‗

HE responded, ‗WE DO A GREAT DEAL OF DESIGNING, AND IT IS MOST USEFUL.

HERE IS A PARABLE OF ONE SUCH FORM:

‗UNJUSTLY IMPRISONED, A TINSMITH WAS ALLOWED TO RECEIVE A RUG WOVEN BY HIS WIFE. HE PROSTRATED HIMSELF UPON THE RUG DAY AFTER DAY TO SAY

HIS PRAYERS, AND AFTER SOME TIME HE SAID TO HIS JAILERS, ‗I AM POOR AND WITHOUT HOPE, AND YOU ARE WRETCHEDLY PAID. BUT I AM A TINSMITH. BRING

ME TIN AND TOOLS AND I SHALL MAKE SMALL ARTIFACTS WHICH YOU CAN SELL IN THE MARKET, AND WE WILL BOTH BENEFIT.‘

THE GUARDS AGREED TO THIS, AND PRESENTLY THEY AND THE TINSMITH WERE BOTH MAKING A PROFIT, FROM WHICH THEY BOUGHT FOOD AND COMFORTS FOR

THEMSELVES.

THEN, ONE DAY, WHEN THE GUARDS WENT TO THE CELL, THE DOOR WAS OPEN, AND HE WAS GONE.

MANY YEARS LATER, WHEN THIS MAN‘S INNOCENCE HAD BEEN ESTABLISHED,

THE MAN WHO HAD IMPRISONED HIM ASKED HIM HOW HE HAD ESCAPED, WHAT MAGIC HE HAD USED. HE SAID, ‗IT IS A MATTER OF DESIGN, AND DESIGN

WITHIN DESIGN. MY WIFE IS A WEAVER. SHE FOUND THE MAN WHO HAD MADE THE LOCKS OF THE CELL DOOR, AND GOT THE DESIGN FROM HIM. THIS SHE

WOVE INTO THE CARPET AT THE SPOT WHERE MY HEAD TOUCHED IN PRAYER FIVE TIMES A DAY. I AM A METAL-WORKER, AND THIS DESIGN LOOKED TO ME

LIKE THE INSIDE OF A LOCK. I DESIGNED THE PLAN OF THE ARTIFACTS TO

OBTAIN THE MATERIALS TO MAKE THE KEY - AND I ESCAPED.

‗THAT,‘ SAID THE NAQSHBANDI SUFI, ‗IS ONE OF THE WAYS IN WHICH MAN MAY MAKE HIS ESCAPE FROM THE TYRANNY OF HIS CAPTIVITY.‘

Man is imprisoned, imprisoned in his own ego. The ego is the prison and if you

want to get out of the prison, this is the map: ISLAM, IMAN, IHSAN. If you can manage these three things you have the whole design to get out.

It is a beautiful parable. A simple parable and yet still significant!

How can you come out of your present prison? You will have to ask someone who

knows. The escaped prisoner said:



‗IT IS A MATTER OF DESIGN, AND DESIGN WITHIN DESIGN. MY WIFE IS A

WEAVER. SHE FOUND THE MAN WHO HAD MADE THE LOCKS OF THE CELL DOOR.‘

There are always men on the earth who have found the man who has made the locks of the cell door. These are the people we call Masters. These are the people

who have encountered God. They are the ones who made the first design, who provoked Adam into rebellion. These are the people who have come to see the

whole story as it is, who have looked into the whole story of how man enters into the world, why, and how he can go back into the world. Why does Jesus get out of

the world, why is he saved and not others? What is the difference? Jesus surrenders, drops his ego. This is the meaning of the Christian cross. He died as

an ego; he dies as himself, and is reborn as Christ. Jesus is no more. Jesus dies. Christ is born.

In fact, to use these two words together is not right. To call Jesus ‗Christ‘ is not right because they were never together. There was a time when there was Jesus

but there was no Christ. Then a time came when there was Christ but there was no Jesus. They were never together. They cannot be together. Jesus is Adam lost

in the world not knowing how he is caught there, getting more and more entangled in the ego. Christ is the consciousness that has understood, that has

become alert and has started moving back towards the home - a surrendering.

Adam said no. No creates ego, self. Jesus said yes. Yes drops the ego. Yes is ISLAM, surrender, SAMARPAN. BY saying yes, the whole direction of his life

changed. He started moving back towards the Garden of Eden, towards God‘s

‗IT IS A MATTER OF DESIGN, AND DESIGN WITHIN DESIGN. MY WIFE IS A WEAVER. SHE FOUND THE MAN WHO HAD MADE THE LOCKS OF THE CELL DOOR,

AND GOT THE DESIGN FROM HIM. THIS SHE WOVE INTO THE CARPET AT THE

SPOT WHERE MY HEAD TOUCHED IN PRAYER FIVE TIMES A DAY.‘

Her idea was that if her husband would be praying on the rug five times a day how long could he go on missing? This is why I go on speaking every day. How long

can you go on missing? Your head will be touching every day, and then one day or other you will start looking at the design. You will wonder ‗What is the matter?

What is going on?‘ Then one day you will become alert and awake.

‗I AM A METAL WORKER AND THIS DESIGN LOOKED TO ME LIKE THE INSIDE OF A LOCK. I DESIGNED THE PLAN OF THE ARTIFACTS TO OBTAIN THE MATERIALS TO

MAKE THE KEY AND I ESCAPED.‘

‗THAT,‘ SAID THE NAQSHBANDI SUFI, ‗IS ONE OF THE WAYS IN WHICH MAN MAY MAKE HIS ESCAPE FROM THE TYRANNY OF HIS CAPTIVITY.'

garden.



The captivity is of our own making. It is your ego. And this we can drop.

So meditate over these three words: ISLAM, IMAN, and IHSAN.

SUBHAN ALLAH

Khwaja Sayyid Amir Kulal RA

MAY ALLAH SANCTIFY HIS SOUL?

We have a way from this visible world to the Unseen, for we are the companions

of Religion‘s Messenger. We have a way from the house to the garden; we are the neighbor of cypress and jasmine. Every day we come to the garden and see a

hundred blossoms. In order to scatter them among the lovers, we fill our robes to overflowing.

Behold our words! They are the fragrance of those roses--we are the rosebush of certainty‘s rose garden.

RUMI DIVAN

INTRODUCTION:

His full name is Sheikh as-Sayyid Amir Kulal ibn as-Sayyid Hamza. Sayyid Amir

Kulal is known as the Rose of the Characteristics and Attributes of the Prophet, the Furthest Lote Tree of Desire for the Ultimate Stations, the Owner of the Throne of

Guidance. He was the Attractor of Heavenly Blessings. And also the Teacher with his holy breath of the Secrets of the Divine! He is a Mujaddid or Renewer of the

sharia (Law), a Master of the tariqa (Way), a builder of haqiqa (Reality), and a guide for khaliqa (Creation). He was distinguished for mastery among the saints of

his time, who applied the following saying to him: "The Saints of Mastery are the

Masters of all Saints.‖



Sheikh and seekers at the shrine Amir Kulal RA

He was born in the village of Sukhar, two miles from Bukhara. His family was

sayyid, descendants of the Holy Prophet. His mother said, ―When I was pregnant with him, whenever my hand went towards doubtful food, I would be unable to

convey it to my mouth. This happened to me many times. I knew that I had someone special in my womb. I was careful and chose my food from the best and

assuredly halal (lawful) food.‖

In his childhood he was a wrestler. He used to practice all of its arts, until he became one of the most famous wrestlers in his time. All the wrestlers would

gather around him to learn from him. One day, a man watching him wrestle had the following thought come to his heart: ―How is it that a person who is the

Descendant of the Prophet and who is deeply knowledgeable in sharia and tariqat

is practicing this sport?‖ He immediately fell into a deep sleep and dreamt that it was the Judgment Day. He felt that he was in great difficulty and that he was

drowning. Then the sheikh Sayyid Amir al-Kulal appeared to him and rescued him from the water. He woke up and Sayyid Amir al-Kulal looked at him and said, ‗Did

you witness my power in wrestling and my power in intercession?‘

One time his sheikh-to-be, Muhammad Baba as-Sammasi, was passing by his wrestling arena, accompanied by his followers. He stopped and stood there. An

evil whisper came to the heart of one of his followers saying, ―How is it that the sheikh is standing here in this wrestling arena?‖ The sheikh looked at his follower

immediately and said, ―I am standing here for the sake of one person. He is going to be a great Knower. Everyone will come to him for guidance and through him

people will reach the highest states of Divine Love and the Divine Presence. My intention is to bring this person under my wing.‖ At that moment Amir Kulal gazed

at him, was attracted and abandoned the sport of wrestling. He followed Sheikh

Muhammad Baba As-Sammasi to his house. Sheikh Sammasi taught him the dhikr



and the principles of this most distinguished tariqat and told him, ―You are now my

son.‖

Sayyid Amir al-Kulal followed Sheikh Sammasi for 20 years, spending all his time in dhikr, seclusion, worship, and self-denial. No one saw him in these 20 years

except in the company of his sheikh. He would come to see his sheikh in Sammas every Monday and Thursday, although the distance was five miles and the journey

difficult, until he reached a state of unveiling (mukashafa). At that time his fame began to spread everywhere until he left this world. He became the teacher and

mentor of Turghai (Trush) (died 1356 AD) the head of Berlas tribe and his son Amir Timur (died 807/1405).

One of his most famous disciples was Muhammad ibn Muhammad Bahauddin al-

Uwaysi al-Bukhari who used to work as an executioner in Bukhara under the rule

of King Qazan. One day Bahauddin was ordered to execute a man who had angered the ruler of the state. However, right before his execution the accused

called upon Sheikh Amir al-Kulal, identifying him as his teacher. Sheikh Amir al-Kulal intervened and the accused was set free on his intercession. This was

Bahauddin‘s first encounter with Sheikh Amir al-Kulal. Impressed by him, Bahauddin became his student.

Sheikh Amir al-Kulal had four children, as-Sayyid al- Amir Burhanuddin, as-Sayyid

al-Amir Hamza, as-Sayyid al-Amir Shah, and as-Sayyid al-Amir Umar. Sheikh Sayyid Amir Al-Kulal died in the same village in which he was born, Sukhar, the

8th of Jumada al-Awwal, 772 AH/1370 and was buried in Shahrisabz (Kesh); the Green City. His tomb was completed by 1374 AD under the orders of Timur.

Majority of Timur‘s family is also buried at the same place.

Sheikh al-Kulal‘s descendants moved to India with Moughal establishing an empire

there and majority of them remained as teachers and mentors of Moughal Princes and Kings or their close friends. To know more about the life and works of Sheikh

Sayyid Amir al-Kulal (qs), one can read Maqamat-i-Amir al-Kulal composed by his great grandson Shihab ul-Din. It consists of 70 tales about him.

He had four children, as-Sayyid al-Amir Burhanuddin, as-Sayyid al-Amir Hamza,

as-Sayyid al-Amir Shah, and as-Sayyid al-Amir Umar. He also had four khalifas, but he passed his secrets to only one of them, the Master of Masters, the Knower

of Knower, the Greatest of Arch-Intercessors (al-Ghawth al-Azam), the Sultan of the Saints, Sheikh Muhammad Bahauddin Shah Naqshband.

Sheikh Sayyid Amir Kulal died in the same village, in which he was born, Sukhar,

the 8th of Jumada al-Awwal, 772 H.

SUBHAN ALLAH



Naqshbandi Sheikh Hazrath Taoshobuddha

Documents

International Journal of Naqshbandi Tariqat July-sept 2012