2007 was marked as the year of the 800th birth anniversary of Rumi. A great occasion to celebrate was planned. To be the part of this celebration I visit the tomb of Maulana Rumi at Konya in Turkey. Maulana Rumi says: ‘When the rose has faded and the garden is withered, the song of the nightingale is no longer to be heard.’ Rumi’s word would imply that the God Power (the nightingale) leaves the physical place where the Master lived (the garden) when the living Master leaves the body (the rose has faded) and spirituality has disappeared from that place (the garden is withered). So when the Master leaves the body the God Power also leaves that place and only physical dust remains, when the people that remain at the place turned into worshiper of mammon (the garden is withered and no spirituality is left). Whoever, in the case of the tomb of Maulana Rumi, the fragrance from the rose of Rumi is still there to be felt even so the Master has left the body (the rose has faded) and the place has turned into a museum (the garden is withered). A Plaque hanging at the entrance to the Shrine of Rumi welcomes a visitor with a sublime message that still wafts the fragrance that Rumi reads – ‘This place is full of Love and all people who come here will be transformed’. I have never seen such a place where different people from different background come and cry in silent. For the sensitive and receptive persons the tears come from the inner core of their hearts. This does not even happen in Jerusalem or Bethlehem at the most holy places there. I have been there and I have not seen it there or at any other holy places, but I saw it in Konya and I also felt it there. There is a reason. I could not understand this until I read Taoshobuddha mention something like this as reason for such a feeling.
Taoshobuddha explains this better. Taoshobuddha has written in the book ‘The secrets of Bhakti - As narrated by Sage Narad’ (at page 159) about how the Bodhi tree had witness Buddha’s enlightenment. The tree remembers that moment. Anyone who comes under the same Bodhi tree and meditates - the tree will radiate an energy field and share this moment of that experience. Then what to say about the body of the Rumi? The body of Rumi was even closer of the happening of enlightenment of Rumi than the tree was close to the happening of the enlightenment of Buddha. The body of Maulana Rumi gave witness to the meeting with the Sun from Tabriz, the enlightenment of Rumi and all other happenings in the life of Maulana Rumi. Will not that body also radiate an energy field and share the experiences of those moments with us? This is what is happening at the tomb of Maulana Rumi. For a conscious person, God is always present and he is not dependent on any outer circumstances or places. But for people, who are not conscious, the place like that of Rumi's tomb in Konya comes like a reminder. At another palace in Konya there exists another tomb of what is supposed to be the tomb of the Sun from Tabriz. Someone asked me: ‘I have heard that there exists a place where the sun never disappears.’ Then he kept silent and looked into my eyes and waited for me to respond to his statement. He asked me since I came from Sweden and it is told that the sun never goes down at the summertime in Sweden (at the part of Sweden that is north of the pole circle). However I know that this person was referring to the inner sun that always is shining day and night, even so he pretended to ask about the outer sun. I didn’t give him any answer, instead I remained dumb.