“Why are you weeping, O Mind? Do you, the
Self, be the self by means of the self.
Drink, my child, the supreme nectar of
Nonduality, transcending all divisions.”
-Dattatreya
The eponym of ‘Sufism’ in Fatehgarh, a very small city on the south Bank of River ‘Ganga’, in Uttar Pradesh, in central India, H.H. Mahatma Ramchandra Ji (Laalaaji) Maharaaj, in my opinion was in fact not a Sufi Saint, but of course had ‘Sufi-Nisbat’. Adding his name into the Sufi lineage of Naqushbandia Order, renamed as “NaqshMuMRa”, embraces the wisdom of the Saints of all religions and claims that its doctrines derive from the direct experience of the Masters who have attained the highest realms of Spiritual existence. There were some fusions between Islamic Sufism and the Yogic- Hinduism, called a “new kind of Sufism”- such as in Kabir, Mehar Baabaa, and Laalaaji etc. There is little available which revels, what went on between Sufis and Yogis, in the early centuries. A great scholar S.A.A. Rizvi, in his work titled- ‘A history of Sufism in India’, has given some examination of the actual and possible contact between Sufis and Yogis at the practical Spiritual label.
A profound Yogic investigator of the reality of Samkhya based Yoga, Mr. Anirvan distilled every thing through his own experience and there is a freshness, and impact in his words. They do need patient meditation, how ever to yield some of their meanings.
If we cannot think of Indian Spirituality without thinking of Yoga and Paataanjali, neither can be neglect to take into account Bhakti or the way of devotion, nor Tantra, the way if power. The Rajyogi is one who seeks self- mastery through his casual body, his knowledge of laws and the structure of man and the universe. He has the knowledge, which can make his efforts effective. The bhakta (the monk) is one who seeks reality through opening himself to higher being in devotion. His is the adoration and yearning or the beloved. He works in his astral body, elevating his feeling through God for whom all is surrendered the Hath yogi (the Faqir) is who can achieve physical immortality or the power to create any body for him. His is the total mastery of the physical body and the realization if it is hidden potential. He can do any thing he wills.
The ‘Hath yogi’ is a ‘Faqir’, is not in a sense, commonly, which we understand. In fact, ‘Faqir’ is a person who has substratum of qualities for self and family for sometime; and ‘Muskin’ is one who has no subsistence (wealth or money for daily need) even for one time, in Tasawwuf (theology) is one who has lost his self. An Apostolic Hadith says- “I take pride in Faqiri and Faqiri is from me”. Another Hadith says- “Fuqr is the blackening of the face in both the words”. When the face made blackened, it disappears. Hence, a Faqir is one, who is self-annihilated.
‘Hath yoga’ has a great deal of importance, in Sufi theology. According to ‘Siddhisiddhaant Paddyati’, a sort of Dictionary of Yoga, ‘Ha’ indicates for sun and ‘th’ for moon. Thus, the union of sun and moon becomes- ‘Hath-Yoga’. As per the Yogic anagoge, there are innumerable arteries, big and small, in human body and amongst those two, namely ‘Edaa’ and ‘Pinglaa’ are the main ones. ‘Edaa’ is the symbol of Sun and the ‘Pinglaa’ represents Moon. After having control over these two, passing through the doorway of ‘Sushmnaa’ (the most important artrie), is called ‘Hath Yoga’.
The world consists of the following two, namely, ‘Matter and the life’. Life represents ‘Purusha’ and the ‘Matter’ represents-‘Prakriti’. ‘Purusha’ is the seer and the ’Prakriti’ is the object of the sight. ‘Purusha’ is synonym of the soul. According to ‘Samkhya’, the ‘Purusha’ is immutable and are many. The ‘Yoga’ also supports the view, but it also recognizes the existence of a ‘Supreme- Purusha’ or God, and He is ‘One’.
All the theological systems, including the ‘Yoga’ and ‘Sufism’ both, that after the realization of ‘Self’, it attains the state of ‘Absolution’. However, the Soul then ceases to have any connection with the ‘Prakriti’ (matter) and her evolutes. The systems like ‘Samkhya’, ‘Yoga’ and the ‘Sufism’, maintain that the ‘Prakriti’ continues to exist even after the realization of self, he who has realized the ‘self’ ceases to have anything to do with her. This is identical to a person awakened from a dream while sleeping, does not maintain any relation with his dream- world.
The scriptures and the saints are constantly admonishing us by beat of drum, yet to the most surprising of it is that we do not open our eye. The human body, being the best of all bodies and conductive to salvation, does recognize as a real boon. According to ‘Hath Yogis’ and the ‘Sufis’ too, there is a strong adhesion between the human body and the soul. For them the living- human-body is a bridge between the Spirituality and the physical-entity.
We read in the scriptures that God commanded the first human- being, not to eat the fruit of ‘knowledge’, but when the ‘subject’ did eat the fruit of ‘good and evil’, the Lord cursed him, and His curse brought ‘death’ in this world. Although, Adam did not die immediately, but consequently there upon he died later. This description leads to a fact, that fundamentally the first human was not subject to death, but it came on the earth, through evil influence of ‘devil’.
In fact, to know what ‘Death’, is not our purpose, but I want to carry on the study, as to what is ‘life’? It is the individual self-conscious life force, which denotes in ordinary terms, the living soul. The living soul means the self-conscious individualized life force with the sense of ‘I’, and that sense of ‘I’ holds them together. This sense of ‘I’ holds altogether, unifies them, and makes the separate parts vibrate and produce a perfect harmony. That is life. The advanced science tells us that there is a director and this director has the absolute control over the whole organism. He is the living soul. At the time of death, he disconnects himself from the organs and leaves the body.
Body is the instrument, through which the soul must manifest its powers, gain experiences, earn lessons, and gather knowledge. In this way, the living soul is progressing in the process of evolution, rising from a lower to a higher state and fulfilling its mission at every step of manifestation.
It is obvious that the body is changing. Then where is that continuity in us. This material form or the gross physical organism will destroy. Then where will lay our permanency? It is not the body, but in the soul. It is the sense of ‘I’, which will continue to exist after going away this body.
The soul, which produces the gross material form, is separable from the body and can exist independent of the body. It possesses sense- power, life force, mind and intellect as well as the impressions of its physical and mental activities, and this soul manufactures the body through the medium of the parents. The determination of destiny of the human soul does by the thoughts, desires, and tendencies. We create our own destiny by our thoughts, desires and deeds. God is not responsible for our conditions. If we understand this secret mystery of the soul, then we can mould our future in such a manner that we will never go down, but rise higher and higher, until we have reached the goal of our existence.
Those who perform good deeds and to lead a virtuous life will come down on the human plane and be born again, until they rise higher in their aspirations and desires. There fore, if one wants to enjoy eternal happiness and immortality, even in this earthly life, he should try his best to perform good deeds to build up his character and to lead a virtuous life.
The researchers have found evidence, which conclude that even after the death; there remains some kind of connection of the soul with the gross body through umbilical point, which holds this entity. Apart from this, there is some thing more, which does not belong to the physical body. This holy- ectoplasm is a substance, which contains finer matter is vibrations (just like ductless glands), and this forms the under-garment of the soul, and the ethereal or subtle body, which exists in each human. However, not everybody may feel it because of senses is looking for the gross and tangible objects. The plane of our senses depends upon certain degree of vibration. Through the practices under some competent Spiritual Guide, one can see light when the vibration of light with the range of vision. The exercitant of Naqushbandia lineage of Sufis and Hath yogis/Yogis, both work on the entity of the subtle body only and do not care about the gross body during the course of the practices. In order to become visible, it must vibrate in a particular way so that our cardiac organs might catch it in sound form.
Hazrat Shaykh Ahemad, the Mujaddid Alfsaani requiescat in peace, , a Naqshbandi mystic, is the discoverer of the six positions, which he has called the ‘six subtleties’ (Chakkras), in the human body, between neck to navel, one encircling each other, much after the manner of ‘Kundalini’ of Hath Yogis.
In the series of uphill practices of Hath Yoga, there is one namely ‘Kaya Saadhana’, where we find ‘Gagan-drishti’. The famous Sufi poet, Jaayasi has written about “Brahmrandhra” is tall alike the ‘Taarh’ tree. He says that one who can see reverse-sight look, that can be able to have its glance. He, who knows ‘Praanaayaam’, can only reach there. This is identical to the ‘Shaghal-e-naseera’. While practicing the same, the exercitant converges his both the eyes first on the tip of the nose, and then gradually carrying the point of convergence, right up to the middle of both the eyebrows. When the progressed, during his practice takes a glance of a star in the dark recesses of his heart, he fiends there his Lord. In Yoga philosophy, this ‘star’ called as “Praatibh”. The achievements of this point are alike, the meaning of ‘intuition’. Although this is a sort of an impediment in the further esoteric journey, but the competent Master pushes the disciple further, safely.
The Sufis have four ‘Maqamaat’ (stations) in there journey, namely- (1) patience, (2) contentment, (3) dependence on God and (4) submission. There is however, no end in any school of Spirituality. In the Sufi world, before authorizing a person for the service of others to guide the new entrants, the exercitant judged on the subject of ‘Fana’ and ‘Baqa’, as a matter of discipline. ‘Fana’ is annihilation in one’s Master. He loses consciousness of himself; hence, here is the scarcity of cognition and not the cognition of scarcity. ‘Fana’ is the non-cognizance of one’s attributes as one’s own; and ‘Baqa’ is the recognition of the same as the attribute of God.
In ‘Fana’, the significance of the possible disappears in the consciousness of the ‘aarif’; the material body of him, of course does not. While the others consider that ‘Fana’ is the disappearance of a ‘shay’ in knowledge, and not the actual disappearance of corporeality. In ‘Baqa’, he finds everything in his own manifestation. The limited consciousness of ‘abd’ is lost in the unlimited consciousness of God. In ‘Baqa’, the consciousness of God underlies the consciousness of ‘abd’. Maulaanaa Jalaaluddin Rumi says-
“The consciousness of God is lost in the consciousness if Sufi
How can common people believe in this?
Sufis’ knowledge is line and God’s knowledge, point.
The existence of a line depends on the existence of point”.
