About M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen(Ral.)
The words of Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhaiyaddeen(Ral.) reveal the Sufi path of esoteric Islām: that the human being is uniquely created with the faculty of wisdom, enabling him to trace himself back to his Origin—Allāh, the Creator and Cherisher of all the Universes who exists in Oneness with all lives—and to surrender to that Source, leaving the One God, the Truth, as the only reality in his life. This is the original intention of the purity that is Islām.
Bawa Muhaiyaddeen(Ral.) spoke endlessly of this Truth through parables, discourses, songs, and stories, all pointing the way to return to God. Over fifteen thousand hours of this ocean of knowledge were recorded.
People of all ages, religions, classes, backgrounds, and races flocked to hear and be near him; he interacted compassionately and lovingly with all of them, opening his heart to them equally, regardless of who they were. Presidents of countries and fakirs from the streets, the proud and the humble, the high-ranking and the low-ranking, the ordinary and the extraordinary, the extremely poor and the extremely rich all sat side by side in his presence.
An extraordinary being, Bawa Muhaiyaddeen(Ral.) taught from experience, having traversed the path and returned, divinely aware—sent back to exhort all who yearn for the experience of God to discover the inner wisdom that is the path of surrender to that One.
Once, when asked by disciples to write an autobiography for an upcoming book, Bawa Muhaiyaddeen(Ral.) responded by saying that he would have to abandon his physical form in order to do so. Those disciples became extremely upset and told him that his physical presence was indispensable to them and that they could not live in the world without it. In that book, he said:
All praise belongs entirely to the One who is Allāh. His story is the totality of all there is: that is the great story. That story itself is Truth. That Truth itself is indestructible. That Indestructibility itself has been made to exist eternally as a natural state. That Eternity itself has no flaw. That Flawlessness itself is complete. That Completion itself is the One Supreme Being who is omnipresent everywhere. Now and for all time, the Omnipresence that exists everywhere has been commingled with everything everywhere. Complete, dwelling within everything, it consists of Resplendent Light. The Resplendent Light itself exists without beginning or end, without equal. It has neither birth nor death, dissolution nor boundary, start nor finish. It consists of purity. It has neither caste nor religion, existing beyond what is beyond scripture and doctrine.
Made clearly evident through the state of compassionate love, it belongs equally to everyone…
Children! Our story consists of investigating and studying the story of that Being. There is no story other than that for you or for me. This is indeed the Natural Reality. We are the artificial things. The Natural does not perish. The artificial will be destroyed. Are you asking me for the story of that which is eternally indestructible? Or the story of that which will perish? Which story are you requesting?[1]
A mystical being in a mystical land, he was first sighted by spiritual seekers at the edge of the jungle near the pilgrimage town of Kataragama in what was then known as the island country of Ceylon. A man we know only as Pariari Thambu, a humble man who sold cigars at temple festivals, and a few others from the town of Kokuvil caught brief, unforgettable glimpses of him there.
The tiny island that is shaped like a teardrop falling from the tip of southern India is a place known for its legendary as well as its sacred geography. Adam’s Peak in the center of the island is said to have retained the imprint created by the impact of the foot of Adam(A.S.) from when he first touched the earth after being cast out of the Garden of Eden.
Referred to in the ancient text of the Ramayana as Lanka, it was the site of Princess Sita’s captivity by her abductor, Ravana, the evil demon-king of Lanka. The Ramayana contains details of the battlefields where the armies of her husband, Prince Rama, fought the armies of the demon-king, and describes the groves of exotic herbs dropped by Hanuman, the monkey-king who helped Prince Rama rescue his wife.
When the island was called the Isle of Serendib, the voyage of Sinbad was described in The Thousand and One Nights. Medieval Arabs and Persians made regular pilgrimages to Adam’s Peak. Ibn Batutah, the fourteenth century Arab traveler and scholar, made that pilgrimage.
Legends record the visit of the Qutb(Ral.), who after visiting Adam’s Peak meditated for twelve years in what came to be known as the hermitage shrine of Daftar Jailani that lies at the edge of a precipitous granite cliff in the south-central portion of the island, a site that has become a place of saintly visitation and mystical meditation.
Living in that land of legends, those seekers from Kokuvil recognized Bawa Muhaiyaddeen(Ral.) as a uniquely mystical being when they began to interact with him, begging him to teach them. He had lived peacefully alone in the jungle for so long that he had almost forgotten human speech. In The Tree That Fell to the West, Bawa Muhaiyaddeen(Ral.) tells us:
If it were not for the few who are seeking the truth, I would go back to the jungle to live.
It is far superior to live in the jungle. There, lions, tigers and bears surround me at night to protect me and do service to me. In the daytime, when I sing or meditate, snakes, peacocks, birds and other beings surround me. It is a happy life in the jungle. Even though the animals cannot speak they bow their heads down and listen attentively. Elephants are thoughtful, they look at the ground, and except for a slight swaying movement they stand still, listening carefully. Then when I finally open my eyes and see them, it is such a wonderful sight!
There is always something new and wise to be learned from the animals. Some snakes listen with their hoods open, some with their hoods closed and heads bent low, as if they were bowing. There is so much truth to be learned from sights like these. You can see the power of God within them, see how it penetrates their lives.
I can look into their hearts and realize the wonder of God’s power within them. How great is the power of God! There is so much to learn there, so much to learn about the power of God by looking at each and every one of the animals. Although they are unable to speak and people consider them to be unintelligent, I have not seen God’s power reflected in human beings as I saw it in all the animals when I was in the jungle, there where the power of God is so evident. When I look into the hearts of these animals, I see life resonating, I see it pulsing in them. I do not see the material world in their hearts, just the power of God.[2]
Gradually, he began to speak with those seekers.
Telling them that God was the only Teacher, he consented only to study side by side with them, speaking and singing to them of his experiences of God in the evenings. The language in which he spoke to them was so rich and startling—containing a spectrum of Tamil words ranging from the most colloquial Tamil spoken in their villages and streets, to the most elegant and correct Madurai Tamil, to the scholarly, classical Tamil from the sangam period, including Arabic suwar from the Qur’ān and intricate details from the ahādīth, enlivened with Pali, Urdu, Persian, and English words—that they could only attribute their source to the divine.
Eventually, he and that small group of seekers from Kokuvil built an ashram in Jaffna, a town in the northern tip of the country. There, his mission was with the poor.
I take care of four to five hundred sick people in Ceylon, a poor country. Many poor people come to me from a long distance away. I treat their illnesses, cure their minds, drive away their demons, feed and clothe them, I even give them the ticket money to come see me. This is the reason I have a farm, to help the poor and make enough for its upkeep. I used to get up every morning at four o’clock to go to the farm. Although sometimes I would stay there as long as forty or fifty days, usually I would come back to the ashram at night and I would have no rest, there would be crowds of people to attend to. I farmed to earn the money to feed these people. I could have told fortunes and made quantities of money. I could have told them what was in their mind, their heart or their body, but I would not do that. I labored using my body instead.[3]
Travel was difficult in that small country, yet the refuge of his presence was irresistible. As more and more people came to know about him and to hear him sing and speak of God, many of them began to invite him to stay in their homes. Among those people were Dr. Ajwad Macan-Markar and his wife Ameen Macan-Markar who lived in the city of Colombo. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen(Ral.) told them it would not be easy: that he was like a tree upon which many birds needed to take shelter. If he was to agree to stay at their home, they would also have to accommodate these birds. He warned them that there could be many at times. Dr. Ajwad and his wife did not hesitate to agree to open their home to all who wished to accompany him. After that, Bawa Muhaiyaddeen(Ral.) always stayed at their home when he was in Colombo. For forty years Bawa Muhaiyaddeen(Ral.) spent his time with those seekers until he came to Philadelphia in 1971.
Here he told us:
Before I arrived at 46th Street in Philadelphia for my first visit, Bob Demby, Carolyn Secretary, Zoharah Simmons, and some others sitting here arranged for me to come.
They formed a society for that purpose, to invite me here. I did not come to Philadelphia with the idea of establishing a fellowship. There is only one Fellowship and that is Allāh’s.
There is only one family and one Fellowship. We are all the children of Adam(A.S.), and Allāh is in charge of that Fellowship.[4]
After that first visit, Bawa Muhaiyaddeen(Ral.) went back and forth between Philadelphia and what by then had been renamed Sri Lanka until 1982, when he stayed in the United States until December 1986.
In these distressing times, his words are increasingly recognized as representing the original intention of Islām which is the purity of the relationship between man and God as explained by all the prophets of God, from Adam, Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Moses, David, Jesus, and Muhammad, may the peace of God be upon them, who were all sent to tell and retell mankind that there is one and only One God, and that this One is their Source—attainable, and awaiting the return of each individual soul.
[1] Bawa Muhaiyaddeen(Ral.) The Resonance of Allah.
[2] Bawa Muhaiyaddeen(Ral.) The Tree That Fell to the West. Philadelphia: Fellowship Press, 2003. Print, 75
[3] Ibid., 82
[4] Ibid., 17