According to my book, Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and the West by Daniel Ladinsky, "Love is the essence of Rumi, love became his very being, love is the impetus of all his poetry.".
According to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi, "Rumi believed passionately in the use of music, poetry and dance as a path for reaching God. For Rumi, music helped devotees to focus their whole being on the divine and to do this so intensely that the soul was both destroyed and resurrected. It was from these ideas that the practice of whirling Dervishes developed into a ritual form."
The spinning or whirling of dervishes are symbolic of their values of love and service, and was in fact an active meditation, a devotional act, often accompanied by singers and reciters of poetry and prayers.
Their dance was symbolic of abandoning their egos or personal desires and focusing instead on God, turning clockwise around the heart, spinning repeatedly in circles like planets, with right arm and hand extended facing up towards the sky, the left downwards towards the earth.
The clothing of the whirling dervish is symbolic: the hat represents the tombstone (or death) of the ego, the skirt (wide and white) to conceal the ego. Disrobing of the black cloak symbolizes being spiritually reborn to the truth. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufi_whirling)
Do you love to spin and twirl as you dance? Or did you as a child (as children naturally tend to do)? How does it or did it make you feel?
Due to computer issues, I have to cut this blog short…so will continue with a twist…pardon the pun! ;)
What a rhythmic post Elly?! I just sway to the beats of the music and I guess the twirling happens on its own then. You managed to write well in spite of your computer issues. Nice :)
ReplyDeleteTheir dance is actually quite deep on a spiritual level, very symbolic and beautiful. I think swaying or moving our bodies to music in the way it wants to is a great thing to do! I'm glad you do Vinodini. :) <3
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