A concert on the border of India and Pakistan on Independence Day

Husn-e-Haqiqi, or ‘True Beauty’ April 13, 2007 • Sufism was considered by Sri Aurobindo to be a set of important “Mohammadan yogas.” Indeed, the Sufi immigrants to South Asia meshed in quite well with the local spiritual traditions, even writing treatises on yoga, and defending Hinduism from misinterpretations of it by conventional exoteric Muslims. This is an area that I don’t want to comment on in detail without having done a substantial amount of research...

I have recently found out about an initiative known as Friends Without Borders, a grassroots movement toward encouraging friendship between India and Pakistan (thanks to a new friend Manoj, who e-mailed me from Auroville to let me know about it after finding this blog). One of the projects they have in mind is a concert on the border of India and Pakistan on Independence Day for both countries in August this year. If the Independence Day India-Pakistan border concert does materialize — let’s hope that the ridiculous actions of certain extremist elements in Pakistan (more on this situation in a later post) do not get in the way of this — then I officially nominate Arieb Azhar and his gorgeous Sufi rock for it.

And while we are on the topic of Sufism and music, there was an excellent review of the book The Mysticism of Music, Sound and Word by Hazrat Inayat Khan published in an old issue of Collaboration - Journal of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. In the words of Inayat Khan himself: “The whole of life in all its aspects is one single music; and the real spiritual attainment is to tune one’s self to the harmony of this perfect music.” Posted by ned on April 13, 2007. Filed under Inspiration, Music.