‘Urs celebrations in Ajmer, India.
My wife, and
I have travelled to Ajmer to be present
at the ‘urs (death anniversary) of
our shaykh who expired in 1996. The ‘urs
celebration took place on two days, the
26th and 27th of February. The dates are
different each year as they are based on
the Islamic calendar.
Most of the
activities took place at the chillah, a
hill with the cave wherein Khwaja Mo’inuddin
Chishti performed his retreats. After the
qul, the closing ceremony, there was a function
which started at about 22.00 P.M. at the
dargah of Khwaja Mo’inuddin Chishti.
About 40 people then walked two times round
the shrine of Gharib Nawaz (The Patron of
the Poor) as he is also known. Then we sat
down at the place where my shaykh always
sat. Forty people, sitting silently, in
a very peaceful dargah…
The program
thereafter started with an innovation. A
musician from Israel played the flute in
the classical Indian style. A revolution,
because as far as I know, this has never
happened on the dargah complex. The khadims
(they are the descendants of the travellers
who arrived so many centuries ago in the
company of Khwaja Mo’inuddin Chishti
in Ajmer) reacted by presenting some rupees
to the musician to show their appreciation.
After this peaceful and beautiful start
the qawwals, the Sufi singers of Ajmer had
their turn and for about an hour we listened
to them. In silence we returned to our Sufi
khaneqah.
On the first
day the ‘urs consisted of music by
two Israelian musicians, by a free kitchen
wherein hundreds of people took food, by
qawwalli music, by recitation of classical
urdu poetry in the honour of the prophet,
by recitation of Quranic verses and by reciting
the silsila, the line of succession in our
order from one shaykh to the other ending
with the name of our shaykh.
On the Sufi
Saint School (a school for the poorest of
the poor in Ajmer which is open to all religions)
the children had a program of their own.
On stage they sang, danced, showed traditional
costumes, etc. At a certain moment you saw
a boy dressed as a monkey with a big tail
coming up the stage who sat down covering
his eyes. Another ‘monkey’ covered
his ears and the third one his mouth: “See
no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil”.
Our fun however increased as the monkey
who saw no evil did not see the others leave
when their performance had ended and remained
sitting on his own on the stage covering
his eyes…
It is strange
as today it snowed in Holland, while yesterday
we enjoyed pleasant temperatures of about
25 degrees Celsius. Today we saw orderly
traffic, while yesterday we were in the
chaos of India. If you have not been in
India it will be difficult to imagine what
you see on the streets. When making a walk
you see amazing things. However I would
advice you to go to India only with a definite
purpose and with an introduction as there
are many negative things to be told about
it as well, which I have omitted from this
account.
The thing that
made our stay worthwhile was the loving
atmosphere among the mureeds of our order.
Such things you rarely find in everyday
life. For me there was however one short
moment, which was the best of all. We said
goodbye at the station to a certain disciple
at the station who left for Delhi. He took
me apart and said that he had waited for
five years to meet me for the first time
as our murshid had made a remark about me
to him. He then repeated what our shaykh
had said and it was impossible to remain
unmoved when such a loving message from
my shaykh reached me as if from across the
grave…
We travelled
to Delhi and visited the dargah of Nizamuddin
Awliya by first going to the shrine of his
most beloved disciple Amir Khusraw. Thereafter
we went to the dargah of Hazrat ‘Inayat
Khan. This is a very beautiful building.
Near the shrine, but still inside the building
a tree is growing. There is an opening in
the roof allowing the tree to grow out of
the building. No one was there, except for
Hazrat ‘Inayat Khan who waited for
us. We said goodbye to India, hoping to
return one day.
