Dervish drums at Baba Rampuri's Dhuni

https://rampuri.com

Baba Suryadima, a master musician from Iran appeared at my dhuni to enchant and entrance us with his devotional songs & rhythms praising Pir Shams, known by many to be the guru, the "beloved," of the greatest Persian poet, Jalaluddin Rumi.

He played a drum, the daf, which he described as Kurdish.

But Suryadima is no mere musician, but a Darvish, touched by the hand of the divine with a rare talent, AND Pir Shams was no ordinary mystic and guru, but known under several names, described as having varied personalities, and leaving behind lineages among Muslims, Hindus, and Others from the Mediterranean to the Bay of Bengal.

He didn't appear at my dhuni by accident, cosmic or otherwise, but because we are of the Naga Sadhu lineage of Pir Keshav Puri Maharaj, a Naga Baba, whose name is attached to our lineage, as we are called Keshav Puri Multani Marhi. He is also called Pir Shams Tabriz, Pir Shams Tapa Rez, and Pir Shams Sabzwara. All the same man.

He is not buried in the dargah of his name in Multan, Pakistan, but at a distance of 6 kilometers from that place.

So Suryadima came to make devotion to a greater lineage of an amazing 13th-14th-century mystic known throughout the medieval West and South Asian World.

Stay tuned, as I have a lot more to tell you about this enchanting story!!