{"id":7149,"date":"2021-05-14T08:54:43","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T15:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=7149"},"modified":"2021-05-14T09:12:31","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T16:12:31","slug":"amir-khusrow-dehlawi-the-river-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2021\/05\/14\/amir-khusrow-dehlawi-the-river-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Amir Khusrow Dehlawi – The River of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

The River of Love
\nby Amir Khusrow Dehlawi<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Khusro! the river of love has a reverse flow
\nHe who enters will drown, he who drowns will get across.<\/em><\/p>\n


\/ Image by Maria<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

This brief couplet is as much a riddle as the lines of a poem. Reading it, the first response may be that it is beautiful and somehow uplifting, but it doesn\u2019t really make sense\u2026 until we dive in ourselves.<\/p>\n

Khusro! the river of love has a reverse flow<\/i><\/p>\n

We all have a flow of consciousness and life energy. That energy tends to flow outward and dissipate, especially when we keep our attention hooked without letup on outward experiences and the pull of the senses. The more we learn to quiet the mind and gather in the awareness through meditation and deep prayer, we can experience how that outward flow reverses, turning inward, tapping into a deep reservoir within. Reversing that flow, we discover the most amazing all-encompassing love and joy.<\/p>\n

He who enters will drown, he who drowns will get across.<\/i><\/p>\n

So much of our lives is spent in resisting the pull of that natural current drawing us in. When we allow ourselves to be swept away, to be engulfed by that joyful love, all of our old notions of self and reality are washed clean. The long held idea of who we are, the ego-self, disappears beneath the waves of that blissful stream. This is how one \u201cdrowns.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in drowning, we are stunned to find a new self. Something essential and vast awakens within us. We feel we have come home, we are finally ourselves for the first time. Knowing ourselves, we are surprised to be inherently whole and complete. Regardless of the movement and challenges around us, we stand on solid ground for the first time. This is how one drowns to get across to the other shore.<\/p>\n

Maybe Khusrow\u2019s riddle is not so much of a riddle as a map, an invitation. It\u2019s a beautiful day \u2014 time to take a running leap and jump in.<\/p>\n

\u2013<\/p>\n

To my many Muslim friends \u2014 Eid Mubarak! I hope you had a blessed and restorative Ramadan.<\/p>\n

I am sending special blessings out to the region of Palestine\/Israel. It is a fraught situation with wider repercussions. May sanity prevail and healing be sent to the situation with the least possible suffering. May we see clearly with open minds and compassionate hearts so we can help where we can.<\/p>\n


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<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Recommended Books: Amir Khusrow Dehlawi<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Islamic Mystical Poetry: Sufi Verse from the Early Mystics to Rumi<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n
\n\"Amir<\/a>\n<\/td>\n\nAmir Khusrow Dehlawi<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

India (1253 \u2013 1325) Timeline<\/a>
\nMuslim \/ Sufi<\/a><\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

Ab\u2019ul Hasan Yamin al-Din Khusrow, usually known by his pen name as Amir Khusrow Dehlawi (or Amir Khusrau Dehlavi), is a greatly loved composer of poetry, song, and riddles from India. <\/p>\n

He was born in northern India. His father was of Turkish descent but born in Balkh, Afghanistan, the same region that gave birth to Jelaluddin Rumi. Khusrow\u2019s mother was from Delhi.<\/p>\n

Amir Khusrow was a Sufi and disciple of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Khusrow is often called the \u201cfather of qawwali music\u201d \u2014 the ecstatic devotional Sufi music of India and Pakistan. He is also credited with the invention of tabla drums, the hand drums played throughout the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia.<\/p>\n

Khusrow was a classical poet and composer who served as court poet to several Delhi sultans. His songs are still widely sung by Sufis and the devout, especially in Northern India and Pakistan.<\/p>\n

More poetry by Amir Khusrow Dehlawi<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The River of Love by Amir Khusrow Dehlawi Khusro! the river of love has a reverse flow He who enters will drown, he who drowns will get across. \/ Image by Maria \/ This brief couplet is as much a riddle as the lines of a poem. Reading it, the first response may be that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1083,2410,2411,415,193,284,1906,19],"class_list":["post-7149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-amir-khusrow-dehlawi","tag-dehlawi","tag-drown","tag-love","tag-muslim-poetry","tag-ramadan","tag-river","tag-sufi-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7149"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7156,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7149\/revisions\/7156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}