- 1/25/2024
Video Information: ShabdYoga session, 19.07.2017, Advait Bodhsthal, Noida, India
Context:
How to understand Rumi?
What does Rumi want to explain?
What is celebration?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Context:
How to understand Rumi?
What does Rumi want to explain?
What is celebration?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00:00 [Music]
00:00:18 Dance when you are broken open.
00:00:22 Dance if you have torn the bandage off.
00:00:28 Dance in the middle of the fighting.
00:00:32 Dance in your blood.
00:00:35 Dance when you are perfectly free.
00:00:47 What is dance?
00:00:52 Why is dancing such a favorite of the poets, the saints, the worshippers of freedom?
00:01:16 Why?
00:01:19 [Music]
00:01:29 First of all, in the spiritual sense, when one uses the word dance,
00:01:39 then dancing does not refer to any kind of organized movement of limbs or the body.
00:02:04 That would just be a rehearsed system of prescripted action
00:02:29 having very little to do with the heart.
00:02:39 So we are not talking of the kind of dance one learns in dance classes.
00:02:48 We are not talking of organized and named dance forms.
00:02:58 We are talking of the dance of the butterfly.
00:03:02 We are talking of the dance of the winds.
00:03:07 We are talking of the dance of the stars.
00:03:17 You look at the stars.
00:03:23 How they all have been unevenly scattered on the dark plate of the sky.
00:03:39 The dark canopy of the sky.
00:03:46 No organization, no pattern and yet they are so beautiful.
00:04:10 One looks at the way trees, plants grow in the jungle.
00:04:38 They have not been planted there in an order.
00:04:49 They have not been planted in an order.
00:04:58 And yet there is an intrinsic beauty.
00:05:04 Probably the absence of order itself contributes to the beauty.
00:05:16 Keep it in mind.
00:05:21 The dance of the jungle, the dance of the waves, the dance of the stars,
00:05:29 the monkey's dance, the elephant's dance, the dance of the toddler.
00:05:38 That is the dance that a Rumi loves.
00:05:44 Not the kind of dance you see on television dance shows and talent shows.
00:05:52 Rumi is not talking about those dances.
00:05:59 They are ugly.
00:06:01 Actually, they cannot even be called a dance.
00:06:09 They are something else.
00:06:21 Now, Rumi loves the dance of the jungle or the dance of the river because it is natural.
00:06:40 We will go into that word natural.
00:06:45 Nature refers to the self, to the truth.
00:06:51 So whatever proceeds from truth itself is natural.
00:07:00 Whatever comes from nature is natural.
00:07:07 A Rumi loves the jungle or the moon or the dances because they come from his beloved.
00:07:31 A Rumi loves the truth and because he loves the truth, he also has to love.
00:07:42 Whatsoever comes from the truth.
00:07:46 If you love nature, you also have to love what is natural.
00:07:55 Dance is natural because dance is the pure action of the unconditioned mind.
00:08:13 When a movement, when an action arises from nothing in particular, then it is called dance.
00:08:27 It is that clean nothingness that is worthy of worship and therefore dance is so lovable and admirable.
00:08:40 If you have something, then you will have purposeful action.
00:08:45 You cannot have dance.
00:08:50 When there is nothing, nothing to be achieved, no purpose, no regrets, no hopes,
00:09:02 then the quality of your movement is called dancing.
00:09:09 And therefore we are saying that dancing emerges from nothingness.
00:09:16 Dancing emerges from nothingness.
00:09:31 So, then dancing becomes a synonym of freedom as it comes from freedom.
00:09:47 Once nature is freedom, isn't it?
00:09:50 Dancing then is a synonym of freedom.
00:09:56 Having come to this point, now what Rumi is saying becomes all the more remarkable.
00:10:02 He is saying dance when you are broken open.
00:10:06 Dance if you have torn the bandage off.
00:10:09 Dance in the middle of the fighting.
00:10:12 Dance in your blood.
00:10:14 Dance when you are perfectly free.
00:10:26 He is not talking of perfect conditions.
00:10:32 Were he to talk of perfect conditions, only the last line would have been proper.
00:10:40 The last line says dance when you are perfectly free.
00:10:46 He is saying even when you do not appear to be free, dance.
00:10:52 Even when things appear imperfect, dance.
00:10:57 And that is beautiful.
00:11:03 In that lies the essence of these words in a lesson for us.
00:11:12 Perfection is not something that you aspire for or wait for.
00:11:22 Perfection is not the opposite of imperfection.
00:11:25 If perfection to you is the opposite of imperfection,
00:11:28 if perfection for you is the end of imperfection or the transcendence of imperfection,
00:11:42 then you can keep waiting for perfection as long as time lasts.
00:11:58 Perfection is there in the middle of imperfection.
00:12:06 In life as it is, nothing that appears, nothing that happens would ever be perfect.
00:12:16 Now that can either make you cringe or you can still dance in the middle of the disorder.
00:12:31 To dance in the middle of the disorder, you must be able to look at the essence of things directly.
00:12:36 Things are imperfect, their essence is perfect.
00:12:40 Unless you have eyes that look at the essence of things,
00:12:46 you will continue to see imperfection, you will never feel free and you will never rise to dance.
00:12:58 But to look at the essence of things, to have eyes that look at the essence of things,
00:13:04 first of all, you must be looking from your essence.
00:13:10 What you see depends on the point from where you are seeing.
00:13:21 These two are always so.
00:13:26 You look from your imperfections and all you will notice is imperfections all around.
00:13:31 And having seen imperfections, you will get purposes, you will get mental material,
00:13:41 you will get a direction to move, but you will never get that fulfillment that tells you that all is alright,
00:13:51 nothing really is amiss.
00:13:55 So a celebration need not be kept pending.
00:14:02 That would never come.
00:14:05 To me, say dance in the middle of blood, dance in the middle of your own blood,
00:14:12 dance when you are broken open, dance when you have torn the bandage off,
00:14:17 dance in the middle of the fight, dance when situations are as adverse as they can be.
00:14:34 Imperfection is seen from the heart, is seen from clarity.
00:14:45 Itself shines as perfection.
00:14:52 Things need not be perfect.
00:14:54 Your seeing has to be perfect.
00:14:58 Your seeing is perfect.
00:15:00 Then this or that about things is not going to bother you.
00:15:23 Only finally he says, all right, you can dance even when you are perfectly free.
00:15:37 Dance when nothing is perfect, dance when you are not feeling free.
00:15:42 And having exhausted all the possibilities of imperfection,
00:15:52 he finally says, all right, even if everything appears to be okay, proper, you may still dance.
00:16:06 But dancing when everything is perfect is not at all as important as dancing
00:16:15 when everything appears to be crumbling, when everything appears to be going wrong.
00:16:28 The last line of the verse is actually a formality.
00:16:32 It is redundant.
00:16:33 One could have done without it.
00:16:37 The last line is actually never going to be called into question.
00:16:43 It is never going to be applicable.
00:16:45 Why is it never going to be applicable?
00:16:47 Because nothing is ever going to be perfect and you are never really going to be perfectly free.
00:16:54 Given your body, given your age, given all the kind of limitations that you suffer,
00:17:00 there is the question of perfect freedom for the person.
00:17:04 The person is born bound and dies in bondage.
00:17:09 And that is nothing to worry about or regret.
00:17:15 That is the definition of the person.
00:17:18 How can you quarrel with the definition of something?
00:17:22 A circle is circular, round.
00:17:31 What do you mean by not finding this pleasant?
00:17:35 A man is limited, full stop.
00:17:38 What do you mean by not adjusting to this fact?
00:17:43 Time passes, men change.
00:17:51 Death arrives.
00:17:56 What do you mean by being upset and not accepting?
00:18:04 See freedom in the middle of bondages.
00:18:17 Do not quarrel with your bondages.
00:18:21 And to see freedom outside, you will firstly have to identify with the free one inside of you.
00:18:37 If your identification is with everything that is little about you, all that you will see outside is littleness.
00:18:47 If you are identified with flesh, whichever direction you look at, all you will see is flesh.
00:18:55 If you are identified with fear, wherever you will go, you will only find fear.
00:19:03 If you are identified with money, does not matter what you are looking at, you would only be thinking of money.
00:19:12 How more money can be made?
00:19:17 How costs can be reduced?
00:19:22 How a new project can be conceptualized?
00:19:32 How the world comes to you, how the world appears to you depends on which layer of yourself, which depth of yourself you relate to.
00:19:55 The world in that sense is your follower.
00:20:06 Your eyes decide what they will see.
00:20:21 Dance in the middle of chaos. Dance in the middle of deprivation.
00:20:28 Dance in the middle of death and destruction.
00:20:37 Dance exactly when there is no reason to dance.
00:20:46 Dance where there is a synonym of truth, God, faith, everything.
00:20:52 Hold on to them exactly when it is the most difficult to hold on.
00:21:06 Have faith when you have all the reasons to doubt.
00:21:13 Stand firm when it appears commonsensical to drift away.
00:21:29 Stay awake when it seems pardonable to do wrong.
00:21:57 I will go to the extent of saying that if you are not dancing in your blood, you are not dancing at all.
00:22:07 Dancing is possible only in your own blood.
00:22:15 The one who thinks of dancing as a pleasurable activity will never know what dancing really is like.
00:22:34 A fighter, a warrior, somehow making his way
00:23:02 through a grisly battlefield, hurt, cut open, broken, bleeding,
00:23:22 wading through his own blood and the blood of his comrades.
00:23:42 His walk is a dance.
00:23:51 Look at his gait, he is dancing.
00:24:01 You say he can't even walk properly.
00:24:07 His bones are broken and he has 22 cuts in his legs.
00:24:17 Sir, he can't even walk properly. He is stumbling, falling over.
00:24:26 And he takes time to get up. He is exhausted.
00:24:36 Yes, and he is dancing.
00:24:41 That is dance.
00:24:45 When you are walking, when you can't even walk.
00:25:05 With all your broken bones and cuts and exhaustion, if you are even standing, then you are dancing.
00:25:22 That is dance.
00:25:26 Not when a trained performer comes.
00:25:32 And after months of going through the same motions, planned rehearsals,
00:25:51 comes and repeats the same steps in front of an audience who has come prepared in advance to see exactly those steps.
00:26:09 That is not dance.
00:26:11 When Shiva dances, the world collapses.
00:26:33 And if you can move when your world is collapsing around you, then you are dancing.
00:26:42 That is the only definition of dance.
00:26:47 Shiva, for good reason, is called the first dancer.
00:26:57 [silence]
00:27:26 Look at the so-called artists performing organized dances.
00:27:45 Their dances consist of hundreds of well-sculpted steps, polished and polished through repetition, through practice.
00:28:14 I repeat, that one baby step, one struggling step, one uneven and uneasy step,
00:28:32 one raw step that the man of truth takes is more beautiful, more admirable than the millions of steps
00:28:57 [silence]
00:29:05 that all the dancers of the world take.
00:29:14 This man, the man of truth, is really dancing.
00:29:18 Your eyes may suggest otherwise. Don't listen to your eyes.
00:29:30 You will say he is taking only half a step.
00:29:36 Even half a step was not needed. We said, had he been standing, just standing motionless at his place,
00:29:48 even that would have qualified as the most enchanting dance.
00:30:13 To dance is to surrender your action to an agency bigger than yourself.
00:30:27 To dance is to let somebody else decide who you are and what you are doing.
00:30:37 And mind you, who that somebody else is would not be decided by you.
00:30:45 Otherwise, you are just playing clever tricks.
00:30:50 Isn't it a clever trick to say that my actions would be decided by somebody else,
00:30:57 but that somebody else would be decided by me?
00:31:06 I surrender to a God and that God has been constructed by me.
00:31:16 Now to whom have I surrendered?
00:31:21 So when in dancing you let somebody else decide who you are and how your steps are,
00:31:32 how your actions are, remain careful that you do not start deciding who that somebody is.
00:31:44 To dance therefore is to surrender to the unknown.
00:31:52 To dance therefore is to remain peaceful.
00:31:57 Even when your mind is unable to offer you any argument in favor of peace,
00:32:08 we look for reasons for peace.
00:32:12 There are many who appear apparently peaceful, don't they?
00:32:18 If you go to the road, if you go to people's houses, you will sometimes find them agitated.
00:32:27 And sometimes you will find them peaceful.
00:32:31 Even when people appear peaceful, they are peaceful for a reason, aren't they?
00:32:42 Some comforting news has arrived.
00:32:46 There is a reason to relax so people feel peaceful.
00:32:49 They can retire, go to bed, talk calmly, be a little silent.
00:33:01 And as soon as the reason reverses, the behavior also reverses.
00:33:08 To dance is to be peaceful and relaxed without reason.
00:33:27 The mind is not coming up with any good news and yet you are feeling good.
00:33:40 That is dancing.
00:33:45 The mind is not supplying you with any argument in favor of moving, in favor of acting.
00:33:59 Yet you are full of energy to act.
00:34:03 That is dance.
00:34:12 When your energy is directed towards preservation of your little petty self,
00:34:23 then you are running, walking, achieving, reaching, racing.
00:34:33 And when your energy expresses itself without the motive to achieve,
00:34:44 without being a servant to the little self,
00:34:49 without the objective of fulfilling the needs of your little person,
00:34:58 then it is a dance.
00:35:02 So you are moving but you are not moving to preserve yourself.
00:35:06 That is dance.
00:35:09 You are moving but you are not moving to reach anywhere.
00:35:13 That is dance.
00:35:21 Real dance then is so similar to madness.
00:35:31 First of all, the fellow does not have a life-defining purpose.
00:35:43 That is madness.
00:35:45 Secondly, he is investing all his energy in movement even without a purpose.
00:35:58 That is an even bigger madness.
00:36:27 The trouble with the mind is,
00:36:36 when it feels that it is getting something,
00:36:41 then it is getting only within the domain of its limited healing.
00:37:01 Then the really big comes to it.
00:37:07 The mind cannot sense it and hence it does not feel that it is getting anything.
00:37:24 The mind is like a radar
00:37:32 that is designed to detect only small and slow moving objects.
00:37:50 So it can detect a stone.
00:37:57 If a stone is hurled towards the mind, it can detect it. It is a small thing.
00:38:02 And smallness is the quality of the mind.
00:38:11 The mind resonates with smallness wherever it sees it.
00:38:20 Smallness and slowness both are compatible with the mind.
00:38:32 A stone comes towards the mind, the mind can detect it.
00:38:35 An asteroid comes towards the mind, the mind says, well, nothing is coming.
00:38:40 There is no detection happening.
00:38:44 A tiny pebble would raise ripples in the mind.
00:39:00 And if an asteroid, an entire mountain range is hurtling towards the mind from outer space,
00:39:16 the mind takes no cognizance at all.
00:39:29 Do not be unnecessarily excited when the mind feels that it has obtained something.
00:39:42 If the mind is able to say with certainty that it has obtained something,
00:39:50 it is certain that the mind has obtained something very small.
00:39:59 Whenever the real will come to you, it will be outside the purview of your measure.
00:40:10 You will not be able to take count of it.
00:40:19 You will not be able to fathom it.
00:40:27 You will not be able to come to grips with the immensity of it.
00:40:39 You will not feel something big is happening. So you won't feel excited.
00:40:56 And that is alright.
00:41:01 Just don't resist.
00:41:07 As Rumi says, dance even when you are broken open, dance even when you are bleeding profusely.
00:41:16 Similarly, keep listening even when the mind makes no sense of what you are listening
00:41:26 or who you are listening to.
00:41:37 What Rumi is saying would be worthless if you can understand it.
00:41:46 What I am saying would be a waste of your time if you can make sense of it.
00:42:00 So just stay put.
00:42:09 Don't run away, that's all.
00:42:12 Oh, of course, you won't run away on your legs, that's too impolite.
00:42:19 You will fly away on the wings of dreams.
00:42:26 Keep some water with you so that you can keep washing your face.
00:42:36 That's the battle you are fighting.
00:42:39 That's the blood that Rumi is talking of.
00:42:44 Gone are the battles of old when there were swords and maces, when your physical body was pierced.
00:42:57 The battle in which you are embroiled is different.
00:43:06 You are not being physically attacked.
00:43:10 Of course, it's a bloody situation, but the attack on you is mental.
00:43:15 You don't realize it.
00:43:22 When your body is attacked and hurt, then the wound is visible, palpable.
00:43:36 You can point a finger at it.
00:43:38 You can say I'm bleeding.
00:43:41 But when your mind is attacked, then you feel, oh, it's not that bad a situation.
00:43:57 It's not really scary.
00:43:59 You don't realize that you are in the middle of a war.
00:44:09 You don't realize that you are being taken away.
00:44:11 You don't realize that you are being dispossessed of the most precious thing that you can have, that you can get.
00:44:25 You don't realize that the enemy is so cunning that he is depriving you of everything without even letting you know that you are being deprived of everything.
00:44:45 You're losing it and not even realizing that you are losing it.
00:44:52 So smart is your enemy.
00:45:10 Rumi is not talking about some other world.
00:45:15 He's not talking about exotic battles.
00:45:20 This poem is not applicable only in a utopian, in a utopian environment.
00:45:30 You look at it, you read it and you say, it says dance when you are broken open.
00:45:34 But rarely am I broken open.
00:45:38 In fact, I'm never broken open.
00:45:40 When was the last time I was broken open?
00:45:42 Oh, that was 15 years back.
00:45:47 When my little sister hit me on the head with a cricket bat.
00:45:54 Since then I have not really been broken open.
00:45:56 So this line does not apply to me.
00:45:59 Dance if you have torn the bandage off.
00:46:01 Am I so stupid to do this?
00:46:07 Why would I ever tear the bandage off?
00:46:10 First of all, I am rarely bandaged because I am a well adjusted being who does not get
00:46:15 into physical altercations.
00:46:20 Why should I ever bear a bandage?
00:46:32 So even this line does not apply to me.
00:46:34 Dance in the middle of the fighting, I am quite non-violent.
00:46:40 I leave the fighting to the ghouls and to the police.
00:46:44 I do not fight.
00:46:45 At most I debate.
00:46:50 Fighting is for the bad boys, is it not?
00:46:53 I am not a bad boy.
00:46:55 I am a civilized one.
00:47:00 I am an MBA actually.
00:47:03 Am I going to be seen fighting on the streets?
00:47:08 So even this line does not apply to me.
00:47:10 All in all it appears what Rumi is saying has no relevance to me because all his lines
00:47:16 are probably for somebody else.
00:47:18 They do not apply to me.
00:47:20 Dance in your blood, hell.
00:47:22 Why?
00:47:27 Dance in your blood, such a gory and grotesque image.
00:47:36 So even this line does not apply to me.
00:47:43 Dance when you are perfectly free.
00:47:47 This one applies to me.
00:47:51 I am perfectly perfect and I am perfectly free so I can dance.
00:48:04 Except the last line, all other lines apply to me.
00:48:11 The blood is symbolic, the war is symbolic, the bandage is symbolic, the wounds are symbolic.
00:48:20 If at this moment something is preventing you from listening, then you are at war.
00:48:31 If at this moment attention is being sapped out of you, then you are drenched in your blood.
00:48:54 If at this moment half your mind is elsewhere, then the mind is divided, broken.
00:48:58 That is called being broken.
00:49:05 The defenses of mind have been broken open.
00:49:11 Somebody has intruded forcefully and taken away a part of yourself.
00:49:18 That is called being broken.
00:49:26 The meaning is same even when the situations are so horrific.
00:49:33 Dance.
00:49:36 Stay with the truth.
00:49:39 And know that the world, the situations, howsoever good or bad they are, are nothing but an expression of the truth.
00:49:55 It doesn't matter whether the leaves are green or brown, whether the flowers are dull or shiny,
00:50:11 whether the branches are few or numerous.
00:50:18 All of them are a pointer towards the presence of the roots.
00:50:28 What does a red flower indicate?
00:50:30 It indicates that there indeed are roots.
00:50:37 And what does a blue flower indicate?
00:50:39 It again indicates that there are roots.
00:50:41 So if you come across opposites, do not get swayed away.
00:50:52 The existence of a thing indicates truth.
00:50:55 The existence of the opposite of that thing also indicates the truth.
00:51:09 Flowers indicate that the root is there.
00:51:13 What do thorns indicate?
00:51:16 That the root is there.
00:51:17 So do not be misled.
00:51:20 Do not think that if flowers mean roots, then thorns must mean the absence of roots or something other than roots.
00:51:33 They both mean the same.
00:51:39 So dance whether it is flowers or thorns because they both mean the same.
00:51:43 And what do they both mean?
00:51:45 Roots.
00:51:46 So dance.
00:51:49 Dance whether it is flowers or thorns because both of them indicate the presence of the underlying firmament.
00:52:11 On the same plant grows happiness.
00:52:24 And on the same plant grows.
00:52:28 So whether it is happiness or sadness, you keep dancing.
00:52:34 The roots are the same.
00:52:42 And time changes everything.
00:52:47 The young mango is so sour.
00:52:51 Have you ever tasted a raw green mango?
00:52:57 How does it taste?
00:53:01 And then time changes it.
00:53:06 What happens?
00:53:07 The colour changes, the size changes, the whole personality, the whole milieu changes.
00:53:17 Do the roots change?
00:53:23 When the mango is still raw and green, the roots are as they are.
00:53:31 And when the mango is ripe and yellow and sweet and big, the roots are still as they are.
00:53:42 So even as things are changing, you must know that there is something beneath them that is not changing.
00:53:53 And because it is not changing, so you can take its support and freely dance.
00:54:01 You need not wait.
00:54:03 You wait only when you want something to change.
00:54:08 When there is the certainty of something that does not change, that cannot change and hence offers you unconditional support.
00:54:23 Why would you wait?
00:54:26 No better time is going to come.
00:54:30 There is something that is already perfect and hence it cannot get bettered.
00:54:49 So how to read the verse?
00:54:54 Read the first four lines as if they are the fifth one.
00:55:02 Read each of the first four lines as if they are the fifth one.
00:55:09 Dance when you are broken open, dance when you are perfectly free.
00:55:13 So even when you are broken open, you are perfectly free and dance accordingly.
00:55:20 Each of the first four have to be read as the fifth one.
00:55:33 The fifth one is already present in the first four.
00:55:37 It is the essence of each of them.
00:56:04 We talk of the sun so much, do not we?
00:56:08 And in the discourses, in the spiritual realm, we talk of clarity so much, do not we?
00:56:24 The open sky, the cloudless sky.
00:56:30 We talk so much about the clarity and the open sky is a symbol of clarity and when clouds
00:56:41 come we say that the clarity has been obfuscated and we say, oh, clouds keep coming and going.
00:56:50 Clarity remains and such things.
00:56:54 I was looking at pictures of one of the camps and somebody, I do not know who, probably
00:57:09 Krishnaji, had taken beautiful pictures of the clouds.
00:57:21 Now that beauty would not have been possible had there been no clouds, had there been just
00:57:28 the clear and perfect sky.
00:57:34 You must be able to see beauty even in imperfection.
00:57:37 And I tell you, when sun is behind clouds, do you know how many colors arise from that?
00:57:48 Great colors that you can never see in a clear sky.
00:57:56 It is the clouds that bring forth the colors.
00:58:02 In imperfection lies great beauty.
00:58:08 Do you want to curse the clouds?
00:58:16 Do you want to say that they are enemies of clarity?
00:58:25 Clarity keeps shining from behind.
00:58:35 And when clarity shines from behind the clouds, what you get is the various colors of life.
00:58:47 Without those colors, how would you live?
00:58:53 Why do you want to curse happiness, sadness?
00:58:58 Why do you want a bland life?
00:59:01 Why do you want to kill attraction, repulsion, attachment?
00:59:09 Why are you an enemy of the body?
00:59:14 Why do you want to tame and subdue the mind?
00:59:23 All of these are clouds.
00:59:30 Clouds make for beautiful pictures.
00:59:34 Of course, the clear sky and the sun shining in the clear sky also make for beautiful pictures.
00:59:50 But why must one quarrel with the clouds?
01:00:00 Dance when it is cloudy.
01:00:05 Dance when it is not.
01:00:09 Dance when it shines.
01:00:12 Dance when it rains.
01:00:26 The sky is still there.
01:00:41 When you are sure that the earth under your feet isn't going to collapse, then you can run around to any corner of the room.
01:00:52 Securely.
01:00:54 In trust.
01:01:10 [Flute music]
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