Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi

I believe that the teachings of Mevlana are universal…

Mevlana who is also known as Rumi, was a philosopher and mystic of Islam.

He was born in Afghanistan. His father was also a theologian, jurist and mystic. When the Mongols invaded Central Asia, his whole family and a group of followers, set out westwards.

He died in 1273 in Konya which is located in the middle of the Anatolia - Turkey. So, he lived in 13^th century.

His doctrine advocates unlimited tolerance, positive reasoning, goodness, charity and awareness through love.

To him and to his followers all religions are more or less truth.

Actually, he is in love with God and it is the basis of his teachings…

He says,

“Lover’s nationality is separate from all other religions,
The lover's religion and nationality is the Beloved (God).”

In other words, “Love’s Shariah is different from all religions as its Shariah or path consists entirely of God,”

His teachings reject discrimination. Yet, in order to attain this unity, one has to overcome the “disillusion of selfhood.” One must stop treating himself/herself as a separate or distinct “self.”

Rumi believed passionately in the use of music, poetry, and dance as a path for reaching God. It was from these ideas that the practice of "whirling" dervishes developed.

The "dance" of the Whirling Dervishes is called Sema. Dervishes spin and get in trance state to close with GOD.

You can see the pictures of whirling dervishes here…

Sema ceremony represents a mystical journey of man's spiritual progress through mind and love to "Perfect." In this journey, the seeker symbolically grows through love, abandons the ego, finds the truth, and arrives at the Perfect. Perfect is something like Nirvana…

While the dervish is whirling right hand is upward, and it takes divine blessing from God. The left hand is downwards, so dervish disperses it to the surrounding area.

The headdress of the dervish is called as SIKKE, and it is helpful to keep balance during whirling. It represents tombstone of dervish’s ego…

The cloth of dervish is called as TENNURE. It is a long skirt… During whirling it opens and produces centrifugal force, so it make easy to turn round. The color of the cloth is white, and it represents his ego's shroud…Actually Muslims shroud with white cloth when they die…The white color is also representing this…

Finally, I would like to say that Rumi's work has been translated into many languages, including Russian, German, Arabic, French, Italian, and Spanish, and is being presented in a growing number of formats, including concerts, workshops, readings, dance performances etc.