Rumi

The Supreme Mystical Guide

By: Andrew Harvey

Narrated by: Michael Toms

There is probably no one more qualified to illuminate the life and work of Jalaluddin Rumi, the great 13th-century Sufi mystic and poet, than Andrew Harvey, who possesses the very eloquence and passion he admires in Rumi's work. Harvey likens Rumi to Buddha, Ramakrishna, Shakespeare and Jesus Christ: "For me, I've come to understand the heart of Christ through the heart of Rumi; they seem to me to be linked in the enterprise of bringing all human beings into the fire of the sacred heart". Discover the fire, the madness, the passion and the mystery that is Rumi, revived by a man born to translate his "absolutely lucid but totally molten speech of the Divine heart itself". Harvey was raised in India and educated at Oxford. He is a renowned mystical scholar, Rumi translator and explicator, poet, novelist, spiritual teacher and writer, and architect of Sacred Activism. He is the author of many books including Light Upon Light: Inspirations from Rumi (Meeramma 1988), Hidden Journey: A Spiritual Awakening (Henry Holt 1991), The Way of Passion: A Celebration of Rumi (North Atlantic 1994), The Direct Path (Broadway Books 2000), and Son of Man: The Mystical Path to Christ (Tarcher/Putnam 1998).

Topics explored in this dialogue include: why the life and work of Rumi is relevant in today's world, what is Rumi's connection to the Divine, comparisons of Rumi and other great religious leaders, why Rumi is skeptical about language, where do you find Rumi's passion in today's world, what Rumi might be doing if he were alive today, and what is the connection between Rumi's revelations and the Sufi tradition.

©1997 New Dimensions Foundation (P)2008 New Dimensions Foundation

Subjective

Firstly, Michael Toms is an excellent host! But I find his guest author and gay advocate Andrew Harvey's assertion that Rumi was (like himself) a homosexual and that he and his guru Shams-i-Tabrizi were somehow secretly involved in a homosexual relationship as being absurd and self serving at best. In actuality ones sexuality is irrelevant and has much more to do with the translator's perspective then Rumi's message.