Manual A Mirrored Life: The Rumi Novel

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Rumi! Stories within stories makes this a 'mirrored life'. A book that is easy to read but not so easy to cut through the layered meanings. Probably, like every Sufi.
Table of contents

He came, eventually, to identify completely with Shams, while his wife, sons and disciples receded in importance. He said he was, in fact, Shams, and ascribed his corpus of poetry to the vanished man. The relationship between Rumi and Shams evokes a gamut of responses ranging from wonderment and envy to resentment and anger among the individuals surrounding the master of Konya. The novel develops like a circling dance around the eternal themes of friendship and surrender that characterise a particular current within the Sufi tradition.

Who is the Friend, whose presence might demand such extreme attention that the normal ties of family and society break down? How might frenzy displace prudence as the axis of a meaningfully led life? What transports of ecstasy might release a seeker from the discipline of organised religion and offer him the delinquency of enlightenment?

Of course, we must not romanticise Sufis as other-worldly dreamers and votaries of peace and harmony, or anachronistically present them as standard bearers for inter-religious understanding. Some Sufis conspired adroitly at the Mughal courts in Agra and Delhi; some counselled kings in the arts of ruthless statecraft in Kashmir; and some lent a militant edge to the religiosity of the Adil Shahi court at Bijapur.

The Sufi silsila may be an assembly of seekers, but it is no less prone to the usual failings of flesh and bone than any other conclave of human beings. Paradoxically, Rumi, the figure at the centre of this novel, is vitally present yet seems to recede into the tissues of multiple versions as we read on.

Book Reviews, Blubberings of an over-active imagination

Perhaps the explanation is best left to one of the characters in the narrative, who reports the difficulties that a painter had while working on a portrait of Rumi. Notify me of new posts via email. I do have a longer name, of course. Allah be merciful. Show us the simplest path. There was no one there. The Imam burst into laughter.

Karma and some: A Mirrored Life: The Rumi Novel by Rabisankar Bal - A review

Now that you have left, travel the world. To tell you the truth, I had no intentions of travelling far and wide at that time. That is why He never abandons us. How can He abandon Himself? If God brings to mind mostly fear and blame, it means there is too much fear and blame welled inside us. If we see God as full of love and compassion, so are we.

When we turned in that direction, we saw two rough-looking men yelling drunken gibberish. With unbridled insolence they were bullying the other customers, snatching food off their bowls, drinking from their cups, and, should anyone protest, mocking them like two naughty maktab boys. The man must not have been expecting this at all, for he collapsed on the floor like an empty sack. A barely audible sigh came out of his lips, but other than that he made no noise.

He kicked his unruly customer in the ribs and then stomped on his hand, grinding it under his heavy boots. We heard the crack of a finger breaking, or maybe more.


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Is that what you want? In this world of illusions, so many people were ready to fight without any reason, and so many others fought for a reason.

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There was no way I could resort to violence. But I could thrust myself like a soft blanket between the innkeeper and the customers to keep them apart. A minute later, when the serving boys lifted up the two customers, one of them had a broken finger and the other a broken nose, and there was blood all over.

Rumi: Knowing How To Live - Inspirational Series

A fearful silence descended on the dining hall. When he spoke again, it sounded as if he were addressing everyone around, his voice soaring high and wild, like a marauder bird boasting in the open sky. When God forgets about us down here, it falls upon us common people to toughen up and restore justice.


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So next time you talk to Him, you tell Him that. They will turn into wolves. I can see that you have become a wolf indeed.

The Many Lives of Rumi

In return for food and bed, you were going to interpret my dreams. Instinctively, distrustfully, he flinched. I inspected the lines and found them deep, cracked, marking uneven paths. Bit by bit, the colors in his aura appeared to me: a rusty brown and a blue so pale as to be almost gray. His spiritual energy was hollowed out and thinned around the edges, as if it had no more strength to defend itself against the outside world. Deep inside, the man was no more alive than a wilting plant.

To make up for the loss of his spiritual energy, he had doubled up his physical energy, which he used in excess. My heart beat faster, for I had started seeing something. At first dimly, as if behind a veil, then with increasing clarity, a scene appeared in front of my eyes. A young woman with chestnut hair, bare feet with black tattoos, and an embroidered red shawl draped over her shoulders.

Her breasts swollen with milk and her belly so huge it looks as if it could rip apart. She is stuck in a hut on fire. There are warriors around the house, riding horses with silver-gilded saddles. The thick smell of burning hay and human flesh. Mongol riders, their noses flat and wide, necks thick and short, and hearts as hard as rocks. The mighty army of Genghis Khan. Suddenly he looked old beyond his years. It was a wooden plank in the ceiling that collapsed on her head. She died instantly, without any pain.

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You always assumed she had suffered terribly, but in reality she did not suffer at all. You still see her in your dreams, crawling out of the pit she was buried in. But your mind is playing games with you. In truth, your wife and son are both fine, traveling in infinity, as free as a speck of light. But make sure you are gone early in the morning. When you spoke the truth, they hated you. The more you talked about love, the more they hated you. She felt as though the lid of a boiling cauldron had suddenly been lifted, emitting old conflicts and new resentments in the rising steam.

Unfortunately, it was no one other than she who had lifted that lid. But on this day in May, she was so sure of herself and the ground beneath her feet that she could not for the life of her fathom any dire consequences from her intrusion. Rubinstein, how may I help you? And in a no-less-civilized tone, Ella told him that although she had nothing against him personally, he was too young and inexperienced to marry her daughter.

Upset as he might be to receive this call now, she added, someday in the not-so-distant future he would understand and even thank her for warning him in time. Until then she asked him to kindly drop the subject of marriage and to keep this phone conversation between the two of them. There was a thick, dense silence.

ISBN 13: 9788184006155

They looked at love as if it were a magic wand that could fix everything with one miraculous touch. But you are too young and life is long. Who knows? Tomorrow you might fall in love with someone else. Tomorrow you, too, might fall in love with someone else. So did my husband. Marriage is a serious decision, which needs to be considered very carefully. The conversation went downhill from there, filled with distress and disappointment. When they finally hung up, Ella headed to the kitchen and did what she always did at times of emotional unrest: She cooked.

Half an hour later, she received a call from her husband. Honey, let me explain. What you did was wrong.