Dance Of Dervishes

Sufism is a teaching based on love. There is a sense of unity of thought which speaks of the fundamental one-ness of all religions. Sufis believe that everyone evolves to a known destiny. For more than a thousand years the Hindus and Sufis exchanged ideas and many Sufi sayings were similar to Sanskrit shlokas about human aspiration. In Sufism, the laws of life were kindness, generosity, good advice, forbearance to enemies, indifference to fools and respect for the learned ones. Jalaluddin Rumi warned: “Judge not the Sufi to be that which you can see of him, my friends.” He himself had been transformed when he met Shams of Tabriz, a travelling Dervish. Dervishes were ascetics who founded the Sufi fraternity in Arabia. In their beliefs they unified the inner philosophy of all religious thought, and created a new genre of music and movement. The sacred dance of the Dervishes is said to have happened when Rumi once took a rhythmic turn. This movement unconsciously whirled the skirt of his garment. It formed a circle and with that the dance was created with a group known as the whirling Dervishes. There were varied scholars of Dervishes. The sect which developed in India was the Naqshbandi, founded by Naqebhand, a great Sufi personality of his time. Rumi’s ghazals continue to inspire singers and poets with their artistic reflections of spiritual love through human aspiration.

Source: Economic Times, 3/12/2018