Welcome to Rumi Returning

Photos & Music

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

Music

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The young Rumi and his beloved father are shown fleeing their home in Balkh, now Afghanistan, then in the Persian Empire, from the invasion of the Mongols. Narrator Cynthia Lukas tells us: "As with many a Muslim child, then and now, Mevlana's (Rumi's) childhood was disrupted by the horror of war and the anxious searching of the refugee. A pervasive sense of 'cosmic homeslessness,' yearning to find its way back to its loving source, would occupy his mind and poetry for Rumi's entire life." At the end of his life, Rumi was eager to "return home" and be reunited with his Beloved. Lukas narrates, "Rumi was following his father and Shams into the deep, vast Ocean of Love…"

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The statue of a Roman Sea God from the Istanbul Archeological Museum is superimposed above the flight of birds across the Eyup Sultan Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. This montage expresses the pivotal moment in Rumi's life as described by Rumi scholar Andrew Harvey: "After Shams' departure Rumi went mad." Rumi wrote about this time when his teacher and heart companion Shams disappeared suddenly, probably murdered: "There's a strange frenzy in my head, of birds flying, each particle circulating on its own. Is the one I love everywhere?"

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The Whirling Dervishes perform the dance that Rumi inspired at the annual celebration of his death 800 years ago in Konya, Turkey, where he lived, loved, taught, and wrote his spiritual masterpieces. Thousands from around the world attend this celebration each year on Dec. 17, which he considered his Wedding Night with his Beloved. Rumi wrote, "I have no name for what circles so perfectly. A secret in us makes the universe turn…"