Category: The Jewelled Garden

Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani, in the collection of his sermons known as “Purification of the Mind,” makes the following observations about a very important transition which may come by the Continue Reading →

The following verse from the Sikh scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, speaks of the practice of repeating the sacred name. For more about Guru Nanak, see this post. If you Continue Reading →

For more about this Tamil mystic and poet, who possibly lived before the 10th c. CE, see this earlier post. In bricks and in granite,in the red-rubbed lingam*,in copper and Continue Reading →

The 11th c. Sufi Abd-al Karim al-Qushayri here gives a brief, very subtle indication of the essential nature of breath in Sufi practice, and of the seeker’s responsibility to care Continue Reading →

Chokhamela was a 14th c. CE mystic and poet of Maharashtra. He was a follower of the bhakta movement and a student of the legendary Namdev. He was a member Continue Reading →

For more about this 18th c. CE Chinese poet and painter, see this earlier post. When I meet a monk,          I bow politely.When I see a Buddha,          I don’t. If I bow Continue Reading →

Hasan al-Basri (642 – 728 CE) was one of the very early Sufis, born to a handmaid of one of the Prophet Mohammed’s wives, and in later life one of Continue Reading →

Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti (1143–1236 CE), known by the epithet ‘Gharib Nawaz’ or the comforter of the poor, was a Persian Sufi who was initiated into the Chishtiyya* lineage by Khwaja Continue Reading →

Hazrat Sirri Saqti was a late 9th c.CE Sufi of Baghdad, who was the spiritual master of the influential Hazrat Junaid. When students would approach Saqti with prayers to confer Continue Reading →

Adi Shankaracharya was an 8th c. CE Hindu teacher and scholar who is credited with the systematisation of Advaita Vedantism. For more about him, see this earlier post. You are Continue Reading →