RUMI – A DIVINE POET

Rumi’s story entails how a ‘charming, wealth noble, genius theologian, law profession and brilliant scholar’ in his thirties transformed from a bookish scholar to a seeker of universal love and truth.

Rich family heritage

Jalalud’din Muhammad Rumi’s (1207-1273 A.D.) born in a scholarly family of Balkh, present day Afghanistan, was related to the family that had links to courts, theologians and mystics.  On the one hand his parents were related to the court of the Khwarazmshah, and on the other, his family was linked to Rashidun Caliph, Abu Bakr. His father Bahaud’din, a student of Najm al Din Kubra, was a man of great learning and piety, an eloquent speaker and distinguished professor.  Unfortunately not content with the philosophers and rationalist of the day Bahaud’din seems to have indulged in political diatribes, which forced the family to leave Balkan. Another theory for their relocation is that Bahaud’din predicted the Mongol invasion.    

On the travels

On the road to Anatolia, Rumi encountered one of the most famous mystic Persian poets Farid al Din Attar, in the city of Nishapur. Attar immediately recognized Rumi’s spiritual eminence and gave the boy his ‘Asrarnama,’ a book about the entanglement of the soul in the material world. From there, Bahaud’din’s entourage set out for Bagdad meeting many scholars and Sufis on the way. After that, the family visited Mecca, Medina and Damascus, all the time Bahaud’din kept looking for a town in which he could settle in a madrasah and teach his disciples who had accompanied him along his travels. From Damascus the family moved to Aleppo and then to Malatya where they settled for four years. From there they settled in Laranda, present day Karama, south of Konya, in present day Turkey. At Laranda Rumi married Gawhar Khatun who in 1226, gave birth to his first son, Sultan Walad. Leaving Rumi and the family Bahaud’din in 1228 shifted to Konya where he worked in a madrasah until 1230 when he died.     

After his father’s death

Rumi was not only Bahaud’din’s son but also his student, and was acquainted with other Kubrawi Sufis. So after Bahaud’din’s death Rumi counted on Burhan al Din Mubaqqiq, Bahaud’din’s student, for his training. It was Mubaqqiq who persuaded Rumi to embark on a quest and immerse in the type of studies, experiences and teachings that had distinguished his father. So Rumi travelled and met other Sufi mystics, at that time Anatolia was the coming together of communities and lot of give and take was taking place among diverse groups. Rumi was already a teacher and theologian when in 1244 he came across a wandering dervish named Shamsud’din of Tabriz, the meeting proved to be the turning point of his life.

His legacy

Rumi and Tabriz stayed together for a total of two years, on two separate instances, but the meeting had an everlasting effect on his work. After Tabriz left the second time, some say murdered, Rumi fell in a state of grief and out of that pain he poured out nearly 70,000 verses of poetry. These poems are collected into two books ‘Diwan e Shams e Tabrizi’ and ‘Masnavi.’ The first book is a collection of ghazals named in honour of Tabrizi; the poems are arranged to the rhyming schemes. The other book is a collection of six volumes of poetry, in which the poems are intended to explain the various facet of spiritual life. It is believed that Rumi started Masnavi at the suggestion of his then companion, Husan al Din Chalabin.       

Trial by fire

Rumi’s serene inner state and mystical sensibilities were cultivated in large parts as a means of defense against the transience, loss and terror he endured during his childhood, no doubt helped him in becoming literature’s greatest mystical poet. He was buried besides his father in Konya.

A TALE OF HOAX

According to the second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, the word ‘hoax’ is an industrial age addition to the English language, where it first appeared in 1808 A.D.  

The word

The English philologist Robert Nares, 1753-1829 A.D., said that word ‘hoax’ was coined in the late 18th century as a contraction of the verb ‘hocus’  dictionary meaning of which are ‘to cheat,’ or ‘to impose upon.’ ‘Hocus’ is short for ‘hocus pocus’ which magicians chant before their tricks.

Human psyche

Everybody loves a good story. More unbelievable the tale, the more people are willing it to be true. Their thinking being, ‘surely nobody would go to such lengths to lie without good reason.’ It is this very thought that time and again gives motivation to certain people ‘to attempt to fool the general public.’ The hoaxes exploit human psychology by preying upon a number of human traits including good will, naivety, greed, fear and anxiety.

A disclosure

Every now and then there comes certain revelation that seems wild for people to wrap their heads around. Here are a few such tales from field of science, literature and internet, enjoy!

Scientific hoaxes

In 1725, a collection of stones on the outskirts of a Bavarian town was brought to Johann Beringer, chair of Natural History at the University of Wurburg, by a few of his students. The 2000 stones were curved in images of, lizards in their skin, birds with beaks and spiders etc. Beringer speculated that the stone was fossilized relics from the Great Flood. He was so sure that he wrote a book on it. The truth was that the stone had been planted by two of Beringer’s colleagues. A 10 foot long petrified human body, the Cardiff Giant, was discovered by a group of workers who were digging a well in William Newell’s farm in 1869. The truth was that, an atheist named George Hull had created a giant of gypsum as a prank on a fundamental minister who believed that Earth was once habituated by giants. Fragments of a humanlike skull, an apelike jawbone with two worn molar teeth, some stones tools and fragments of animal fossil, all discovered in a gravel pit by Charles Dawson in 1912. The skull was named, Piltdown man, and was hailed as the missing evolutionary link between apes and human. The truth was Dawson had planted the fossils, but was long dead when his hoax was revealed to the world. A British man named Ray Santilli in 1995 announced he had gotten the footage; of an autopsy of an alien whose spacecraft had crashed in summer of 1947, in Roswell, New Mexico, from a retired military cameraman. The truth, Santilli admitted in a documentary in 2006, to staging and recording the entire autopsy. But, he stood to his claim that the actual footage existed, and he only filmed the reenactment because the original footage was in bad shape.         

Literature hoaxes

In 1983 the newspaper Stern had announced the discovery of 60 small notebooks, claimed to be the personal diary of Adolf Hitler. On May 6th, 1983, West Germany’s Federal Archives released the results of a forensic investigation labeling the diaries to be hoax. A book consisting of 24 chapters that claimed to document a plot for Jewish world domination, the protocols of the Elders of Zion, might just be the most dangerous hoax in history. In the struggle for the control of Europe in the middle ages between the Catholic papacy and the crowned heads of Europe, the church seemed to have an upper hand thanks to the document. The Donation of Constantine, the document claimed that the church had transferred vast amount of land and political control from Roman Emperor Constantine1 to Pope Sylvester 1 in the 4th century A.D This turned out to be one of the most important forgeries in Europe history.    

Internet hoaxes

In 2001, an image of a helicopter performing a training maneuver in front of the Golden gate along with a white shark was passed along via email, claiming it be the National Geographic photo of the year. The truth was the image was a composite of two separate images; the helicopter’s and the shark’s. A 16 year old girl named Bree began posting videos blogs about her everyday life under the Youtube user name; lonely girl 16. The video gained a following when the girl’s parents went missing. This was proved to be fictional. In 2007, Household hackers hit big time when their viral video demonstrated how to charge an iPod using an onion and a glass of Gatorade. It was a fake.   

Why people create hoax

Who can forget the various Ponzi scheme’s over the years, which lured investors and paid profit to earlier investors by using funds obtained from newer investors. A hoax occurs when a person or group intentionally make up a fake story and pass it off as the truth. People create hoaxes for the following reasons: to draw attention to their fraudulent skills, to gain financial benefit through deceit, sociopathological hoaxers will either put their bait out or target specific individuals to vilify or discredit, especially those who pose a threat, to feed people’s secret prejudices and benefit, and lastly, it is fun to fool people.

GREAT INDIAN COURT JESTERS

A court jester in India is called a Vidusaka. From the stories and tales; both historic and fictional. I try to portray an Ancient Indian court jester.

Vidusakas of India

The trinity of Tenali Rama, Gopal and Birbal dominates the Indian court jester scene. These Vidusakas of Indian history were not jokers, nor were they only entertainers who lightened the ritualistic atmosphere of Ancient India courts. Their sharp wit and pity remarks were invariably backed by wisdom which was often used by Kings to good effect.

Weakness turned into strength

Officially a Vidusaka held no authority in court, normally perceived as a drawback, but it was precisely this absence of rank that allowed the jesters to be free with their opinions, since their words could be considered jokes. However, they needed to be careful not to overstep boundaries and suffer the wrath of their Kings. These jesters were trained musicians, actors or artists, some of them became trusted and valued confidants in courts, and some jesters like Birbal even fought in wars for their King. These skilled entertainers often used clever gibes at the enemies of their King’s and also directed their King’s attention to the problems of the society.        

A jester at work

The following story best illustrates how Vidusaka goes out about their daily works. A visiting King is very pleased by the entertainment provided by the court jester. The visiting King asks the jester to say something new and if pleased, then the King would reward the jester with some gold coins. At first the jester declined the offer, citing fewer gold coins as the reason. But the jester finally agreed to take up the offer only when the visiting King raised the stakes; parting with the bag of gold coins. At this moment jester declined to take the bag of gold reasoning that the King has pleased the jester with the act of big heartedness. Then the jester started to bad mouth his King as miser and stingy. This resulted in the whole court breaking into laughter. The visiting King laughed because of jester’s flattery, the host King laughed because the jester has conveyed the truth, but in a humorous way, and the court laughed because both Kings were happy. In the end the jester was handsomely rewarded.  

Some of the gems

The famous Indian court jesters are: Tenali Ramkrishna, Gopal Bhar, Birbal, and Gonu Jha. Pundit Gonu Jha of Bharona village is thought to be one of the earliest court jesters in North India. Tenali Ramkrishna, 16th century, the South Indian jester of King of Vijayanagar is said to be a Shivaite; worshipper of Shiv by birth, but converted to Vaishnavite; worshipper of Vishnu. Birbal was initially called Mahesh Das, 1528-1586, before becoming one of the nine navaratnan of Mughal Emperor Akbar. Gopal Bhar or Gopal Bhand was the court jester of the court of King Krishna Chandra Roy of Nadia, 1710-1783. It is believed that Gopal is a legendary personality. But a reference has been found. There was a body guard of the King of Nadia, who was given special status by the King. Gopal Bhar’s statues can still be seen in the palace of Krishna Chandra and in Ghurni, Krishnagar town. 

Concluding thought

Great Indian jesters were always on the side of common people in fighting oppression against the rich and powerful, with their unique weapons: wit and humour.