Prediction 1:
Astrologers are going to hastily revise their predictions.
Prediction 2:
Environmentalists, scientists, writers in National Geographic and other folks will claim that this is one more proof of global warming and the effects of pollution. Libertarians will claim that the latter has nothing to do with it and it is part of a regular cycle that happens every million or so years.
Prediction 3:
Blog wars on the eviction of slum dwellers will result in Dilip D'Souza[PBUH] and Ravikiran[PBUH] fighting a duel on Mahim causeway. Little street urchins and other Baker Street irregulars will sell tickets: dus ka teen, dus ka teen. Amit Varma [PBUH]will cover it live for Cricinfo. Zigackly will create one more group blog. Dina Mehta will report the duel on Skype as an interesting social experiment. Friends of Dilip will create a wikipedia article on the event.
Prediction 4:
NGOs will predict cholera, malaria and ask for millions of $ in funds. Lots of papers will be written in journals. The Khadi Jhola types will attempt to make everyone else feel guilt-ier than thou.
Prediction 5:
Lit bloggers will polish their keyboards and begin life with renewed hope. All of them will commence operations on their next book. All of them will choose the title, "Love and flooding in Bombay". All of them will be rejected by publishers and will wait for the next big event.
Prediction 6:
Delhi-ites will envy Bombayites. They always do. Bloody wannabes.
Prediction 7:
Life goes on.
I had shared this with friends on August 15th.
On India's independence day, a tribute to a naked gay Jewish Iranian mystic who has a dargah in Delhi. Let us celebrate the independence of thought.
In "The Jew in the Lotus', Rodger Kamenetz accompanies various hues of Jewish rabbis to India where they discuss deep religious concepts with many Buddhist teachers, including the Dalai Lama. This experience transforms him from being an agnostic to being an agnostic who is proud of his Jewish identity.
Kamenetz narrates a wonderful story of an Armenian Jewish naked sufi saint called Sarmad who collaborated with Dara Shikoh to write the Jewish chapter of his interfaith book. Sarmad was deeply in love with a Hindu (male) called Abhi Chand and when the authorities forced them to part, Sarmad shed all his clothes and lived naked from then on. Some believe that he converted to Islam while others believe that he did not [1]. After Aurangzeb murdered his brother, he began rounding up his associates and sure enough, Sarmad was one of them. He was called before Aurangzeb and asked to recite the shahadah (la ilaha illa-lahu - There is no God, but God) and Sarmad recited the first half (There is no God). When Aurangzeb asked him to continue, Sarmad said, "Forgive me, but I am so caught up in the negative, that I cant not yet come up to the positive.I cannot tell a lie." Of course, he was invoking the kabbalistic conception of God, Ain Sof. He was beheaded. Later, the Jama Masjid coopted him after Aurangzeb's contemporaries embellished the story with incredible stories about Sarmad's severed head narrating the remaining part of the shahadah.
Kamenetz visited Hazrat Sarmad's dargah in Delhi where he is still revered today. The irony is that he might have been a sufi mystic, neither fully Jewish, nor Hindu, nor a Muslim. Some, like the Italian visitor Manucci believed, perhaps mistakenly according to modern researchers that he was an atheist since he saw him praising 'Islam with Mohammedans, Hinduism with Hindus" and after Aurganzeb imprisoned him, "he had a wonderful relationship with Jesuit fathers". So, this 'hazrat', who might have been all or none of the above is worshipped as a saint today.
Kamenetz - remember, he was an agnostic - went to his tomb and said kaddish. He wrote, "It all felt quite right, a recognition of our predecessor in dialogue - or a martyr to intolerance, take your pick. That there was such a thing as a Jewish Muslim saint who opened yet another door"
[1]
The Identity of a Mystic: The Case of Sa'id Sarmad, a Jewish-Yogi-Sufi Courtier of the Mughals by Nathan Katz - Access this paper at http://www.jstor.org
The Identity of a Mystic: The Case of Sa'id Sarmad, a Jewish-Yogi-Sufi Courtier of the Mughals by Nathan Katz - Access this paper at http://www.jstor.org
[2] Maulana Azad was an admirer of Sarmad. You can read his essay 'Sarmad Shahid' and Sarmad's rubaiyat here
(c) Arun Simha
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