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he Unified Field and the Fundamental Reality of Oneness

Gulam Nabi Masoodi. In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Sufism is a refined way of life. A Sufi is a person who has annihilated his baser self and reached a state of divine protection from committing sins . Qalab of a Sufi attains purity and acts in solace getting illumined every moment. Even the idea of a sin is experienced as a discomfort and uneasiness leading to repentance and is washed off by seeking Gods forgivenss. A person in command of his baser self,on the other hand, does not experience these states and neglects sin leading to the darkness of his Qalab and is in a state of heedlessness. He misses the divine touch to his life that could lead to his emancipation. An act of purity, however, results in the formation of a white spot on his Qalab and with the repetition of such acts spreads resulting in its progressive purification. Sufism or mysticism is not, therefore, merely a message to be passed on to masses but a living experience to be transmitted as a state that sustains the personality not only here but also in the hereafter. Consider the simple message that our Sheikhul Aalam Sheikh Noorud-din Noorani conveyed to the masses by maintaining that Qul-hu-wallah and Atahyat are equal in effect to the total Quran for the seeker with true faith . The first part,a chapter of Quran with four verses: 1. Say: He is God, the One and only God,

2.

The Needless( independent)God.

3.

He begets not, nor is He begotten,

4.

And there is none like unto Him.

, provides an access to the Unicity or Tawhid whereas the second part, a prayer to almighty Allah to bestow His Grace and blessings on Prophet, enables the seeker to access the soul of Holy Prophet to progress in Unicity. In fact all sufi orders follow the same principle of selecting a verse or even a part from a verse or word Allah as zikir to activate Qalab for purification and then proceed further by reflection , meditation and observation of spiritual realities for

enlightenment. In mystic realm a single word can suffice if the Qalab is ready for spiritual assimilation and renewal. As the great modern mystic in Islam Iqbal affirms: The man of faith renews himself;

he does not look at himself except in the light of God;

he measures himself by the standard set by Mustafa,

and thus succeeds in creating a new world. The renewal of the self sustains it to face life through perceiving the presence of God by maintaining standards set by the prophet. God is the light of the heavens and the earth according to Quran and creating a new world is not difficult for the man of faith in His presence. This is the clear message of the Sufi . But if we look at the corresponding spiritual practices pursued and prescribed by masters in the past for its attainment ,we consider them as very difficult and hard to follow today, for seekers in general. Consider the seclusion of Sheikh-ul Aalam in the cave for concentrating on zikir and the ascetic practices pursued by Rishis in the past, they seem to belong to a world far from access for a seeker in the present context. There are Rishis who follow Sheikhul Aalam even today and I had the privilege of visiting a Rishi mother in her residential house at Srinagar just two days before. Many such centres of Sufis belonging to different orders are providing a healing touch to humanity throughout Kashmir. In the mystic order Uwaisiya Aminia, a current version of the same order, one starts simply reciting the first verse of Quran (Bismillahi-rahmanirahim)followed by daroode-khizri(Sallalahu Aala Habibihi Muhammadin-wa Aalihi wasalam) and gets registered as a seeker of the path instantly without any conditions whatsoever. Anybody can start just today and get connected.No formal induction into the order is required initially and the zikir is to be carried out while performing day to day job in the normal way. When the seeker reaches a stage of reciting the zikir for five hours daily while sitting ,standing, walking or travelling , he begins to feel the results. With continuous effort the seeker qualifies for getting formally inducted into the system when he is advised to meditate for less than an hour a day to access the soul of the Holy Prophet. This ease of access is visible in more orders of Sufism as well for the present day seeker. Divine presence is perceived in the company of Sheikh and the Soul of the prophet for sustaining the being of the seeker in all its

dimensions. But only a small percentage of a population avail these opportunities to satisfy there spiritual needs. This is because of their ignorance about Sufism as well as failure of the sufi systems to reach out to the masses. All of us also know that Sufi experience is universal in character assuming different hues in different cultures and communities. The universal aspect and its principles can form a basis for determining the essential principles of mystic unified field, no doubt . But the exploration of the essential principles needs to be an open ended process and nothing can, therefore, be predetermined .The process has also to be inclusive and all available mystic experiences need an in depth analysis in the light of the set goals. Internationally approved norms for interfaith dialogue need to be observed in these efforts so that they are acceptable to masses without any inhibition. As has rightly been observed in this regard, The goals of dialogue can vary, but they often involve efforts to achieve mutual understanding and tolerance, identify shared values, establish interfaith bonds ,overcome prejudice and religious fanaticism, and, perhaps most importantly, avert conflict or foster healing where conflict has occurred. Dialogue may also result in a reexamination of ones own religious convictions. One thing dialogue does not intend to do is convert people from one religion or one denomination to another, nor does it seek to create a new religion. (Encyclopedia of Islam) In Islam the unified field is the Unicity or Tawhid. Unicity defies all applications as any application leads to a limitation. You describe Unicity and you loose it , you point towards it and miss it! Sufi is one with the Essence in the sense of a drop assimilating a sea. Rumi says, Divine knowledge is lost in the knowledge of the saint! And how is it possible for people to believe in such a thing? A sufi renews his station in Unicity continuously and stopping anywhere would mean he has decided to proceed no further on the path. With every advance in Unicity the field of consciousness of a sufi enlarges with a corresponding emancipation of his self, a change in his world view and perception of God, Continuous advancement in Unicity is also an acid test for the genuineness of his mystic experience. As Iqbal maintains: Art thou in the stage of life. death, or death-in-life. Invoke the aid of three witnesses to verify thy Station. The first witness is thine own consciousness See thyself, then, with thine own light.

The second witness is the consciousness of another ego See thyself, then, with the light of an ego other than thee. The third witness is Gods consciousness See thyself, then, with Gods light. If thou standest unshaken in front of this light, Consider thyself as living and eternal as He! It is the living experience of a live self in the presence of a live Prophet and a living God.Today man has narrowed his field of consciousness by neglecting his spiritual reality. Past Sufi techniques seem to have lost their relevance for him in the modern context and do not suit him. What is required is not only to deliver the mystic message to the masses but also to demonstrate and prescribe simple techniques to activate human spiritual capacities and to alleviate human consciousness. Iqbal observes: The modern world stands in need of biological renewal. And religion, which in its higher manifestations is neither dogma, nor priesthood, nor ritual, can alone ethically prepare the modern man for the burden of the great responsibility which the advancement of modern science necessarily involves, and restore to him that attitude of faith which makes him capable of winning a personality here and retaining it in hereafter. It is only by rising to a fresh vision of his origin and future, his whence and whither, that man will eventually triumph over a society motivated by an inhuman competition, and a civilization which has lost its spiritual unity by its inner conflict of religious and political values. Your creation and resurrection, says the Quran, are like the creation and resurrection of a single soul. A living experience of the kind of biological unity, embodied in this verse, requires today a method physiologically less violent and psychologically more suitable to a concrete type of mind(Reconstruction) Any mystic practice today, therefore, has to: i) Acquint modern man with the higher levels of consciousness

ii)

Enable him to win a profound personality through faith

iii)

Provide him a living mystic experience for his biological renewal

The individual and collective psychological fields that are operative in the modern context need a mystic treatment for their atonement towards such mystic ideals of life. Mysticism is more concerned with feeling than mere thought. Emotional intelligence is a subject of study outside mystic circles today. A curriculum has been devised to introduce the subject in our schools. Feeling is as much important for the intuitive knowledge pertaining to heart or Qalb as thinking is to the development of mind.Could mystics of the world unite and devise a curriculum for imparting education to our children for developing their genuine feelings that may form the basis of the spiritual unity of our civilization? Mystics in the past have updated their knowledge of mystic experiences in the light of the advances of knowledge in non-mystic fields. Modern mystic cannot concretize mystic experience for the general good of all unless he gives it a form that suits modern knowledge societies in the new social context in which they have to sustain themselves. This is I think the real challenge that we have to face! Diversity of mystic experience is a strength that can ensure a unity in principles for economizing our efforts globally besides acting as indicators for individual progress to achieve the goals in a global context through local initiatives. It is here that interactions of the kind initiated by this organization are required for a concerted and oriented effort in the desired direction. What then needs to be done O nations of the east, says Iqbal: Life comes not but through dhikr (meditation); (true) independence comes not but through purity of thought. When the thought of a people becomes corrupt, then in their hands pure silver turns into base metal. The pure heart dies in their breast, and to their eyes the crooked appears straight. From the battlefield of life they keep themselves safely away; for them life resides only in the stationary. Seldom do waves arise from their ocean; their pearls are as worthless as pieces of clay. It is therefore necessary that their thought should

first be purified (of all dross); Reconstruction of thought would then be easy for them. and it applies to west as well. (gnmasoodi@gmail.com)

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