Love into arts
As I listened to the presentation, I felt proud to be a Sri Lankan
when the speaker introduced himself as a Sufi Buddhist monk. This was at
the International Sufi Festival held in Amritsar, the 'Ocean of Nectar'.
It was indeed sweet nectar, the city itself, the Golden Temple and Ram
Tirth where Valmiki is said to have written the Ramayana.
The festival had been organized by the Foundation Of SAARC Writers
and Literature (FOSWAL) along with the Punjab Heritage and Tourist
Promotion Board, in collaboration with the Punjab Ministry of Tourism
and Arpana Caur. Amritsar had been chosen because "Punjab is the land of
Sufism and of Sufis", according to Kushwant Singh, Chairman of FOSWAL.
Ajeet Caur, Panjabi writer and President of FOSWAl, in her
introductory address summed it up, "The driving force behind this
endeavour of the Sufi Festival is Love for the people living around us!
Love for the whole of humanity."
It was a gathering of writers, poets and academics from twelve
countries in the region, along with Sufi musicians, singers and dancers.
It was a total immersion for two days in Sufi philosophy, poetry and
music, for all the delegates, which confirmed everybody's view that Sufi
is a way of life, for the betterment of mankind.
It was a conference where there was not a single dissension, or
debate, even among writers who believed in freedom of expression, and
belonged to all faiths, Islam, Hindu, Siekh, Buddhist and Christian.
This was best expressed by Rev. Prof. Gallelle Sumanasiri thero in
his presentation. We have to use terms like Sufi Buddhism or Islamic
Buddhism, because of our self-imposed imprisonment inside different
labels.
When we use terms like Sufism, Hinduism and Buddhism we are
immediately isolating ourselves from the rest of mankind. We are
building a group within a barrier and shutting off those who are outside
the group. We look at them with suspicion, we try to see aggression and
enmity in every word uttered by those outside our own group.
This is when conflicts begin as we let a few politicians and a few
selfish humans to create suspicion and hatred. The most recent incidence
was in Bangladesh when a grossly exaggerated report of a Qur'an burning
led to the destruction of several Buddhist temples.
The word of God or the word of the Buddha cannot be destroyed by a
mere mortal. Even if a book is destroyed the truth cannot be destroyed.
people have been burning down religious books ever since religious books
began to be written, but no religion was ever destroyed.
Most of the papers presented were based on Sufi poetry, music, and
literature. Prof. Mohammad Nurul Huda from Bangladesh talked of the
poetry of Rabindranath Tagore and Nazrul Islam. There were four poets
from the Tribhuvan Univesity in Kathmandu. Bal Bahdur Thapa looked at
Brothers Karamazov from a Sufi viewpoint, while Prakash Subedhi who was
born a Hindu, followed Buddha Dhamma and had studied Sufi way of life as
he saw it. Keshab Sigdel looked at Human Rights, and their guru, Prof.
Abi Subhedi also discussed Sufi poetry.
Dr. Noor Zaheer, the author of 'My God is a Woman', a Muslim turned
atheist, presented the view of a woman as a Sufi. While everyone talked
of Rumi and Khayyam, Farheen Chaudhury from Pakistan talked about her
own life experience through Sufi eyes. We could look forward to Sufi
fiction too, in time to come.
It is literature, art and music that can bring humanity together,
break down all the man-made barriers, as we saw in the painting of
Arpana Caur which symbolized the Sufi festival, and the contrasting
performance of the Whirling Darveshes from Pakistan led by Wahid Bukhsh,
who whirl around to the beat of the drum in remembrance of God, and the
Mystical music as an instrumental and vocal orchestra by the El Edri
group composed of scholars and academics from Istanbul. Sufi ideals were
presented in the soft music by the group from Afghanistan, and in a solo
dance by Dilafruz Kodirova from Uzbekistan.
There were no religious barriers that evening among all those who had
gathered at the Khalsa College in Amritsar, convincing us that we have
to overcome the faith barriers built by us. One major barrier is the
labels which brand us and separate us. Let us do away with the labels.
Or let us use a universally acceptable name instead of Sufism, Sikhism,
Islam or Buddhism. Devanampiya Piyadassi, later identified by the
British as Asoka, used the term Dhamma without specifying any particular
faith. The word Dhamma could be used for almost all eastern faiths and
philosophies.
Mavlana Jalal-Ud-Din Mohhamad Rumi wrote - "Don't look for God
outside. For Him, look inside". Bodhi Dharma wrote - "Don't look for
Buddha outside. For Him, look inside". Rumi also said, "The rose does
not care if someone calls it a thorn, or a jasmine". It is the language
and the labels which place us apart and which causes misunderstandings
and misguidedly fight with each other for the love of the same goal.
We recall Rumi's poem about the Persian, Arab, Turk and the Greek who
wanted to buy four different things with one coin, not realizing that
they all wanted the same thing. They were asking for grapes, but in four
different languages. That is the lesson for all of us.
The best way to bring this unity is by translating all Sufi poetry
into as many languages as possible, and read them with an open mind, as
we should also do with Buddha Dhamma and all other religious teachings.
Let us use poetry, paintings, music and dance to bring Love and unity
among mankind, so we could all be Peaceful and Useful.
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