OUTSIDE THE BORDERS, INSIDE THE HUMAN SOUL

Published in CENTER AND PERIPHERY. STUDIES OF COMMUNICATION AND

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, 2015,
ISBN 978-3-659-68835-5, p. 229-237

Associate Professor Alina Beatrice Chec, PhD

Danubius University of Galai, Romania

Motto: Everything in the universe is within you.

Ask all from yourself.
(Rumi Mawlana)

There are great and fascinating scholars who have managed to show the ways to
be followed by nations and cultures throughout the history and, due to their important and
lasting works, they have transmitted their thoughts and philosophy to us. It is commonly
agreed that, knowing the past very well is a condition of development, as it is only in this
way that we can learn and improve ouselves form a spiritual and cultural point of view
(and not only).
Among others, Rumi Mawlana and Rabindranath Tagore are symbols of mental
superiority, wisdom, tolerance and goodness. They are considered men of all times, being
loved and respected from America to India and from Morocco to Russia. It is important
to mention that in Turkey, Istanbul, there is a graveyard where all those who loved
Rumi wish to be buried. In the Western world, he is considered to be the greatest
mystical poet of all times. His actual name was Mohammed; the name was completed
with the addition of the epithets Mevlana (or Mawlana) understood as our master and
Rumi, designating the one who came from Anatolian Rome (Rum). Today, the name
Mavlavi is preferred in Iran and Pakistan, while Rumi is used in the Western world when
referring to Mevlana. Rabindranath Tagore is also regarded as the great mystic from the
East, as Amartya Sen says. In a wonderful introduction to a selection of Rumis poems,
Bekir Sahin writes that: Mawlana is the last hope of human beings before nuclear
winter. (Selection from Diwan-I Kabir of Rumi, 2007: 16). Moreover, for the Muslim
part of the Orient, his work is surpassed only by the holly Quran.
Rabindranath Tagore is a huge spiritual, religious and cultural figure as well. All
those who become familiar with his fascinating, complex and unique work are impressed
by the power of Tagores presence all over the world. His poems, novels, essays and
short stories are highly appreciated and the songs he composed can be heard everywhere
in India and not only there. His essays approach various fields, such as: literature,
culture, religious beliefs, politics, philosophical analysis, international relations. Due to

the complexity of his work and to his enormous talent, he was awarded the Nobel Prize
for literature in 1913, for Gitanjali (Song Offerings) - a collection of wonderful poems. It
is said that what dominated the thinking of the Nobel committee of 1913 was Gitanjalis
idealism, as Alfred Nobels will stipulated that the winners needed to have an idealistic
tendency. At the beginning of the 20th century, William Butler Yeats wrote about
Tagore: Other Indians came to see me and their reverence for this man sounded strange
in our world, where we hide great and little things under the same veil of obvious comedy
and half-serious depreciation. Every morning at three I know for I have seen it one
said to me, he sits immovable in contemplation and for God. His father, the Maha Rishi,
would sometimes sit there all through the next day; once, upon a river, he fell into
contemplation because of the beauty of the landscape and the rowers waited for eight
hours before they could continue their journey. He told me of Mr. Tagores family and
how for generations great men have come out of its cradles. When Rabindranath was a
boy, he had all around him in his home literature and music. (Tagore, Gitanjali.
Introduction, 2008: 262)
Rumi Mawlana was born in Balkh (which lies in todays Afghanistan), in 1207 and
died in Konya, in 1273; Tagore was born in 1861 and died in 1941, in India; therefore,
they are separated by more than half a millennium (actually, almost 700 years). Despite
this, their poems describe a world belonging to a special spirituality, full of love,
sensitiveness, God, wisdom, harmony, passion, music and beauty. As Mawlana said, the
search is done in many ways, but the object of the search is always the same. Dont you
see that the ways leading to Mecca are numerous ()? The ways are different, the goal is
unique. (Rumi, 1976:23) Or: Come, come, no matter who you are, still come./ Whether
atheist, fire worshipper or worshipper of many gods, still come./ Our house is not the
house of hopelessness/ Even if you broke your atonement one hundred times, still come.
(Vitray-Meyerovitch, 2003: 108). This quatrain constitutes one of the best expositions of
the Sufi paths boundless acceptance. Certainly, it is well-known that love, wisdom and
tolerance lie at the foundation of Sufi practice before anything else. One of the world's
great spiritual teachers - Muhyi 'D-din Ibn 'Arabi - mystic, philosopher, poet, sage, born
in Murcia, Al-Andalus, in 1165, also expresses the essence of the Sufi philosophy: My
heart has opened unto every form: it is a pasture for gazelles, a cloister for Christian
monks, a temple for idols, the Ka'ba of the pilgrim, the tables of the Torah and the book
of Qur'an. I practice the religion of Love; in whatsoever directions its caravans advance,
the
religion
of
Love
shall
be
my
religion
and
my
faith.
Returning to Tagore, W. B. Yeats was right when he saw a prevailing religious
element in his work. The relation with God is a direct, peaceful and free one and can be
found in many of Tagores writings (including the poems of Gitanjali). From Indias
numerous and various traditions he borrowed many ideas, both from old texts and from
traditional poetry; the profound humanity is revealed more clearly than any complex and
deep spirituality or religion: Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a
temple with doors all shut?/ Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee!/ He is
there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground/ and where the path-maker is breaking
stones. He is with them /in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust./Our
master himself has joyfully taken upon him the bonds /of creation; he is bound with us
for ever./ / Come out of thy meditations and leave aside thy flowers and incense!/ Meet
him and stand by him in toil and in sweat of thy brow. (R.Tagore, 2008:23)

Rumi Mawlana expresses the same feelings; God represents the almighty force, the
supreme Love, always close to His children and perfect creation, from the smallest
creatures up to human beings. In a charming poem, Love Is the Master, Rumi says: Love
is the One who masters all things;/ I am mastered totally by Love./God is working
everywhere his massive Resurrection;/ How can we pretend to act on our own? (Rumi,
1973:25). And, in another poem: You are the master alchemist./ You light the fire of
love/ in earth and sky/ in heart and soul/of every being/ Through your love/ existence and
nonexistence merge./ All opposites unite./ All that is profane/ becomes sacred again
(Rumi, 1973:25). As it can be noticed, beauty and love are godly and sacred and by
contemplating beauty and experiencing love, life becomes wonderful, just like its
Creator. And a special metaphor, hinting at the real purpose of life, that is acquiring
wisdom, profoundness, generosity and divine perfection: This being human is a guest
house. Every morning is a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary
awareness comes as an unexpected visitor...Welcome and entertain them all. Treat each
guest honorably. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door
laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond. (Rumi, 1973:37). Mawlana himself said: The human being
came into this world to fulfill a mission; this is ones true goal; if it is not fulfilled, one
did not even really live. And, the all-mighty God said: I have bought you, your souls,
goods and time. If you dedicate and give them to me, their price is the eternal Paradise.
This is the price you have in my eyes (Rumi, 1976:40).
Tagore has always been the great master and the sun not only for the Indians, but
for the whole world engaged in an ardent search for liberation, i.e. the liberation from
death, slavery, in order to find eternal life: The same stream of life that runs through my
veins/ night and day runs through the world/ and dances in rhythmic measures./ It is the
same life that is rocked/ in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death,/ in ebb and in flow./ I
feel my limbs are made glorious/ by the touch of this world of life./ And my pride is from
the life-throb of ages/ dancing in my blood this moment. (Tagore, 2008: 181) Some of
Tagores poems combine images and symbols of human love with images of celestial
devotion, just like this one: I have had my invitation to this worlds festival,/ And thus
my life has been blessed. My eyes have seen /And my ears have heard./ It was my part at
this feast to play upon/ My instrument, and I have done all I could./ Now, I ask, has the
time come at last/ When I may go in and see thy face and offer thee/ My silent
salutation? (R.Tagore, 2008: 33)
In several splendid verses, Mawlana addresses God using an intense prayer in which
the adoration for Him does not make room for earthly pleasures: Oh, Beloved,/ Take
me./ Liberate my soul./ Fill me with your love and/ release me from the two worlds./ Oh,
Beloved,/ take away what I want./take away what I do./ take away what I need./ take
away everything/ that takes away from you (Rumi, 1973: 91). Mawlana reflected divine
love in accordance with the peculiarities of that age and expressed it by symbols such as:
lover-beloved, sea-drop, vineyard-beloved, wine-cupbearer.
Rabindranath Tagore offered his life to God, in spite of some doubts that haunted
him; thus, his work may be considered a song dedicated to the supreme Father, but also to
human beings, to His entire creation and to the principles of the good. That is why, some
of his poems represent a promise made in front of the divinity: Life of my life, I shall
ever try/ to keep my body pure, knowing that thy living touch/ is upon all my limbs/ I

shall ever try to drive all evils away from my heart/ and keep my love in flower, knowing
that thou hast thy seat/ in the inmost shrine of my heart. (R.Tagore, 2008: 9)
In the Quran it is said that everything is futile except the Face of God: This Face is
always present, endless and everlasting. Returning to the centre, the soul finds again the
sky which is inside it. The place where God works is the heart of the human being: The
heart is nothing else but the Sea of light/the place of Gods vision (Rumi,1925:82).
But this is valid only for the human heart that reached its true dimension.
In the following poem by Tagore, we find the same idea of Gods supreme power and
of renouncing the vain pleasures: I know thee as my God and stand apart/ I do not know
thee as my own and come closer./ I know thee as my father and bow before thy feet./ In
pleasure and in vain I stand not/ By the side of men and thus stand by thee./ I shrink to
give up my life and/ Thus do not plunge into the great waters of life (R.Tagore, 2008:
199). Later, he compares the hands of God to the flute of the reed and the poet, plays with
his breath. Through His creation, through His creatures, God becomes aware of Himself;
the poet must be the conscience of God, this is the thought which gives life to a
wonderful poetry: I have come to the brink of eternity/ from which nothing can vanish/
no hope, no happiness, no vision/ of a face seen through tears./ Oh, dip my emptied life
into that ocean,/ plunge it into the deepest fullness. / Let me for once feel that lost sweet
touch/ in the allness of the universe (R.Tagore, 2008: 223).
For Mawlana, too, God is the core of human existence; He is the ultimate hope and
expectation, the perfect seed of our spirit and mind, the mirror of our own selves: And
He is with you/in your search/ when you seek Him/ look for Him/in your looking/ closer
to you/ than yourself/ to yourself (Rumi, 1973:57). In Mawlanas opinion, in order to
directly contemplate God, the man must firstly become an ascetic (zahid) (Rumi,
1925:78). He is known to have been loved and respected by the disciples of other
religions as well; he would say: Christian, Jew, Muslim, Shaman, Zoroastrian, stone,
ground, mountain, river, each has a secret way of being with the mystery, unique and not
to be judged.
Rabindranath Tagore had strong religious beliefs, but he was also interested in many
other topics and fields. He clearly expressed opinions on peace, war, education,
nationalism, the need for cultural openness and others. However, Amartya Sen states that:
His admirers in the West were tuned to the more other-worldly themes which had been
emphasized by the first Western patrons. People came to his public lectures in Europe
and America expecting ruminations on grand, transcendental themes; when they heard
instead his views on the way public leaders should behave, there was some resentment.
(Amartya Sen, 2005:98) It must be mentioned that, for Tagore, the most imperative
aspect was peoples freedom, both physical and spiritual. All his views regarding culture,
politics, nationalism, philosophy, tradition and modernity can be interpreted from this
perspective. He supported the nationalistic movements and was against the foreign rules.
Tagores love for freedom explains his opposition to traditionalism that makes people
prisoners of the past; he dreams of a free world: Where the mind is without fear and the
head is held high;/ Where knowledge is free;/ Where the world has not been broken up
into fragments/ by narrow domestic walls;/ Where words come out from the depth of
truth;/ Where tireless striving stretches its arms/towards perfection;/ Where the clear
stream of reason has not lost its way/into the dreary desert sand of dead habit/ Where the
mind is lead forward by thee into ever-widening/thought and action -/ Into that heaven of

freedom, my Father,/ let my country awake (R.Tagore, 2008: 75). This is a beautiful and
creative metaphor of what freedom should represent.
This is how the Sufi poet chooses to celebrate life and love: The ways to God are
numerous, I have chosen the way of dance and music (Rumi, 1973:44). Or: When you
feel
a
peaceful
joy,
that's
when
you
are
near
truth.
In a captivating poem, Rumi confesses: I desire loud music/drunken parties and/wild
dance/one hand holding/a cup of wine/one hand caressing your hair/then dancing in
orbital circle/that is what I yearn for/I can sing better than any nightingale (Rumi,
1973:44). This can be regarded as a unique, intense and lovely perspective on faith and
happiness both mystical and earthly - and celebration of the gifts offered by God.
Mawlana also writes: Love is that flame which, when it rises, devours everything; it is
only God who remains (Rumi, 1973:27). And also: Love is the whole thing.
We
are
only
pieces.
Another Sufi, Mir Sayyid Dharif, considers that the first creation is love and the origin of
creation is the expression of the divine beauty. For Sufis, love is the soul of the universe;
through love, the human being tends to return to ones origins. Music and dance, the
rotation of the stars, the evolution of life from stone to plant, from animal to human, up to
the angels and beyond, everything is determined by love: As soon as you have won the
Love, you will always be in love: in the tomb, in the moment of the Resurrection, in
Paradise, always. If you sow the seed, it will grow, it will be like bread in the oven
((Rumi, 1976: Chapter 44).
Mawlana spent the latter part of his life in Turkey, Konya, where he created an
important movement and offered spiritual guidance to many people. They gathered
within the fraternity (tariqa) founded by him, which had the mark of his personal
features: brotherhood, humanity, harmony, simplicity, acceptance. The Sema, or whirling
dervish ceremony, is one of the basic rites of the Mevlevi order and one not found in
other Sufi orders. The main thing that any dervish had to learn was the struggle with the
ego (Rumi: The Ego is a veil between humans and God)
Returning to Tagore, it is important to say that this poem from the book entitled The
Gardener speaks about a human and passionate love, rather than a mystical one: I hold
her hands and press her to my breast./ I try to fill my arms with her loveliness, /to plunder
her sweet smile with kisses, /to drink her dark glances with my eyes (The Gardener,
Poem 49).
Rumi also wrote wonderful love poems as, in his view, human love could be an
expression of divine love, a supreme gift that God gave His children to experience and
understand happiness: We love, thats why life is full of so many wonderful gifts. In
other words, happiness can make human beings reach the sky and even have mystical
experiences. Earthly love may be considered the first level of mystical love: This is how
I would die/ into the love I have for you:/ As pieces of cloud/ dissolve in sunlight. Or,
in another poem: Once a beloved asked her lover: Friend,/ You have seen many places
in the world!/ Now-which of all these cities was the best?/ He said: The city where my
sweetheart lives! (Rumi, 1973:35)
Beyond temporal and space borders, Rumi Mawlana and Rabindranath Tagore are
definitely eternal symbols of the human soul, irrespective of culture, religion or
nationality. By travelling outside any self-imposed borders, we will always find ourselves

inside a fascinating and eternal realm of love, spirituality and freedom, a land where all
human beings are Gods perfect creation.

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