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 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
Thankyou for this
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