THE SUFI WAY…

IN AN ERA DEFINED BY DISRUPTIONS AND THE CHAOTIC TIDES OF SENSE GRATIFICATION…PERHAPS CONNECTING TO THE UNMOVING OBSERVER AND THE INNER COSMOS WHILE OUR BODIES WHIRL…OFFERS NEW POSSIBILITIES OF LIVING WITH JOY AND SURRENDER. SANGEETA WADDHWANI SHARES HER EXPERIENCE OF A RECENT SUFI RETREAT HELD AT DEVPRAYAG NEAR RISHIKESH

Here is perhaps the human condition’s biggest paradox: We are both, creations and simultaneously slaves of our minds. “Imagine if you dropped your identity…dropped your thoughts..who are you? Nothing but the same Divine Light which permeates Existence. When you start whirling, the idea is to experience the still, non-dancer within the dance. Let everything spin around you…at your core..you are still…that is the Sufi submission to egolessness…empty out the mind, so the Divine consciousness can emerge and dance through you ” was the essence of our young guru, Meera Ekin’s message.

Yes, our teacher for this unique retreat, held at Devprayag, (at a cosy resort perched along the sacred Ganga), was this loving, compassionate ingenue, who seemed to have discovered her calling after many meanderings experienced by young seekers (the parties, the hit and miss relationships, and general experiments with life…).

It was apparent to me that Meera was 100 percent aligned to her own guru, Anantaji who she referred to as “father.” She wasn’t a voracious reader of books and did not hesitate to share this. So her satsangs expanded on the idea of ‘dropping the mind’ without too many anecdotes from the Sufi cannon of stories, without too much variety and certainly lacking the finesse of more seasoned and knowledgeable orators like Osho and Sadhguru. Words like “cool”, “chill” punctuated her talks, and then she subverted her own efforts at one point saying, “this lecture is rubbish…just surrender to the experiences of our active meditations..!”

I loved her sincerity at that point. And I could see her charisma had won over many hearts if not heads…

So yes, Meera put her heart and soul into bringing The Sufi Way to life for participants mostly twice her age. Sitting around her were doctors, authors, lawyers, magazine veterans and bloggers, mobile phone app creators, investment bankers, healers and tarot exponents, real estate dealers and other spiritual coaches.

Now with such diverse achievers who clearly earned their retreat through the use of their minds, Meera’s insistence on seeing the mind as an enemy on the spiritual journey was not easily digested. The hammering of this message made it difficult to engage in dialogues because she accused every question “to be of and from the mind”…! My personal take on this would be to keep this philosophy as more of an experiential journey rather than one conveyed through words..which were, in the final analysis, an instrument of the mind!

However, where this young lady excelled was her ability to breathe life into our transformational tools… Chakra breathing, Zikr (Sufi prayers that had magical inner rhythms and which truly sweep you to a realm of spiritual bliss). Meera and her loving team also helped us experience the Sufi Sema…where devotees chant zikrs in a circle while dervishes whirl in the centre to the innate rhythm of the prayers.

These experiences brought to mind what AR RAHMAN had shared with me about the Sufi Way of seeking oneness with Divinity. Rahman’s Chaiyya Chaiyya hit was a Sufi prayer not to a human love, but a pure love from a human heart to the Divine. All the repetition in its sybillances mirrored the beauty of Sufi zikrs…repetitive sounds which calm and intoxicate our minds. The overall exchange grew into an energy-related, deeply memorable, soulful experience. Which was the retreat’s truest spirit.

We savored the privilege also, of being in a space consecrated by Ved Vyasa…author of the Hindu sacred text, the Ramayana. On the morning of our arrival, before the retreat start time of 12 noon, me and two Delhi-based participants went to the nearby Ved Vyasa temple to explore. I met a humble Punditji who had an alarming sophistication, as he quoted a sacred sutra on the power of the Ganges…”she washes away human sins of this and other lives, as she originates in Vishnulok.” Translated, he affirmed that even if one is yojanas or many miles away from the sacred Ganga, just remembering her at the time of death, can absolve one of sin!” This was truly a revelation.

The Ganges likes to be active. One felt a dancing, prancing vibe as she made her way around the stoic Himalayan range…undaunted by the monsoon mud coursing through her veins on her sparkling sojourn. She was so near and yet far…a constant vision in front of us at our Ganges By the Banyan Tree resort. Come tea time, and all of us aspiring Sufis, sworn into silence, would sit on plastic chairs and surrender to the vibrations of our sacred horizons..viewing the seductive Ganga, the changing yet unchanging hills and skies. There is a harmony in nature recognized by our very DNA. Tea drinking took on an inner dimension here as we synced ourselves to an uncomplicated Universe, designed to carry us with its intelligence through victory and valleys…if we only surrendered.

We also went for a dip into a beautific waterfall, a treat for city dwellers accustomed to little natural mystery. Here, it was our feet venturing over hidden pebbles, grounded into the present moment as we splashed and laughed. Even if we had been a group in silence, we became family as there were hands perpetually ready to reach out to steady us. Even in nature one learns to ‘connect’; certain rocks, we discovered, were trustworthy as they anchored us against the relentless pressure of the falling water. Our inner child took over and this was No Mind occurring most naturally!

The days were packed with intense sessions. We plunged into intense active meditations designed to expunge and unclog our Chakras. These meditations had been designed by mystics like Osho and Gurdjeff, to help a data-overloaded mind throw out all its baggage and for the mind-body system…particularly over-burdened hearts and throat Chakras.. to get detoxed. We got into Osho Gibberish meditations as well…as Gurdjeff the mystic found this process accelerated his disciples’ spiritual progress. It is a trick to get out of the mind by nonsensical communicaton, helping hidden emotions to surface without the filters of socially approved and understood language.

I later heard Meera talking about Gurdjeff’s extreme and almost nutty experiments with his disciples, “including getting them drunk..as under the influence of alcohol one’s true inner dialogue can be heard. After listening to a group of drunk disciples, he figured which ones are truly on the path and which weren’t and honed his followers down accordingly,” she shared, over one inadvertent tea time conversation (only she was permitted Indian chai and speech;)

We truly delighted in the Sufi whirling, with skirts and blouses especially stitched prior to the retreat with facilitation by the retreat team. While the skirts seem weightless when we watch Sufi whirling, in actuality they have a heavy border that provides ‘grounding’ for the dancer

In fact a covering message on our skirt packages read, WINGS TO THE BELOVED…The whirling skirt is an integral part of the whirling dance. It helps in grounding and centering. Traditionally the whirling skirt was made of the cloth used to cover dead bodies, signifying the death of the ego. It signifies the letting go of our false identity, so our pure, Godly nature shines forth.”

Even more interesting, the prayer that echoes in the heart ❤ of a Dervish is…”Empty me, my Lord! Empty me of myself so only You remain.Merge me in You.” A tag line went, Rahe-e-Ishq: THE Way of Divine Love!

Towards the last day of the intense retreat, we trekked to a river..a tributary of the muddy Ganges..for a redemptive swim. This truly proved to be the ice breaker we all needed, as we held on to a rope tied to a rock (so as not to be swept upstream)..and revelled in truly merging with clean water, clean air and bright blue sky. My sunglasses became a casualty, falling into the water and vanishing for an eternity!

Meera experimented with dipping her full head into the current to feel its power..and at one point as she floated with a life jacket, face looking skyward, a butterfly perched on the tip of her nose! To many this seemed like an ancestral spirit blessing our young master.

The grand finale was the Naamkaran ceremony, where those aspiring for a spiritual rebirth opted to get a new name. The care taken to elevate the hall where we conducted our daily activities, was palpable. Marigold flower arrangements were made all around, while intense dhoop and aggarbattis permeated the space, but the most transformative energy came from the music..sacred chants and bhajans rang out through large speakers, casting a celestial spell. All the participants were freshly showered and wore white, which enhanced the angelic vibe.

Calling one participant at a time, to her sanctum, Meera engaged in a deep energy dialogue with each soul trying to reboot ..looking deep into his or her eyes, while her team held, embraced and supported different chakras…particularly the heart Chakra. Many were moved to tears as this wordless dialogue carried on, soundlessly healing hidden wounds. Meera was a mere channel in this dialogue, something she confessed the next day. “I surrendered to my Father..he was doing everything…” She shared. But we all felt her generosity that night, as she too surrendered to the process that touched so many at such deep levels.

I was told no new name had yet arrived for me…but I did get that experience of being scanned by Meera’s eyes which seemed possessed of another light. A divine, compassionate, all-knowing light. I felt a redemption and I felt my heart melt…..it almost felt identical to how one melts before Shirdi Sai Baba’s presence in his sacred shrine.

We left Devprayag as a newly minted family, knowing that we had just surrendered to a different dimension of existence…one that was effortless, filled with little miracles and new possibilities.

Will we be able to sustain the Sufi Way of surrender, living in the innate abundance of the Divine Present Moment?